Thumbprints

 So I adore my Martha Stewart Cookies so here is a gluten free adaptation 

Cookie 

Mix together 

1 c butter 

1 c powdered sugar 

2 t vanilla 

Add 

1 1/3 c sorghum 

1 1/3 c tapioca starch

1/4 t salt 

1 t xanthan gum 

Roll into balls 

350 for 10 minutes 

Take out and indent holes (I use wooden spoon) 

8 more minutes in the oven 

Reform holes 

Filling 

2/3 cereal bowl of melted chocolate chips (a highly accurate measurement)

6 T melted butter 

1 T honey 

Fill the cookies—I use my piping tool 

Frankly could also use lemon curd to fill—maybe next time 

Eat 

Blueberry muffins

Blueberry muffins are beautiful. This is an adaptation of the Martha Stewart Lemon Muffin recipe. 

In a mixer (or with a whisk) 

1 c sugar 

1/4 c lemon juice 

Zest from one lemon 

1/4 c water 

2 eggs 

1/2 c melted butter

Add

1 1/3 c sorghum 

1 1/3 c tapioca 

1 t xanthan gum 

1 3/4 t baking powder 

1/4 t baking soda

3/4 t salt 

Stir in 

1 pint blueberries 

Bake 350* for 18-20 minutes 

Sprinkle the top with additional sugar 

Gingerbread

 Mom loves gingerbread and requested it for her birthday 

Mix together 

1 c oil

1 c sugar 

3 eggs 

1 c molasses 

Lightly mix in

2 c sorghum

2 t cinnamon

1 1/2 t pumpkin pie spice 

1/2 t baking powder 

Time to mix in 

1 c water 

Now to the last of the dry ingredients 

1 c tapioca starch 

1 t xanthan gum

2 T grated ginger 

Last thing to add 

1 t baking soda mixed with 

1/4 c boiling water 

Bake at 350 till done 30-40 minutes 

Pozole Rojo

This is a traditional Mexican soup that is eaten at Christmas time.  This one is for pozole rojo, which has a red broth.  There is also a pozole verde that uses green chilis.  It is usually pork-based and full of hominy.  You can also use chicken.  Using store bought stock can speed this up.  It is a bit of work, but the chili paste can be made whenever you have time and frozen until needed.  A crock pot makes the pork (or chicken) broth easy.  This serves 12+ people, easily adjustable for more or less.  There isn't a picture, because we ate it all before Jon requested the recipe.  Oh, well.

Ingredients:

For the broth-
2-3 pounds of pork (I've used several different cuts, pick one that is fatty.  Bone-in will add richness)
1 onion, quartered
3-4 garlic cloves
about 2 quarts water (I just fill up the crockpot)

For the chili paste- (same sauce can be used in tamales)
3-4 ounces of dried chiles, a variety is always good-like guajillo, New Mexico, ancho, etc
water to soak
1 onion, coarsely chopped
3-4 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon cumin, or more to taste
1-2 tablespoons oil
salt
pepper
sometimes I add chili powder, to taste

Putting the soup together-
3 28-ounce cans of hominy (more or less, depending on what you like)
water
salt
pepper

For the garnishes- chopped, diced, and sliced
onion
radish
green onion
cilantro
cabbage
kale
other stuff that sounds good


Directions:

1. Put the pork, onion, garlic, and water in a pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 45-60 minutes.  Alternatively, add broth ingredients to a crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours or so.  The meat should be very tender.

2. Take the meat out to cool and strain the broth into a large pot.  Throw out the solids (or put them into the chili paste when you blend it up). When the meat is cool enough, shred it and add to the broth.  This can sit in the fridge in jars for a few days, if needed.

3. Cover the chilis with hot water and let soak for maybe 30 minutes.  I usually put a bowl on top of them to keep them submerged.  Put on some gloves and remove the stems and seeds from the chilis.

4.  Put the chilis, garlic, onion, cumin, salt and pepper into a blender and puree.  Add some of the soaking water, as needed, to get a nice consistency.

5. Heat 1-2 tablespoons in a pot and then add the chili paste.  Cook on med-lo for 10 minutes or so, stirring frequently, until it gets a bit darker and richer.  I taste this and adjust to my taste, always remembering that it will be better after it sits for a day or so.  Put it in the fridge (or freezer) until you are ready to make the soup.

5. Some recipes want you to simmer the hominy (covered with water) for about 30 minutes before adding the other ingredients, water and everything.  I've done this, or simmered it directly in the broth with similar results.

6. Put the broth, chili paste, and hominy in a large pot.  Gently boil for about 30 minutes.  Adjust the seasonings to your taste.

7. Ladle a serving into a large bowl and then top with whatever garnishes strike your fancy.  The more, the better.

GF Bread

Here is another GF bread recipe. This one has no rice, but it does have a lot of eggs.

2 cups sorghum flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1/4 cup teff flour

1 tablespoon yeast

3 or 4 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup water

1/4 cup oil

4 eggs

Whisk all the dry ingredients together, then add the wet ingredients. Beat in a stand mixer for 2-3 minutes. The consistency of the batter needs to be more like a cake batter and less like standard bread dough. Scoop out with wet hands into a greased bread pan and let rise until doubled (about an hour). Bake at 350 for around 45 minutes. 

Chicken Patties

I love to eat fried chicken.  Here is an easy recipe for pan fried chicken patties.

Cut up about 2 lbs of chicken breasts into small pieces (about the size of 1/4 inch squares).  Add a half cup of diced cilantro, a handful of diced green onions, 2 eggs, and a generous amount of salt.  Mix this up in a big bowl and then add enough starch (e.g., potato starch, corn starch, tapioca starch) to get the chicken to bind together.  I usually use around 1/2 cup of starch, but it really depends of how wet your chicken is and how large your eggs are. 

Heat up a cast iron pan with oil, about 1/4 inch thick of oil.  After the oil is hot spoon in a little of the chicken mixture to form a small pattie.  Let it cook on one side until golden brown.  Turn the pattie over and let it cook until golden brown.

They taste great with a spicy and sweet sauce like Mae Ploy.

Lower Fodmaps Chicken Wings

Here is a lower FODMAPs version of my favorite Chicken Wings.  Yeah!!!

1. Cut up about 4 pounds of wings, like in the Chicken Wing recipe.  Marinate overnight in the juice of 2 lemons, sea salt, and a couple tablespoons of oil.

2. Lay out the wings on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle the wings with paprika.  Bake in a hot oven (about 400 degrees) until nicely browned and the chicken in cooked all the way through.  About 40 mins.

3. While the wings are baking prepare the sauce in a large pot.  To make the sauce melt one cube of butter (1/2 cup).  Add about 1/4 cup of maple syrup, 1 tsp of cumin, sea salt, and 1tbs of tomato paste.  Let the sauce simmer for about 10 mins.  When the wings are done, pour the wings and the some of the juice and oil from the bottom of the pan (if there is any left) into the sauce and mix it up. 

4. Serve and Enjoy!

Cheesecake (goat cheese)

I made this really yummy cheesecake today. I have been dreaming of cheesecake lately so I started researching them and this one is very lovely. It is originally from Bon Apitite. 

Crust: the original recipe had no crust but I decided to make one. I crushed up just under a half a batch of homemade graham crackers and mixed it with melted butter (about a half a stick). This is very flexible. It would be lovely as a nut crust or a chocolate crust. 

Cake:

6 eggs, separated 

12 oz log soft goat cheese 

Zest 1 lemon 

Juice 1/2 lemon

1 t vanilla

3/4 c sugar

3 T potato starch 

Meringue the egg whites to soft peak and set aside. 

In a new bowl mix goat cheese, lemon juice and zest, and vanilla. Add egg yolks. Add sugar and starch. 

Fold in 1/4 of the meringue. 

Fold in the rest of the meringue. 

Place in a oiled and sugared 9" springform pan (on top of crust if you are using a crust). 

Bake at 350 for 30-35 min. 

Top with whatever you want 

I used a berry sauce and frozen raspberries 

Berry sauce:

Bring to boil

1 small bag frozen mixed fruit 

1/2 lemon, juiced

Sugar to taste 

Paleo Pecan Pie

The pecan pie I made for Thanksgiving was based on the recipe found at The Healthy Foodie .  Of course it was tweaked a bit, but not much.  I used less maple syrup and thought it was still plenty sweet. I think this is a very forgiving recipe. This tweaked version made two pies that fit in disposable aluminum pans, so kind of small.

Ingredients

1 paleo pie shell (I used almond flour, butter, egg...can add some potato, tapioco, or arrowroot starch to hold together better)
1 1/2 cups date paste (I'll give directions for this at the bottom...easy)
1 cup maple syrup
5 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
lots of pecans--I just filled the pie shells until I was happy, so this depends on your pan size

Directions

1.  Make the date paste.  Put 8 oz (the size of bag I bought) in a pint size jar and cover with water.  Let sit over night or several hours.  Blend dates and water until smooth.  A food processor or good blender will work.  Store in fridge until ready to use.

2.  Mix together date paste, syrup, eggs, butter, vanilla and salt.

3.  Grease your pie pans.  Line with pie crust.  I just press mine in because almond crust don't transfer well.  Fill with pecans and pour the filling mixture evenly over the two pies.

4.  In an oven preheated to 375*, bake the pies for 30 minutes.

Fresh Fruit Pie

This Thanksgiving I decided to make some fresh fruit pies. I made three different kinds using the same basic principles for all three. 

1 cooked pie crust

Cut up half the fruit (such as one carton of strawberries or three cartons of raspberries)

Place cut fruit in pie crust

In a blender 

Half the fruit (such as one carton of strawberries or three cartons of raspberries)

2 packages of unsweetened gelatin 

Maple syrup to taste

Move to a pan and bring to a slow boil

Pour over fruit in pie pan

Let set overnight 

Variation ideas 

Strawberry

Raspberry

2 part raspberry 1 part blackberry 

Peach

Butternut noodles

Laura and I are having fun with sage and brown butter. This is adapted from another recipe. It had no meat...

Sauce 

1/2 c butter, browned

Sage leaves 

Green onions

1/2 butternut squash, cubed 

1 1/2 c water 

Salt to taste 

Boil until squash is soft then purée together 

Cook 1 cubed package of chicken with salt and green onion

Boil 1 bag of gluten free noodles (I used corn swirly ones) 

Add all parts together 

Salt to taste 

Sweet potato gnocchi

Today I made a lovely sweet potato gnocchi.

2 sweet potatoes, cooked

1 egg

2 c flour (I used half sorghum half potato starch)

Salt

Mix together and roll out

Cook in boiling salt water until floats 

I made a really lovely sauce to go with it 

Brown butter (I used almost a full stick...however much was in the blob next to the stove)

Sage (I used like 4 leaves)

Pumpkin pie spice (1/2 t is my guess)

Maple syrup (2t ish)

I only made half the batch of gnocchi today but the whole sauce (but since the sauce is a generalization anyway it should work however you feel like doing it)

We ate it with a stew and it was delightful 

Almond Flour Thumbprints

I've always liked jam cookies.  These are grain-free, egg-free little yummies with no granulated sugar.  Not bad.  I made the jam, so no sugar there either.  Makes about 15 1-1/2 inch cookies, perfect for a tea party.  

Ingredients:

2 cups almond flour

2 tablespoons honey or other sweetener

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Jam to fill

Directions:

Pulse together all the ingredients, except the jam, until it forms a dough. I used a food processor, but a mixer would be fine. Roll into small balls, about an inch.  Press your thumb into each cookie to make a depression for the jam, then fill each with just a little bit of jam. Bake at 350° for 8 minutes. Cool on the pan. They are a bit fragile right out of the oven.  

Cranberry Almond Cookies

Egg-free and delicious.  I got this recipe from a friend and they are my new favorite cookie.  And not just because I can't eat eggs.  They have a nice texture and flavor.

Ingredients:

2 cups GF flour
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1 1/3 cup arrowroot powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1/2 cup chia mix (that is 2 tbs chia seeds mixed into 6 tbs water, let sit for about 5 minutes)
2 tablespoons almond milk
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1/2 cup (or so) chopped dried cranberries(these are optional...add nothing or whatever sounds good!)

Directions;

1.  Combine the dry ingredients.

2.  Add the wet inredients and mix well.  Add the cranberries.

3.  Refrigerate for at least an hour.

4.  Heat oven to 350*.  Line baking sheet with parchment or silpat.

5.  Form dough into balls, place on baking sheet and smash slightly.

6.  Bake for 12-14 minutes.  They should be just barely browned on the edges.  Let them cool for about a minute of the sheet, then transfer to a rack.


I'm sure you could make these with eggs, if you like. 1/2 cup chia mix equals 2 eggs.

Grain-free Banana Nut Muffins

These muffins are light and tender and not very sweet. You could add honey or maple syrup, if you like, but I like them as is.

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas, mashed

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons melted butter or coconut oil

1/4 cup almond butter

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Mix everything together and sprinkle a few more chopped pecans on top. Bake at 375* for 20 minutes.  Makes 8 lovely muffins. 

Adapted from paleogrubs.com. 

Grain-free Linzer Cookies

How cute are these!

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups coconut flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup honey

2 eggs

Zest of one lemon

Jam-raspberry is nice

Directions

1.  Mix together coconut flour and baking soda and set aside.

2.  Beat butter and honey together in a mixer. Add eggs and zest.  Slowly add the flour mixture. Stir until it forms a nice dough. 

3.  Roll out to 1/4 inch thick. Do this on parchment with a flour to help the dough not stick to everything. Cut out tops and bottoms with whatever you have. The windows are very cute. 

4. Bake at 350° for about 8 minutes on a parchment lined sheet.  Let them cool on the pan. 

5. Spread some jam on each bottom and gently put on a top.

Fruit Clafoutis

This is an easy, versitile, custardy 'rustic fruit dessert'. It is traditionally made with fresh cherries, usually sour. Any fresh fruit, especially stone fruits and berries work well. Mine is a little dark, but it was just fine. 

Ingredients

3 -6 eggs (yes, whatever...I used 6 in this one.  Most recipes call for 3 or so.)

1 1/2 cup milk/cream of choice

6 tablespoons of sugar, or sweetener of choice 

3/4 cup flour (very flexible, use what you have)

1 tablespoon vanilla (can add almond or other flavors as well)

Pinch of salt

2-3 cups fruit (cherries, peaches, apricots, berries, plums, etc)

Directions

Put eggs, milk, sweetener, vanilla and salt in a blender. Blend briefly then add flour and blend for about a minute. Pour into a buttered 9 in skillet or pie pan. Place fruit on top. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for about 30 minutes. It should puff slightly and set up. Dust with powdered sugar to serve, or serve with whipped cream. 

Tartiflette

This is a French potatoes au gratin dish. It is supposed to be made with rebochon cheese, but that is not so easy to find where I live, so adjustments were made.

Ingredients

A panful of sliced potatoes, around 8

Package of bacon, chopped and cooked

1-2 onions, sliced

3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 cup sour cream

1 cup broth or water

Salt and pepper, to taste

Cheese to melt on top, I sacreligiously used muenster

Any veggies you would like to throw in. I used several handfuls of fresh spinach

Directions

Boil the sliced potatoes, until tender. Drain

Sauté the onions and garlic until just golden. And spinach or other stuff that sounds good. Add the bacon. 

Whisk together the broth and cream. Stir into the onion mix and season as needed. 

Layer the potatoes with the sauce and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Place the cheese on top and bake for 10-15 minutes more. 

Honey Mustard Wings

Katie is on a wings kick. Here is the latest. Pretty mild, but good.

 

Ingredients 

4 pounds cut up chicken thighs, or wings seasoned with salt and pepper

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup spicy brown or Dijon mustard

1/4 cup butter

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions

Place the chicken on a greased baking sheet and bake at 425° for about 15 minutes...longer if using chicken with bones. 

Mix rest of ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour over the partially cooked chicken and return to the oven.  Bake for another 15 minutes. I scoop the juices and pour over the chicken once or twice while it is baking. Check and make sure it is done...

Sprinkle with green onions. Katie said these were imperative. 

Pão de Queijo

This is a favorite of those of us who do cheese (which unfortunately does not include me). I have included Sarah's recipe and Emily's.




Sarah's recipe:

1 cube butter

1/2 water

1 teaspoon salt

Melt butter, water, salt together. 

Add 2 cups tapioca starch in with the melted butter. 

Add

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups grated cheese (she uses Manchego or Romano)

Mix together (she used her hands to mix them). Roll into one inch balls and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. 

Emily's recipe:

1 cube butter

3/4 cup liquid (milk or water)

1 teaspoon salt

Boil this together and then add 1 lb tapioca starch, 3 eggs, and about 1 1/2 cups mixed cheeses (Parmesan, Romano, Manchego, or any other grate-able cheese).

Form into one inch balls and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.