Coconut-date-seed balls aka DIY 9-bar

I felt like something sweet, but I didn't feel like baking...
Have also been eating way too much sugar lately, so I wanted something slightly healthier than the equivalent of eating sugar with a spoon.

Energy blobs - nut free, gluten free, cocoa free, refined sugar free  

300 g pitted dates
200 g shredded coconut
200 g seeds
2 tbsp melted coconut oil

I used a mixture of sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds and chia seeds, with an estiamted ratio of 3:2:3:1. Process in food processor with metal blade until a sticky blob. Roll into balls or bars, freeze for a little bit (or refrigerate for slightly longer) and then eat. Best cold, in my opinion. 

Korvapuusti, pulla, vanilla buns redux

The quick and dirty pulla is nice and all, but it's just not the same as a good ol' cinnamon roll. Unfortunately, chipmunk can't have cinnamon, so these are just regular vanilla buns. Taste good, though! I'm really happy with this dough, it came out soft, buttery and not too sweet. Easy to roll out, too.

Here's the recipe:

Vanilla buns - gluten free, egg free, soy free, corn free, nut free, dairy free 

5 dl liquid (coconut milk with water works great)
2 tbsp psyllium husk powder
1 tbsp yeast
1,5 dl sugar
7 dl all purpose gluten free flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cardamom
100 g margarine melted

Mix liquid with psyllium husk powder and yeast. Allow to stand for 5-15 minutes until the psyllium gels. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Roll out dough with flour, spread with margarine mixed with vanilla and some sugar. Roll it up, cut into triangles, pinch the top down and let rise for about 30 minutes. 

Brush risen buns with cold coffee, sprinkle with sugar pearls and then bake at 225C for 15-20 minutes, until golden. Cool, then eat. Or eat them warm. They're good either way.

Pie!

Everyone likes pie, am I right?

Here's a pie recipe. The crust works great with both salty and sweet. This is for a double-crusted pie.

Pie crust - savory and sweet - gluten free, soy free, nut free, egg free, dairy free

75 g brown rice flour
75 g corn flour
60 g tapioca starch
60 g white rice flour
1,5 tsp xanthan gum
0,75 tsp salt
200 g margarine
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
4-5 tbsp water

I tend to make this in the food processor. Pulse dry ingredients to mix. Add margarine, pulse a few times to get it grainy - don't overmix! It shouldn't be smooth! Add vinegar and enough water for it to sort of hold together. The amount of water is very small. It should hold together when you squeeze it into a ball, but not be sticky. 

Finished dough in food processor

Leave in the fridge to rest for about half an hour or longer.

Roll out with liberal use of flour, transfer to pie dish with rolling pin. Fill. Bake!

Rolls out easily

This pie was made with minced meat, mushrooms and leek. In addition, there's some beef stock and buckwheat flour to thicken the filling. It came out extremely tasty, especially the next day when reheating.

Before putting on the top layer

Miracle Bread - aka the forgotten bread

Sandwich bread! Hooray! It's gone through a series of unfortunate events, but it was very tasty. Here's the scoop...

Misfortune n.1: I was making this bread according to a recipe, but ran out of most of the ingredients. Luckily, improvisation worked well this time 'round. The only thing in common with the original recipe is the amount of water and yeast.

Misfortune n.2: Falling asleep when dough is rising in the oven is not always the best idea. Ended up scooping about 1/3 of the overly risen dough out from the bottom of the oven and from the side of the pan, and the grid.

Misfortune n.3: Forgot to set a timer and forgot to check what time it was put in the oven, so I have no idea how long it was in there!

All in all, it's a miracle it came out edible.

Sandwich bread - gluten free, eggless, soy free, corn free 

550 g water
90 g buckwheat flour
175 g rice flour
60 g tapioca starch
70 g coarse rice flour
40 g buckwheat flakes
20 g brown rice syrup
2 tsp dry yeast
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp psyllium husk 

Mix all ingredients together, let dough rest for a bit. Add more flour if too liquid - will remain rather porridge-y and gloopy. Let rise in oven for a few hours (or slightly less), preferably without it spreading all over the bottom of said oven due to being forgotten.

Bake at 200 C for about 45 minutes, or until it's golden on top and cooked through.

Kitchen helper

Quick and Dirty Pulla and further restrictions

Pulla is a finnish traditional sweet bread. Kind of like brioche, but less fatty.

Pulla made in cake tin

 It's tasty, but commonly made with wheat, eggs, milk, butter and sometimes also raisins and/or almonds. All of which are Not Good for little Chipmunk. Took many trials and failures to get this recipe sort of right. When I finally completed a good one, using soy, it turns out we have to drop soy from Chipmunk's diet yet again. Luckily, the recipe works fine without, so here is the updated formula.

Chipmunk approved.

My pulla is made in a cake tin, partially because I'm lazy, and partially because the dough is so sticky that it's difficult to work with otherwise. If I make it drier, the end products don't retain the soft, pillowy goodness that pulla is supposed to have. Hence, quick and dirty pulla!

This is usually all that's left a few hours later

100 g melted margarine
200 g non-dairy milk of choice (I use home-made coconut milk)
50 g sugar
280 g all-purpose GF flour (my blend is in this post)
2 tsp dry yeast
1-2 tsp ground cardamom
0.5 tsp salt
(1 tsp baking powder if impatient) 

Mix all together, spoon into pan, let rise for about half an hour (or add the baking powder to dough and bake immediately). Bake at 200C for about 20-25 minutes, depending on how thin you spread it. Cool somewhat and enjoy!

Mmm, tasty

The restrictions part of this post come from our recent visit to the doctor.

Fatty Focaccia - aka the great goat cheese test

This week we are experimenting with goat cheese. So far, so good. Let's see if tonight will be full of reflux, pain and misery, or if this ingredient can be declared a success.

The Husband got pizza today. Pizza with buffalo mozzarella and good tomato sauce. It smelled divine. Didn't feel like a pale imitation of a good pizza today, so I went on a slight tangent: focaccia with goat cheese and sundried tomatoes. 

Here's my recipe:

Focaccia - gluten free, eggless, dairy free etc

250 g water
125 g soy milk
50 g extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp agave syrup
1 tsp rice vinegar 

2,5 tsp dry yeast
130 g white rice flour
75 g brown rice flour
85 g tapioca flour
4 tsp psyllium husk powder

Mix all ingredients together until smooth (gotta love gluten free baking, no kneading or other annoying steps!). Let rest in mixing bowl for about 15 minutes before pouring into a cake/pie tin. Let rise until doubled. 

Splash with some oil, poke holes in it gently to make characteristic dimples. Top with topping of choice. Mine was half a log of goat cheese and a handful of sundried tomatoes, sprinkled with some herbs.  

Bake at 225 C for 20-25 minutes, until golden on top. 

Bread for a Friend

Will be having lunch with some friends tomorrow. Not entirely unsurprising, but some of them have food allergies, so I wanted to make a bread that fits all of our requirements. That meant coming up with a bread that has no eggs, dairy, wheat, rye, oats, barley, rice, buckwheat, nuts and soy. In my cupboard I had a packet of half-used quinoa flour, which just had such a strong taste, it felt like stinging in my mouth when baked. After some googling, I found out how to fix that - toasting!

I toasted my leftover flour in a cast-iron pan on medium heat on the stove until it stopped smelling weird and turned a lovely deep golden colour. Then I searched my pantry for suitable flour and thus, the quinoa-chickpea-chia seed bread was born. I don't quite care for the gummy feel that psyllium husk seeds give breads, so I threw in the rest of our baked sweet potato. It worked.

Heavy Bread  

100 g toasted quinoa flour
100 g chickpea flour
80 g chia seed flour
150 g potato starch
150 g sweet potato purée
1 tbsp yeast
1 tsp salt
50 g oil
375 g water 

Mix all together, put in 1,5 litre baking pan. Allow to rise until doubled (about 40-60 minutes) and then bake at 200 C for approximately 40-50 minutes, or until ready.
Let cool, eat! Also good when warm, not gummy at all (hooray). 

Bagels Dozen.

I blame the pregnancy hormones for this one.

Before going gluten-free and a bit of everything free, I made bagels quite often. It's impossible to find good bagels in this country unless you make them yourself. So, time to renew that tradition, bagels rock.

Here's my recipe for it.

Bagels - gluten free, eggless 

125 g potato starch
70 g buckwheat flour
50 g cornflour
100 g coarse rice flour
50 g brown rice flour
10 g potato fiber (optional)
10 g psyllium husk powder (1 tbsp)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

0.5 tsp baking soda
1.5-2 cups water
1 tbsp dry yeast
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Mix wet together with yeast, let stand for a few minutes while mixing the dry ingredients together. Add dry to wet, knead until smooth. It will make a stiff, yet manageable dough, shouldn't be too sticky to handle, nor should it be too dry and crumbly.  Immediately form into 8-12 bagels, depending on how small you want them to be. Allow to rise for 45 minutes.

Hot bath!

Bring to boil a litre of water with 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1 tsp of baking soda. Boil bagels for 30 seconds on each side, then coat with whatever floats your boat immediately after taking out of the bath.

Bake at 200 C for about 20-25 minutes, until golden brown on top.

Cool down and fill!

Chipmunk had hers with marinated eggplant, buffalo mozzarella, soy cream cheese and sundried tomatoes. Nb, mozzarella got eaten before anything else.

Om nom nom.
I strained some yogurt overnight to make dairy free philadelphia style cream cheese, added some spices too. Was very good!