Christmas == Date Cake

Thanks Bro for the recipe.
It has been modified.

Date Cake - gluten free, dairy free, eggless, soy free, corn free, nut free 

200 g margarine
1 brick of dates (250 g)
3 dl water
1,5 dl sugar
1 dl applesauce
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
0,5 tsp salt
2 dl rice flour
1 dl potato starch
0,5 dl tapioca starch 

Boil the dates with water until soft, then blitz in the blender or with an immersion blender. Add the margarine (I used 75g margarine and the rest was coconut oil, because I ran out of the former. It was tasty!) to let it melt while the date sauce cools down. Mix the applesauce with the baking powder, this is your replacement for egg, it will be nice and fluffy. Mix dry ingredients together. Mix everything together.
Pour in a pan and bake at 175C for about 50 minutes. 

Naan bread

In my previous post I claimed that the pita bread dough could be used to make naan bread. I lied. This one is much better. It has the slight sour taste that real naan has, and is nice and soft, too. The most important step is the cooking process - a dry cast iron pan is essential for getting the nice, charred bubbles.

Naan bread fresh from the pan

Naan bread - gluten free, soy free, eggless, corn free etc

250 g water
30 g coconut milk
1 tsp vinegar
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp psyllium husk

100 g starch (eg. half potato and half tapioca)
100 g white rice flour
100 g brown rice flour

Flattening the dough 

Mix together the coconut milk, water and vinegar. Let sour for a moment. Add the rest of the ingredients, then let rise for about an hour. Separate into 5-6 parts. Flatten into a nice shape and then cook on a hot and dry cast iron pan until it bubbles slightly, then flip. Brush with your equivalent of butter for a more authentic taste. 

First taste by the hubby, he approved

Pillowy Perfect Pita Bread

This is a recipe that works great. It tastes great with salty stuff and sweet, and is great also as a substitute naan bread for dipping in curry sauce!

Pita pocket featuring mince, veggies and wilmersbuger "cheese"

Pita bread - gluten free, eggless, dairy free, corn free, soy free 

500 g water
1 tbsp instant yeast
10 g syrup/honey
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp psyllium husk 

180 g white rice flour
150 g brown rice flour
100 g potato starch
80 g tapioca starch
1 tsp salt

(2-3 tsp xanthan gum) 

Happily baking in the oven

Mix wet together, let stand for a while. Mix dry together. Mix everything together, let rise in a warm place for about an hour. Pre-heat oven to 225 C. Divide dough into ten pieces. Flatten into a disk, not too thin, and place on baking sheet. Bake for 5-7 minutes, until puffed up. Then flip them over and bake for another 3 minutes.

Chipmunk filling her pita bread with daddy's help

Cut them in half and fill them up with whatever you like. The pocket will be there already, so no need to fiddle with knives. We've had these with falafels, taco spiced mince, raspberry jam, you name it!

Turkey & veggie burgers

Just for a change, decided to make turkey burgers out of minced turkey instead of whole meat. Also, this way I can use less meat, because there's a lot of green that can be added to the patties themselves.  I made buns with the mad-scientist-method (throw a bunch of stuff together, hope it holds together in the oven and is edible). Unfortunately, I forgot to write down exactly what I put in the buns, but they were really good!

Mad scientist buns: 

500 g water
300-350 g random flour (coarse rice, brown rice, toasted quinoa, random starch in mystery bag, something or other)
2 tbsp psyllium husk
2 tsp instant yeast 

Mix, let rise for about 40 minutes, scoop onto pan, bake for 30 minutes at 225 C. 

Turkey and zucchini patty recipe:

400 g minced turkey
1 big or 2 small zucchini finely grated
3 tbsp potato starch
100 g mushrooms
1 small shallot onion

Dice onions and slice mushrooms, and cook for a while. Season with salt, and herbs of choice. Grate zucchini. Add everything to the minced turkey and mash together, preferably with hands. Cook on cast iron pan. 

Assemble the burgers! Serve with sweet potato chips! Eat!

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.

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

Blasphemous Fresh Pasta for the Eggless and Glutinously Challenged

It works. Hooray! 

Uncooked, dried tagliatelle 

I have successfully made lasagna and tagliatelle from this pasta. It doesn't get gooey, it doesn't smell bad, it has a decent flavour, doesn't feel mushy. It stays firm and separated, if cooked like eggy wheat (aka poisonous) fresh pasta. Even my Italian husband agreed that it's good enough to forego the buying of store-made lasagna sheets. A resounding success, I would say.

Fresh pasta - gluten free and eggless 

1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp psyllium husk powder
pinch of salt
pinch of grated nutmeg
water 

Mix dry ingredients, add enough water until it resembles play-dough. It should form a ball without being sticky or crumbly. You can let it rest for about 15 minutes, or start rolling it out right away. Some rice flour may be necessary for the rolling process. 

If you aren't using the pasta right away, I suggest you coat it with some flour, then wiggle off the excess. This way it won't stick to itself while it dries. 

It's great in lasagna too!