Pear and coconut cake

Baking without rice flour is a bit of a headache, because it was so easy to put rice everywhere. I got set in my ways, and probably overused it, contributing to it falling out of Chipmunk's diet. My creativity seems to be back on track though, this cake came out extremely tasty.

Pear and coconut cake - gluten free, eggless, dairy free, rice free, soy free, nut free 

100 g coconut oil (melted)
140 g sugar
50 g applesauce
100 g coconut milk
2 tsp vanilla sugar
50 g corn flour
100 g tapioca starch
100 g buckwheat flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
0.5 tsp cardamom
0.5 tsp cloves
1 tsp baking soda 

2 ripe pears, peeled and cubed 

Mix the dry ingredients together, add everything else except the pears. Mix together well, then fold in the pears. Bake at 200 C for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out sort of clean. 

Lingonberry and coconut pie

We're no longer using rice.
Food intolerance test told us not to, and I'm inclined to believe it.  Have suspected that rice isn't good for Chipmunk for a while, but I didn't want to believe it, as it was the basis of our diet. However, !#<@ happens and life goes on. Henceforth we shall be rice-free.

This pie came out quite good. It's based on this recipe, which I've modified to contain no gluten, eggs or dairy.

Lingonberry and coconut pie - gluten free, eggless, dairy free, nut free, soy free, rice free

Pie:
160 g margarine
1 dl unsweetened applesauce
1 dl sugar
4 dl flour (equal parts buckwheat, tapioca, potato starch and cornflour)
20 g shredded coconut
3 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp ground cardamom
pinch of salt
300 g lingonberries (frozen works)

Topping:
50 g melted margarine
80 g shredded coconut
0.5 dl flour (equal parts potato starch and cornflour)
0.5 dl sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar

For the bottom, melt margarine, add applesauce and baking powder to it and mix well. It will foam. Mix dry ingredients together and add to the applesauce-y foamy mix. If too thick, add some water or non-dairy milk until it's spreadable. Make topping: melt margarine, add rest, crumble. Spread into pie tin, add the lingonberries on top and add the crumb topping. 

Bake at 200 C for about 30 minutes. 

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!

Mocha Bites - mokkapalat

In Finland, these are probably the second most common thing to find on a coffee table, besides pulla. Little cake squares, covered in a chocolatey frosting flavoured with a splash of coffee. All bake sales in the history of bake sales in Finland probably feature this cake. 

Mmm, tasty.

It's good.

There are about a zillion recipes, most featuring stuff Chipmunk cannot eat: wheat, eggs, cocoa, dairy and often also nuts. My recipe is gluten free, eggless, dairy free and has no cocoa. Hooray!

Without further ado:

Mocha Bites - gluten free, eggless, dairy free, cocoa free, nightshade free, soy free 

dry ingredients:
65 g rice flour
55 g tapioca starch
40 g corn flour
50 g sweet(/glutinous/sticky) rice flour
130 g brown rice flour
-------- 

or 340 g gluten free flour of choice 

-------
1 tsp psyllium husk
0.5 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
2 tsp soda
6 tbsp carob
2 tsp vanilla sugar
250 g sugar 

wet ingredients:
100 g applesauce
200 g coconut milk/cream
200 g water
150 g melted margarine
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar 

Mix dry together. Mix wet together. Mix all together. Pour onto a parchment lined baking tray and bake at 200 C for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  

Let it cool down, then make frosting and frost. 

Frosting:
150 g margarine
2 tbsp espresso ---- or 1 tsp instant coffee and 2 tbsp water
splash of coconut milk
enough powdered sugar to get the right consistency (about 300-400 g)
Melt margarine in a pan, mix in all the other stuff and stir until smooth. Then pour onto the cooled cake before the frosting has time to set. Sprinkle something on top, to decorate. 

Makes a good snack, too.

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!

How to Test Allergens in a Fun Way

It's a while since we've tested grapes. I thought, the more processed, the better. So, we're testing with wine! Now, before you all go call child protection services, hear me out. This is a very typical recipe from Italy, the alcohol burns out while cooking, so no biggie.

Aren't they pretty?

Cookies are a pretty nifty way to test for food allergens. It gets cooked, so any reaction is somewhat lessened compared to sampling a raw product. Also, the amount of potential allergen per cookie is rather small. So, if you manage to limit the amount of cookies consumed (ha ha) it should be a rather safe way to test.

At least, the theory is, that it gets cooked before sampling... Chipmunk disagrees with this point. 

The dough for these cookies is a pretty purple colour, and the consistency is firm enough for a toddler to handle without too much difficulty. It rolls out wonderfully, could probably make brilliant cut form cookies as well. I elected to make the traditional donut shape for two reasons. Firstly, it's easier for Chipmunk to do. Secondly, it's a lot faster to roll out little donuts than cut out cookies.

Without further ado, here's the recipe to traditional Italian wine cookies!

Ciambelline al vino (rosso) 

2/3 cup wine
2/3 cup neutral tasting oil, e.g. sunflower
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
AP GF flour* approximately 3-4 cups 

Note: I will update this to weight measurements eventually! 

Mix the wine, sugar, baking powder and oil together. Add enough all purpose flour until it forms a ball, but isn't too sticky to handle. Better too sticky than too dry.  

Roll out as you wish, decorate with granulated sugar and bake in the oven at 180C for about 15-30 minutes depending on the size of your cookies. They should get a pretty golden colour on top, the sides will probably stay pinkish. 

* All Purpose Gluten Free flour blend. I use this blend for most of my baking when I'm too lazy to mix and match a custom blend. It's neutral in taste and goes great as a substitute 1:1 for regular wheat flour.

650 g rice flour (mostly brown, with some white)
250 potato starch
100 g tapioca starch
1 tbsp xanthan gum

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!