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!

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!

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.

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