My last post invited my readers into my food-obsessed world, where I am obliviously satisfied, buried deep in sugar and flour. Does it fulfill me? Within moments, absolutely. But I shared that it is not my complete passion, just a piece of me. Like a sliver of my second favorite pie- it's apple pie. A choice I enjoy, but would gladly trade in for all the time in the world to simply write. Passion or pie? I'm not sure what we are talking about anymore.
Ok, let's talk pie. Or desserts, rather.
I had a tremendous honor of being interviewed by a college professor recently who had taken notice of my foodie posts and asked if I would divulge secrets to getting children to eat healthy. It was fun to be noticed. There is a piece of me (another sliver of life pie) that answers, "ME?" Yet, another that smirks and affirms, "Oh yes, a thousands time, ME." That slice isn't from my "humble pie," unfortunately.
If you want to know what I expressed concerning my foodie habits, it's really this: keep it simple. If I could sum up what I believe about food, my goal is to cut out the middle "production line" man and just make what I am able to in my kitchen. I have a head start in this arena, as I am a stay at home mom. I get paid $0 to spend 1,000 hours in the kitchen each week. All sarcasm aside, I have time to live like this, and if you don't, grace to you, friend. If you do, well, life can be sweet, salty, and as savory as you like.
I was inspired to write a short blog on food because I have been busily crafting gift baskets for family. I have a disease, still unnamed and therefore without a cure, that compels me to compulsively over-prepare food. Nearly every potluck I am invited to is prefaced days before with pacing and panicking, "There is just TOO much good food in this world! How can I pick ONE thing to make?" *pant, pant*
Here I am, yet again, crafting my food baskets, only 15 things to make! And, per my standards, they must all be basically from scratch, and at least 85% gluten-free and sugar-free. And organic and $500 worth of ingredients. And shoot me. I don't want to skip over the part of me that really enjoys baking diverse foods, because it's there. I just overbooked myself. I am committing to sit down right now and rest. Yes, writing is rest. I need to rest, as the last three days have been slammed full of sauerkraut making, cranberry-ginger ale, coconut-date thumbprint cookies, cinnamon granola, creamy coconut vanilla candies, chocolate covered caramels, thumbprint jam cookies (with homemade chia seed blueberry jam), and orange-chai flavored curd. Someone STOP me from cooking up some rosemary-thyme farmer's cheese. STOP ME! (Oh, so tasty on crackers). Ok, I'm under control.
I will now begin to divulge some of my Holiday recipes:
Christmas Granola:
You can find my recipe here. We made it with pecans, walnuts, and added in cranberries, unsweetened coconut, raisins, and cinnamon when it had cooled.
Creamy Coconut Candies:
Coconut manna melted down. Add vanilla extract, raw honey, and chopped pecans. Ta-da! Instant candy. I normally can't afford coconut manna, but I found it discounted 50% at the grocery store because someone had dropped it and busted the lid. I saw it, lonely there on the shelf, and immediately visions of raw, organic, super-food candy danced in my head (It's not nearly as poetic without "sugar plums". Interesting).
Chocolate Caramels:
I couldn't find a recipe, no matter how hard I tried, on google. I just want the option to SWEETEN my chocolate. So more visions danced in my head: of powdered coconut sugar (it has a lower glycemic index and I like to think I can eat more of it without getting the shakes) stirred into melted 100% cacao. With the help of my husband's coffee grinder, the coconut sugar became a great soft powder (I have made icing like this before too). I stirred it into the melted chocolate and kept tasting it until it was bittersweet.
Then, came the caramel. I researched homemade caramel, and then if it was possible to make caramel with coconut sugar. There were varying results, none was exactly what I was looking for (they were either completely dairy-free and I refuse to make caramel without butter. Or they were pure sugar and butter, which sounds awesome, but wasn't creative enough for me). The caramel I came up with was:
1/2 cup of 1/2 and 1/2 (figure that out!)
4 tablespoons of butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup coconut sugar
whisk and boil until it thickens.
It did thicken, but was taking forever, and I started worrying that when it cooled it would be toffee and not cream (which I wanted for the center of my chocolate). So when it was syrup, I removed it from the heat. Again, with the coffee grinder I made a chia seed dust. Chia seed will become gelatinous when stirred into a liquid, and about 4 tablespoons of ground chia seeds made the caramel extra creamy. The texture was just right.
Thumbprint blueberry-jam filled cookies:
First the jam: I cooked down frozen blueberries for about 15 minutes. I cooled it for about 20 minutes, then I put it into my food processor. Add raw honey or stevia (I have made it with both in different jam batches) and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Pulse until liquidy-liquidesque. Whatever. Then pour into a jar and add several tablespoons of chia seeds. After 30 minutes, it will be a jelly texture. I wanted mine a little thicker and added gluccomannon. If you've never heard of this crazy word, well, it is technically a ground up konjac root. The powder expands and makes a great gravy, smoothie, jam, whatever you need thickened. It is one of those "random buys" I made last year and I use it quite a bit.
Now for dough. I love a good almond flour recipe like the next person, but sometimes- no wait, all of the time- there is no match for flour and butter. None. One of my favorite flours to work with is spelt. It doesn't seem to bloat me like regular wheat flour. I wanted a really crispy cookie, so I used 1 cup of Bob's Red Mill white flour and 1 1/2 cups of spelt flour.
First, I creamed 1 cup softened Kerrygold butter with 3/4 cup sugar.
Then added vanilla.
Then add the flour, 1/2 tsp of baking powder, and a dash of salt.
This was all an adaptation I found from a fully white flour recipe. It recommended wrapping the dough in plastic wrap and putting it in fridge because cold dough is easier to work with. After 30 minutes of chilling out, I brought it out and rolled one inch balls onto parchment paper, and pressed my thumb into it. The kids LOVE this. Then we scooped our blueberry jelly into the center wells we had created and they baked for 12 minutes at 350 degrees.
Cranberry-ginger ale:
Make Sally Fallon's base recipe, found here. After several days, it will be fizzy and read to go. I strained mine, and poured the two batches I had made into a bigger jar. Then I added 1 cup of cranberry juice, and 3 tablespoons of sugar. I also put a dash of cinnamon in. It will sit on the counter for two more days, ready for Christmas. Sauerkraut and Ginger-ale are at least a 7 day wait, so need to be planned.
Orange-chai flavored curd:
I started with this lady's base recipe, found here. It turned out delicious, but still, I felt the desire to make it mine. Cinnamon, clove powder, and a dash of ginger add up to a sweet, yet spicy orange flavored curd. Highly recommend. But get it off the burner before it turns to custard! Even if you don't, orange-chai flavored custard is delicious as well....you can trust me, I've tried it.
If you've noticed my coconut-date cookies didn't make the list, I just didn't like them. I also made some lemon creme candies from the coconut manna, but it wasn't my favorite either. I am making cranberry-spelt scones tomorrow morning and will serve the lemon candies melted over top. Problem solved!
Kids are running wild from all of the candy tasting they have been subjected to, so I must attend to their needs. Love to all, and happy holiday baking!
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