Month: July 2013

Tasty Macaroni and Cheese for the Dairy-Free Crowd (with Variations on a Theme)

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I’m overdue in putting this up on my wordpress page. So, here it is! A common weeknight staple in our house, this has a mild cheese flavor, like American cheese, and as most veteran dairy-free cooks know, the secret ingredient is Nutritional Yeast. You could add some Daiya cheese substitute to this also, but Daiya also uses nutritional yeast for their cheese flavor, plus pea protein and binders. So, to save my food budget, I just stick with the nutritional yeast and use a combination of a few ingredients in the recipe below that should be accessible to most, if not all, dairy-free cooks.

A little word about the credibility of this recipe (as I always appreciate it when others tell me that they actually make their recipe and that other people like it):

My son remembers having Mac n’ Cheese for most of his pre-school time. It wasn’t until he was 5 years old that his body started completely rejecting gluten/wheat and also dairy. He came up positive for dairy allergy at the doctor’s office with a deduction of celiac with regard to the wheat/gluten. I was vexed by living without diary. We lived in NJ where Italian food is prevalent. We usually had bread and pasta with cheese almost every night. Parmesan cheese became a flavoring of choice for a lot of my dishes. I made ricotta stuffed shells at least once a week. And aside from the Italian food, we loved grilled cheese and mac n’ cheese…. and rice n’ cheese. Oh, how we loved our cheese.

Trying to find ways to have “cheesy” things again is quite a challenge. After all, I’m still working on the non-dairy cheesecake recipe. In the meantime, this recipe is a big winner at home. My son, who recalls the real thing, really loves this. My fiance thinks its great and especially loves it when I add a little bit of meat sauce to it to make it a cheesy mac n’ beef. It’s decadent and satisfies our cravings for a hearty meal.

Here’s how to make it:

Cook a 16-oz package of your favorite gluten-free pasta, be careful to not overcook (I usually set the timer for two minutes less than the minimum recommended time as it will still cook a little on the stove while you are adding ingredients).

Drain the pasta and put back in the pot and turn the heat down to medium-low.

Add:

1 cup of your favorite allergen-free chicken broth

1/2 cup of Earth Balance dairy-free margarine (or 1/4 cup of light olive oil)

1/4 to 1/3 cup of Nutritional Yeast depending on how much cheese flavor you want

1 teaspoon of onion powder

1/2 teaspoon of dry mustard

salt to taste (very necessary for cheese flavor. Remember, the cheese making process involves salt)

pepper to taste (optional)

 

Stir and serve!

And, if you want to make it like a Hamburger Helper, or a full one-pot meal, here are some variations on the Mac n’ Cheese theme:

Sausage.

Meat sauce.

Chili meat or beans.

Baby spinach and sauteed onions and mushrooms.

Cubed cooked chicken and diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning.

Tuna, peas and hot sauce such as Louisiana Hot Sauce or a milder Cholula (I’ve always loved this combination).

My fiance just suggested using gluten-free beer instead of chicken broth to make the sauce. Hmm. Interesting idea. I might have to try that.

I have a friend that just makes the sauce (without the pasta) and uses it for nachos.

Do you have any more ideas?

 

 

Safe Treats Buffet. And The Kids Like Them, Too!

With Coriander Honey Roasted Chickpeas in the center, our dairy and gluten sensitive household can eat all the treats shown. I used an espresso cup to display the dum dums. Here are the ingredients for the candies and gum:

And my apologizes that this post won’t apply to the corn allergic. I will research corn-free candy soon. In the meantime, these are dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, mostly soy-free (double check), peanut-free and nut-free.

Treats

Rock Candy: 

Sugar, water, flavor via extract or oil.

If you are sensitive to flavor extracts or oil, please check the full ingredients from the store where you purchased the rock candy.

Dumdum Lollipops:

Ingredients (from their website):
Sugar, Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Malic Acid, Salt, Artificial Flavor, Color Added (Includes Red 40, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Blue 1). Store in a cool dry place. This product does not contain peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, wheat, or gluten. It has been manufactured on dedicated equipment. There is a trace amount of soy oil in the lubricant that we use in our cooking kettles. This soy oil has been refined, bleached, and deodorized and all of the proteins have been removed. www.SpanglerCandy.com

Starburst Candy: (not for people with corn allergies) 

Ingredients (from their website):

INGREDIENTS:CORN SYRUP, SUGAR, APPLE JUICE FROM CONCENTRATE, GELATIN, FOOD STARCH-MODIFIED, CITRIC ACID, LESS THAN 1.5% – PECTIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, COLORING (RED 40, YELLOW 5). GLUTEN-FREE.

http://www.wrigley.com/global/brands/starburst.aspx

Double Bubble Gum: 

Ingredients in Dubble Bubble gum include dextrose, corn syrup, gum base, tapioca dextrin, titanium dioxide, confectioners glaze, carnauba wax, cornstarch, artificial flavors and colors. Based on the two ingredients in the top positions on the nutrition label, sugar makes up the majority of this product.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/278081-nutritional-information-for-dubble-bubble-gum/#ixzz2aYDzKO4R

The Popcorn is air popped and the Candied Honey-Coriander Roasted Chickpeas was adapted from a recipe I found here: http://www.getoffyourtushandcook.com/2013/06/roasted-cinnamon-sugar-chickpeas.html

I added coriander and used honey instead of agave nectar. I found that the chickpeas roasted unevenly, so I would recommend moving them around often and not taking them out until they are almost burnt. The lighter ones weren’t as crunchy.

The Easy No-Bake Allergen-Free Cheesecake that You’ve Been Looking For. Almost Perfect. Accepting Challenges.

Foodie Challengers: Can you bring this allergen-free cheesecake to perfection? I developed this today but the filling needs refinement. It needs a creamier texture and stronger “real cheesecake” flavor. For some reason, the flavor weakened significantly during the chill and set process. It tastes like a mild vanilla jello. It’s good on it’s own (maybe for flan?), but otherwise, the crust overpowers it.

As for the crust, it is absolutely perfect and should remain unchanged. It has a really great graham cracker flavor and texture. When I ate a slice of this, the combination of the crust with the strawberries made me feel like I was having a cheesecake experience. It is the closest thing to cheesecake that I’ve had in years.

The filling really needs the most help, it needs a richer texture and deeper flavor. Ready to take on the challenge? Here are the requirements of the challenge:

1. it must use products that you can get from a store (not special ordered online)

2. it must be no-bake. And it must be free of dairy, eggs, soy, corn, peanuts and tree nuts.

So, should a solid fat be added such as earth balance or organic non-hydrogenated palm oil shortening? What about more nutritional yeast for the distinct cheesy flavor? Would a homemade condensed unsweetened milk help? Pureed bananas? Corn-starch-free melted marshmallows? Maybe?  What are your thoughts?

Anyway, if you like a milder, lighter, flan-style filling, you might want to stick with this recipe as is. It’s not bad at all. I had two slices of it and feel happy. But it could be better. And I look forward to hearing what you do with this.

Here’s the recipe:
No-Bake Crust

Coat the bottom of a spring form or cake pan with wax paper or a little oil.

In a food processor, process gluten-free chocolate rice crispy cereal until you have 3 cups of very fine crumbs. The finer, the better.

Then add crumbs to a bowl along with 1/2 cup of maple syrup. Mix until crumbs are all coated and it sticks together. Then press into the bottom of the pan. Cover and refrigerate.

The Cheesecake Filling

Boil 1/2 cup of water.

In a bowl, add 2 envelopes of non-flavored gelatin. Stir the boiling water into the gelatin and stir until dissolved.

Then add 1/2 cup sugar and stir until dissolved.

Add 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast, 1 tsp vanilla, the juice of 1/4 of a lemon and stir.

Then add a pinch of salt and 1 15 oz. can of full fat coconut milk.

Pour into the prepared crust, cover and put in refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours.

That’s it! What do you think would make the filling richer and creamier?

7 Easy Tips for Entertaining Guests with Food Allergies

cupcake wine1. Don’t Stress Out (aka: Don’t Feel Bad About Accepting Their Offer to Bring Something).

This is the most important thing to your guest with food allergies. Nothing makes them feel worse than causing unnecessary stress to the host. They are happy to be invited and spend time with you. If they offer to bring something, don’t feel bad about accepting that offer.

Also, realize that they will not question their own dish. Your guests might prefer having control and avoiding the awkward feeling of having to ask you what ingredients you have used to make something and if you took steps to avoid cross contamination. (And no joke, they really hate needing to ask). They know how easy it is to miss a hidden wheat ingredient in a broth, or a milk ingredient in hot dogs.  Or, how easy it is to forget old habits where one might accidently prepare gluten-free toast on a pan that still has wheat bread crumbs on it or dip a knife back into the butter that had bread crumbs in it.

So, if you don’t want to think about it, or worry about your menu items or cooking methods, know that your allergenic guest will appreciate you being flexible and allowing them to keep control to avoid a reaction.

2. If You Make an Allergen-Free Recipe, Save the Food Labels for Them.

Your guest will deeply appreciate the extra work you have done to include them in the food part of the celebration.  They may also worry that you may have missed something (see point 1). Do not be offended by this. Your guest has learned a lot about ingredients and what contains hidden allergenic ingredients – the hard and painful way. They have made the mistake of consuming it, suffering the reaction, and doing the detective work to figure out what happened.

Your guest knows that you don’t live like they do. Therefore, they don’t expect you to know that barley malt extract in a wheat-free sauce still has gluten; or that soy sauce is made from wheat; or that those hot dogs have casein milk proteins; or that soy cheese is still made with dairy (to name a few). So, be prepared to tell them how you made it. Not only will they appreciate that you have taken their allergy seriously, they will feel deeply cared for if you set aside the ingredients labels for them to evaluate.

Remember that it’s for their peace of mind. They trust you. They just don’t trust food manufacturers and the ingredients they use to make something that *should* be only what it says it is. Again, they learned the hard way that something wasn’t safe when they thought it was. It’s nothing against you.

3. Plan Ahead, Stick to the Basics and Forgo Buying Special Food Items  

Unless you enjoy learning about food allergies and want to spend an extra hour in the store reading ingredient labels, go take a look in your pantry for things you already have and that are already allergen-free such as beans, rice, potatoes and tuna. Also, look in your freezer for meats and your refrigerator and garden for fresh veggies and herbs. Proteins and starches are the most satisfying menu items at a party. You can easily make and serve deviled eggs (boil eggs, mix the yolks with a little mustard and sweet relish, scoop into the whites and that’s it!).

Here are some more quick ideas:

  • Cook some rice and turn into a beautiful rice salad with fresh minced veggies, fresh herbs, and homemade citrus vinaigrette.
  • Make some tuna salad with a vinaigrette dressing instead of a mayo dressing.
  • Chicken tenders can be coated with oil, dusted with salt, pepper, sage, garlic powder, onion powder and dry mustard, cook in the broiler until done and put in the fridge to get cold. Put them on skewers on a pretty platter with honey mustard and sesame dipping sauces.
  • Roll up slices of Hormel All-Natural Lunchmeat Ham or Turkey and stick a toothpick and an olive in each roll.
  • Cut up some potatoes, and toss them in olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Serve warm or turn into a roasted potato salad made with red wine vinaigrette and fresh herbs.
  • You could also roast and season fresh broccoli, mushrooms, eggplant, carrots or red peppers.
  • Offer plain tortilla chips and plain potato chips with salsa and hummus which are usually allergen-friendly.
  • Search the plethora of allergen-free recipes online, add “easy” and “simple” to your search. Also try “Paleo”, “Vegan” and “Raw” as your search terms.

You’ll be surprised that preparing for them can be an easy, stress-free experience.

4. Make a Simple Fruit Dessert Instead of Baking.

When you are not used to allergen-free baking, you will find that it can be a complicated, time consuming and expensive endeavor. While it may be fun to learn and try it, you will invariably have many other tasks on your to do list when preparing for a party. Almost all from-scratch allergy-free baking projects require a learning curve, a few special kinds of flours, leavening agents and binding ingredients that can’t be found at your regular food market.

I’m a bit hesitant to suggest a baking mix for brownies or cookies, but I will go ahead and suggest it, provided you are careful to know if your guest also needs to avoid dairy or eggs or nuts as many baking mixes don’t avoid multiple food allergens. So, if your guest is also allergic to eggs, you will have to figure out the best way to substitute for the eggs following instructions on the mix. My favorite mixes are from Bob’s Red Mill as they are good at helping the baker avoid multiple allergies.

That said, baking, in general, adds a bit of time and stress to your entertaining endeavor. And I’d hate to see you go to all that trouble and find out that your guest still can’t have it because you didn’t know that oats or certain kinds of starches are hard for some celiacs to digest.

My best advice would be to come up with a creative fruit dessert such as:

  • Sorbet or Smoothies made into popsicles
  • Poached pears in a ginger simple syrup
  • Cinnamon baked apples
  • Grilled pineapple slices with cracked-pepper honey
  • Grilled plums with balsamic reduction
  • Strawberries dipped in melted non-dairy chocolate chips such as the Enjoy Life brand.
  • Candy using melted non-diary chocolate chips, dried cherries and sunflower seeds, dropped by spoonfuls onto wax paper which will set when cooled.
  • Raw food websites are also a great place to find easy and creative fruit based desserts.
  • Popcorn balls (if no corn allergy) are great for any party, not just Halloween.
  • Gluten free rice krispie treats using Kellogg’s gluten-free rice krispies, regular marshmallows (if no corn allergy) and Earth Balance dairy-free butter.
  • Cracker Jacks are a great party fun food if no one has a peanut allergy.
  • Swedish Fish, Starburst, Skittles and Smarties are gluten-free and diary-free. (as of this writing, I only know that Smarties are vegan, so check candies for other offending allergies if needed).
  • Homemade vanilla or chocolate pudding made with arrowroot starch and topped with fresh fruit.

Those are just a few ideas, but whatever you do, keep it simple and you’ll save lots of time, money and energy!

5. If You are Going to Prepare Food , Be Very Mindful of Cross-Contamination.  

It would be great if no one had to worry about this but it happens every day that a person with allergies gets sick or is hospitalized due to cross contamination. It might have happened because their safe food was cooked on a pan that had allergens on it, or the cook’s hands weren’t washed after working with wheat flour. There are many ways that cross-contamination can happen. When in doubt, use another pan or get a clean knife or buy another jar of jam that hasn’t been used to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I know you don’t want extra dirty dishes, or more jam than you need, but what would you rather have, an extra knife to wash or a really sick guest? If extra diligence is needed, you may want to go the extra mile and inform the other guests to avoid bringing peanut butter cookies or anything with tree nuts if your guest is prone to airborne nut proteins threatening their life.

6. Don’t Focus on Their Allergies if They Don’t Want to Talk About it.

This is one you’ll have to feel out.Your allergenic guest thinks about their food allergies almost all day, every day. They need to talk about and think about something else. They want to enjoy your company, listen to your stories, laugh with you and have fun. Some allergy sufferers appreciate the opportunity to educate others on food allergies, especially when they feel heard and not judged as being too careful about it. Being dismissed and treated as if they are “too protective” is a sore spot since they encounter that attitude a lot. If it seems that they don’t want to talk about it, move on to another subject.

Kids who are food allergic can be even more sensitive and don’t want to hear the adults talk about them. Kids worry that their friends will make fun of them (and some do). So, if the kids are within earshot, and you are going to bond about parenting, stick to subjects that apply to all of the kids such as their sports or piano lessons and the challenges of limiting TV and Nintendos.

7. Enjoy the New Entertaining Experience, and Celebrate Life

We live in a time where food allergies can kill the whole person in an instant via anaphylactic shock or via a destruction of intestines over time. People with food allergies may have a life expectancy much shorter than everyone else’s.  So, as the saying goes “Live and Let Live.”

Their allergy might be inconvenient, but it won’t hurt you to help them avoid it. But if they don’t avoid it, it will hurt them. Be patient, understanding, accommodating and celebrate the joy of who they are outside of the food allergy. There are worse things in life than food allergies but do treat it like a digestive disability, because it is. They may look good on the outside but they hurt on the inside.  And I dare say, it’s even a social disability because of the lack of ability to participate in so many social food events. Continue to be understanding.

And from the bottom of my heart, thank you for reading, sharing, helping and supporting organizations that research cures for food allergies. Wonderful people like you are the ones that make the world a better place to live.

Easy Chocolate “Doughnut” Cake

Simple Chocolate Cake with Icing

But with a much more lively milk chocolate taste. This recipe is adapted from a standard quick and easy chocolate cake recipe. The icing consistency was an accident. I was going for a thicker decorator icing but this actually worked very well and really reminded me of going to a bakery and getting a chocolate cake doughnut. If you have a doughnut shaped pan, this cake recipe would be perfect for that!

This cake is free of all eight common allergens. The icing is made of pureed beans, confectioner’s sugar and almond milk. If you are allergic to legumes, you could puree a fruit of your choice or use a mixture of jam and your favorite non-dairy milk. Ooo… that just made me think of doing a strawberry icing with this.

The Cake

I. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly coat an 8-inch square or round cake pan (or your doughnut pan) with vegetable oil.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together:

– 2 cups of your favorite GF flour mix

– 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum

– 1/4 cup of cocoa

– 2 teaspoons of baking soda

3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together:

– 3/4 cup of mashed banana or applesauce

– 1/4 cup of canola oil

– 1 cup of brewed coffee  (Note: coffee intensifies the chocolate flavor.  No coffee? No problem, use water or non-dairy milk)

– 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

4. Mix together the wet and dry ingredients until well blended and pour into the pan. Bake until toothpick or knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes. With a doughnut pan, I recommend checking to see if it is finished baking after about 15-20 minutes.

After cooled, cake can be wrapped up and kept at room temperature for about three days.

The Icing

1. In a small food processor, blend until as smooth as possible: 1 cup of white beans such as cannellini or navy, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1/8-1/4 cup of non-dairy milk.

2. Pour the bean puree into a mixing bowl and add 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1 pound of confectioner’s (aka: powedered) sugar (example: about 1/2 of a bag of Dominoe’s powdered sugar).

3. Blend until smooth and thick but drippy.

4. Transfer to a small bowl. When you slice a piece of cake, drizzle the icing over the slice and enjoy.

The icing can be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator for about a week. It also goes great on cinnamon buns or buttery cinnamon toast. Yum!

Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chickpea Choc Chip Cookies

These cookies are totally free of peanuts, nuts, eggs, gluten, wheat, and dairy.

Why the chickpeas? I ran out of shortening and earth balance but had everything else to make chocolate chip cookies. I really wanted to experiment with an egg-free cookie recipe. But without the fat, I was a little stumped. Could I still do it? Most recipes call for so much of said fat, really, the fat only does two things: add volume and softness. I remembered seeing some posts in my Facebook feed from raw food pages about making chocolate chip cookies using chickpeas. So, I thought I’d try pureed chickpeas and canola oil to replace the fat and 1/4 cup of applesauce to replace the eggs.

After deciding on these replacements, and consulting volume of ingredients from two cookbooks, this is what I came up with: a thick, cake-like chocolate chip cookie that, when paired with a tall glass of non-dairy milk, makes for a very comforting treat. The family raved.

I made these very large because I knew my son would get a kick out it. But you can use this recipe for any size and thickness that you want since these don’t spread out at all like the traditional wheat and butter cookie.

Ultimately, there are five really great things about this recipe: 1. They taste great, just like traditional chocolate chip cookies (my fiance did not know I used chickpeas until I told him). 2. They are totally free of the eight most common food allergens. If there is a legume allergy, use silken tofu instead of chickpeas (do not use tofu if there is a soy allergy) 3. You can eat this raw without worry of salmonella poisoning from eggs. Idea: Stir the dough into your favorite ice cream! (Oh yum) 4. You have the benefit of having total control over the size, shape and thickness of these cookies. 5. You don’t have to buy  expensive fats such as shortening, earth balance or peanut butter, and thus a bit more economical.

So, here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease two large cookie sheets.

In a small food processor, add:

1 15-oz can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained.

1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup of canola oil

2 teaspoons of vanilla

Blend until mixture is very smooth and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together these dry ingredients:

2 cups of your favorite gluten-free flour blend

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (if your flour blend does not have it)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 cup of dark brown sugar

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

Stir together the dry ingredients and then add the chickpea puree. Stir and then you may have to use your very clean hands to squeeze and mix the dough until it all comes together.

Add 1 cup of Enjoy Life or other non-dairy chocolate chips and mix.

Shape cookies and flatten to about 1/4 inch thick. Bake on a rack that is closer to the top as these cookies brown quickly on the bottom. Bake for 11-15 minutes depending on the size and thickness of the cookie. They are done when the edges are golden brown. If you want the tops of the cookies a deeper brown color, finish them under the broiler for just one minute.

Serve warm with a tall glass of cold rice, hemp, soy or other favorite non-dairy milk.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Fried Green TomatoesConsidered a Southern dish, it really doesn’t matter where you are from to enjoy this. Pluck some green tomatoes from your garden, fry these and it’s like having mild fried pickles with a fork. Oh, it’s so good. Not everyone likes these, but if you are looking for an allergen-free version, this is it.

Note that these are usually made with cornmeal, but the rice flour in your standard gluten free baking mix will add the sought after grainy texture.

How to make:

In a deep plate or dish, add 1/2 cup GF flour mix, salt, pepper and 1 teaspoon of onion powder.

In a large skillet, fry bacon and set aside the bacon

If necessary, add enough canola oil to the bacon grease to bring the oil up to about 1/4 inch of your slices of tomatoes.

Slice your green tomatoes in 1/2 thick slices and lightly coat each side with the flour mixture.

Gently set into the hot oil and don’t move it. Let it fry on a medium heat for about 5-7 minutes, or until golden brown. Flip and cook the same way on the other side.

Remove from skillet and keep warm in the oven if you like.

If you want to add a sauce, I recommend mixing 1 cup of mayo or veganaise with salt, pepper, onion powder, a little mustard, a dash of apple cider vinegar or louisiana hot sauce (or your favorite hot pepper sauce).

It’s that easy. Enjoy!

Salmon Fagioli w/ Sauteed Balsamic Tomatoes

One word: Delicious.

Additional words: Made entirely from ingredients purchased at ALDI, plus tomatoes from neighbor’s garden.

To make the Sauteed Balsamic Tomatoes:

In a large skillet, heat just a little olive oil or spray with a thin coat of olive oil. Cut up tomatoes in large chunks or halve cherry tomatoes, enough to fill the large skillet (about 15 large cherry tomatoes, or 4 regular sized tomatoes, or 2 pecks of grape tomatoes).

Saute tomatoes with a little salt, balsamic vinegar (not a lot) and a very tiny bit of sugar. Do this until tomatoes are wilted and the juice from the tomatoes becomes thick.

To make the Salmon Fagioli, add the following to a soup pot:

1 can salmon, undrained

1/2 of a 32-oz container of chicken broth

1 cup of water

1 white onion, chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

2 potatoes, diced into 1-inch bite sized pieces

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 10-oz can of mushrooms (or fresh if you have them)

1 14-oz can of white beans

1 Tbsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp ground sage

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp ground mustard

salt and pepper to taste

Boil and bring to hard simmer. Add 1 cup of gluten free pasta and cook until the pasta is done.

Take off of the heat and serve with the sauteed tomatoes. My fiance preferred this without the tomatoes but think the tomatoes would be great in a bruschetta application. So, I guess it depends on your taste (which is why I kept the tomatoes separate). My son doesn’t like tomatoes, but loved the addition of nutritional yeast to give this soup more of a Fish Chowder flavor.

“Just Peachy” Ice Cream

In the late summer, peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums and various stone fruits are in season. This is my favorite time of year because these stone fruits are my absolute favorite. I love peach pie, peach smoothies, peach sorbet, peach ice cream, peach jam. Yummmm.

In the days when I could eat real ice cream and frozen yogurt, I was always annoyed that I needed to work my way down into a pint to get another bite of a frozen peach encased in ice cream. And when I couldn’t eat ice cream anymore and I had to pay $7 or more for a pint of disappointing non-dairy ice cream, it was all good cause for me to respond with a sarcastic “Just peachy,” (if anyone were to ask how my day was going). Well, now that I’m in control of my own ice cream, I can say “Just peachy,” with a little happier tone in my voice. All it takes is a can of coconut milk for $1.79 blended with some inexpensive fresh or canned fruit, and the cost for a pint comes down from $7.00 to about $3.00. It’s so nice to afford this summer treat again.

“Just Peachy” Vegan Ice Cream

4 ripe apricots, peeled and chopped

1 14oz can of peaches in syrup (or the equivalent of fresh peaches)

1 14oz can of coconut milk (NOT cream of coconut) – always double check the ingredients

1 cup of corn syrup or 3/4 cup of sugar

1 tsp vanilla (gluten free)

In a food processor, blend all of the ingredients together. Transfer to an ice cream maker and run it according to your manufacturer’s directions. Freeze and enjoy the next day. Make sure you make more ice cream before you run out of that batch.

Cookbook Review: The Allergen-Free Baker’s Handbook by Cybele Pascal

Allergen Free BH

I have to credit my future sister-in-law for this gift. She gave me this book when we met about a year ago and it has been one of the most useful gifts I have received.

I have made several of the recipes in this book and the discovery of Socca de Nice was a huge hit in our household. We especially love it with fresh rosemary.

The chocolate chip cookies came out great!

This is an excellent resource for totally allergen-free baking and I commend the author for doing all of the testing and writing so that the home cook can quickly have a good go-to recipe for school functions, fundraisers, work functions, and other events.

The recipes work best when they are followed using the exact ingredients called for (at least until you get the hang of allergen-free baking), such as the egg replacer and agave nectar and gelatin. Those little ingredients make a difference, so I highly recommend that you follow the instructions. I did use real eggs in the cornbread and it came out okay. As does the almond milk or water in lieu of rice milk for most recipes.

The author uses relatively inexpensive flours to create a general mix for quick breads, cookies, etc. and then another general mix for yeast breads. I really like the convenience of preparing a flour mix ahead of time. This is a good approach when you are doing your allergen-free baking as it saves time on future baking projects. I recommend doing a double or triple batch and storing in a large container in your pantry or refrigerator.

The taste and texture is pretty good for most of the recipes I tested; very close to what you’d expect from your grocery store bakery. The chocolate chip cookies truly are outstanding. The cakes were also very good. Double the recipe for two layer cakes. The socca de nice was surprisingly novel and good! I still have to try some of the savory yeast breads but all in all, I still grab this book every single time I want to bake something.

This book is one of the very few baking books on the market that avoid the eight most common food allergens. Please don’t be overwhelmed by all the flours and alternatives. Once you have the items in your home, you’ll be anxious to start working with them!

If you’re on a budget, some of the recipes can utilize canola oil instead of the palm-oil shortening. You’ll have to test it out, but we had good luck with using canola oil in the quick breads. However, continue to use the shortening in cookies and cakes as it needs to coat the crumb for good texture. You can also replace the rice milk with water if you haven’t been able to get to the store.

I admire the work of Cybele Pascal and she deserves all of the praise that she has received for this work. I bring this book with me to my seminars and educational events to let others know that this resource is out there. For more about Ms. Pascal’s amazing work, please visit http://cybelepascal.com/

Delicious Pancakes

Behold. These are the ones. The pancakes. The IHOP/Waffle House/Jersey Hometown Diner (or whatever happens to be your definition of) oh-my-god delicious pancakes.

So far, the pancakes I have been making have not been worth really talking about on here, except the flourless banana pancakes, which taste more like bananas foster, than anything else. And I posted them for novelty sake. Some like them, some do not. We do. But still, they are not actual flour pancakes.

So, out of some frustration with being too broke to go to the store for the Bob’s Red Mill Pancake Mix (which is what I usually use), I decided to adapt my gluten free flour mix to a recipe in my Fannie Farmer cookbook. I adapted it even further to use oil to save on the cost. And these were born.

Surprisingly spectacular.

Here’s what the wheat eater in my household had to say about them: “Wow, I cannot tell at all that these are gluten free. And they have that nice eggy, fluffy, tender texture, like the pancakes you would get at a really good diner.”

WIN!

So, here they are

Make this GF Flour Mix: 6 cups brown rice flour, 2 and 2/3 cup potato starch, 2/3 cup tapioca flour, 2/3 cup sweet rice flour.  Mix all together and put in a large ziplock bag. (If you can’t find sweet rice flour, you can substitute it with more tapioca starch. If you do that, I cannot guarantee this recipe).

For the Pancakes:

Use 2 cups of the GF Flour Mix for this recipe and store the rest for other baking recipes.

1 and 1/2 teaspoons of xanthan gum

4 teaspoons of baking powder

4 Tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

Mix the dry ingredients well with a whisk.

In another bowl add:

2 eggs

4 Tablespoons of Canola or Vegetable Oil

2 cups of unsweetened almond or unsweetened hemp milk (Note: these milks have a creamier texture and are great for baking. I’m not sure how rice milk would come out. In my opinion, rice milk is so watery that there is no difference in baking with rice milk vs. water. So, I just use water instead of wasting my rice milk if all that I have on hand is rice milk. My recipes have come out fine that way).

Whisk the wet ingredients together. Then mix the wet and dry ingredients together with a wooden spoon. Add more almond or hemp milk (or water) if the mixture is too dense. It should be very pour able, like cake batter.

Then, make the pancakes how you would normally make them. If you are just learning how to make pancakes, see instructions below. Serve with a pat of Earth Balance spread and your favorite maple syrup (make sure it is free of caramel color. Caramel color in pancake syrup doesn’t seem to bother my son. But if it bothers you, use a mixture of light corn syrup and molasses to make an inexpensive syrup).

How to Make Pancakes:

Set your oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. (For keeping cooked pancakes warm).

Heat a large non-skillet skillet over medium high heat and, depending on the size pancakes you like, scoop 1/4 or 1/2 cup fulls of batter into the pan. Cook about 5-7 minutes or until dry looking around edges and you see bubbles throughout the pancakes and then flip over. Cook another 5-7 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.

Transfer pancakes to a plate in the the warm oven while you are making the 2nd and 3rd batch.

For the pancakes you have not eaten, put them in a large zip lock bag and put them in your freezer for up to 3 months.

Reheat 1-2 pancakes as you need them.

Reheating instructions for microwaves:

Put 2 pancakes on an oven safe plate and cover with an almost sopping wet paper towel (this steams the pancakes and keeps them from drying out). Cook on high for 1-2 minutes until heated through.

Reheating instructions for people like me, who have broken microwaves and can’t afford another one:

Set your oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Put your desired number of pancakes on a cookie sheet. Cover with about 2-3 sopping wet paper towels to keep them from drying out. Heat for about 5 minutes or until heated through.