Autumn Appetites: Spiced Apple Bundt Cake

“Life is too short to not bake.”

To my great sadness, a friend and neighbor unexpectedly passed away. She had been fine but then wasn’t feeling well one day, discovered she had stage four pancreatic cancer, and died within two weeks of the diagnosis. The funeral was this past Friday, a week after her passing. As I dealt with the sorrow of losing her this weekend, I turned to those things which give me solace: my faith, family and friends, writing, and cooking. In their own way, each provides me comfort and renewal.

Fortunately for me, my husband is teaching a class on Sundays which I tend to bake for, so I had the perfect opportunity to create a recipe. Because a friend generously gave me tons and tons of my favorite Honey Crisp apples, I knew I wanted to make something apple-y. I wanted something a little special, though — something wonderful like my friend. A bundt cake came to mind.

In a previous post, talking about bundt cakes, I mentioned that they’re tasty, dense cakes which are pretty to serve because they retain the shape of their molded pans. Usually bundt cakes are filled with goodies like fruit and nuts and chocolate, so they’re even pretty once they’re cut into slices. Since I had the abundance of apples, I decided that a spiced apple bundt cake would be perfect.

The batter is very important to a bundt cake. I decided that I’d combine sorghum and millet flour with arrowroot starch for my gluten free blend with a little bit of xanthan gum. For the spices I opted for cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves because they remind me of Autumn. With the sweetness of the apples, I didn’t really need to much for a sweetener so I chose to add Agave which would add mild sweetness as well as some liquid moisture to the cake. For the fat, I decided safflower oil would be best because of it’s light taste. To add some more spice to the cake, I mixed the apples with the same spices as the batter. Then to finish the cake, I drizzled a little mixture of cinnamon and powdered sugar mixed with flax milk on top of the cake. The result was both pretty and tasty.

Spiced Apple Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

3 cups of finely diced peeled and cored Honey Crisp apples, about 3 to 4 apples (My daughter and I liked the batter to apple ratio in the cake but my son and husband suggested that next time I increase the apple pieces to four cups so there would be “apple pieces in every bite”; I’ll let you decide what you’d prefer to do. *grin*)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom

1 cup sorghum flour

1 cup millet flour

1 cup arrowroot starch (you can also use tapioca or potato starch if you’d prefer)

1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup safflower oil (I like a drier cake which goes well with tea and coffee or glass of milk so this was perfect in my opinion, but I know some folks prefer a moister cake, so if you do, increase the oil to 1 cup)

1 cup agave

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp gluten free vanilla

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Baking Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and liberally grease a bundt pan with your preferred method and then dust it with your preferred flour. (I used vegan shortening and brown rice flour.)
Mixed the peeled, diced apple pieces with the cinnamon and cardamom and set aside.
Blend the sorghum and millet flours, arrowroot starch, xanthan cup, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
Whisk together the oil, agave, eggs and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet with the apple cider vinegar and mix just until the dry ingredients are moistened.
Carefully fold in the apple pieces until the apples are fully incorporated into the batter.
Spoon the batter into the prepared bundt pan.
Bake for 50 minutes until the cake is golden and pulling away from the sides and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let the cake sit in the pan on a cooling rack for at 15 to 25 minutes.
Turn the cake over onto the cooling rack to cool completely.
The cake can be served as is or you can top it with a sprinkling of powdered sugar or a mixture of powdered sugar and cinnamon, or you can glaze it. I glazed it by mixing a couple tablespoons of powdered sugar with 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and just enough flax milk to make a drizzable glaze.
Enjoy!

Autumn Appetites: Cinnamon Apple Strudel Muffins

September 24, 2016PajamaLiving dairy free, gluten free, nut/peanut free, reduced refined sugar, soy free Leave a comment

“Will you teach me to cook?”

A couple of months ago my son asked if I’d give him weekly cooking lessons because as he explained, “When I grow up I need to know how to make the two most important meals of the day: breakfast and dessert!”

So, over the past several weeks he’s learned how to make pancakes, waffles, French toast, marble cake, brownies, and oatmeal crumb cake. This morning, since Autumn has officially begun, and my favorite apples, Honey Crisp, are finally in season, I thought I’d teach him how to make my version of an apple strudel.

Strudels are lovely recipes where dough is filled with yummy fruit, rolled and cooked. I have found them to be rather messy, though, and not easy to eat without a fork and knife. I do, however, love to make use of Honey Crisp apples during the Fall months because they are naturally sweet which means I don’t need to add any additional sweetener to them.

The recipe that follows is sort of a combination between an apple strudel and a cinnamon roll which is cooked in the shape of a muffin using muffin tins. I got the idea from a recipe by Nicole Hunn of Gluten Free on a Shoestring (http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/). If your only issue is gluten, she is a good source to refer to for recipes. Since I, however, have multiple allergies, I’m always having to adjust her recipes to fit my particular needs. In this case, though, her idea of making cinnamon buns in a muffin tin appealed to me, and I adapted that method for my recipe, which it turns out even my eleven year old can easily make.

Making this recipe for a Saturday morning is lovely because while the forming of the muffin takes about 20 minutes, the last half of the time is them baking in the oven while you make something else to go with them, which in our case this morning was turkey breakfast sausage.

For the recipe, I created my own flour blend because I wanted the “breakfast” muffins to be fiber full and have some protein. I found over time that a combination of sorghum, millet, oat, brown rice and tapioca flour gives us the best taste and texture. I also opted to use coconut sugar because I stay away from refined white sugar. Folks who have coconut allergies, though, should go ahead and use sugar or some other sugar substitute. In addition, I chose flax milk for my liquid because I figure it doesn’t hurt to add more omega 3’s to our diet, but again, if folks are allergic or prefer some other milk, go for it.

Cinnamon Apple Strudel Muffins

Ingredients:

Filling:

Apple:

2 Honey Crisp apples

1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Cinnamon:

1 cup coconut sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1/4 cup vegan soy free butter (or regular if you’re not allergic and prefer)

Batter:

1 cup sorghum flour

1 cup millet flour

1 cup tapioca flour

3/4 cup brown rice flour

1/4 cup oat flour

2 tsp xanthan gum

2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup coconut sugar (or sugar, if you’d prefer or are allergic)

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of vegan soy free butter (or regular if you’re not allergic and prefer)

2 eggs

1 cup flax milk (or other type if you prefer or are allergic; I would’t recommend rice milk, though, because it’s too thin)

Topping:

1 tbsp vegan soy free butter

1 tbsp coconut sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Baking Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 12 muffin tin with your preferred method.
Peel, core and chop the apples by cutting them into quarters, then slicing each quarter thinly into five or six slices, turning the slices on their sides and cutting them on the short ends into small strips. You’ll have a couple cups worth of matchstick width pieces of apples.
Put the apple pieces into a shallow pan which allows the pieces to be one layer. Pour the water over the apples and sprinkle the cinnamon on top. Stir the apples to coat them well with the cinnamon and then saute the apples over medium-low heat. The water will come to a boil and then slowly dissipate. Stir occasionally until all the water is gone and the apples are soft. Usually this entire process only takes about five minutes. Turn the heat off and let the apples cool while you make the rest of the filling and the batter.
Mix the coconut sugar with the cinnamon and set aside. Melt the vegan butter and set aside.
Mix the sorghum, millet, tapioca, oat and brown rice flours with the xanthan gum, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and coconut sugar.
For the next part, it works well if you have a mixer with a dough handle but if you don’t have a dough handle, you can mix the dough with spoon and then finish kneading everything in by hand: Add to the dry ingredients, the vegan butter, eggs and milk, incorporating them just until you have a ball of dough, if you’re using the mixer. If you’re doing it by hand, mix the ingredients into well incorporated and then knead on parchment paper sprinkled with flour until you have a soft, pliable ball of dough.
Put the dough ball onto parchment paper sprinkled with flour (I use the brown rice flour but you can use any type you’d like). Lightly sprinkle the dough with flour and roll it into an 15 by 12 inch rectangle. I find it’s best to start in the center and slowly work your way outward in all four directions, occasionally shaping the dough with your hands into a rectangle shape. (This was the part my son found to be the most fun!)
Using a brush, brush the melted butter over the surface of the dough, leaving about a 1/4 inch on one of the short ends free of butter. It’ll seem like you have a lot of butter but be sure to use all of it on the top of the dough.
Sprinkle the butter surface of the dough with the coconut sugar mixture, leaving that 1/4 inch on the short end free as before of anything.
Carefully spread the apple slices evenly on top of the cinnamon covered dough so that they’re in an even single layer but mostly covering the surface with the exception of the 1/4 inch on the short end.
Starting on the short end opposite the free 1/4 inch side, carefully tuck in the end and begin rolling the dough toward the uncovered end. You can use the parchment paper to help roll. With every roll of the dough, it helps to use your hands to tighten it along the entire edge before continuing with the rolling. If you are using the parchment paper and have sprinkled flour, the dough will easily roll off the paper. If you are finding that it does stick, use a spatula to gently unstick the dough from the paper before continuing with your rolling. (I have never had to do this, but just in case….)
When you reach the end which is free of filling, gently seal the edge and use your hands to carefully shape the log so it’s evenly round along the entire log.
Slice the log into 12 even pieces. I like to just lay a 12 inch ruler and mark off the 12 inches and then use a serrated knife to cut the pieces.
Put the pieces into the greased muffin tins. You should find that they just fit into the tins. You may need to shape/squash them a bit on the sides to get them in if your dough is nice and puffy, but that’s okay.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. They’ll be puffed and golden brown. While the muffins are baking, mix the tablespoon of coconut sugar with the cinnamon. Set aside.
Using a butter knive, gently go around the edges to release them from sticking. Let them cool about five minutes in the tins before removing them to a cooling rack. While they are cooling in the tins, divide the tablespoon of butter evenly on top of each of the 12 muffins and brush them until the butter is melted. Sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon mixture evenly on top of the muffins and let it melt into the butter.

Note: For the holidays, instead of using the cinnamon sugar on top, I make an icing to drizzle on top which is tofu cream cheese blended with agave and cinnamon. If you prefer to use sugar, you can mix powdered sugar with cinnamon and milk.

Summer Loving: Tomato Tarts

September 3, 2016PajamaLiving dairy free, gluten free, nut/peanut free, soy free Leave a comment

“It’s the best time of the year!”

If you have children, had children, or simply remember being a child, you know that this time of the year is filled with the rush of buying needed school supplies, the excitement (for the children) and exasperation (for the parents) of replacing worn or outgrown clothing and shoes, and either the sadness or the joy, depending on the type of children and parents, of going back to school.

I’m one of those parents who is always sad when the new school year begins because I prefer the lazy days of summer when the children and I don’t need to rush anywhere, can play games, and no one is stressed by homework and relational angst. So, when school resumes I need to find ways to cheer myself up, and fortunately for me, this is also the time of year when some of nature’s best gifts present themselves.

I’m talking about tomatoes. Large, fresh, sweet, home or local farm grown, deep red, yellow and even purple organic tomatoes. True fact about me: I only eat large tomatoes in August and September when I can get them fresh from the garden. I will not purchase store tomatoes which have yet to fully turn their color and have very little taste. Life’s too short to insult my taste buds.

So, when tomatoes are in season, I make as many different types of dishes as I can because I know it’ll be another year before I can enjoy their taste again. One of my family’s favorite dishes is tomato tarts. A simple crust, layers of lovely, tasty fresh tomatoes, and an egg custard. I recently made some tomato tarts using fresh tomatoes to serve at a brunch for my husband’s family forest, and they were an absolutely hit. Fortunately, I had made several of them so that when people went back for even thirds, we had enough!

Now, a warning: Yes, you can make these tarts with any tomatoes, but you have to trust me when I tell you that there’s nothing like the sweet taste of a freshly picked tomato to enhance these tarts. So, if you can, swing by your local farm and get a basket full. Your taste buds will thank you!

Tomato Tart

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup your favorite flour (I use gluten free flours like garbanzo or fava bean or oat or sorghum but whole wheat works, too)

1/2 tsp ground onion powder

1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt (your taste preference)

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/8 tsp black pepper

1/3 cup safflower oil

3 tbsp your favorite milk (cow, soy, flax, quinoa, rice, etc…)

3 eggs

1/2 cup your favorite milk (cow, soy, flax, quinoa, rice, etc…)

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp dried oregano

Fresh tomatoes

salt, pepper and oregano

Cooking Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the flour with the onion powder, salt, oregano and pepper.
Whisk the safflower oil with the milk until it’s creamy. Pour into the flour mixture and stir with a fork until a dough ball forms.
Press the crust into a 8 or 9 inch pie pan, using your clean hands to form an even crust along the bottom and sides of the pan. Set aside.
Whisk the eggs with the milk, pepper and oregano. Set aside.
Thinly slice the tomatoes, allowing some of the juices to drain out in a colander. Then layer the tomato slices in the prepared crust, sprinkling some salt, pepper and oregano on each layer before putting on the next. How much you put in is up to you, but I like to layer them up to the top of the crust.
Carefully pour the egg custard over the tomato layers. If you find that you’ve layered so many tomatoes that your egg custard doesn’t cover the tomatoes as you’d like, whisk another egg with a tablespoon of milk and add it.
Bake in the preheated oven until the eggs are set. How long will vary on how thick your tomato layers are as well as which type of milk you ended up using. I suggest you set the timer for 15 minutes and go from there. The longest it’s ever taken for me is 30 minutes.

Creative Cooking: Crepes

July 11, 2016PajamaLiving dairy free, gluten free, nut/peanut free, soy free Leave a comment

“Sorry we tried to kill you and your students. Do you want a job with us?”

Several weeks ago I had a terrible experience at a banquet I helped to host for the music students of our high school. Several conversations and in-person meetings with the chef and the functions manager of the facility to ensure that the students from our high school would have no worries regarding their food allergies didn’t yield the expected results . Despite having put together a completely allergy friendly menu ahead of time, on the day of the banquet, the chef cooked the food with all the ingredients he was supposed to leave out which caused no end of stress as we learned that fact literally minutes before several students put the food into their mouths! Fortunately, we did get to the students before their forks touched their lips, and new meals were made, but as you can imagine, I was not at all pleased.

Laughably, all my mother’s etiquette training must have worked, because at the end of the event, the onsite coordinator actually took the time to thank me for being the most polite angry person he’d ever had the pleasure of working with to deal with an issue. More incredibly, he also told me that he and the chef had taken a liberty in having a piece of the gluten, dairy, soy, nut free chocolate mousse cake I had brought for the students with allergies and that it was the best cake either of them had ever eaten. Most unbelievable, though, was the next day when the manager, who had called to see what she could do to keep our school’s business after the unfortunate event, asked me if I wanted to work for them, making cakes for their weddings!

As a writing facilitator, I always tell the folks who attend my writing groups that truth is stranger than fiction and that they only have to look at life for creative writing ideas. My experience above bears out the truth of what I’ve been telling them!

The fact is that while there’s more recognition around gluten and nut sensitivities, there’s still a long way to go for the world to think proactively about accommodating people with food allergies in general. Our allergy friendly menu fell off the radar for the chef and the manager because they simply don’t think about it regularly. Fortunately, now the manager has revamped all of their forms so that allergies are actually the first item on the form — and in bright red now! So, hopefully no other folks will have to deal with the issues we went through on that day.

As for the job offer, the chef was surprised that my cake was actually good! The site coordinator went on and on about how the chef couldn’t believe how much the texture and the taste was like a “real” cake. As he spoke, I kept thinking that my cake WAS a REAL cake. It wasn’t “fake”. It wasn’t made of air. All the ingredients were ingredients you can buy at the store, made from real, natural foods like tofu and garbanzo beans and oats and flaxseed.

I was thinking about all this the other day as I made crepes….

Like the cake I made, crepes are misunderstood to be something they are not. Most folks I’ve spoken to seem to believe crepes are complicated to make. Crepes are actually wonderfully easy to make and are very versatile. They are basically just flour, eggs, and milk — all of which people can be allergic to. This, however, isn’t a problem, because it’s so easy to substitute ingredients for crepes. And it’s worth doing, because you can make crepes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert in just a matter of minutes. And if you have guests, they’ll be highly impressed because they’ll think you did a lot of work when you didn’t!

What you need to know about crepes:

Ratios: Google crepes recipes, and you’ll discover that the only consistency lies in the three basic ingredients: eggs, milk, and flour. The ratio of the three to one another varies from recipe to recipe. For every one cup of flour, some will call for 1 cup of milk; others 2 cups. For that same cup of flour, some recipes will call for two eggs; another four. What you need to know is this: crepes are supposed to be thin, so your liquid ingredients combined – the milk and eggs – should be more than the flour, unlike in pancakes where the dry to liquid ingredients are usually one to one. How much milk versus eggs you add is really all about your preferences. More eggs makes slightly thicker, custardy crepes. More milk creates lacier, more delicate crepes. If you are making crepes for the first time, I’d suggest using one cup of flour, one cup of milk and two eggs as a basic recipe and then experiment from there to see which texture you prefer.
The Flour: You are not limited to white flour for crepes. You can use wheat; you can use gluten free; you can even use nut flours. What’s important to know is that because you want your crepes to be light, if you are going to use a heavier flour like garbanzo bean or whole wheat or sorghum, you should opt to use less than you might with typical white flour – more like 1/2 cup. If you want to use the same one cup amount, opt for a lighter flours like rice or tapioca or arrowroot.
The Milk: Once again, your options are unlimited. You can use other types of milk for crepes besides cow milk. Almond milk, coconut milk, rice milk, quinoa milk, etc… they all work! And unlike the flour substitutions, these can all be substituted one to one for the regular milk.
The Eggs: If you are watching your cholesterol, you can opt to use only egg whites. Just remember that you need two whites to replace one whole egg, or if you’re using liquid egg whites, that about 1/4 cup is equivalent to a large egg. If you are allergic to eggs, you can also simply leave the eggs out. You can simply increase the milk amount to replace the liquid you’re losing from the eggs — again about 1/4 cup of milk for each egg you omit. You can also mix one tablespoon of ground golden flaxseed with three tablespoons of water to replace one egg.
The Fat: Crepes usually have one other important ingredient: a fat. Usually one tablespoon of butter or olive oil or melted coconut oil or almond butter or whatever you decide is enough, but it’s good to choose a fat because it helps the crepes to stick less to your pan, as well as adds some flavor.
The Flavor: Crepes are usually made so that you can fill them with savory or sweet fillings so you don’t really need to add anything other than a pinch of salt, but as always, tailor the crepes to your taste. If you want something sweet, add a bit of honey or agave to the batter. If you want something savory, add some herbs. Want something distinctive? Substitute orange juice for part of the milk. Experiment and see what you like.
The Batter: Okay, I promised you that making crepes was easy, and it is. Whatever you’ve decided to use for your crepes, you simply mix all the ingredients together. You can whisk them, blend them, shake them, food process them, and in a matter of minutes you have a nice batter. What’s key is that you want your batter to be very smooth. The smoother, the better. If you are making crepes with flour, you should let the batter rest because this relaxes the gluten in the batter. If you’re making gluten free crepes, then you have no such worries.
The Cooking: People think making crepes is difficult and takes time, but I make enough crepes for a family of five in less than ten minutes. Crepes cook very quickly. You simply grease your pan, pour a scant amount to just cover the bottom, let the crepes begin to solidify (usually only about a minute), flip, let the crepes finish cooking on the other side (usually about thirty seconds), transfer to a plate, and you’re done with a stack in just mere minutes. You simply need to follow a couple of easy steps:
1. Don’t use a large pan. A pan sized for an omelet is the perfect size. It allows you to easily flip the crepes without worrying about tearing them.
2. Cook over medium heat. Too low and the crepes won’t cook quickly enough. Too high and the crepes will burn.
3. Don’t use a large scoop. You only want enough batter to just cover the bottom of your pan. Usually a quarter cup works just fine.
4. Invest in a wide spatula. A spatula which allows you to get completely under the crepe to flip it quickly is best.
5. Make sure your crepes won’t stick to your pan. Use your favorite spray or oil in between each crepe if you don’t have a nonstick pan. You don’t need a lot – a quarter tsp will work – but you do need something to make sure the crepes don’t stick because otherwise they’ll tear or burn.
The Filling: Crepes are great because you can fill them however you want. You can keep them simple and spread jam on the crepes and roll or fold them over. You can put fresh fruit on top. You can make a creamy vegetable filling (I like to make a white sauce with spinach and mushrooms which I roll the crepes around). You can fill the crepes with ice cream or a vanilla custard. You can spread cheeses like ricotta or marscarpone and fold the crepes. You can fill them with pureed pumpkin or squash. You can use a lemon curd. You can roll chicken salad inside crepes. The list is endless. Experiment and see what you like!

Cooking Techniques: No Bake Cheesecakes

June 25, 2016PajamaLiving dairy free, egg free, gluten free, informational, lesson, nut/peanut free, reduced refined sugar, soy free Leave a comment

“But they’re really more like suggestions than hard and fast recipes….”

Once again some friends were telling me this week that I needed to write a cookbook….. And once again, as I thought about it, I realized that the problem with a cookbook is that it presumes you believe your recipes should be followed…. And I don’t!

I personally never follow recipes. Even the ones I put on this blog, I’m always re-creating to see if I can either make them better or differently. To me the goal of this blog is to give folks enough tips and techniques and knowledge that you can then be as creative as you want. My recipes are supposed to be jumping off points, not “hard and fast, you must follow this to the T” types of experiences. That’s why I write at length about the “how’s” of each recipe I give, and it’s also why there are so many posts on this site which give no recipes and only “techniques”.

To illustrate my point today, I thought I’d use no bake cheesecakes: Right now they’re all the rage because they’re versatile and summery without the use of an oven. I could certainly give you a recipe for a no bake cheesecake but the fact is that there are so many different ways to make them that I’d hate to limit you to just one recipe.

For instance:

The crust: For a no bake cheesecake, you can use just about any type of crust you’d like: a crust made from graham crackers, cookies (any type there is from ginger to lemon to sandwich cookies to chocolate chip to oatmeal to you name it!), pretzels, crackers,coconut, goldfish, vanilla or chocolate wafers, nuts, etc…. What type of crust you’ll make will depend on what you’re making for the filling. If you want a traditional cheesecake, use graham crackers. If you’re making a cheesecake with chocolate in it, you might want to use chocolate wafers or a cookie with chocolate pieces. Maybe you’re making a lemon cheesecake which might go well with lemon or vanilla cookies. You can experiment and see what tastes you prefer. If you have allegies, you can use allergy friendly versions of all the above which you can now find in any supermarket.

What’s key is that you should process whatever you’re using into fine crumbs and mix them with a binder such as melted butter or vegan substitute or coconut oil or a nut oil or plant oils such as olive or safflower. Rule of thumb: about 1 1/2 cups of finely processed crumbs will cover the bottom and sides of a traditional pie pan. How much binder you use depends on your tastes and health: I tend to use a low amount, about 2 tablespoons, just enough to moisten the crumbs so they’ll adhere to one another. Many recipes will call for 4 to 6 tablespoons. You can also begin with two and add more if you think it’s needed. What you use can depend on your tastes and health and allergies. If you’re allergic to dairy or have health issues, you may opt to use a plant oil instead of butter. Or maybe you want just the taste of the cookies you’re using to come through, so you might use a more neutral canola oil. Or maybe your cheesecake will do well to have the complementary flavor of a nut oil.

Whatever you choose for the crumbs and the binder, for a no bake cheesecake, the crust should be made first. You then can either pop the crust into the freezer for 15 to 30 minutes or put it into the fridge for an hour or two. Either way, you want the binder to get cold enough to keep the crumbs together so it won’t crumble when you cut into your cheesecake. So, make sure the crust is solid before making and adding your cheesecake filling.

If you’re looking to make things even easier, you can use store bought crusts. Now they even make gluten, dairy, nut free versions which you can purchase at the regular grocery stores.

The cream cheese: For folks with no allergies, regular cream cheese is what most cheesecake recipes call for. if you’re trying to watch the fat, using a light or fat free version of the cream cheese is acceptable. If you have dairy allergies, you can use the Tofutti vegan cream cheese. If you’re allergic to soy, you can puree tofu or soaked cashews to replace the equivalent 16 oz of cream cheese. What’s important is that if you’re using cream cheese, any version, you should bring it to room temperature so it will blend more smoothly without chunks. If you’re using the tofu or soaked cashews, make sure to puree them completely so they’re as smooth as they can be. For a traditional pie pan, two packages of cream cheese or two cups of a replacement is enough to fill the pie pan once you’ve added the rest of the ingredients.

The sweetener: Most no bake cheesecake recipes call for the use of either sugar or powdered sugar in quantities ranging from 1/2 to 1 1/2 cup. You can use either, varying the amount to your particular tastes. If you’re like me and don’t use sugar, you can substitute coconut sugar or stevia or agave which usually require half to less the amount you’d use of sugar. I’d suggest beginning with 1/4 cup and tasting to see if you need to add more. What’s important to know is that no matter what you use for the sweetener, you should add it immediately after you’ve creamed your cream cheese smooth, and you should combine the sweetener well so the cream cheese is not grainy. If you using Agave, keep your mixer going on low while you slowly pour the agave in a little at a time.

The flavor: A no bake cheesecake can be whatever you want it to be: chocolate, lemon, mint, berry, peanut butter, etc…. What’s important to keep in mind is that whether the flavoring is an extract or peel, or chunky like chopped chocolate pieces or mint cookies or pureed strawberries, or if you opt to use jello or pudding mix for the flavoring (see below), add it AFTER you’ve made your cream cheese or substitute smooth and after you’ve added the sweetener. The first thing you always do with a no bake cheesecake is to make the cream cheese smooth. Then you want to add the sweetener, and then you can add the other ingredients, with the binder being the final ingredient.

The no bake filling binder: When making a no bake cheesecake, you don’t use eggs which is what usually helps to solidify the cheesecake as it bakes. What you can use in the place of eggs varies, though. Some recipes use heavy cream. Others use a combination of sour cream and whipping cream. Some use condensed sweetened milk. Others use whipped topping. Still more use pudding mixes or jello/gelatin or even marshmallow creme. This is why I’d rather not give you a recipe, because you may want to use one or the other depending on tastes, allergies/health, and/or what you have in the house.

What I can give you, though, are tips and information to help you: So, for example, if you are going to use heavy cream or sour cream or whipping cream or whipped topping or marshmallow creme, the ratio is usually two 8 oz containers of cream cheese to 3/4 to 1 1/2 cups of whichever you use. What’s important is that they should be added at the end after you’ve mixed the rest of your cheesecake ingredients, just before you put the cheesecake into the fridge. The quantity will depend on the type of consistency and taste you want for your cheesecake: the more you put in, the airier, lighter and less cheesecake-tasting the cheesecake will be. The less you put in, the more dense cheesecake-like and tasting it will be.

If you choose to use gelatin or pudding mix, the ratio is usually two 8 oz packages of cream cheese to one package of jello or pudding (3 oz size) or one envelope of unflavored gelatin. What’s important is that if you’re using jello or pudding mix, you have two options for how to use them. One is to simply mix it in really, really well with the cream cheese so it’s smooth. Another is to make up the jello or pudding and let is slightly set before mixing it in with the cream cheese mixture. If you’re using an unflavored envelope of gelatin, the gelatin needs to be dissolved according to directions (usually a couple of minutes over a tablespoon of cold water and then stirred with a tablespoon of hot water until dissolved) and added to the cream cheese mixture at the end.

For people with allergies, So Delicious makes a whipped topping out of coconut which you can substitute for whipped topping. To substitute for heavy cream you can puree an equal amount of silken tofu; or mix 2/3 cup soy milk with 1/3 cup melted vegan butter for one cup of heavy cream; or use coconut cream in a one to one ratio; or make a cashew cream (soak cashews for a day and puree really, really well) where about one and 1/4 cups of soaked cashews purees into one cup of cream.

The topping: A no bake cheesecake can be simple with just the above ingredient choices mixed together and poured into a crust, but you can also jazz up the cheesecake with toppings. You can pipe whipped topping in designs. You can melt chocolate and drizzle it over the cheesecake. You can chop up cookies or chocolate and carefully place the pieces on top. You can chop berries and put them on top. You can spread jam on top. You can cook a fruit compote and pour it over the cheesecake. The ideas are endless. Let your creative side have fun.

For folks who do like a recipe, below is one a version I made recently. It does have coconut and soy, though if anyone has allergies to either, you can substitute with anything I’ve written about above!

Lemon Blueberry No Bake Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup gluten, dairy, nut free graham cracker crumbs (I pureed Midel graham crackers)

2 tablespoons vegan butter, melted

two 8 oz containers Tofutti vegan cream cheese, at room temperature

2/3 cup coconut sugar (I like things tart; you may want to sweeten it more)

one tablespoon lemon juice (Meyer lemons are sweeter)

one tablespoon lemon peel (optional, grating fresh lemons are better; store bought dried peel can be bitter)

one teaspoon gluten free vanilla

one cup So Delicious dairy free Coco Whip

one cup fresh blueberries

1/4 cup water

one tablespoon Agave

one tablespoon cornstarch

one tablespoon water

Cooking Instructions:

Combine the graham cracker crumbs with the melted butter and mix until the crumbs are completely moistened. If you need to add a bit more melted butter, do so. Carefully press the crumbs in a glass pie pan to cover the bottoms and sides. Place into the freezer for half an hour.
In a mixer, blend the cream cheese until smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottoms.
Add the coconut sugar and blend for a couple of minutes until completely smooth and not grainy.
Add the lemon juice, lemon peel, and vanilla. Mix well.
Add the Coco Whip, and mix just until blended. Pour into the prepared crust.
In a small saucepan on the stove top, mix the blueberries with the water and agave and bring to a boil over medium heat.
Once boiling, mix the cornstarch with the water and blend until smooth. While stirring the blueberries, add the cornstarch mixture and keep stirring until the blueberries thicken. Remove from the heat.
Carefully places spoonfuls of the blueberry mixture on the top of the cheesecake. Use a knife to run through the berries to create a pretty pattern and to mix the berries a bit into the top layer of the cheesecake.
Refrigerate for at least four hours.
Enjoy!

Cooking Techniques: Stir Fry

April 30, 2016PajamaLiving dairy free, egg free, gluten free, lesson, low fat, nut/peanut free, reduced refined sugar, soy free Leave a comment

“It was magnificent!”

Our family had a recent opportunity to attend a concert my oldest was performing in which was her women’s Glee club singing with Cornell’s men’s Glee club. Over 120 voices combined in four part harmony to create a most wonderful listening experience. What was amazing was listening to the individual voices even as their voices melded to become one united sound.

I thought about this when I received an email asking about how to make a good stir fry. Stir fry is food’s equivalent to a choir. Separate types of food becoming one dish where the tastes of the individual food remains even as their flavors meld to create a delicious stir fry.

Too often, though, people think of stir fry as something difficult. “Well, I don’t have a wok,” some say. “It’s too much chopping,” others say. I’ve also heard, “I never have the proper ingredients.” The fact, though, is that stir fry can be easy, quick, and done without a wok. It’s a great way to use up leftovers or to make when you only have a little bit of a variety of food items available. It’s also versatile and can be made any number of one thousand and one ways, not to mention stir fry is very accommodating for people with food allergies.

The Pan: The reason people like woks is that their curved shape allows you to cook at different temperatures at the same time. The bottom, which is closest to the heat is hotter and the temperature gets increasing cooler as you get to the top. This means you can move cooked foods toward the top and add newer food to the bottom to begin cooking on the hottest part, and then you simply mix everything together in the end. The shape of a wok also allows you to cook in different ways. The food that hits the hot bottom sears which traps flavor into the veggies or protein. When the sauce is added, though, moisture rises in the concave center of the convex wok, allowing the foods near the middle to top of the pan to be braised, which softens the food without making it mushy. If you don’t have a wok, though, you can still make a good stir fry. The key is simply to use a skillet which is just slightly larger than your burner and which has at least 2 in sides, which most of the larger skillets have these days. The center closer to the burner will get hotter than the edges of the skillet which allows you to move food to cooler sections of the pan, and the higher sides will allow you to braise. If you don’t have a large skillet with 2 in sides, you can also simply cook in smaller batches, cooking the veggies and protein separately, then mixing the two, and thickening the sauce separately and adding it to the mixed vegetables and protein. Doing everything separately doesn’t add time, it only adds another dish, and if you use the dish you’ll ultimately be serving the food in, then it won’t even do that!

The Veggies: All good stir fry dishes have an assortment of vegetables. Varying what goes into the dish can make for a colorful presentation as well as provide a variety of nutrients, textures, and flavors. People tend to get hung up on what they see as a “traditional” stir fry with bamboo shoots and baby corn and water chestnuts, but virtually any vegetable can go into a stir fry, so whatever you may have on hand works: broccoli, green beans, carrots, peppers, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, spinach, sweet potato, zucchini, squash, bean sprouts,leeks, asparagus, beets, radishes, mushrooms, onions, eggplant, and of course, baby corn, water chestnuts and bamboos as well. What’s key is cooking your vegetables uniformly. This means chopping vegetables of similar texture into the same size. It may also mean that you start vegetables which may take longer to soften like carrots and sweet potato first and adding greens like spinach or kale at the end. What’s nice about stir fry is that your goal isn’t to cook the vegetables for a long time; it’s to cook them just long enough for their colors to become bright and deep. You want the veggies to be still have some of their crunch and crispy-ness, not for them to be mush. For folks who don’t want to do any chopping or prep at all, nowadays you can buy your vegetables pre-chopped in the vegetable section. You can also used frozen chopped veggies, which is what I tend to do because then I always have veggies on hand.

The Protein: A stir fry doesn’t need to have protein but if you’d like to add protein, just about any type can go into a stir fry. Beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, scallops, tofu, beans. As with the vegetables you want the protein to be able to cook quickly and uniformly, so make sure all pieces are similar size. Cutting the protein into smaller pieces allows you to use less, increases it’s ability to blend in with the vegetables, and spreads its flavor. Most recipes will tell you to sear the meats like beef, chicken and pork first and then to move them to the cooler section of the wok or skillet while you cook the vegetables and then to mix the two together, adding the sauce. This allows the meats to begin cooking their cooking process with the searing but then finishes the cooking with the braising which keeps the meat from becoming tough and dry. When using protein like tofu or softened beans or seafood, though, it’s often better to cook those at the last minute, just before you add the sauce because they usually only need a couple of minutes to cook, and overcooking them will make them tough or fall apart. For folks worried about the prep and chopping for these, you can find pre-sliced tofu and meats at the grocery store. For seafood such as scallops, I use the frozen variety; I simply thaw them in cold water for about 15 minutes and throw them in. You can also simply used leftovers from previous meals which you throw in at the last minute just to rewarm.

The Sauce: A good stir fry will have some flavor added more than just your veggies and protein. What you do can vary, though. If you don’t want a sauce, you can simply use herbs and spices. Stores carry premixed blends for specifically adding to stir fry. You can also experiment with herbs and spices to see what you like. For me fresh ginger, garlic, and green onions are my preferred flavors. If using dried herbs and spices, you’ll want to add them to the veggies and to the protein as you begin cooking them so the flavor have time to meld. If using fresh, add them at the end. If you opt to make a sauce, the key thing to know is that you need a thickener for your sauce. For stir fry usually cornstarch is the thickener of choice but you can also use tapioca starch or arrowroot or any type of flour. You want to whisk the thickener in with your liquid before adding the sauce to the pan to thicken. A good rule of thumb is that one tablespoon of cornstarch, tapioca starch, arrowroot, or flour is needed for every cup of liquid. When cooking the sauce, you’ll want to continually stir the sauce whether you’re cooking the sauce separately or whether you’ve added it to the pan with the vegetables and protein. If you add it the pan with food in the pan, simply move the veggies and protein to the edges of the skillet or up the sides of the wok, so you can thicken the sauce in the middle of the pan. Once thickened, combine the sauce with the veggies and protein. As for ingredients in a stir fry sauce, that all depends on your tastes. For the liquid part you can use soy sauce, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, broth such as chicken, beef, or vegetable, red or white wine, sherry, etc…, whatever your tastes prefer. To add another dimension of flavor to whatever liquid you choose, you can add different flavored vinegars like apple cider, rice, or red wine, juices like lemon or lime or pineapple, oils like sesame or peanut, etc…. You can also add herbs and spices like garlic, scallions, ginger, shallots, lemongrass, etc…. To make the sauce, simply mix all your chosen ingredients in the ratio that tastes the best to you and which makes one cup’s worth, add your thickener, mix well, and cook over heat, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens to a consistency where it will cling to the veggies and protein in your stir fry. If you find that for some reason you need more thickener, simply mix more of your thickener with the equivalent amount of water and add it to the sauce (so, one teaspoon of cornstarch with one teaspoon of water).

The Sides: Stir fry can be eaten alone or atop something else. Good options if you want to eat them with something else are rice (brown, white, wild, jasmine, etc…), quinoa, barley, noodles such as udon, soba, lo mein or rice noodles, strips of spaghetti squash or zucchini ribbons or chopped cabbage, fresh greens like spinach, kale, arugula or swiss chard, etc…. Use your imagination and be creative.

The Scoop: Zucchini Bundt Cake

March 31, 2016PajamaLiving dairy free, gluten free, informational, nut/peanut free Leave a comment

“Please let me do that….”

I am envied by many of my female friends because my husband is a godsend. He washes dishes even if I don’t ask. If clean laundry is sitting on the bed, he will fold and put his away instead of moving it to ironing board so he can get into bed. Because of his job, he’s home during the witching hour and will help set the table or drive the children to baseball, dance or guitar lessons. On Saturday mornings when we clean the house as a family, he vacuums and dust mops.

I thank God every single day for him because I know that I’m blessed to have such a husband. There are two things, however, which I rarely ask my husband to help with – cooking and making the bed – for the same reason. Both require an attention to details which my more conceptually-minded husband often forgets.

With the beds: Growing up as a military brat, I believe beds are to be made with tight corners and nary a wrinkle in the sheets. My husband thinks that if the sheet is mostly covering the bed, he’s done well.

With the cooking: The idea that you have to actually pay attention to what you are cooking is foreign to my husband. We have been together 23 years, and he still burns his grilled cheese sandwiches because when an academic thought pierces his brain, he forgets that he’s grilling a sandwich and walks away to his computer, only remembering the sandwich when either the smell of burnt bread reaches the office or I discover the sandwich on the stove with no husband in sight.

Paying attention to details is important… especially when it comes to baking. I was reminded of this when I received an email about a disaster a friend had trying to make a Bundt cake. Bundt is a trademark name for a pan with fluted ridges and a tube in the center of the pan. Nowadays you can find a myriad of differently shaped Bundt pans on the market. Bundt pans are designed to distribute heat more quickly and more evenly to the cake batter, and the tube in the center allows denser batter to cling and rise more effectively.

As such, recipes designed specifically for Bundt pans tend to be moister, denser cake batters. They often include fillings like fruit or nuts and tend to require more eggs than regular cake batters. Because this is the case, if you try to bake a Bundt cake recipe in a regular flat cake pan, you’ll usually get a cake which hasn’t risen as well and which is usually more cooked at the edges than the center. If you decide you want to make a Bundt cake recipe in a regular cake pan, you’re better off dividing the batter between two smaller pans over trying to cook the Bundt cake recipe in regular 9 x 13 pan, even though the batter amount will fit such a pan.

The converse is not true, however. If you have a regular 9 x 13 cake recipe, you can substitute a Bundt pan without fear of a cake disaster. There are a couple of things to keep in mind when using a Bundt pan, though:

One, it’s very important to prepare Bundt pans well. The same ridges which make for a beautiful Bundt cake, also make for a disaster if the cake sticks to them and won’t come out of the pan. With most cakes, I don’t grease; I simply line the cake pans with parchment paper. With Bundt pans, however, I not only grease, I grease so that not a single crevice, line, spot on either the sides or the tube is missed. Then I carefully and evenly coat the grease with flour, cocoa powder or coconut sugar, depending on what type of Bundt cake I’m making.

The second important consideration is cooling the cake before removing it from the Bundt. If you try to remove a Bundt cake from the pan while it’s still warm, the cake is more likely to stick. If the pan is prepared well, however, and you wait until the cake is mostly cooled, the cake will release from the pan more cleanly. It also helps to run a butter knife around all the edges, including the center.

To help my friend with her Bundt cake disaster, I decided to create a recipe of my own using the original as a jumping off point. She had wanted to make her recipe gluten free but the brown rice flour blend she used wasn’t as structurally sound as one needs for a sturdier Bundt cake. As such, I created my own flour blend which combined sorghum, fava bean, garbanzo bean, oat, sweet rice, and tapioca flours with just a little bit of xanthan gum. The heartier high fiber, high protein flours would lend depth to the cake.

Her recipe had came out a bit oily because the large amount of oil just soaked into the brown rice flour blend. I opted to include ripe mashed bananas into the recipe and reduce the oil to 1/2 cup of safflower oil. I also replaced the sugar with Agave which allowed me to reduce the sweetener amount to only 1/2 cup. My friend’s cake was supposedly a Spice Bundt cake but it only called for cinnamon. I added cardamom and also decided to include shredded zucchini because veggies are a wonderful way to add moisture to a cake as well as natural vitamins. My last change was to swap out 1/2 cup of allergy friendly mini chocolate chips for the cup of chopped nuts, because unfortunately I have a tree nut allergy.

I didn’t change the eggs because we don’t have any allergies or health issues related to eggs but folks who do can always swap liquid egg whites for the whole eggs or ground flaxseed mixed with water.

The resulting cake, of which I made two, were met with appeals for the recipe when I served them at a workshop and at a bible study on the same day.

Zucchini Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cup gluten free flour blend* (recipe below)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips

1 cup mashed ripe bananas

1 cup shredded zucchini

1/2 cup safflower oil

1/2 cup Agave

3 whole eggs (or 3/4 cup liquid egg whites or 3 tbsp flaxseed mixed with 9 tbsp water)

1 tbsp vinegar (white or apple cider)

Baking Instructions:

Thoroughly grease and then flour a normal 12 cup Bundt pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt. Add the mini chocolate chips. Set aside.
Mix together the bananas, zucchini, agave, oil, and eggs.
Combine the dry ingredients with the wet, adding the vinegar. Mix well, until everything is incorporated together.
Pour the batter evenly into the Bundt pan and bake until the cake is golden, risen and a toothpick in the center comes out clean, usually about 30 to 35 minutes. (I usually check around 25 minutes and go from there.)

*Gluten Free Flour Blend:

1 cup tapioca flour, 1 cup sorghum flour, 1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour, 1/2 cup fava bean flour, 1 cup sweet rice flour, 1/2 cup gluten free oat flour, 2 tsp xanthan gum. Mix well. Make enough flour for two cakes.

Creative Cooking: Currant Muffins

March 16, 2016PajamaLiving dairy free, gluten free, nut/peanut free, soy free Leave a comment

“Muffins again?”

For the past month my life has been drama, drama, drama – quite literally. A musical I wrote had its debut this past weekend so I had been busy directing rehearsals, working with AV for lights and sounds, producing, finalizing music, and everything else which goes into putting on a drama performance.

As such, the meals my family has eaten has been almost all crock pot meals because those I can throw together in the morning, and when we’re ready to eat in the evening, it’s ready for us. So stews, soups, chili, and the like have been our mainstays. To go with these dishes, I had been making muffins. Normally we only have muffins every so often, but after a week or two of eating muffins more regularly, I realized that our family was in a muffin rut. Blueberry, pumpkin, zucchini squash, and banana muffins seem to be our go-to muffins.

So, after a couple of weeks, I was wanting something different. As I perused the staples in my kitchen pantry, I found Zante currants leftover from our Christmas cookies. For folks not familiar with Zante currants, they’re basically just baby raisins. True currants, which we don’t often find in the States, are a different type of tart berry. (Anyone familiar with Anne of Green Gables knows the difficulties that homemade currant wine caused the literary heroine. *laugh*)

Because Zante currants are small and sweet, I figured they’d make for a nice muffin, so I pulled them out of the pantry and went to work. I didn’t want the currants to be hard in the muffin so I first soaked them in boiling water to soften them. Then, because I didn’t want the muffins to simply be the fruit sugars, I opted to puree cooked vegetables (we’ve now tried the muffins with cooked pureed carrots, butternut squash, and pumpkin – all three have worked well). I used a plant based oil (both safflower and grapeseed have worked well) and egg whites only to keep down the fat. I also simply used a store bought gluten free flour blend to keep things easy. I chose to use Agave for the moisture and added some cinnamon and cloves for taste. Even my middle child who doesn’t like “chunks” in muffins declared it a success.

Currant Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup boiling water

2 cups Zante currants

2 cups cooked pureed vegetable of choice (carrots, pumpkin, butternut squash, etc….)

3/4 cup liquid egg whites

2/3 cup plant oil (I’ve used both safflower and grapeseed)

1 cup Agave

3 1/2 cups gluten free flour blend

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Baking Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line 30 muffin cups with liners.
Add the boiling water to the currants and let sit for at least five minutes.
To the currants add the pureed vegetable of choice, the egg whites, the oil, and the Agave. Mix well and set aside.
Blend together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients with the vinegar and mix just until the dry ingredients are completely moistened.
Evening divide the batter among the muffin cups.
Bake for 15 minutes or until muffins are puffed, golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Creative Cooking: Crumb Cake

February 17, 2016PajamaLiving dairy free, gluten free, lesson, nut/peanut free, reduced refined sugar, soy free Leave a comment

“Your EKG is abnormal.”

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to make an allergy friendly version of a crumb cake recipe for an office party. I was told, though, “Please don’t change anything other than to make it gluten and dairy free for my co-workers. It’s a delicious recipe, and I don’t want to lose the taste.”

I did as instructed, but it killed me emotionally. Simply reading the ingredients was enough to give anyone a heart attack. Between the cake batter and the crumb topping the recipe called for two cups of full fat sour cream, four cups of sugar, four cups of butter, four whole eggs, and of course, white flour.

I’m sure the gentleman was correct in saying that the crumb cake was delicious. All that butter and sugar, how could it not be. My question, though, was whether it couldn’t be just as delicious as a healthier version of itself. I thought about that question again this week as I laid in a hospital bed after a severe stomach flu rendered me completely dehydrated which in turn caused an abnormal EKG.

I was sent home yesterday and spent this morning being checked out by a cardiologist. Fortunately, because I do lead a healthy lifestyle of exercise and good eating choices, the abnormal EKG did appear to be caused by low potassium levels and not anything being wrong with my heart itself. I thought, though, about how differently the results could have been if I did eat crumb cake the way a lot of people do.

Food is to be enjoyed, and I want to eat delicious crumb cake just like other people. I think, though, that what one eats should be the best it can be for my body’s health. So, I confess, that after I made the crumb cake as I was asked, that I went to work creating a healthier version which I shared with my writing group, a friend, and my family, all of whom declared it to be delicious. It took a little though, but I was able to make a few simple changes which made all the difference. Let me share….

The Sugar: Four cups of sugar is crazy. Really. As I’ve mentioned in the past, sugar is a poison to our body, and we’re better off avoiding it if we can. As I’ve also mentioned, sugar replacements aren’t the end all as well. They still have calories and still can cause some fluctuations in one’s glycemic index, but that you can lose so much less in a recipe and are not as refined has pluses which sugar does not. So, I opted to use a cup of Agave for the cake batter and 1/2 cup of coconut sugar in the crumb topping which reduced the sweetener from 4 cups to 1 1/2 cups. Everyone agreed the cake was plenty sweet enough.

The Butter: Four cups of butter is A LOT. I agreed, though, that for a good crumb topping you did need a substantial amount of butter to get the right consistency and taste. So the question was how to create a balance between quantity and quality. In the end, I swapped grapeseed oil for the butter in the cake batter. As a plant based oil it has health benefits which butter does not, and as a liquid fat, I only needed to use 1/2 cup versus the two cups of butter in the original recipe. For the crumb topping, I decided I could halve the amount and use one cup of a vegan soy free butter which still reflected the taste and consistency of a good crumb topping. So, I was able to decrease the fat from 4 cups to 1 1/2 cups.

The Eggs: Eggs are not bad in general. In fact, they’re quite good for you. But as with all things, moderation is the key, and four whole eggs carry a lot of cholesterol in those egg yolks, which is not always good for people with certain health risks. This was an easy enough fix, though. I simply opted to use 3/4 cups of liquid egg whites which eliminated yolks altogether but kept the liquid ratio needed for the cake batter.

The Sour Cream: I admit, I love sour cream. Even the tofu version I have to eat because of my dairy allergy. It’s creamy texture and tangy taste definitely make for a delicious crumb cake. The problem is that even the vegan version isn’t really that great for you. Being made from tofu only adds a small margin of protein, nothing concrete enough to counter the fat and other additives. So, I thought about for something different to give the cake it’s moisture and flavor. In the end I decided to use pureed pumpkin because it would lend a pretty orange color to the cake as well as all those good minerals and vitamins which our bodies need. Two cups of pumpkin instead of sour cream eliminated a lot of extra fat and calories from the cake.

The Crumb Topping: This was key to do correctly, because crumb cake is, after all, about the crumb topping. If it didn’t meet expectations, all would be lost. As I previously mentioned, I had reduced the quantity of butter to one cup and swapped 1/2 cup of coconut sugar for the two cups of white sugar , but there was still the problem of how little nutritional value the white flour in the topping had, not to mention my allergies to wheat. I finally chose to use a combination of gluten free whole rolled oat and gluten free oat flour. With the addition of protein and fiber, I felt better about the topping being healthier than the original version. I also reduced the overall amount of “flour” and used 2 cups instead of the original three cups to reduce the extra calories.

The Flour: White flour is another food to be avoided if at all possible. There is no nutritional value to white flour, and if you’re like me and allergic to wheat, you can’t have it anyway. The problem, though, is that my usual switch, which is to use high fiber, high protein gluten free flours like bean flours and sorghum flours wouldn’t necessarily give me the texture I wanted for the crumb cake. Crumb cake batter is supposed to be a medium batter, not light and airy but not overly dense. Since I had altered the crumb topping, though, to have more fiber and protein, I decided I could be more lenient with the cake batter, and I opted to use a gluten free baking mix that was a mixture of brown rice flour and sweet white sorghum with potato and tapioca starches that worked well.

The Flavoring: Since I had omitted the sour cream which usually gives a good crumb cake its flavor, I needed to consider adding some spices to the pumpkin replacement. Cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves did the trick.

The Ratio: Because crumb cake is all about the crumb topping to cake ratio, and because I was reducing the amount of flour and butter, I opted to cook the cake in an 11 x 15 pan which meant I could distribute the crumb topping over a shallower depth of cake batter to ensure that there wouldn’t be more cake to crumb topping which might prevent enjoyment of the any piece given.

The Appearance: Crumb cake usually has a powdered sugar coating which makes for a beautiful presentation. I admit, I didn’t want to eliminate the aesthetics because for me presentation is important, too. I could, however, greatly reduce the amount used. The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. I was able to use one tablespoon and create the same appearance without all the added sugar.

Crumb Cake

Ingredients:

Cake Batter:

2 1/2 cup gluten free flour blend (use a version with brown rice flour)

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cloves

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup liquid egg whites

2 cups cooked, pureed pumpkin

1/2 cup grapeseed oil

1 cup Agave

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Crumb Topping:

1 cup gluten free whole rolled oats

2 cups gluten free oat flour

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 cup vegan soy free butter

1 tbsp powdered sugar

Baking Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 11 x 15 pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
Mix together the gluten free flour blend, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
Blend together the liquid egg whites, pumpkin, grapeseed oil, and agave. Add to the dry ingredients with the apple cider vinegar, and blend until the dry ingredients are fully moistened.
Pour cake batter into the prepared baking pan.
Combine the whole rolled oats, oat flour, coconut sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Using clean hands incorporate the vegan butter into the mixture until everything is completely mixed and you have no dry ingredients leftover. You’ll have a nice clump which you can then crumble for the crumb topping.
Evenly distribute small chunks of the crumb topping over the cake batter.
Bake the prepared cake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the cake is puffed and golden.
Cool the baked cake on a wire cooling rack. Using a sifter, gently sprinkle the powdered sugar to completely cover the crumb topping.

Cooking Techniques: Shrimp Scampi

January 25, 2016PajamaLiving dairy free, egg free, gluten free, lesson, nut/peanut free, soy free Leave a comment

“Maude is a giraffe…. George is a goat.”

When I was in high school, my geometry teacher wanted to impress upon us the importance of having all the facts. He wrote on the board, “Males are taller than females. George is male. Maude is female. Therefore, George is taller than Maude.”

He then turned around and asked us if this was a reasonable supposition. We, of course, all nodded in agreement. He then turned back to the board and wrote, “Maude is a giraffe. George is a goat.”

I was reminded about Mr. Budnitsky’s teaching, when I received an email this evening asking a funny question. Someone had purchased the recent Cook’s Illustrated magazine and wanted to know what I thought about their recipe for shrimp scampi. The friend hadn’t liked their version but since Cook’s Illustrated is supposed to be the expert for proper cooking, she wanted to know my thoughts.

First, I want to say that if one is going to spend money on a cooking magazine, you cannot go wrong with a magazine like Cook’s Illustrated. The folks who create the recipes are from America’s Test Kitchen, and this means they actually do test their recipes, over and over and over again, and not only that, but they tell you all about it which gives you plenty of food for thought — pun intended.

That being said, I do agree with my friend that I sometimes find myself wondering, too, about the presumptions that the testers/cooks make about people’s palates, because occasionally I actually disagree with what they say is the best way to make a certain dish. There are presumptions the testers/cooks make about what people like or dislike.

For example, they frequently comment that overdone poultry is not tasty. This fails to take into account, that for some cultures, the only “tasty” way to eat poultry is what Cook’s Illustrated would consider overdone. Does that mean those cultures are “wrong” about poultry? I would say, “No.” Rather, it means palates and tastes differ from person to person and culture to culture.

Shrimp Scampi is no different. Ironically, the name is a redundancy because scampi means shrimp, so we’re really saying Shrimp Shrimp. That fits, though, because it implies an abundance, and the number of different types of recipes that exist for scampi is quite abundant. Do you want prefer olive oil or butter? Do you like only garlic or garlic and onions? Do you want a thick sauce to coat the shrimp or a thinner sauce to run over noodles? Do you even want noodles or do you prefer scampi plain or with rice? Do you coat the scampi with bread crumbs? Do you want to season it with basil or thyme or something completely different? Do you like a lemony sauce or more of a white wine taste or a balance? However you answered each of these questions, I guarantee you, you’ll find a recipe to match your palate.

I have a simple recipe I use which you can vary to your hearts content….

Shrimp Scampi

Ingredients:

Shrimp, 12 to 16 ounces (Decide whether you want to use raw shrimp or cooked shrimp. Raw means you usually have to peel and devein the shrimp. If you have cooked shrimp you can usually just throw them into the sauce at the end. Either way, about 12 to 16 ounces of shrimp is usually a good amount for dinner for four with leftovers. If you use raw shrimp, you’ll simmer the shrimp midway through the recipe. If you use cooked, you’ll just add the shrimp at the end.)
Olive oil or butter, 2 tsp (Do you prefer a buttery sauce or an olive oil sauce? I usually use a combination where I saute with olive oil in the beginning and then add vegan butter at the end.)
Aromatics: Garlic Cloves, thinly sliced – 1/4 to 1/2 cup; Onions, diced, 2 tbsp to 1/4 cup (Think about the taste you’re going for: Do you want a deeper, mellow garlic flavor in which case you should roast the garlic before preparing your scampi. Or do you want more of a garlic bite which means you should saute fresh garlic as you begin preparing the scampi. Do want just a garlic taste or do you like onions, too. How much of one or the other or both flavors do you want? Vary the combination and amounts to match your tastes.)
Flavorings: White wine or chicken broth or a “shrimp” sauce, 1 cup (What is your taste preference? Some folks like a wine sauce; others prefer just to use broth. Many folks want the broth to taste “shrimpy”, in which case you should use raw shrimp and simmer the shrimp in wine or broth to flavor it.)
Seasoning: Basil, thyme, oregano? 1 tsp dried or sprigs of fresh; red pepper, black pepper? 1/4 to 1/2 tsp (What do you like for seasonings? If you prefer one over another, choose that. If you use dried, you should begin the scampi with the dried herbs. If you use fresh, don’t add the herbs until midway. Do you like the bite of red and black pepper? How much? Vary the additions and amounts to your liking.)
Lemon juice, 2 tbsp to 1/4 cup (Do you like a lemony sauce? if so, how lemony? Vary the amount to your liking or omit altogether.)
Cornstarch, 2 tsp (If you want a thicker sauce, you should mix 2 tsp of cornstarch with the lemon juice or if you’re omitting lemon juice, with the same amount of water. If you like the sauce to be more of a liquid, then omit the cornstarch and simply cook down the sauce until it’s reduced.)
Vegan Butter, 1 to 2 tbsp (If you want a buttery sauce, you can add butter at the end. Many recipes will call for 1/4 cup or more of butter. I find that one to two tablespoons is more than sufficient.)

Cooking Instructions:

Prepare shrimp if raw by peeling and deveining. If using cooked shrimp, make sure it’s defrosted and tails are removed.
Put olive oil or vegan butter into a large pan, along with the chosen aromatics (garlic, onions or both) and seasonings if they are dry (basil or thyme or oregano). Saute over medium low heat for one to two minutes if the garlic is roasted and if onions are frozen, two to three minutes if using fresh garlic and onions, stirring continually.
Add the flavoring (white wine or broth). If using raw shrimp, add the shrimp and cover the pan. If using already cooked shrimp, simply simmer the liquid. Either way, you’ll simmer for about five minutes. If using fresh herbs, add them now to the simmering sauce. If using raw shrimp, remove the now cooked shrimp from the liquid before proceeding with the next step.
Mix the lemon juice, cornstarch, red pepper and black pepper and add to the liquid. Stirring continually, cook until the sauce begins to thicken. This will only take about a minute or two. If you’re going for a buttery sauce, as soon as the sauce thickens, add the pat of vegan butter and stir until it dissolves.
Add the cooked shrimp to the sauce and coat them well.
Serve the scampi over broccoli, rice, or pasta, or serve it as is.

Cooking Inspiration: Korean Scallion (Green Onion) Pancakes

January 16, 2016PajamaLiving dairy free, egg free, gluten free, nut/peanut free, soy free Leave a comment

“You want to eat pancakes, not Buddha.”

According to my parents, when my brother and I were little, we would mix up the Korean words for Buddha and pancakes. To be fair to us, the words are extremely close — buchini (boo-chin-nee) versus buchimi (boo-chim-mee) — and for Korean celebrations such as a 100 days birthday or New Year’s, the tradition is to make pancakes, some of which you place before a statue of Buddha with the hopes of bringing good luck. and the rest of which you eat.

As a grown-up in the United States, I don’t make pancakes for Buddha, but my daughters and I really enjoy eating Korean Scallion (green onion) pancakes. They’re usually made with mung beans which is similar to a yellow split pea, and sometimes people actually use yellow split peas instead. Fortunately for me, I can find mung beans at my local grocery store and don’t even need to go to an Asian store to find some.

As I thought about this new year — 2016 — I remembered a conversation I had with a friend who was in turn remembering meals his wife had made him during their first year of marriage. His comment was that over the years, their meal plan had become a rut, and he missed the different experimental dishes she made that first year.

Often, that’s exactly what happens to families. Busy schedules, finicky children’s palates, frugal living, and lack of inspiration can all lead to meals being the same week after week, and when a friend emailed me yesterday asking about something to serve which was different, I thought about Korean Scallion Pancakes. What I like about them is that they’re fairly easy to make, are made with protein (beans), that you can make them with vegetables, and they’re tasty.

What’s important to know is that the mung beans need to soften, so you do need to give them time to sit in water. A couple of hours is normally fine. I often soak them in the morning and just let them sit until when I need them in the evening. You simply put enough water to cover the beans and then add water as needed.

The other thing to know is that you don’t want to skimp on the green onions. A mung bean batter is simply there to hold all the wonderful, tasty green onions, and if you choose to add them, other vegetables. I usually make mine with green onions and thinly sliced sweet white onion. Sometimes, I also add thinly sliced carrots and red pepper. My mom makes hers with Korean kimchee, which is basically hot, fermented cabbage or spinach or any other type of vegetable she’s chosen to make kimchee out of.

Another consideration is that you do need to bind the beans to keep them from being too grainy. Recipes online will often call for you to mix the mung beans with some rice and soak the two together. I’ve found it’s easier to just mix in rice flour after the beans soak. At the stores, you can find white rice flour, brown rice flour, and sweet rice flour. My mom prefers the sweet rice flour, and that’s how I’ve always made them over the years.

A final thought is that there are two ways to make the pancakes when you cook them. After you’ve pureed the mung beans and added the rice flour and seasonings, you have to choose how you want to make the pancakes. My mom’s preferred method is to ladle some of the mung bean batter onto the pan, artistically arrange the green onions, onions and vegetables onto the batter, and then add a little bit more of the mung bean batter on top of the vegetables. This is very pretty, but takes time. Because I’m often in a hurry, wanting to make a lot and get them onto the table for dinner, I choose to mix all the green onions, onions, and vegetables directly into the mung bean batter and then ladle the batter and cook the pancakes. The pancakes aren’t as beautiful but they’re still tasty, and this way fits my more time-pressured schedule.

So, if you’re looking for something new and different to try in this new year, I have a recipe below. No quantities, because it all depends on how much you want to make, but if you purchase an 8 ounce bag of mung beans and let them soak, you’ll make enough pancakes for a family of four.

Happy New Year!

Korean Scallion Mung Bean Pancakes

Ingredients:

Yellow Split Mung beans

Water

Salt

Black pepper

Sesame oil

fresh ground ginger (optional)

Fish powder (optional)

Sweet rice flour

Green onions (chopped into longer pieces, about 2 inches — you want a lot!)

Sweet white onions (chopped into thin, long pieces, about 2 inches)

Vegetables (optional: very thinly sliced – carrots, peppers, etc…)

Cooking Instructions:

Cover mung beans with water and let it sit for several hours during the day or overnight. Check the beans occasionally, and add water as needed. You want the beans to become soft enough to puree. You’ll see that the beans are absorbing the water and swelling and becoming softer.
Use a food processor or blender to puree the mung beans with some sweet rice flour to make a smooth, slightly thick batter. You don’t want the batter to be too think but neither do you want it to be too thick. You can add more water as needed to think the batter or more rice flour to thicken it.
Season the batter with salt and pepper, a small amount of sesame oil, and ginger and/or fish powder (if you choose). The flavor for the pancakes comes from the green onions and the mung beans themselves, so you don’t want to add a lot of the seasonings.
Slice lots of green onions and mix into the batter with slices of sweet white onions and other vegetables if you choose.
Over medium high heat, in a pan seasoned with sesame oil, pour batter into round pancake shapes. Cook on one side until browned and crispy, and then turn over and cook the second side. Serve with soy sauce.

Holiday Traditions: Allergy Friendly “Sugar Cookies”

December 21, 2015PajamaLiving dairy free, gluten free, Holidays, nut/peanut free, soy free Leave a comment

“Well, they have to be the same….”

When you marry into a family who makes literally the best sugar cookies you’ll ever eat in your life, you must tread carefully about trying to revamp the recipe to be allergy friendly.

“Honey, I was thinking….”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’d really like to be able to have some sugar cookies this year… I think I could revamp the recipe to be dairy and gluten free….”

“No.”

“But what if they tasted the same?”

“Not possible.”

“Well… I think it could be possible….” I give my husband my most pleading, puppy-dog sweet face, and add… “If they don’t taste just like your family’s recipe, I’ll make another batch the “right” way.”

“Well, okay, I guess you could try….”

In the end, I only made one batch of sugar cookies because my husband and my children declared my recipe to be a success, which was good because we spent many hours baking very large batches of three different type of allergy friendly cookies this weekend, and I didn’t want to have to make any more!

So below are some hints for cut-out cookies which I’ve shared previously and my revised recipe for rolled, cut-out sugar cookies. (We’ll keep the original a family secret… *grin*)

Tips for Making Rolled, Cut-out Cookies

1. Use wax paper to roll out the dough. Simply cut a sheet that overlaps around a large cutting board or piece of cardboard and tape it down. Then when you sprinkle your flour over the wax paper, your dough won’t stick to the board.

2. Use sifter to put flour onto your cutting board and rolling pin. If you sprinkle it on with your fingers, you’re more likely to clump the flour in places which then get stuck to your cookie dough.

3. Use a long, thin metal spatula to periodically release your dough from the board while you’re rolling it, and before you use your cookie cutters, be sure to go completely under the entire rolled out piece of dough so that your cookies won’t stick to the board when you’re cutting the shapes.

4. Invest in some smaller cookie shapes which you can use to cut little cookies from the dough left after you cut out the big cookie shapes. This cuts down on the amount of dough you need to re-roll. Put one cookie sheet aside specifically for the little cookies, which you fill up as you go along and then bake at the end.

5. Make sure your dough for rolling is very cold and firm. Most recipes will tell you to chill for an hour, but in reality you’re better off planning ahead and chilling your dough for several hours or overnight. When you’re making the cookies, be sure to put the dough back into the fridge in between scooping out new dough to roll.

6. Put all your re-roll dough into a small bowl which you then put into the freezer while you’re finishing up the regular dough. This will make the dough firm enough for you to re-roll immediately as opposed to having to wait for it to firm back up again.

7. Make your own colored sugars. Put 1/4 cup of sugar into a bowl and add two to four drops of food coloring. Carefully work the color into the sugar, using the back of a spoon to continualy “spread” the color completely into the sugar. You can store extra, leftover sugar in a sandwich baggie for a very long time!

8. Use parchment paper to line your cookie sheets. Your cookies will never stick. You won’t have to clean the cookie sheets. And you won’t have to worry about cross-contamination of your cookies. I usually use the If You Care brand. The parchment sheets can also be re-used over and over again on one cookie sheet.

9. Be sure to completely cool your cookie sheets before putting new cookie dough shapes onto them. I usually pop my cookie sheets into the freezer for a minute or two after removing the cookies. Works like a charm.

10. Invest in metal cookie cutters which you can use year after year. When you’re cutting out the shapes, put a pan of flour in the center which you can dip the cutters into so the cutters won’t stick to your dough.

11. When you’re done with your cookie cutters, fill the sink with hot, soapy water and just let them sit for a while. You’ll be able to simply rinse them off without having to try to “clean” the crevices. Then pop them (as long as they’re metal) onto one of your cookie sheets and place the cookie sheet in the oven which is turned off and cooling down. The residual heat will evaporate all the water, and your cutters will be sterilized and ready for next year’s use.

Allergy Friendly Rolled, Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

(This makes a lot of cookies; if you want less,

cut the recipe into thirds)

Ingredients:

3 cups sugar (This is the only time I ever use sugar because a sugar cookie just has to have sugar!)

2 cups Tofutti sour cream

2 cups Earth Balance soy free vegan butter

3 eggs, room temperature

1 tbsp ground nutmeg

6 Gluten Free Flour Blend (you’ll need just enough flour to make a soft dough – I used 6 cups of Authentic Foods brown rice gluten free blend)

Baking Instructions: (The dough needs to chill so make the dough up the night before or several hours ahead of when you want to bake the cookies.)

1. Mix the sugar with the sour cream and butter until well blended.

2. Add the eggs, one at a time, and blend well. Add the nutmeg.

3. Add in the gluten free flour, a cup at a time, only as much as you need to make a soft dough. Blend well.

4. Cover the dough tightly with plastic wrap and chill overnight, or at least for several hours.

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

6. Line a board with wax paper. Sprinkle the board and a rolling pin with flour of your choice (I used brown rice flour), and roll out small amounts of dough to a very thin thickness – thin enough to make a crispy cookie but not so thin that you can’t actually move the cut out dough to the cookie sheet.

7. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and place on the prepared cookie sheets. The cookies will not spread a lot so you can put them fairly close together.

8. Decorate the cookies with colored sugar and/or currants. (You can also just bake the cookies and then decorate them with icing when they’re cooled.)

9. Bake in the preheated oven for 8 to 12 minutes. Start with 8 minutes and then go up by 1 minute increments. (It really depends on how thin you are able to roll them in terms of how long the baking time needs to be.) The cookies should be dry, crisp and slightly puffed.

10. Let the cookies cool for a minute on the cookie sheet, and then move the cookies to a wire cooling rack and cool them completely. Once cooled, they’ll be nice and crispy sugar cookies. If you eat them while they’re warm, they’ll be chewier.

11. When the cookie are completely cooled, store them in a tightly covered container. They’ll last for a few weeks, though after a couple of weeks, they’ll get a bit softer.

Pajama Living

Navigating Food and Life Challenges

Tag Archives: soy free

Autumn Appetites: Spiced Apple Bundt Cake

Autumn Appetites: Cinnamon Apple Strudel Muffins

Summer Loving: Tomato Tarts

Creative Cooking: Crepes

Cooking Techniques: No Bake Cheesecakes

Cooking Techniques: Stir Fry

The Scoop: Zucchini Bundt Cake

Creative Cooking: Currant Muffins

Creative Cooking: Crumb Cake

Cooking Techniques: Shrimp Scampi

Cooking Inspiration: Korean Scallion (Green Onion) Pancakes

Holiday Traditions: Allergy Friendly “Sugar Cookies”

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