Lauren's Fruit Cobbler

Years ago my dad dated a women named Lauren. I remember the night my brother and I met her for the first time. I had a preconceived notion she was going to be some young bimbo. I guess that says more about my dad. Anyway, she was great. She was a lovely woman. Over the years we spent a lot of time together. I will always remember what a great cook she was. On our beach outings, she would pack a picnic with the most amazing sandwiches. One day she served us a piece of her fruit cobbler. Oh my, it was amazing! The best cobbler I had ever tasted. So buttery and delicious. It was always such a treat when she would make it. I had gotten the recipe from her but never made it until now. I had been thinking in my head of how I wanted to make a gluten free version. The original recipe calls for self rising flour and sugar. I tweaked the recipe to make it gluten and refined sugar free. It still tastes just like that amazing cobbler I had years ago.

This recipe is great because you can use whatever fresh fruit you prefer. The first time I made it, I used strawberries and blueberries. This time around I used fresh apricots from my friend Wallace’s tree.

Lauren's Fruit Cobbler,
Gluten and Refined Sugar Free

What you will need:

1/4 cup brown rice flour
2 tablespoons coconut flour
2 tablespoons tapioca starch
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/2 almond milk, unsweetened (soy or regular would work as well.)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 cups fresh fruit of your choice (if using stone fruits, pit first and then measure.)
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut sugar

To make:

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a 9 inch baking dish, preferably glass or ceramic. I just do this right over the burner on the stove.

In another bowl, sift together your flour blend and coconut sugar. Add milk and mix well to combine.

In a pot add your fruit, honey and coconut sugar. Substitute honey for the coconut sugar if you prefer. You can always adjust the amount of sweetener used depending on how sweet the fruit is. Heat until the sugar has melted and fruit is warm but not cooked.

To assemble, take the baking dish with melted butter, pour batter mixture into the middle. Again, into the middle, add the warm fruit mixture. Do not spread out!

Place in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden and crisp on top. Serve warm or cool. I like it best served with vanilla ice cream.

Orange Chocolate Chip Breakfast Bread

Last Saturday I was at my local health food store. In their house-made gluten free baked goods section I came across orange chocolate chip breakfast bread. I passed it up but once I got home I kicked myself for not getting a piece to have for breakfast the next morning. Instead of going back the next day to satisfy my craving, I decided to attempt to make it myself. It's just so much more fun that way.  The first batch I made came out so good. Baking is an art of its own but gluten free baking is another story.  It's all about having a good and diverse flour blend that lends a similar texture as normal flours do.  I made my second batch yesterday afternoon so I could have a piece for breakfast each morning at work this weekend.

 

Orange Chocolate Chip Breakfast Bread, Gluten Free

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients:

1/2 brown rice flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 tapioca flour
1/4 ground flax seed
1 cup coconut sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients:

1 egg
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup Greek yogurt 2%
1/2 cup almond milk (unsweetened)
1/3 cup olive oil

Additions

Zest from 1 medium orange
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, sift together your dry ingredients. Mix well to distribute flour blend evenly.
In a medium bowl, lightly beat one egg. Add in the rest of your wet ingredients and whisk till combined.
Add zest from orange and give another quick stir.
Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix till there are no lumps.
Fold in 1/2 cup chocolate chips.
Pour batter into a greased loaf pan dusted with white rice flour.
Bake for 55-60 minutes.

Gluten Free Strawberry Pancakes

Gluten and Refined Sugar Free Strawberry Pancakes Topped with Marinated Strawberries in a Ginger Honey Syrup.



In my last post, I created a recipe for ginger honey syrup to be used in a drink recipe. I still had half a jar left so I thought of what else I could use it in. As a lover of pancakes, it could make a nice alternative to maple syrup. Although the consistency was much thinner I decided to use it as a marinade for chopped strawberries and use that as the topping.
Prep the strawberries before you start on the pancakes so they have time to soak up the flavor of the syrup. 

Marinade:

1 heaping cup of strawberries, chopped.
Place in a shallow dish and pour syrup (see previous post) over to coat the chopped berries.
Set aside until ready to top pancakes.

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients

1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 tapioca flour
1/4 ground flax seeds
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 packets stevia (I use NuNaturals brand)
Pinch of salt

Wet Ingredients

1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
1 egg
1 cup almond milk (unsweetened)
1/2 cup Seascape strawberry jam from Sweet Lady Cook (sweetened with honey)

Instructions:

Preheat a large pan on the stove top.
In a medium bowl, add all of your dry ingredients and mix well to combine.
In a larger bowl, beat the egg and whisk in the rest of the wet ingredients.
Add the dry to the wet while continually whisking. Beat until there are no more lumps.
Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop batter into heated greased pan on medium heat.
Cook for about 2 minutes on each side.

Makes 10 pancakes.
Plate pancakes and top with marinated strawberries. I also topped my pancakes with a scoop of plain Greek yogurt.

Good For You Carrot and Raisin Muffins

It took me quite awhile to perfect my gluten free pancake recipe. Moving on to muffins was a little easier since I had a better knowledge of how these alternative flours work together. Three times is a charm because the last batch I made turned out great. These muffins are free of gluten and refined sugars. I used brown rice syrup and stevia. The raisins add a nice sweet bite but overall these muffins do not have an overly sweet taste. The flax, buckwheat, and oat bran provide a good source of fiber so these muffins will help keep you satisfied throughout the morning. They also contain a good source of protein from the eggs and Greek yogurt.

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

1/2 cup ground flax seed

1/4 cup oat bran

1/4 sorghum flour

2 Tbs tapioca starch

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 pure vanilla powder

4 packets stevia (I use NuNaturals)

Pinch of salt

Wet Ingredients

3/4 cup almond milk

1/2 plain Greek yogurt (used 2%)

2 Tbs grapeseed oil

1 egg

1/4 egg whites

Add-Ins

3/4 cup grated carrot

1/2 cup golden raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350℉

In a large bowl, sift together all dry ingredients and gently mix until flour has a uniform color.

In another medium bowl, whisk together all of your wet ingredients.

Pour the wet into the dry and mix well until there are no lumps. 

Add in the carrots and raisins and mix well to distribute evenly.

Scoop into a greased or lined muffin pan and bake for about 20-23 minutes or until done.

Enjoy these muffins on their own or add a little butter (Earth Balance) or jam. I eat one with my eggs in the morning for a little treat.

Happy and healthy eating :)

A Lovely Day and Dinner

Today is my Sunday. It's only fitting that I sit here drinking coffee. Coffee? I barely ever drink coffee but I'm in the process of making a quiche for breakfast and it's going to be at least an hour till it's ready to eat. The coffee is suppressing my appetite. I think it's funny how I will take the time to make myself something wonderful to eat even it it takes what seems like forever and I'm starving. Okay, enough about this quiche... that will be a later post. We'll see how it turns out. This is my first attempt.

It's raining right now and that makes this day so much better. It started on my drive home last night and it was the perfect ending to a lovely day. I drove to Santa Barbara to spend the day with my friend Josh. It was gorgeous outside so we hung out at the beach for a few hours.

On our way back to his casa we stopped at Whole Foods to pick up supplies for dinner. We were thinking of cooking up some salmon so we picked out veggies to that would pair nicely with the fish. It wasn't until we were waiting at the fish counter that we saw calamari steaks and had the idea to bread them... gluten free of course. They didn't have any gluten free flour in bulk so I got a little bit of cornmeal and brown rice flour. I figured I could try and make it work with these two ingredients. We got the calamari steak as well as some raw garlic shrimp and sweet brown rice. I've never cooked with this type of rice before. It looks just like short grain brown rice but once it's cooked it has the stickiness and consistency of sushi rice.

I love when my food represents <3

 

Sauteed veggies... simple yet so good.

For the calamari steak I used equal parts cornmeal flour and brown rice flour. I mixed them together on a plate and seasoned with dried oregano, garlic powder, and a little bit of salt. In another bowl I mixed together 1/4 cup milk and 1 egg. Whole Foods was nice enough to season the calamari steak for us with pepper and garlic. I dipped the steak into the egg and milk mixture and then coated with the flour blend. I did this process twice. In a frying pan I added a little canola oil and cooked the calamari for about a minute and a half on each side. The garlic shrimp were on a skewer but I took them off and cooked them in the pan after the calamari was done. I was a bit worried that the calamari might not come out okay since the breading idea was my first attempt but it was a very tasty experiment.

 

Favorite picture of the day