Categotry Archives: Dessert

McCall’s Celebration Cake

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When I graduated from college, my mother asked me what kind of cake I wanted. I asked for this cake, the best one she ever made by far. Last July, right before her 25th birthday, Anna asked me if I had a good chocolate cake recipe. I dug out the old photocopy my mom had made for me, and she and Scott whipped it up together. She took a giant, tipping version of this recipe to work.

We enjoyed this dark chocolate delight on Anna’s birthday again this year, and on every occasion I could think of this month. (Make it once, and you’ll find excuses to make it over and over). Ma sat at the counter with me as I baked. Try this gluten-free, dairy-free version, which I think is just as heavenly as the original. Honest to goodness. (It’s the buckwheat.)

Note: The following recipe is half the size of the original recipe (in case you remember it and were curious).

Recipe margin notes:

Anna: Grandma Salas and I made you a chocolate cake when you turned 26. 

Chocolate Cake

  • 1 cup hot water
  • 2 teaspoons instant coffee (stir into water; cool)
  • 2  1/2 cups dextrose (original: 2 cups table sugar)
  • 8 ounces plain coconut milk yogurt (original: buttermilk)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup canola or olive oil
  • 2 eggs

Blend. Blend into mixed dry ingredients:

  • 1  3/4 cups whole-grain buckwheat flour (original: white flour)
  • 3/4 cup cocoa
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1  1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1  1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Pour into three baking rounds. For ease of removal, place a circle of parchment paper or lunch bag paper the size of the bottom of the pan in the pan. No need to flour or oil the pan. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. With a knife, cut around the sides of the cake. Reverse onto a cooling rack.

When cool, frost with chocolate glaze:

Chocolate Glaze

  • 1  8 oz. unsweetened chocolate baking bar
  • 1/2 cup (or more) brown rice syrup or non-HFCS corn syrup
  • half the cream from a can of whole-fat coconut milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Stir brown rice syrup or corn syrup into melted chocolate. Start with a half cup; add more as desired. Let cool a bit. Stir in coconut fat.

Pour over chocolate cake. Adorn cake with sliced strawberries.

Original Chocolate Glaze

  • 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
  • 1/4 cup whipping cream
  • 1 tablespoon butter

 

 

Glorious Chocolate Ice Cream

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This extra-creamy ice cream has the texture of frozen mousse. I’m saving the current batch in my freezer for you, beloved friends and family, but I can only hold out so long! Come by for a visit, and I’ll serve you up a bowl.

  • 1/2 cup dextrose (or 1/3 cup table sugar)
  • 7 oz (1/2 can) coconut milk, stirred (160 g)
  • 2 squares unsweetened chocolate (28g)
  • 3 *egg yolks, blended
  • 160 g whipping cream (or more coconut milk)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 egg whites, beaten
  • 1/4 cup corn syrup

Caramelize dextrose on stove, but just barely. Unlike sucrose, glucose caramelizes quickly and can easily turn bitter. When liquid just turns from clear to light brown, add coconut milk and chocolate. (For a less dicey process, either just heat the dextrose till it melts or caramelize table sugar instead.)

Spoon hot mixture one large spoonful at a time into a medium-sized bowl containing egg yolks, stirring each time.

Stir in whipping cream, beaten egg whites, corn syrup and vanilla. Place mixture in fridge to chill.

Place chilled mixture in ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, freeze the mixture for a time, then beat it, then freeze it, then beat it, and so on until it reaches the right consistency.

*I only use raw eggs from pasture-raised hens, never from conventionally raised hens. If you are serving this ice cream to people with vulnerable immune systems, cook the chocolate egg yolk mixture for five minutes (and cool before proceeding to next step), and leave out the egg whites and corn syrup altogether.

 

 

Pumpkin Pie

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The coconut milk is what gives this pie a cow-dairy-like mouth feel. The tasty GF graham crackers are a good substitute for the usual wheat pastry crust, a GF version of which I haven’t yet managed to pull off. See “Pie Crust” for a tasty wheat flour crust.

For the Filling (recipe in progress 10.30.14)

  • 15 oz + 7.5 oz canned pumpkin
  • 2 large eggs or 3 small eggs
  • 12 oz coconut cream (sans liquid in the can) or *cow cream
  • 1 cup dextrose (or 3/4 cup sugar)
  • 1/4 cup real maple syrup
  • 1/4 teaspoon clove
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon

*1/2 whipping cream and 1/2 half-and-half

For the Crust

  • 100 grams gluten-free graham crackers (try Smoreables brand)
  • 100 grams *nut-seed-meal (e.g., walnuts, pecans, almonds, flax seeds)
  • 3 tablespoons melted salted butter
  • 2 tablespoons powdered dextrose (or 5 teaspoons table sugar)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (if not using salted butter)

*I used 50 g walnuts and 50 g flax meal.

Pour filling into crust. Bake at 350F for 50 minutes or until inserted knife comes out clean. Cover the crust edges with foil before baking.

Anna and Maddie came home to help us prepare Thanksgiving dinner. Anna and I set out to make pumpkin empanadas, but we used this filling recipe (the dairy version) by mistake. We realized that pumpkin pie filling is liquid, and empanada filling is not. Anna added extra pumpkin, but there was no fixing it. We made a very tasty pie instead.

 

 

Peanut Butter Cookies

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This recipe is an adaptation of the foolproof, yummy Betty Crocker recipe that I grew up with. The salt, sweet and peanut butter flavors are just right in this gluten-free version.

  • 1 cup *dextrose (or 7/8 cup table sugar)
  • 2 tablespoons **molasses
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 cup salted peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup salted butter
  • 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil or non trans fat shortening
  • 1/4 cup flax meal
  • 1/2 cup ***teff flour
  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt (3/4 t. if no salted butter)

Mix the wet ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients. Blend the two mixtures together. Bake at 350F for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

*Ratio of fructose to glucose in sugars: dextrose 0-100; sucrose (table sugar) 50-50; HFCS 42-53 or 55-42.

**Barley malt syrup (100% glucose) has the same flavor as molasses but is not GF.

***Or any other flour (like wheat, oat, buckwheat, more coconut). Bob’s Red Mill makes teff flour.

Camping Cakes

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You can call these flax cakes if you’re serving them to adults, but they taste better to children if you call them camping cakes.

  • 3 tablespoons flax meal
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil, virgin or liquid

1. Mix all ingredients in a cereal bowl. If you use room-temperature virgin coconut oil, it will be difficult to blend completely, but the lumps will resolve in the baking.

2. Cook approximately 1 minute 15 seconds in a microwave oven. Let cake sit for one minute. Swipe a knife around the inside of the bowl and remove the cake. Slice it in half horizontally to make two round slices.

3. Or bake: Make four recipes; pour into in a 12-count muffin pan; and bake in a 350F oven until golden brown. Skip step 4 below.

4. Toast in a toaster oven for about 3 minutes. Spread with butter or oil spread . Top with jam or syrup.

High-Protein Variation

  • Add 1 tablespoon plain gelatin powder

Camping Tip

Pack untoasted cakes in your cooler. Brown cakes in oil at breakfast time in a pan on a cookstove. Serve.

Caramel Sauce

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The delightful Feldman sisters, 9-year-old Leah and 6-year-old Evann, helped me make this excellent sauce on a recent visit to their parents’ home in Petaluma, California.

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 stick salted butter
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Caramelize the sugar in a narrow, deep pan (stir slowly over medium heat until the sugar becomes a golden-brown syrup).

Add butter one pat’s worth at a time, allowing the butter to melt before adding more.

Pour in the cream a couple of tablespoons at a time, allowing the caramel mixture to resume  boiling before adding more.

Serve liberally over vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

Note of caution: fiery hot temperatures result during the cooking process. Adult supervision required.

 

 

Flax Coconut Oil Chocolate Cookies

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I love these cookies. Also see excellent vegan and raw versions at the end of this post.

  • 1/3 cup coconut oil
  • 1/3 cup coconut flakes (unsweetened)
  • 2/3 cup flax meal
  • 2/3 cup dextrose (glucose as powder; common baker’s sugar)
  • 2/3 cup cocoa (or 1 cup ground cocoa beans/nibs)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla (best is Madagascar, Mexican or Dominican Republic)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Combine. Roll into balls. Place 1″ apart on a cookie sheet. Smash flat. Bake at 350F for 14 minutes.

Upon leaving the oven, the cookies will be moist and fragile. Remove them carefully from the cookie sheet to a cooling rack. After coming to room temperature, the cookies will have a perfect crunchy chew.

Variations: Add chopped walnuts or pecans. Add dark chocolate chips (my favorite is 90%).

My friend Maureen gets the prize for trying this recipe out first. Hers were excellent. Thanks for sharing, Maureen! Friends who bake are the best kind, aren’t they?

March 2014

Vegan Version – Raw or Baked

  • 1/2 cup coconut oil
  • 1/3 cup coconut flakes
  • 2/3 cup flax meal
  • 2/3 cup dextrose (glucose as powder; common baker’s sugar)
  • 2/3 cup cocoa (or 1 cup ground cocoa beans/nibs)
  • 1 scoop chocolate protein power (10g protein)
  • 3 tablespoons rum
  • (baking powder not necessary for raw version)
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla (Madagascar or Dominican Republic)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (for baking but fine for raw too)

Roll into balls of 1 heaping tablespoonful. Bake 5 min at 350F (if you prefer) and let sit in cooling oven. Excellent raw too.

Anna came for dinner just because.  What a nice surprise. We  had these for dessert, but I served them blackened. This is how we found out five minutes is enough. – Helen 

April 2016

German Chocolate Cake

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Following are two chocolate cake recipes, a coconut pecan frosting recipe and a dark chocolate frosting recipe.

Ma and I perfected the nutmeal cake recipe in late November 2014 after she had just turned 80. She sat at my counter while I baked, read the ingredients to me, and kept me great company. We talked about how Grandma Montoya, her mother, had not been afraid of baking powder. Neither are we.

Nutmeal Chocolate Cake

  • 1/2 cup dextrose
  • 1/2 cup brown rice syrup
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla
  • 1/4 cup coconut, almond, soy or hemp milk
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup coconut fat, melted
  • 1/2 cup cocoa
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 1 cup nut/grain/seed meal*

* Grind nuts/grain/seeds together in a mini-blender to a coarse flour. Grinding them all at once prevents the fattier nuts from collecting in the base of the blender. Try a 3-item combination of walnuts, pecans, cashews, hazelnuts, almonds, raw pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, oats, buckwheat and/or barley.

Grain-flour Chocolate Cake

Tried and true. We made this cake for Katie’s 21st birthday celebration with cousins Ben and Sasha.

  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 cup ground cocoa beans
  • 1/2 cup cocoa
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1  1/2 cup dextrose
  • 1 cup oat flakes, oat bran or ground oat groats (if oat flour, 3/4 cup)
  • 1/3 cup espresso or coffee
  • 1/3 cup canola or olive oil
  • 2 eggs

Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients. Combine dry with wet. Bake in three 6″  or two 8″ diameter shallow pans. Baked goods sweetened with 100% glucose do not rise as high as those containing sucrose.

Coconut Pecan Frosting

  • 2 tablespoons Dominican Republic or Mexican vanilla
  • 1 cup brown rice syrup
  • 1/4 cup coconut cream* from a can of full fat coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup coconut fat (or butter)
  • 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
  • 1 cup chopped pecans, walnuts or both

Melt coconut fat. Stir in vanilla. Stir in brown rice syrup until heated, but not hot. Remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients.

Dark Chocolate Frosting

  • 100 grams unsweetened chocolate
  • 100 grams coconut cream* from a can of full fat coconut milk
  • 70 grams dextrose

Melt chocolate on low. Stir in dextrose and cream until creamy. Cool.

Assembling the Cake

Spread tops of cake layers with Coconut Pecan Frosting. Stack layers. Spread sides with Dark Chocolate Frosting.

*Upon opening a can of room temperature coconut milk, spoon out as much cream as you can, then measure out the desired amount. Use the coconut water for another purpose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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