Categotry Archives: Gluten-Free

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.

Baked Beans

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These beans make a divine dish for a party or a campout. Topped with a rosette of thin tomato wedges and broiled until blackened around the edges, they’re as pretty as they are tasty. You can add the protein of your choice for a different flavor. Smoked tempeh is a good option.

  • 3 red, orange or yellow bell peppers, diced
  • 2 onions, diced
  • 3-4 tablespoons olive oil

Saute until semi-soft.

  • 2  6-0z cans tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons prepared mustard
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tablespoons chipotle (or other) hot sauce
  • 2 tablespoons molasses
  • 1/2 cup dextrose powder (or 1/3 cup table sugar)
  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
  • bean juice from 2 cans of beans (see below)
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Blend.

  • 4 cans navy beans (or other white bean), drained

Stir together beans, sauce and sauteed peppers and onions. Place in large stoneware bowl. Bake for 30 minutes at 350F.

  • 1 tomato, sliced into thin wedges

Take the beans out of the oven. Decorate with tomato wedges to fill the top surface. Broil for 10 minutes or until the tomatoes are blackened around the edges and the sauce has begun to caramelize on top.

Helen’s note:

We have taken these beans camping for years with the girls and their many cousins. We recently served them at our empty nest party, celebrating 25 years of parenting three lovely daughters (we did it!) and our return to the twosome we created so long ago. In those days, our favorite meal was instant mashed potatoes, blackened hot dogs and canned green beans. You will see after eating these beans that we have been practicing in the kitchen a bit since then.

June 2016 note:

Barbecued Tempeh

My sister Katherine her husband Tomás asked me to convert this recipe to the grilled barbecued tempeh that Scott and I served them on their recent visit when they came to town for the Ragnar race (go, Team What Was I Thinking? !). Here it is:

Make the sauce as described above. Cut the tempeh into slices about 3/8″ thick. Boil them for 15-20 minutes to expand the tempeh. Lay the slices out on a well oiled baking pan. Brush them with sauce and broil. Turn midway through and brush the other side. Broil until just blackened. Enjoy!

 

Veggie Red Chile Stew

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Christmas 2013

Last night I made two pots of chile: red chile with liver broth and veggie red chile. Guess which one was better? You got it. Moral: NEVER put liver broth in ANYTHING. Corollary: Never stretch a pot of liver chile hoping to dilute the taste. You just get more. Here’s how to make the excellent veggie version:

Saute:

1/2 onion, diced
3 corn tortillas, ripped up
2 tbsp olive oil

Add and saute:

3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons New Mexico chile powder (or other medium-hot variety)
1 tablespoon paprika

Stir in:

1 15 oz can fire roasted tomatoes,
1 can water (or more)
2 cubes veggie bouillon

Et voila!

 

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.

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

Black Lentil Hummus

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We happened to have cooked black lentils in the fridge one evening, and this recipe came into being. Lentils have more fat and protein than chickpeas, the usual hummus legume (but the same carbohydrate content). This gives lentil hummus an even lower glycemic index than traditional hummus. January 2014.

  • 1 tablespoon tahini
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 cup cooked and drained black lentils
  • 1 crushed garlic clove
  • 1/2 – t teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne

Pulse in a small blender, adding only as much water as needed for pureeing. Serve with carrot sticks and romaine lettuce leaves.

Lentil Hummus Salad (a variation)

Assemble the ingredients for Black Lentil Hummus in a bowl, bypassing the blender step. Add freshly chopped vegetables like tomatoes, green onions, radishes, carrots and parsley. Toss.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easy Hummus

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For those of you that want to make hummus easily, this one’s for you.

  • 1 25-oz can of garbanzo beans, drained (save the juice)
  • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/3 cup tahini
  • around 2/3 cup of bean juice
  • juice of one medium to large lemon
  • 1 large garlic clove
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • pinch of cayenne pepper

(It’s the “third cup, third cup, two thirds cup” and the “1 teaspoon, 1 teaspoon” that makes it easier to remember for me.  If you use the smaller cans of beans, you’ll have to do the arithmetic to figure it out and I’m pretty sure it won’t be as easy to remember.)

Throw everything into a blender and blend it up on the low speed.  You want to make sure enough bean juice has been added so that the hummus has a nice flow in the blender so that you don’t need to keep pushing it down to get mixed up, but not too much juice (but remember that it will thicken up in the refrigerator).

If you want to have smooth(er) hummus you can do one of two things:  either peel each and every garbanzo bean by hand (a very meditative exercise–expect to meditate for 30-40 minutes for a 25-oz can) or do a mostly-effective chemical peel of them by bringing the beans to a quick boil in a solution of water and 1 teaspoon baking soda (followed by rinsing in cold water and sort of squishing them gently to get the skins off).

A few things of note here:

  • if you’re into BPA-free garbanzo beans, make sure you double-check the label because at least one supplier has moved to BPA-free for the smaller cans but not the larger cans (I even verified this by sending them an email to confirm…)
  • if you soak dried garbanzo beans you’ll probably have to figure out if the amounts are still reasonable.  However, do NOT boil them with baking soda–you’ll end up with bad tasting beans that are mushy on the outside and hard on the inside 🙁

 

Avocado Zucchini Bread au Chocolat

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Adapted from a glutenous recipe by the California Avocado Commission. Converted to gluten-free (and whole-grain!) for sensitive sorts, this is the best zucchini bread we’ve ever made. Could be the avocados. Could be the bitter chocolate chunks. Could be the roasted nuts. Try it for yourself and see!

2 cups *gluten-free flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground nutmeg

½ cup ripe avocado (or 1 small-medium one)
3/4 cup dextrose powder (available from iherb.com)
1/4 cup malted barley syrup (available at Whole Foods)
2 eggs
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 ½ cups grated zucchini

3/4 cup chopped walnuts, pan-roasted
1/4 cup chopped cashews, pan-roasted
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, pan-roasted
4 oz. chopped **bitter or semi-bitter chocolate pieces

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Oil a loaf pan. Set aside.
  • Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine.
  • Place mashed avocado and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until almost smooth (there will be a few lumps of avocado). Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and blend to combine.
  • Pour avocado mixture, grated zucchini, nuts and chocolate into bowl with dry ingredients. Gently fold ingredients together until combined.
  • Pour mixture into 2 prepared loaf pans and bake for 30 minutes or golden brown on top.
  • Cool in pan for 15 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool to room temperature.  Slice and serve. Even better the next day.

*Gluten-free nut/grain/seed flour mix:

1 ½ cups nut-grain meal
½ cup Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose baking flour

Place buckwheat, oat groats, teff grain, brown rice, almonds, cashews and flax seeds in Rocket or Bullet; grind into flour. You can replace Bob’s Red Mill flour mix with your own approximation. The ingredients are: garbanzo bean flour potato starch, tapioca flour, white sorghum flour, fava bean flour.

**Yes, a 100% chocolate baking bar. I haven’t yet found glucose-only-sweetened chocolate bars, so diehard processed-fructose-free bakers will either have to go it full-strength (which is surprisingly just fine) or melt, sweeten and resolidify.

 

GF Lactose-free Cornbread

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For all those gluten-free, lactose-free cornbread lovers out there!

Gluten-free, Lactose-free Cornbread for Everyone

flour option 1:
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup brown rice flour
3/4 cup oat flour

flour option 2:
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup bean flour
3 tbsp tapioca flour
1/4 tsp xanthan gum

flour option 3 for wheat eaters:
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 1/4 cup white wheat flour

add to flour:
1/4 cup sucanat or brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup soy milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg

variation 1:
I made a fortuitous mistake and put in 1 1/2 cups cornmeal, so I added 1/2 cup water and 1/2 tsp baking powder. This version has more corny texture. Try it!

Combine dry ingredients. Mix. Add wet ingredients. Try muffins! Bake 20-25 minutes (less for muffins) at 400 F.

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