Gluten free challah “hamozi”

Finally! A gf challah that has the “hamozi” bracha (i. e. bread and cereals) rather than “shehakol” (everything else). This means my celiac sons can eat what we do for Shabbat meals, and we can eat like them. This makes things easier for us, especially when we have guests. Thank you very much, Annie! 😊

Ingredients for 2 large challah and about 15 challah muffins:

3 cups gf oat flour*, sifted

1 cup teff flour, sifted

2 cups tapioca flour

4 tsps xanthan gum

22 grams (2 packages) dry yeast

Mix all together. Use a mixer with the dough hook. Do not attempt to knead by hand, batter will be very wet!

Then add the following while mixing:

2 1/2 cups warm water

1/2 cup honey

4 eggs

2 tsps cider vinegar

Mix well. Then add:

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tbsp salt

Mix well again.

Place into two bread pans and 12 muffin pans, with a spatula or tablespoon.

Cover and let rise for about 30 to 45 minutes.

Bake at 170 degrees (if using Bob’s red mill flour, 165 degrees) for 20-30 minutes (muffins) or 40-60 minutes (full size). Challah is ready when a toothpick in the center comes out clean or with large crumbs.

Notes: I tried different types of oat flour, I got good results with Bob’s Red Mill and Cream Hill Estates.

Recipe can be halved.

Shabbat Shalom!

Nora Roberts – D. C. Detectives

Nora Roberts – D. C. Detectives consists of Sacred Sins and Brazen Virtue. As you might guess it follows two homicide detectives in suspense (serial killers, naturally) and romance. It was published in the late 80s, which makes many aspects dated.

Bottom line: read only if working through all the Nora Roberts books.

In sacred sins there is suspense and romance. The suspense is surprisingly good; the romance so so. There is some violence,  no sexual assault. I liked the heroine and hero, though I thought the romance rather forced.  3 stars.

Brazen virtue  takes a nosedive from sacred sins. Ed, who in the first book is appealing and funny, becomes one dimensional and in some cases downright weird. Grace is very appealing – in every scene that isn’t a romantic one. There are a lot of pages on people who will die shortly, which I find annoying. The serial killer is revealed to the reader very early. Almost no character development. Very violent with serial killer point of view. No suspense. In short, 0 stars.

.

Marathon day breakfast smoothie

Today there was no school. So in the morning my kids rushed to the computer and didn’t wake me, so I woke at the amazing hour of 8:40, filled with love and goodwill towards the entire world.
So what to make for an indulgent breakfast?
My first idea was pancakes, but it takes a lot of time and with Purim this week the kids weren’t lacking in cake. And then I  thought of hot chocolate, but Independent doesn’t like it. And then inspiration struck: strawberry banana milkshake!

Makes 6-7 small cups.

Ingredients
2 bananas (the riper the sweeter, I used one fresh and one very ripe frozen)
2 cups cut strawberries (about 3 uncut)
1 cup milk
1 tbsp sugar or to taste (depends on the sweetness of the strawberries)

Directions
Blend everything together except the sugar. Taste and add sugar if necessary. Pour into cups and receive all the compliments with a smile. Sit and drink the measly half cup they left you 😉

Independent enjoyed making it with me and enjoyed drinking it 🙂 Bon apetit!

Nostalgic Poppy Seed Cake

When my husband and I were newlyweds (well, relatively) there was a heavenly poppy seed cake in the bakery that was basically two thin layers of dough with a lot of poppy seed filling.

Then they changed the recipe and started adding all kinds of fillers to the cake – raisins mostly – and completely ruined the cake.

For Purim, the poppy seed holiday, a craving for proper poppy seed cake came over me. Not 70% dough with a few poppy seeds hiding there but a lush cake that is more poppy seed then dough. And no raisins at all!

I based the recipe on three different recipes (all in Hebrew). Here is the final version.

I wanted enough cake to use in our mishlochei manot, so I spread it out over two large pans (26 x 32 and 20 x 30 cm). This means there was less dough to go around, but I wouldn’t put more dough – it was enough as it was. The filling was enough but there can always be more 😉

Filling

400 gr ground poppy seed (make sure it’s freshly ground or grind yourself. I bought it already ground because on Purim it’s usually fresh, everyone uses it).
300 ml milk
150 gr butter
200 gr sugar (I used a mix of brown and white because I ran out in the middle, it was still great)
75 gr crumbled gluten free cookies
2 eggs

Put poppy seed, milk, butter and sugar in a pot and bring to a boil while stirring. Remove from heat, let cool a bit and then stir in the cookie crumbs and the egg. Let cool completely before assembling the cake.

Dough

150 gr butter
80 gr white sugar
1 tsp real vanilla
1 egg
300 gr Tami gluten-free flour
(original recipe also had 3 gr baking powder, forgot to put it 😳 )

In a food processor put the butter, sugar and the vanilla. Process until smooth. Add the egg, and process until smooth again. Add the flour and process only until you get large moist crumbs. Press desired amount into the bottom of the baking pan (I used around 2/3. If I make one pan I’ll freeze half). Refrigerate the rest (not critical but can help afterwords so the dough is less sticky). Dough was sticky but I didn’t add more flour as gluten free dough tends to be more sticky then gluten dough, and if you add enough flour the dough becomes crumbly. Dough was still crumbly to my taste, maybe the forgotten baking powder had something to do with it? Or simply use less flour next time (and it will be even more sticky 🙄 )

Assembly

Preheat oven to 170°C. Spread the poppy seed filling in an even layer on the dough base. Grate the remaining dough on top of the poppy seed. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden on top and filling is firm.

While we did manage to put some in the mishloach manot, I kept taking “just one more piece” until it was finished 😉

Bon Apetit!

Black and White

Sometimes things are black and white 🙂

Investigator asked for a chocolate mousse cake for his birthday.

So Insightful, trying to be different asked for a white mousse cake for his birthday. Being insightful, he arrived at the conclusion that having a cake the exact opposite doesn’t make him different. So he asked for a different topping and decorations as well.

Chocolate Mousse cake

Same as here, except I added 2 heaped tblsp of instant chocolate pudding to the mousse to make it more stable and then it doesn’t need to be frozen. Writing on top was piped with melted white chocolate.

 

White chocolate mousse cake (no bake!)

Base:

150 gr white gluten-free cookies (vanilla or petit-buerre)
100 gr margarine or butter, melted (was a bit much, will try with 75 next time)

Mix together and level in the bottom of the cake pan.

White chocolate mousse:

1 box whipping cream (250 ml)
1 packet white chocolate (100 gr)
4-5 tbsp water
2 heaped tblsp instant vanilla pudding

Melt chocolate and water in the microwave. Mix until smooth (I had lumps still, didn’t make a difference). Mixture should be liquid enough to pour when warm (not hot).

Whip cream until stiff. Add melted white chocolate and continue beating. Add vanilla pudding and continue beating until smooth. Place on base and level top.

Vanilla cream:

1 box whipping cream (250 ml)
200 ml milk
1 packet instant vanilla pudding

Beat all together until creamy and smooth. Place on mousse and level. Refrigerate overnight (can probably refrigerate less, I didn’t try).

Decorate with melted bittersweet chocolate and decorations of choice. Decorations with food coloring should be placed immediately before serving as the color runs afterwards (the picture above has the few decorations I put before I remembered this 🙂 I added more afterwards).

And joy reigned in the kingdom of LeftoverRecipes…

“Take her to a peaceful place” by Frank Att

 

 

Leftover herbs: pesto!

I was hungry and tired. Checked the fridge – leftover pasta. I toyed with creating a healthy pasta sauce, but really didn’t have the strength. As it was easier than actually getting up, I googled some recipes, checked out Barilla’s site (they have AWESOME gluten free pasta). And found a recipe using green onion pesto with cashews. I had a great amount of chives, and cashews, and a bit of basil. But I didn’t want to cook anything, so I looked some more and found a no-cook spinach and parsley pesto. Problem solved!

Yummy and very filling!

Leftover herb pesto

Ingredients:

Leftover herbs or green leaves (I had chives and basil, can also use parsley etc.)
Garlic – I used one as chives are also garlic-y, adjust as needed.
handful of cashews
2-3 tsp Parmesan cheese (optional)
1-3 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

Put herbs, garlic,Parmesan and cashews in food processor. Process until chopped. Add olive oil slowly until you get a paste (you might need less/more olive oil than written). If you’re hungry and impatient, stop processing – it still tastes great :). Mix with leftover pasta, warm in microwave, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and eat!

This keeps well refrigerated in a jar, at least a few days. I didn’t try it more than that 🙂

Bon apetit!

New Outlooks

One of Investigator’s favorite foods is fried cauliflower. He can eat half a cauliflower by himself 🙂 So I make it pretty often, as both my husband and I like it too. You basically split cauliflower into florets, boil like pasta (with some salt until al dente), then mix with beaten egg, a pinch of salt and (gluten-free) breadcrumbs, and fry, covered, stirring occasionally until egg is cooked.  Time consuming, but easy and well known.

Smells great!

However, as it does take time, I started asking Investigator to help me out. Suddenly, splitting the cauliflower into florets is a creative undertaking to rival the Mona Lisa 😀 He made florets in the shape of: a duck; a crocodile; a sofa; a face; a pyramid; a plane; and more and more and more. Who knew?

See? Arrow; chess piece; duck.

Gluten free breadcrumbs are either: gluten free crumbled bread of choice, chickpea flour, crushed gluten free cornflakes/rice puffs.

Bon Apetit!

Summery Fruit Pie (gluten free)

A thing of beauty…

I haven’t written in ages. I haven’t stopped cooking or reading; just didn’t have to time to write about it 🙂 but today I’m lying in bed with a bad back (after soooo long without any problems 😦 ) so I find I suddenly have the time. Silver lining, right?

So. This used to be the cake I made for my mom’s birthday… until it wasn’t. Then my mom suddenly requested it again. As I no longer have wheat flour, I made it gluten free, but use the flour you have on hand. This is based on “Fruit and cream cake” in “Cakes for all Seasons” by Nira Scheuer.

Ingredients

Dough: (this makes double the amount, I put half in the freezer for the next pie)
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour or Tami gluten free flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tbsp lemon zest
pinch salt
150 gr margarine or butter

Cream:
1 box whipping cream (250 ml)
1 cup milk (240 ml)
1 packet instant vanilla pudding (80 gr)
1 box white cheese (5% fat)

Fruit Topping:
Canned (600 gr with the juice) or fresh (1/2 kg) soft fruit, sliced. I used canned peaches.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Dough: Mixed everything in a food processor until it forms a ball. Do not over process. Put half in a bag in the freezer for next time; press the rest into a pie plate*. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden. Let cool.

Cream: whip the cream,milk and pudding together until fluffy. Add the white cheese and whip until blended. Put mixture into cooled pie shell. Flatten top.

Fruit: Arrange slices on top of cream in an aesthetically pleasing way (or not 😉 ). Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.

Tip: if using canned fruit, blend the syrup with leftover canned or fresh fruit and freeze into popsicles.

Bon Apetit!

* There’s a rumor that someone has invented the “rolling pin” with which you can roll the dough into a perfect circle and then transfer it with panache to a pie plate. I’ve never believed it.

Chocolate Mousse Cake

My MIL wanted a cake Insightful and Investigator could eat, and in addition she thought about buying a chocolate mousse cake. I took up the gauntlet and said, “I’ll bake a gluten free chocolate mousse cake!” (Gulp).

In the end I took two recipes – the base from one and the mousse from another. The result was good, except the fact that I didn’t think of amounts when I did my patchwork, so there was too much mousse (an oxymoron, I know. Nevertheless.) However, if that’s the only problem… 😀

So here it is in all its glory (but with the amounts fixed).

Ingredients: (26 cm baking pan)

Base:

5 eggs
3/4 cup powdered sugar (or white, I didn’t have)
1 packet (80 gr) instant chocolate pudding (Osem is gluten-free)

Chocolate Mousse:

1 box (250 ml) cream or non-dairy substitute
1 packet (100 gr) bittersweet chocolate (be careful, many kinds contain gluten!)
5 tbsp water

Ganache:

1/2 box (125 ml) cream or non-dairy substitute
1 packet (100 gr) bittersweet chocolate

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 160°C.

Prepare the base: Separate the whites from the yolks. I add a pinch of white vinegar to the egg whites, it makes them more stable, but that is up to you (you can’t taste it afterwards). Beat the egg whites. When foam starts appearing, add the sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, beating continuously, until stiff. Add the yolks and continue beating the eggs. Add the instant pudding, and continue beating until mixed. Pour into baking pan and bake 45 minutes. The cake will rise high – don’t worry, it will fall when cooled. Let cool to room temperature.

Fell flat. It gets even flatter with the mousse on top.

Prepare the mousse: Melt the chocolate with the water in the microwave until smooth. it should be liquid enough to pour out of the bowl, if it isn’t, add more water, heat, and mix again. Cool so won’t be burning hot (warm is OK). Beat the cream until soft, pour the chocolate into the cream and continue beating until stiff. Spread over the cooled base and freeze for at least 3 hours.

Prepare the ganache: Melt the chocolate with the cream and mix until smooth. Let cool to room temperature and pour over the cake.

This is too much mousse. Yummy 🙂

Freeze overnight, take out of freezer two hours before serving, or leave in the refrigerator for a day.

Bon Apetit!

Pear Pie Take II (vegan, gluten free)

I wrote before about the pear pie with great filling and crumbly dough. With some tweaks, it came out quite good and was gone within a few hours 🙂 Here is the upgraded version, including the filling from before:

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/4 cups Tami flour or other Gluten free flour substitute
1/4 cup almond butter
50 ml oil
pinch of salt
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
cold water
(My SIL suggested adding some baking powder and baking ahead of time with some beans inside so it doesn’t rise too much, but I haven’t tried it yet)

Filling:

8-10 small pears, unpeeled, cut into halves, seeds scooped out with a spoon, sliced
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp Conditor flour (cornflour)

Instructions:

In the food processor, mix all the crust ingredients except the water. It will form a ball pretty quickly. Pulse until it falls apart again. At this point, start adding water slowly, mixing thoroughly before adding more water, until it forms into ball again. It will be sticky to the touch.

Put in a bag and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 180°C.

10-15 minutes before taking out the dough, deseed and slice your pears and mix gently with the rest of the ingredients. Let rest for 15 minutes.

Halved

Scooped

Sliced

Mixed

Press the dough into a pie dish. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

See? Sticky.

Pour the pear mixture into the crust, including all juices. Flatten.

Before Baking

Bake for 55-60 minutes, until the filling has set (might be a little jiggly in the middle still).

Eat!

Now that’s pie!

Bon Apetit!