Leaving Las Vegas, with S'mores

Once again, I've disappeared for a bit. But you'll forgive me, won't you? This time it was so that I could move back to Alaska, which has been loads of work, but is inspiring all over again. Instead of sweating my buns off in Vegas, ruing the thought of even approaching the oven, now I get beachside campfires, glorious wild berries, a monthly local market to bake for and old friends to share with. In short, I have more motivation to bake and create than ever.

This month I've come up with one more cookie recipe for the Holiday book, no dairy, low fructose pudding, and have two great cake recipes in the works which just need some refining. My favorite achievement though has been polishing my recipe for truly nummy Graham Crackers. Yay! (Except that I can't stop eating them.) They're destined for the summer section of the forthcoming holiday book, right next to the corn syrup free marshmallows I perfected just before leaving Las Vegas. 

I've also tested a nut free version of my beloved chocolate chip cookies with truly glorious results. I might be persuaded to post that one here for everyone if there was enough interest... Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean?

Till then, I'm off to dive head first into a patch of red huckleberries. God, I love them! I think red huckleberries deserve their own dessert. Don't you? For anyone Ketchikan way the first Saturday in August, I will be at the Blueberry Festival, possibly selling some miraculous new recipe full of glorious red huckleberries, selling and signing books and even peddling some baked goods. See you there!

Seeking Low Carb, GF Brownie Perfection

  

Just in case you've never spent 5 minutes in the same room with me, I'll tell you something that everyone who has, already knows. I am a perfectionist.

By perfectionist, I don't mean, I'm meeting every goal, or I'm striving for excellence, or doing my personal best or any of that nonsense that was drilled into us in high school. No, I mean perfect-ionist. Some people will tell you, "there's no such thing as perfection," but I beg to differ. My most persuasive argument against this accusation is simply to feed the offending imperfectionist my Chocolate Butter Cake cupcakes, and that tends to convert them all on it's own. I have tasted perfection. 

Thanks to that taste I've developed for perfection, I'm also acutely aware of the imperfections in so many of my recipes. This recipe is NOT perfect. It's good. Satisfying. Enjoyable even. But perfect, it is not. I will continue to bake and re-bake, as I always do, in search of low carb brownie perfection. Meanwhile, here is the merely good and satisfying for you to enjoy at your leisure.

(This recipe is a part of my low carb GF diet project and calls for natural alternative sweeteners)

Low Carb Coconut Brownies

Yields one 8x8 pan of brownies or 9-12 servings

(Approximately 1-2.5 effective carbs per 1/9th depending upon your choice of cocoa brands)

Preheat Oven to 325*F/165*C

Dry Bowl:

Sift into bowl

   1C (86g) Cocoa Powder (I use Rapunzel. It can be hard to find, but it's sooo good, and ultra low in carbs too!)

Add, then whisk all together to combine

   1/2 C (40g) Desiccated Coconut

   1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum

   1/2 tsp Salt

Mixer Bowl:

Cream together until well combined and almost fluffy

   1C (216g) Coconut Oil

   1/2 C (68g) Chicory Root Fiber (I used a brand called Just Like Sugar that I found at Whole Foods)

   1/4 C (49g) Erythritol (You could probably get away with a little less of this if you care to)

Scrape down the sides of the mixer and beat in 

   3 Large Eggs

   1 Tb Vanilla Extract

Slow the mixer to a stir and add in the dry ingredients a little at a time

Once they're stirred in, bring up the mixer speed and beat until well combined and uniform

8x8 Baking Dish:

Grease the bottom and sides of your baking dish lightly with a little oil or palm oil shortening

Spread the thick batter/dough** into the pan as evenly as possible

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the center no longer appears damp and springs back when touched lightly 

Cool at least 10 minutes before attempting to slice, they will also taste more sweet the more you let them cool

Cool completely before storing in an airtight container

**Warning- Ridiculous Dawn Rant:

Seriously, what's up with brownie batter? I mean it's so bloody thick, you can hardly call it a batter. But on the other hand, it is a bit damp for a dough. So what is it really? Stiff batter? Damp dough? Maybe it's the missing batter-dough link, like a doubat or a badough... Yes, it must be a badough. 

Thanks for helping me to work through that. 

Birthday Party 99 Cent Kindle Sale!

We're celebrating here! It's a week full of anniversaries for us, of my diagnosis, of my first great recipe, two important birthdays, and while we celebrate today with kids and cake, you can too! This weekend, try out all the awesome recipes on Kindle, or use the kindle app for iPad or android, for only 99 cents! Still on sale next week too, for $1.99.
This is the one and only time this will happen, per amazon's rules, so be sure to take advantage.

The Holy Grail of Gluten Free is also coming soon to Nook and iBooks, but why wait?

The Really Empty Carb, or Why I Hate Rice Flour

Just in case you are brand spanking new to the world of gluten free foods, I'm going to tell you something that the rest of us discovered in the first 10 minutes of reading labels/recipes; it's basically all made of rice. White rice flour, brown rice flour, sweet rice flour, brown rice syrup, glutinous rice flour, rice starch, there are seemingly endless permutations of rice, but it's all still mainly rice. The problem is that nutritionally and texturally, not to mention satisfaction and flavor wise, rice in baked goods is the king of suck.

Nutrition has so many pretensions to importance these days that we'd better jump in there first, lest we be accused of only attending to pleasure. Compared to wheat flour, brown rice flour has more carbs, less fiber, more sugar, minimal protein, and far less of most nutrients and minerals, yielding more, emptier carbs per cup than the stuff most fashionably GF people are trying to avoid. This is exactly why the GF diet is NOT synonymous with a low carb diet. Far, far from it. If rice flour substitutes are used, baked goods are even carb-ier, less nutrient dense, and generally offer nutritional nada apart from their lack of gluten, which really, from one angle, is just another thing they don't have apart from carbs. Rice flour epitomizes the empty carb.

Unlike white sugar, rice flour can't even redeem itself aesthetically. Sugar at least tastes good. Rice flour tastes like... Nothing. It has no flavor, unless you happen to keep it around too long, at which point it will taste stale. Before you get excited about the possibility of it taking flavor well, like tofu is supposed to do, try to remember how much of the flavor of a slice of bread comes from the grain itself. This lack of flavor is not an asset, it's a void we seek, and generally fail, to fill. GF store bought breads so often taste like nothing but the excessive amount of yeast in them, even when supplemented with "natural flavor" according to the label.

The last, most obvious deficiency of most commercial GF offerings is texture. Anyone who's had the misfortune to open up a package of Glutino's bread can tell you that GF generally means crumbly, dry, either a sandy or gummy mouthfeel, and stuff that's almost edible when warm, but stiff enough to chip a tooth on once cool. Every one of these characteristics is a direct result of the use of rice flour. Imagine for a moment the texture of cold, plain rice: hard, sticky, dry outside, too chewy inside. This is what they are making bread from. Small wonder that it's nearly all texturally revolting.

Add it all up and you've got baked goods with all the health hazards of white sugar or starch, that have horrid textures, and at best taste like an abundance of yeast, all thanks to our pal, rice flour. You may be asking; if it's so bad, then why do so many companies use it to create their GF offerings? Easy, it's CHEAP. Rice flour's only redeeming quality is of course, the one quality that businesses find most appealing. Figures, huh? But it's not good enough for me, either to eat or to cook with.

For anyone out there who's wondered why I never, ever use rice flour in any of my recipes, now you know. Demand more. Skip the rice.

Holiday Book is Progressing

The real reason it took me so long to get that last post up...

Carrot cake experiments! Ginger Orange Carrot for the win! This is one more for the forth coming holiday book. Look forward to it.

GF Fried Chicken Thighs of Awesomeness

Allergens: egg, corn

As promised, here's my simple, tasty GF, dairy free fried chicken recipe. As always you will find no dastardly rice or offending tapioca here, just pure, GF yum. This is my first time writing up a recipe this way, so if it's a little rough, please forgive me. :-)

What you'll need:
Boneless skinless chicken thighs
Corn Flour (note that this is different from corn starch and the two are not interchangeable)
Eggs
Water
Seasonings (salt, pepper and whatever else you like)
Frying oil (palm, olive or good old lard works best)
Heavy bottomed frying pan, preferably cast iron
Candy/frying thermometer
2 Shallow bowls
Skimmer or slotted spoon

Note on the meat:
Technically you could use any boneless, skinless cut of chicken here, but thighs are amazing and above anything they are incredibly forgiving. Cook a strip of breast one blink too long and it will magically go straight from awesome to, "omg, that's dry!" Thighs on the other hand, are not only more juicy and flavorful than breast-meat when done right, they will stay that way even if you leave them frying a little too long. Love them!

In one small bowl, whisk together well about (approximations are ok for this recipe)
   3/4-1C (90-120g) Corn Flour (Bob's Red Mill markets a GF one)
   Large Pinch of Salt
   Sprinkling of Black Pepper
   Any other desired spices (I usually sprinkle lightly with chili powder and garlic powder, but it's very flavor flexible, experiment with it and have fun!)

In another small bowl, lightly beat together
2 Large Eggs
About 2-3 Tb Water

Slice the thighs into strips or chunks, I usually cut them into about 4-5 strips each, but what ever floats your boat is ok by me.

Slap a thermometer on your frying pan according to the instructions that came with said thermometer.

Add oil to the pan to at least 1" deep, 1"-2" is better.

Heat over high heat to at least 350 F/175 C. Throughout the cooking, you will need to watch the temperature and adjust the heat to keep it between 350 F/175 C and 390 F/ 200 C, but anywhere in that range will work well.

For maximum crispiness you'll also want to set up a wire cooling rack on top of a towel or paper towels to catch the drips of oil.

One piece of chicken at a time, wiggle it around in the seasoned corn flour.

Then dip it into the eggs, wetting it all over, and allowing excess egg to drip off.

Roll it in the corn flour one more time, then lay it into the hot oil. Continue battering and adding strips of chicken to the oil, but never put in so many as to crowd them.

I like to flip the pieces over after a couple of minutes, but they'll come out alright even if you forget as long as the oil is deep enough. They are done once they are browned.

Skim out finished pieces and lay them on the wire rack to cool, leaving space between them for steam to escape without damping the breading of neighboring pieces.

Enjoy!

Don't forget to filter and store your oil once it's cooled. It can be used a few times for things like this, and reusing it cuts down on the cost of frying considerably.