Coconut Milk Whipped Cream

I have been on a mission to figure out how to make coconut milk whipped cream for some time. I have read on several blogs how good it is, but haven't had much success. But if something is worth doing, keep on trying. :) I have finally figured out the secret to making this awesome whipped cream. It is actually very easy and oh so GOOD!



Coconut Milk Whipped Cream

The secret to making this is to plan ahead. But a can of coconut milk in the fridge at least 24 hrs before you want to make the whipped cream. The longer the better. I actually keep a can or 2 of coconut milk in my fridge, just for this. You also need to put the mixer bowl and whisk attachment of your mixer into the freezer for about 4 hrs. Until it's nice and COLD.

Then when you are ready for some whipped cream, scoop out the coconut cream out of the can, being careful to only get the cream. Whip the cream in the mixer until it starts to thicken and look like whipped cream.

Add 1/8 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla

Continue to whip until soft peaks form. You can use immediately or place in the fridge. This lasts in the fridge for 24 hrs. Maybe even longer, but that's the longest I've had it in the fridge with no problems. It's too good not to eat right away!

Enjoy!!

Almond Butter Granola

I've been buying peanut butter granola for a long time. I really like anything with peanut butter in it and that has been my breakfast of choice for a while now. My son loves peanut butter granola as well, and I always felt bad that he couldn't have it.

Since there is a very limited selection on breakfast cereals that my son can have, I decided to make some almond butter granola for him. I've never made granola before, so figured this was as good of a time as any. I'm happy to say that my first attempt was a success!! :)




Almond Butter Granola

• 6 tablespoons oil
• 1 cup almond butter
  
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
  
• 7 cups oats

1. Cook oil and almond butter over low heat until it is melted and smooth.
2. Remove from heat and maple syrup.
3. Add oats and stir well until oats are coated.
4. Spread onto cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes stirring at least once.
6. Cool and store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!! We've been enjoying it with some homemade almond milk. Yum, yum!

Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

Oh, poor neglected blog! I have had 'blogger's block' for way too long. We discovered in November that my son has multiple food sensitivities/allergies. So we embarked on an elimination diet of sorts. Not a full elimination diet, mind you, but it was enough. Plenty to overwhelm me a bit. I mean cooking gluten and dairy free is one thing, but cooking without gluten, dairy, peanuts, eggs, corn and soy is quite different! Corn is the hardest, because it's in everything. And since it's not one of the top 8 allergens, it doesn't have to be on the label and it's hidden in a lot of ingredients. So that means absolutely no eating out and cooking everything from scratch. I normally cook from scratch anyway, but this seemed to go to a whole new level.

Anyway, my son is still on this diet and I am finally feeling confident with cooking again. Confident enough that I decided that a valentine's day treat was definitely in order. Baking is extremely hard, with no gluten or eggs to hold things together. It didn't matter with these cookies though...they came together just beautifully. The cookies were not crumbly, just chocolatey, not too sweet and GOOD. But the best part? They make the perfect cookies for ice cream sandwiches! YAY!!! :) :)




Chocolate Shortbread Cookies (I found this awesome recipe in Living Without)

1 cup butter or soy free earth balance spread
2/3 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups plus 2 Tbsp gf all purpose flour mix of your choice (I used the Analiese Roberts mix)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum (or if you are avoiding corn, guar gum)
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• Preheat oven to 325. Line a baking pan with parchment paper.
• Using a mixer, beat together butter/butter substitute and sugar for around 5-7 minutes.
• Add vanilla and gently combine. Set aside
• In a medium bowl, mix together flour blend, xanthan gum (or guar gum), salt and cocoa powder.
• Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, mixing on low speed until ingredients are combined. Don't over mix. Put dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Dust cutting board with some of the flour mix. Place dough on board and roll out until about 1/2 inch thick. Use a cookie cutter and cut into desired shape. Space evenly on prepared baking sheet.
• Bake in preheated oven for 16-18 minutes or until they are golden brown. Let cool on the baking sheet.
• Enjoy!
  

They are good plain, but even better as an ice cream sandwich. Yum! :)

If you're looking for more great gluten free recipes, check out Gluten Free Wednesdays over at the Gluten Free Homemaker.

Chocolate Cake with Marshmallow Frosting

Here I am with another chocolate dessert! Looking through my blog, I'm noticing a lot of chocolate desserts. We really do eat more than just chocolate cake/cookies/chocolate chips around here. Guess I tend to just post our desserts....I need to start posting our main course meals too. I've been trying quite a few vegetarian dishes and we're really liking how they turn out. I'll get some of those dishes lined up soon.

My hubby had a birthday recently. Birthdays mean birthday cake, no matter how old you are in my book. So chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting it is.


The chocolate cake is made with coconut flour, which makes a really good, rich cake. Cakes made with coconut flour taste the best at room temperature. The frosting is made with no refined sugar. I found several variations of this recipe around the web, made with either corn syrup, agave or honey. I chose the honey option and it ended up giving it a toasted marshmallow taste. Yum!!




On to the recipe!

Chocolate Cake (from Cooking with Coconut Flour by Bruce Fife)

3/4 cup butter, earth balance or coconut oil
1 cup cocoa powder
12 eggs
1/2 cup coconut milk or whole milk
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sifted coconut flour
1 tsp baking powder

Melt butter (I used earth balance soy free spread) in saucepan over medium heat. Mix in cocoa powder. Remove from heat and set aside. In a bowl, mix together eggs, coconut milk, sugar, salt and vanilla. Stir cocoa mixture into the egg mixture. Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk into batter until there are no lumps. Pour batter into either a greased 11x7 in pan, or 2 greased 8 or 9 1/2 inch layer cake pans. Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool and remove from baking pan(s). Fill and frost with marshmallow frosting or frosting of your choice.


Marshmallow frosting
I found this recipe here. She has pictures and detailed instructions on how to make this yummy frosting.



Want to have a piece? Come on over!! We have way more cake than the 4 of us can eat! But we're going to enjoy every bite. :)

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I have found the perfect use for zucchini. Put it in a cake with some chocolate and you've got yourself an awesome, moist, yummy chocolate cake!! This is one of my absolute favorite cake recipes. I intended to frost it with a vanilla frosting, but we ate it all before I even thought about frosting. Seriously, it didn't need a bit of frosting.

I pureed several zucchini, divided it all up into 1 cup containers and froze them so I make this cake again even in the middle of winter.





Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Cream:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or earth balance
1 tablespoon shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar

Add & beat well:
2 eggs

Add
1 cup unsweetened pureed fresh zucchini

1 1/2 cup gluten free flour mix
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon soda

Beat until smooth. Bake in greased 8" x 8 square baking pan at 350F for 45 minutes (If you bake in glass, reduce the heat by 25F).

Frost with your favorite vanilla frosting recipe.....or not. :) It's awesome either way.

Pie crust

One thing that we like quite a lot around here is pie. Fruit pie of any kind. I haven't made many pies lately, mainly because I haven't found a recipe that I liked. It seems like gf pie crust is either a pain to work with, but end result is good, or it's easier to work with and the end result is lousy.

I have found a pie crust recipe that is awesome. Just awesome. It is super easy to work with... you mix it in a mixer and you can actually roll it out in between wax paper. The best part of all? The result is a nice flaky crust.

So after finding this recipe and peaches being in season, what's a girl to do but make a peach pie?


The pie. The top crust didn't even break when I put it on. Yay!




I found this recipe in Annaliese Roberts cookbook, Gluten Free Baking Classics. (I LOVE her cookbook, can you tell?)

Pie crust

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp brown rice flour mix (see below)
2 Tbsp sweet rice flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp cold butter or Earth Balance Buttery spread
1 large egg
2 tsp lemon juice

Prepare pie pan by greasing. Preheat oven to 375.

Mix flours, sugar, xanthan gum and salt in bowl of electric mixer. Add butter and mix until crumbly (resembling coarse meal)

Add egg and lemon juice. Mix on low speed until dough holds together, it should not be sticky*. Form dough into a ball and place on a sheet of wax paper. Top with 2nd sheet of paper and flatten dough to 1 inch thick.

Roll out dough between the wax paper. Remove top sheet of wax paper and invert dough into pie pan. Remove remaining sheet of wax paper and crimp sides for single crust**.

Bake crust for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, fill, place top crust on and bake as per recipe.

For a bottom pie crust with no top crust, bake at 375 for about 25 minutes or until golden.

* My crust seemed a bit dry when I made it, so I added water a tablespoon at a time until it seemed the right consistency. I ended up adding 2 tbsp.

** This recipe is for a single bottom or single top crust. I had a lot leftover, and was able to make both top and bottom with 1 batch.

Brown rice flour mix:

2 cups brown rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca flour


Enjoy!

Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

Banana bread.....what's not to like? I've tried several recipes for gf banana bread over the years. Most of them have tasted pretty good, but the texture wasn't the strong point and they always seem to fall apart. But try, try again. :) I have been recently browsing the gluten free goddess's blog and drooling over all of her tasty recipes. She had a banana bread recipe with chocolate chips that I knew I had to try. Why? Because it was also a vegan recipe, meaning no dairy. I am by no means vegan. But with our dairy issues in this household I appreciate vegan recipes a whole lot these days. :) Plus it had chocolate chips in it. What else could I do?

It turned out to be the best gluten free/dairy free banana bread I have ever had. It's been a while since I've had wheat banana bread, but I might even dare to say that it was better than that. Maybe it was the chocolate chips. But the texture was great, it didn't fall apart as soon as you thought about slicing off a piece either. The loaf lasted 2 days.




Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

Here is the original recipe from the gluten free goddess
Her recipe is vegan, so has no eggs in it. We have chickens and have an abundance of good eggs, so I changed it to add some eggs.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a standard bread loaf pan.

Combine in a large bowl:

3-4 ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
1/3 cup light olive oil
1 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs

In a separate bowl:
1 1/2 cups gluten free flour mix
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 rounded teaspoon cinnamon

Add the dry ingredients into the banana mixture and stir until smooth.

Add in 1/2 cup dairy free chocolate chips

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake in the center of a preheated oven for an hour, until the loaf is firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Cool the loaf on a wire rack. Slice and enjoy!

Thank you, gluten free goddess for this awesome recipe!