Birgit's Daily Bytes

Butternut Squash Casserole (gluten-free)

2011-12-27T11:32:00.001-07:00

I am not usually one to experiment with new dishes on major holidays, mostly because I don’t need the stress of a possible failure. But this year I wasn’t in the mood for the traditional, very good, but somewhat heavy sweet potato casserole.

Initially I just decided to forgo it altogether. But while I was cooking on Christmas day I kept on coming back to the cubed Butternut squash I had in the refrigerator. I was going to make soup with it after Christmas, but for some reason I decided to just go and experiment with it for Christmas dinner casserole instead.

I was going for sweet, but I wanted lighter - more flan like, rather than a heavy casserole. But with a little bit of a crunch. And it had to be gluten-free. And it had to be with sugar since my mother in law can’t tolerate any sugar substitutes. Do however feel free to substitute with Ideal sugar substitutes.

And let me tell you - the end result was one of the best Holiday side dishes I’ve had in a long time. It was rich and creamy, but somewhat seemed light and delicate at the same time. Almost like an egg custard, but more substantial. With a decadent creaminess and a delicious little crunch from the topping!

In fact, I’m thinking of making another one today, just because it was so good and everyone enjoyed it so much, including the children. It was super delicious the next day, cold right out of the refrigerator! Almost like a pie!

We even had a couple of people that don’t like butternut squash at the table, that loved this dish!

So here is what I did!

Ingredients:

1 Butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed (you can also roast it and just use the roasted flesh. In that case skip the boiling!)

3/4 cup white sugar or Ideal Sugar Substitute

1 cup milk

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp. buttery vanilla baking emulsion or vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
1 tbsp. vanilla custard powder (the boiling kind, not instant! Or you could substitute corn starch and up the vanilla extract to 3/4 tsp.)
3 eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted

TOPPING
3 cups gluten-free checks cereal, crushed (I used the rice checks)
1/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar or Ideal Brown Sugar Substitute

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

Boil the butternut squash until fork tender in plenty of water. Or roast it in the oven or cook it in the microwave. Whichever way you prefer. As long as the butternut squash is fork tender by the end of it, you’re good!

Brush a 10 inch round casserole dish with some of the melted butter. Set the rest of the butter aside.

Drain (if you boiled it) and let it sit in the colander for a few minutes so the water can really drain out. Return to pot and put them back on the stove to briefly evaporate any remaining water.

Once dry either mash or rice (it’s what I did) the butternut squash. You should have just over 3 cups of mashed/riced butternut squash.

Mix the mash with the white sugar, milk, cream, vanilla, salt, eggs and remaining melted butter. Whisk to combine well. Sprinkle in the custard powder and whisk until all is combined well.

Pour this mix into the buttered casserole dish and bake for 35 minutes.

In the meantime, combine the crushed checks, melted butter and brown sugar in a bowl. Spread over the top of the custard and return to the oven for another 20 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and crunchy and the custard is set.

Serve hot or cold. Serves 8-10.

Elisenlebkuchen - low-carb, gluten-free and sugar-free

2011-12-18T11:04:00.001-07:00

There are many things and foods that say “Christmas” to me. Especially German/Bavarian ones for me! None more so than Elisenlebkuchen however! They are a Bavarian specialty and every year I feel compelled to make them! They remind me of crisp cold winters, Christkindlmarkets with Gluehwein (German mulled wine) and ... Lebkuchen!

What makes these so special is that they are mostly comprised of nuts. They have a very delicate spice and they are moist and delicious, even after weeks of storing (if they are done right anyway!)

However, they are also very sugary in their original form. They usually contain a lot of candied peel, sugar in the batter and then they are traditionally either covered in a thin sugar glaze or a thin coat of dark chocolate. And I mean THIN!

But, not exactly low-carb friendly, even though easily made gluten-free, which I wrote about in my recipe here last year.

So this year, I revisited the low-carb/sugar-free version! And they turned out beautifully! I made a regular version, a low-carb version and a gluten-free version since we have a lot of different allergies and ways of eating to cater for around our parts. I had to actually mark them, because I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference otherwise!

Today I do however want to focus on the sugar-free/ low-carb variety!

So, without further ado, let’s get to it!

Low-Carb Elisenlebkuchen

Ingredients:

1 cup erythritol/xylitol, powdered (measure after powdering)
1 cup Ideal sugar substitute (could substitute bulk Splenda, Truvia etc. )
3 tbsp. polydextrose
4 tbsp. monin sugar-free syrup (vanilla)
peel of 3 large lemons
peel of 3 large oranges
peel of 1 large lime
6 large eggs
1/2 tsp EACH of the following ground spices:

Cinnamon, Cloves, Coriander, Allspice, Nutmeg, Cardamom, guar gum (xanthan works too)

1/2 tsp buttery vanilla bakery emulsion or vanilla extract
240g Hazelnuts; whole (8.5 oz.) *almonds/pecans/walnuts work too, but it’s not nearly as good :)*
240g Hazelnuts; finely ground (8.5 oz.) - or more of the whole ones and you can grind it fine yourself
50g Walnuts; coarsely chopped (1.8 oz.)

rice based baking wafers or rice paper (50mm) if you are eating gluten-free, wheat based Oblaten if you are not. These are somewhat optional but much better with! A word on the Oblaten . Yes, they aren’t low-carb, strictly speaking. However, they only add less than o.5 carbs to your cookie, that it is worth it in my opinion. Not only do they prevent sticking, they keep the moisture in like nothing else and are an integral and traditional part of Elisenlebkuchen.

For the coating:

Sugar-free chocolate or Lindt 85% (or a combination of both) and 1 tsp coconut oil or palm shortening per bar of chocolate. It varies how much you need, depending on how much you use and how large your cookies are. For the above recipe I usually need 3 bars of Lindt and 1 tbsp. of palm shortening, if I cover them all in chocolate.

Traditionally they also come glazed with sugar glaze, which is a whole separate post by itself. And it will be at a later date, where I am comparing a couple of products to make a “sugar” glaze. For now, if you can afford the carbs, use Ideal Confectioner’s Sugar Substitute. It works just like regular powdered sugar and gives great results.

If not, just stick with the chocolate coating!

Preparation:

Place the peel of all the fruit, the xylitol, the polydextrose and the sugar-free syrup in a small sauce pan and under constant stirring heat until just boiling. Take the pan off the heat and set aside to cool.

Now, place the whole hazelnuts in the food processor. Start pulsing them until coarsely chopped, then add the sweetener and peel mix and pulse some more until evenly incorporated. Add the emulsion/extract and pulse to incorporate. Add the eggs and pulse some more until you have a uniform mass.

In a separate bowl, combine the spices, walnuts and hazelnut flour. Add the mix from your food processor and thoroughly combine with a spatula.

Cover the bowl and let it sit in the refrigerator for 24 hrs. It may seem a little runny at first, but it will thicken up quite a bit in the next 24hrs.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400 F.

Lay out the baking wafers on a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper. Scoop equal amounts of the nut mix onto the wafers and smooth out with your finger. I find that the easiest way to get the round ones uniform is to use an ice cream scoop. Scoop some nut mixture on the Oblaten and smooth the edges down. Using moist fingers can help as the dough will be a bit sticky.

Of course, this year I am ahead of this little game, as my father in law made me a so called “Lebkuchenglocke” at my request, which makes this process much easier and faster! You just smear some of the dough into the bell part, place the oblate on top, hold it over your baking tray and twist. The wire on the inside goes around and releases the sticky dough and out plops the cookie! So handy, so efficient! Thank you, Jarvis!

If you are not using oblaten/baking wafers, just scoop some dough onto the parchment and press it down a little with moistened fingers, just like you would on the baking wafers!

If you are using rice paper and don’t feel like cutting out lots of little circles, you can just cut rectangles. It works just as well and it’s much faster!

Bake for 12 minutes or until the Lebkuchen are lightly golden brown. It is important that they are not quite done in the middle though. You should still see some moisture in the middle!

Set them aside to cool a little. It’s easier to get a thinner coating of chocolate when they are still a little warm.

Melt your chocolate with the coconut oil or palm shortening.

Brush the coating on as thinly as you possibly can, but make sure everything is covered. We want an even coat, without large globs, but not so thin that the cookie underneath peaks through.

If you have used baking wafers, just brush on a thin coat of chocolate coating over the top of the Lebkuchen. Let completely dry for a few hours and store in a cookie tin. None of the coatings should be tacky anymore!

If you didn’t use baking wafers, you will need to dip or brush your entire cookie. First a coat at the bottom, let dry, then a coat on the top of the cookie. This will also seal the moisture and flavors inside, which is essential for these!

Lebkuchen need to sit for a while to develop their prime taste and texture. They need a minimum of 6 days in that cookie tin, so take that into account when planning to make these!

They will however keep for several weeks in a cookie tin and personally I think they taste the best after they have matured for about 1-2 weeks!

Christmas Goodies Round-Up

2011-12-16T10:18:00.001-07:00

My children gleefully informed me this morning, that we are only 9 days away from Christmas!

And I thought, “Oh my, only 9 days left? So much to do, so little time!” Now I am mostly done with the whole shopping thing and I have been since the end of October really. I just needed to “top up” my gift shopping list on cyber Monday with a few more things, and I was done with that part.

However, I am way behind on the whole baking thing this year!

Usually we have several cookie baking sessions from the first of advent onwards, right up to Christmas - with the last little batch usually being the cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve!

This year however, I’ve not done much baking. Mostly because I am catering to something like 4 different diets/ways of eating/preferences on our holidays and not all of them are compatible and then things get complicated. And a lot of these kind of goodies aren’t like my “normal” advent baking, that gets better the longer it sits and you WANT to bake it a month in advance.

So this next week, I’ll be making some goodies and I wanted to share with you some of the bounty that is available to us in terms of tempting goodies that also keep you on plan!

There will be some Homemade Marzipan. I have already made this and it is waiting to be made into some cookies, so stay tuned for that recipe which I will post over the next few days.

Here’s a little sneak peak of the cookies in progress:

I also have the Grand Manier ready, which by the way turned out very well. The flavor is wonderful! It is a little late to be making the Grand Manier for Christmas, but you do have time to make the Quick sugar-free Amaretto!

How about some Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Star Meringue Cookies),

or some of Carolyn’s Cranberry Pecan Crescents (Low Carb and Gluten Free,)

or Chocolate Peppermint Cookies,

or Caramelized Macadamia Pecan Squares,

Or how about this Gingerbread House from Maria's Nutritious and Delicious Journal,

or the Italian Chocolate Spice Cookies from Healthy Living How To.

Also, don’t forget about lovely things like sugar-free candied ginger, or making your own colored casting/ sanding “sugar” to decorate some cookies.

If you are looking for a good basic cut-out cookie dough, try this one:

And of course, we can’t forget delectable truffles for the holidays!

Or some Coconut Cookies by Jennifer Eloff:

And I’m thinking of making these for Christmas Eve: Gingerbread Cheesecake Bites

And look at these little beauties: Honey Nut Cookies,

or some Peppermint Patties,

or these Healthy Magic Cookie Bars.

Yum! One thing is for sure - there is certainly an abundance of delectable low-carb, sugar-free and gluten-free indulgences out there! There is absolutely no need for deprivation, so treat your family and yourself this holiday season and make some!

Low-Carb Meringues (LC, GF, SF)

2011-12-13T09:13:00.001-07:00

Not surprisingly, following the cinnamon star cookie post, here’s one about low-carb meringues.

The recipe is pretty much the same, the method is however different and it leads to delectable, very-close-to-real-meringues, delight! If you’re looking for the kind of meringues that are hard through and through, let them dry out thoroughly!

If you are into the crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside kind of meringue, you have to watch them a little more. It’s all in the drying time!

This is definitely one of the times where the erythritol/xylitol tendency to recrystallize works in our favor though!

Sugar-Free and Low-Carb Mini Meringues

Ingredients:

3 whole Egg Whites (room temperature*)
1 pinch Salt
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
3/4 cup of Ideal sweetener
1/2 cup of xylitol, powdered (powdered erythritol works too, but I prefer xylitol)
1 tbsp. polydextrose
2 drops of stevia extract
1/4 tsp butter vanilla bakery emulsion (or vanilla extract)

* You get much more volume out of egg whites at room temperature when whipping!

Preparation:

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 225 F.

Beat egg whites, cream of tartar, powdered erythritol and salt until frothy. Under constant beating, dust in the polydextrose, little by little.

Once you have soft peaks, add the Ideal, again little by little and under constant beating until you have somewhat stiff peaks and it will look quite glossy. It’s important to use the erythritol first, as it takes the longest to dissolve! Add everything slowly at this stage as it helps prevent the meringue from weeping later. However, don't over-beat. When ready, the mixture should be thick and glossy. (see below)

Add the bakery emulsion and whip a tad more to incorporate. Fill the meringue mix into a Ziploc bag (or a piping bag with a fancy tip if that is what you’re going for) and snip the corner of the bag.

Now pipe your desired shape on the lined cookie sheets.

You could also scoop up a heaped dessertspoonful of the mixture. Using another dessertspoon, ease it on to the baking sheet to make an oval shape - or any other shape you desire.

Depending on the size of your meringues, bake for 25 minutes. Watch them and take them out earlier if they show any sign of too much browning. If they get a little beige, that’s ok, it tends to happen more with these and the flavor won’t be affected if they stay a light beige. They will however change their flavor if you let them get brown!

Turn off your oven and let the meringues sit in there for 8-10 hrs. We’re not really baking them anymore, we’re just drying them out further. I do this overnight.

In the morning your have perfectly crunchy meringues! And it takes them this long to get crunchy. They will be quite sticky, then leathery for the longest time and you might think it will never get there. And then they do!

You could also just let them sit on the counter overnight if you prefer, but make sure it’s a dry environment, otherwise it will take longer to dry out or never quite get there if you have a lot of moisture in the air!

For crunchy through and through meringues you just let them dry as long as they need. Lift one off the parchment after about 8 hours and check if it comes off all the way yet.

How long this drying takes very much depends on temperature and moisture levels in your home. It may very well take much longer for you than it does for me. Usually overnight will get me to dry through and through stage, but it’s very dry around here.

However, we’ve had rain for 3 days running, which is unusual around here and my last batch needed about 14 hours to get to crunchy on the outside and the slightest bit of a chewy center stage and 17 hours to dry all the way through. That is with half of the drying time happening on the countertop as I needed the oven for other things!

So, what I’m saying is, be patient - there seems to be no hard and fast rule on how long it will take!

All the above is for the mini meringue size shown in the picture. It will be even longer for larger sizes.

Once the meringues get to the dry stage, they will now keep in an airtight tin for up to 2 weeks. I haven’t tried freezing them yet!

Enjoy!!

A word on substitutions. Chances are, they won’t work.

I have experimented for years with getting the perfect sugar-free meringue and other combinations of sugar-substitutes have failed miserably for one reason or another. The only substitutions that may work are differing amounts of xylitol and erythritol and maybe replacing some of the ideal with more xylitol. It does however seem to need some of the maltodextrin that comes with the ideal to a) cut the cooling sensation from the xylitol/erythritol a bit and, b) improve the texture.

The only other substitutes that might work, are maltitol, sorbitol or isomalt based sugar substitutes. I don’t really use those for a variety of reasons.

The polydextrose is optional in a pinch. However, I would recommend using it, as it really helps to bind and stabilize the egg whites. So I would say, if you try it without polydextrose and you’re having texture issues or your meringue fell flat or was weeping (watery liquid seeping form the bottom) and you’re sure you whipped everything sufficiently, then I would try the polydextrose next time around! It just really helps to make this meringue making business simpler!

And if you are looking for that slight chew inside the crispy meringue shell, you definitely need the polydextrose! The chew factor won’t happen without it!

Cinnamon Star Cookies (Zimtsterne) - revisited the low-carb way (LC, GF, SF)

2011-12-10T11:49:00.001-07:00

Last year I posted the gluten-free, but sugared version of these traditional German Christmas cookies.

This year I want to add the sugar-free and therefore low-carb version of these lovely cookies!

The biggest challenge of these cookies is to get the slightly crunchy meringue top right, which isn’t an easy undertaking with sugar substitutes!

However, it has worked pretty well for me when using the ingredients I will be listing below. However, I can’t guarantee that this will work out equally well if you start to substitute other sweeteners! Chances are it won’t as my previous attempts of meringues with other combinations, didn’t work out all that well! The only exception would be to replace everything with diabetisweet or other maltitol based sweetener. Maltitol tends to act just like sugar. I like to avoid Maltitol so it’s hardly ever in any of my recipes.

A quick note: The pictures are taken of the cookies made with cashew flour, rather than hazelnut as a special request. The cashews aren’t as fine as hazelnuts or almonds would be.

Now without further ado - the recipe!

Ingredients:

3 whole Egg Whites (room temperature*)
1 pinch Salt
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
3/4 cup of Ideal sweetener
1/2 cup of Erythritol, powdered +plus more for working the dough (Xylitol works too)
1 tbsp. polydextrose (optional)
2 drops of stevia extract
1/4 tsp butter vanilla bakery emulsion (or vanilla extract)
2 tbsp. Ground Cinnamon
zest of one Lemon, or strips of lemon peel finely ground in food processor ***
2-⅔ cups Ground Hazelnuts (also known as Filbert Nuts) - other nuts or seeds like almonds will also work**

Preparation:

* You will get more volume when beating egg whites if you first bring them to room temperature.

** If you can’t get ground hazelnuts/almonds, grind them in a food processor. It doesn’t have to be as fine as almond flour, but it should be pretty fine, with the odd bit of slightly bigger nuts. Once you’re done grinding, THEN measure them for this recipe!*

***Since we are using fresh lemon peel, I usually throw the lemon peel strips (made using a potato peeler) in the food processor, with some of the measured nuts and run it through the food processor again. Then I add the xanthan gum for even distribution and pulse a couple more times.*

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Beat egg whites, cream of tartar, powdered erythritol and salt until frothy. Under constant beating, dust in the polydextrose, little by little.

Once you have soft peaks, add the Ideal, again little by little and under constant beating until you have somewhat stiff peaks. It’s important to use the erythritol first, as it takes the longest to dissolve!

Fill 1/3 of the meringue mix into a Ziploc bag and set aside.

Fold the cinnamon, lemon peel (if you haven’t already) and ground nuts into the remaining 2/3 of the meringue mix.

Line your work surface with a large sheet of plastic or parchment paper.

If your dough is on the very sticky side, sprinkle it with some more ground nuts and powdered sugar substitute and work the dough through a little. Mine was quite workable to begin with and didn’t need any additions.

Top with another plastic sheet or parchment paper and roll out the dough on your plastic sheet. If the top is really sticky, add some more ground nuts etc, or line the top of the dough with another sheet of plastic and roll it out to about 1/2 inch thickness.

Peel off the top layer of plastic/parchment paper.

For the low-carb cookies I went with 1/4 inch thickness to make more! But if you do this, remember to reduce the baking time to about 8-9 minutes!

With a star cookie cutter, cut as many stars as you can get and place them on a cookie sheet. It helps to dunk the cookie cutter into some powdered sugar substitute as you go.

Reroll the left-over dough and continue cutting out stars until there is no dough left.

Now snip the corner of the Ziploc bag with the meringue mix.

Either, roughly pipe a thin layer of the meringue mix, spreading it out evenly all over the top of the star with the back of a small spoon. Or, and this is currently my favorite method, pipe a generous dot in the middle of the star, then pull the meringue mix to the corners with a knife. Try and keep the layer thin and as even as possible!

And here is the trick for the meringue top to be at it’s best. Let the cookies dry for 4 hours. This step is optional but I would recommend it as the meringue gets crispier that way. Since it’s very dry around these parts, I generally go with 4 hours of drying time. However, if it’s damp where you are, overnight (8 hours) might do the trick. Just leave them uncovered on your counter.

Preheat oven to 300F.

Bake for 15 minutes. Don’t overbake these! You want them to be moist on the inside! Let the cookies cool completely before trying to move them. The meringue topping will crisp up a little too!

If you don’t want to mess around with cookie cutters and such, you could also just make snowy “kisses”. Roll a small ball of dough in your hand. Press it to about 1/2 inch height with your finger, pipe on some meringue mix. Now with these I would recommend letting them dry. Since there is more meringue topping, the drying for several hours helps to make them into crispy meringue topping rather than the lemon meringue pie type of topping! And the meringue doesn’t turn brown as quickly as the non-dried meringue either!

And here is the difference in the meringue for not drying (the stars) and drying (the snowy kisses)

Granted, I did leave those stars in a tad too long as they caught around the edges a little too, but see the difference in the meringue? When you let it dry out a bit, you get a snowier white! And as you can see, they are easy to over bake! So get them out before they go that darker golden brown around the edges!

Oh and by the way, the above meringue recipe works GREAT as a lemon meringue pie topping!

A New Favorite: Green Cactus Pears

2011-11-13T11:25:00.002-07:00

If you’re asking yourself": “What is that?!” then you are where I was a little while ago. We’re by no means short of cactus here in Arizona and I’ve seen my fair share of the fruit they bear, but I have never actually tried it. I was also under the mistaken impression, that only the red fruit is edible.

Around this time of year, I often see cactus related fare in the grocery sections of our local supermarkets, but so far, I’ve never gone for any of them.

Until about a week ago. When I went to my local Asian store, they had a whole bin of these green cactus pear things at $0.60/ lb. and I was feeling in an experimenting mood, so I got a few. Since I had no idea what to do with them, I first just cut them open to see what was inside!

Much to my surprise, a LOT of very hard seeds. We tasted the juice and it resembled the flavor of pear a lot! More precisely, it tasted like a cross of a pear and a slightly “green” watermelon! Since I had no idea what to do with them, I consulted the internet and found out they could be eaten raw.

Not only that, it seemed that this little fruit has a LOT of health benefits that were right up my alley! Stabilizing blood sugar levels - yes please! Low in calories, rich in fiber and low in sodium, this fruit offers a good source of vitamin C and potassium too. Sign me up!

Native to the Americas, Green Cactus pears has long been used to promote healing, specifically for inflammatory skin disorders, eye inflammation, intestinal tract dysentery, urinary tract inflammation, burns, and joint and muscle inflammation.

Even better!

On the internet it also said that this fruit can be eaten as is, or as a perfect addition to salads, or made into jam or jellies. I wanted to use it raw, but I couldn’t get around the seeds. In my variety they are SO hard, I can’t bite through them, and there are so many, that you have a mouthful of rock hard seeds and a bit of fruit around it. So that was out for me.

When you add the whole fruit to the blender, you get a VERY gritty smoothie, again, because of the seeds! I think that there are other varieties though that have softer seeds that would do just fine for eating or a smoothie. Not this variety however!

I did figure out a quick and easy way to juice them.

But first of all - a word of warning! These little things look quite harmless. You can’t see any prickles on it. DON’T believe it!

This fruit has TINY, needle-like hairs , that are totally invisible to the naked eye, but they burrow themselves into your skin and you can’t get rid of those little buggers. So, since I’ve been having cactus pear juice every morning for a week now (I went back to get some more!) I have gotten quite used to handling them carefully!

It starts at the store! Use another bag around your hand to place them into your veggie/fruit bag, so you don’t have to touch them. Take an empty bag home with you!

When you get home, use that empty bag around your hand when taking the cactus pears out. Place them in a bowl and rinse generously with cold water. That’s the only time you’ll see some of those fine “hairs” floating on top of the water. Rinse the fruit twice, discarding the water in between.

Drain and use some kitchen paper towels to dry each one, rubbing them a bit to get the stray prickles.

Discard the paper towels!

After that you still have to be a bit careful, but much less so.

I tend to use a paper towel every morning to handle them until I peeled the fruit, just in case!

Now, should you get one or two of those hairs into your hand anyway, there’s a way to get them out, even though you can’t see them. You will know where they are because you can FEEL them!

Take a strong piece of tape over the area where the prickle is. Press it down well then pull it off. The prickle usually comes with it!

And here’s how I prepare them for my morning smoothies:

Slice off the flat end.

Slice off the pointy end.

Make a slit along the side, about 1/4 inch deep.

Pull back the peel on either side to reveal the fruit. It all comes off in one piece!

Place a strainer over a bowl and place the fruit in it.

Smoosh them with your hands. The ripe fruit is not that hard to squeeze.

Let it sit over the bowl for a couple of minutes, then use the back of a spoon to get as much of the juice and pulp out. Don’t forget to scrape the bottom of the strainer to get all the fruit pulp. Discard the seeds.

And here you have it. The juice and fruit pulp, ready to either drink as is or in our case, add to our morning smoothies!

This may look like a lot of steps, but once you’ve done it, it’s about as fast as peeling an orange from start to finish, so not really work intensive at all!

Have you ever tried cactus pears? What do you do with them?

Some Product Reviews/Comparisons: Brown “Sugar”

2011-11-07T13:56:00.001-07:00

Since the holidays are pretty much upon us, my quest for a sugar substitute combination that makes good icing and gives a good brown sugar flavor has somewhat intensified.

Today I want to focus on two brown sugar substitutes. The LC-Sweet Brown by LC Foods and the Ideal Brown Sweetener by Heartlands..

{For photo source, please click on image}

Please note that these are my personal opinions, based on my personal circumstances, tastes and uses, so all this is of course very subjective! I would also like to mention that neither companies know me from Adam 0r probably care about my assessment of their product - this is just me saying what I think/taste/find.

Now, I have to say right up front - most if not all the LC Food products do contain varying amounts of inulin and their sweetener’s main ingredient is inulin. If you can’t tolerate Inulin or high fiber type sweeteners or foods, this is likely not going to work for you!

In addition to the inulin, the LC-Sweet Brown also contains other soluble dietary fiber, digestion resistant polydextrose fiber, cocoa, sucralose, organic stevia rebaudiana leaf natural herbal extracts, natural luo han guo monk fruit, and natural flavoring.

As a rule, I tend to tolerate fiber based products MUCH better than sugar alcohols (with the exception of erythritol and xylitol, which I have no to little problems with.)

The Ideal brown sweetener contains maltodextrin (from corn, not wheat,) dextrose, sucralose and xylitol, with xylitol being the main ingredient. If you are sensitive to any of those things, that one isn’t going to work for you!

So, bearing the above in mind, here we go:

LC-Sweet Brown “Sugar”

To be honest I was quite intrigued by the photo on their website! It looked totally like real brown sugar! And the entire time I was waiting for my package to arrive, I was trying to figure out how they got it to look that real considering the ingredients were all really fine, pale to beige and very powdery rather than crystalized!

Well, I could have saved myself a bunch of time wondering, as it didn’t look like that. In fact, it looked like a combination of fine, pale to beige, powdery ingredients.

Had I clicked on additional images, I would have seen their package. I am not entirely sure why it is necessary for the product listing to have a close-up images of real brown sugar, which is an entirely different product really, even though it tastes similar! I do find it a little misleading, but that’s just my personal pet peeve.

Anyway, the taste test. It tastes pretty good!

It does have the sweetness of brown sugar, it has a distinct note of molasses and caramel to it for sure. Even though a fine powder, it does have a certain stickiness to it when it gets wet. Definitely a brown sugar contender in some applications! I can still taste the inulin and the sucralose a bit when I take a bit on my finger, but I doubt it would make that much difference in baking etc.

I tried a little over some LC hot cereal and it was pretty tasty!

When you read my recipes, you see that I really like to use the Ideal Brown Sugar substitute, so how does it compare to that one?

Just on taste, it could go either way, even though I do have a preference for the Ideal Brown Sugar Substitute! The Ideal Brown Sugar Substitute has a “cleaner” brown sugar flavor in my opinion! I know that both contain sucralose and I have of late become very sensitive to that flavor (as in I taste it too much) but in the Ideal brand it doesn’t bother me - it doesn’t quite jump out like in the other one.

But I like the flavor of both and they are very good in simulating the brown sugar sweetness and flavor.

However, they really differ on some other points, like carb count, availability and price to name a few!

The LC-Sweet Brown is $ 7.98 per package (+ s/h.) The package contains about 1.5 cups of LC-Sweet Brown (7 oz.) The company website is the only place to source it, from what I can see.

It is used cup for cup in recipes, which means that you use as much of it as you would in a recipe calling for sugar.

The Ideal Brown Sugar Substitute is more widely available, especially as of late, as Ideal® can also be found in new purple packaging at Kroger®, Ralphs®, Fry’s® and Fred Meyer® stores across the country.

Amazon has always been a good source for Ideal Sweeteners too, which is especially handy when you are a prime member as you don’t pay shipping.

For the moment, the ideal sweetener is usually somewhere between $4.99 (locally for me, but then of course there’s sales tax) and $5.89 on Amazon. Amazon does however have a coupon code listed that brings it down to $4.89. Netrition sells them too and their price is right at $5.49, which is a good price if you can’t get it locally or you’re not an Amazon Prime Member.

The last time I was at Fry’s, I also noticed that they had coupons and little product samples, right with the product in combination with the launch of the new product/packaging. I’m not sure how long that will last though!

Anyway, my point is that there is a substantial price difference. Ideal sweeteners are also cup for cup substitutes, but their package contains about 4 cups, the equivalent of 2 lbs. of sugar sweetening power.

So, not taking taxes and shipping cost into account, 1 cup of LC-Sweet Brown = $5.32 and 1 cup of Ideal Brown Sweetener = $2.44.

To me that is a huge difference right there, especially if you are planning on baking with the stuff and not just sprinkling a tsp here and there over something! Not that Ideal is exactly cheap, but it is significantly cheaper in comparison. And the fact that there are price choices and local availability makes it even more attractive to me personally!

Now to the carb counts. LC-Sweet Brown definitely trumps the Ideal sweetener on that one!

If you are on a VERY low-carb eating plan, you’re going to love the LC-Sweet Brown! Once you subtract the fiber, it’s a zero g of net carbs sweetener!

The Ideal Brown Sweetener on the other hand has a whopping 24 g of carbs per cup, mostly due to the dextrose and maltodextrin (even though xylitol has some carbs too!) However, I rarely use it as the only sweetener in a recipe, so I have found the carbs quite manageable even on a VLC plan.

If it was on straight out of the pack flavor combined with carb-count alone, LC-sweet brown would definitely be right up there!

But now to the other big one - tolerance! This is one that is very personal to everyone. Some can tolerate xylitol and a variety of sugar alcohols just fine, other’s can’t, some are somewhere in between. Same goes for the high fiber ingredients!

Personally I can tolerate xylitol, the main sweetener ingredient in the Ideal sweetener really well as long as I don’t go totally excessive, but I tolerate massive amounts of fiber less well. Especially inulin and polydextrose! And in the case of the LC-Sweet Brown, one cup would have 144 g of fiber by my calculation and that is A LOT!

So even if you only use one cup and combine it with other sweeteners in a recipe like, let’s say a cake and you cut it into 16 slices, you end up with 9 g of fiber per slice and that’s before you’ve added any other ingredients, which in low-carb baking usually means fairly high amounts of fiber too. It may be too much for some.

However, if you are looking to increase the fiber significantly in your diet or a load of extra fiber doesn’t bother you - this may very well be the way for you!

To test how both hold up in baking, I set aside some batter from the Pumpkin Cupcakes and made one with the ideal brown sugar substitute as usual, and one with the LC-Sweet Brown. Everything else in the recipe was left exactly the same.

The coloring of the batter was a tiny bit darker with the LC-Sweet brown one but unless you have them side by side you would never know.

Tasting the batter, they tasted different, but both were very good. I can’t really say that one was better than the other, just different. Both were equally strong though and quite pleasant, with a good brown sugar flavor coming through! Like they were made with two different brands of brown sugar! And they were!

As you can see, they both also baked up equally well too. There were no differences in rise, density or “collapse”.

However, when it came to the taste test, I was surprised to find that the LC-Sweet Brown had lost some of it’s potency and it tasted almost bland in comparison to the other cupcake! I tested it quite a few times (there’s a reason why I made the tester cupcakes very MINI!) and could tell each time which one was which, simply because of the distinctly lacking brown sugar flavor!

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t unpleasant - it just suddenly lacking that certain something that the other one definitely had! It seemed more “blah”, which was disappointing considering how well both had started out in the flavor of the batter!

So, to summarize:

LC-Sweet Brown

Flavor:

Synergy/texture/flavor in baking:

Carb Count:

General Availability:

Price:

Personal Tolerance Level:

Gluten Free: Yes, as per ingredients, but they have a warning on their package that it is processed in a plant where wheat gluten are also processed!

So, LC-Sweet Brown gets a total of 17 out of a possible 31 stars (1 would be for being truly gluten-free which officially they are not) from me.

Ideal Brown Sugar Substitute

Flavor:

Synergy/texture/flavor in baking:

Carb Count:

General Availability:

Price:

Personal Tolerance Level:

Gluten Free: Yes

So, Ideal Brown Sugar Substitute gets a total of 25 out of a possible 31 stars from me.

Have you had a chance to test them? What has your experience been?

Stay tuned for the comparison on the confectioner’s sugar substitutes in the next few days!

The Party

2011-10-31T08:51:00.001-07:00

So, we had our party, the kids had a blast and the house is almost back to normal!

And the same thing happened as every year. I managed to take some really hurried photos (read too dark and often blurry) and then I got way too involved in being a hostess and no more photos were taken!

So when my husband picked up the camera while I was coordinating the gift opening frenzy amongst all the 5-6 year olds and started taking photos, I was going “Hurray!!” on the inside.

However, when I looked at the photos later, I saw that there were photos of all the gifts, but none of the kids!Considering the flying paper, frenzied movement and exclamations of what it was and the following Uhhhs and Ahhhs of the little guests, that took talent!

So, here are some of the photos we do have, however little those may be and however incomplete!

We all had a great time and that is the most important thing!

{Birthday boy in anticipation!}

{Swamp Juice}

{Fruit Salad, Veggies in dip with optional Chipotle Dip and Mini Caramel Apple Bites}

{Black Tortilla chips with Salsa or Queso Dip, Cheesy “Eyeballs” and the necessary utensils.}

{The Spider and Owl cupcakes we made with Max’s Batty watching over it all! It’s hard to tell on this picture, but I light under the box too and once it got a little darker, the light effects really came into their own! I also have the entire window covered in this spider webby dark cloth, which was also covered in the white spider webs and green and black spiders!}

{The other side of the table, minus the worms, pizza and wings that were served later!}

{The easiest decoration ever and also one of the kid’s favorites! This was up on the counter of our breakfast bar and every once in a while you would see a little one walk by, UNDER the counter and just a little hand would come up, reaching for a candy corn or three!}

{Our decorated mini pumpkins!}

{A little glimpse of the birthday princess! Complete with stain and polly pockets - what more can you ask!}

Party Preps Are In Full Swing!

2011-10-29T12:45:00.001-07:00

I’ll be posting some random photos from the party as it’s being prepared and happening over the next couple of days!

Sweet & Smokey Pumpkin Seeds anyone?

Or little Caramel Apple Bites?

More to come as we progress!

Quick and Easy Halloween Cupcakes

2011-10-28T09:51:00.001-07:00

Party preparations are in full swing around here. I was test running the cupcakes this morning! Even though there are many ways to do really scary things and really cute things with cupcakes for Halloween, my mission this year is to try and be as quick and easy about it as possible, while always bearing in mind, that my sensitive little princess gets scared rather easily. So if you make it look too real, or the suggestion is too real, she backs away!

So, making spider cupcakes is a bit of a push, but making them look sort of “limp” and cute and not at all like they’re going to walk off your plate was going to be ok with her, she thought!

My boy however, can’t wait to have everything be scary and icky! He loves the “worms of doom” which are not really Anna’s cup of tea at all - since they are almost “too real.”

So here are some quick, easy and not at all scary Halloween cupcakes! They are also great for little kids to help with, which reduces the scary factor even more and totally ups the fun factor!

These can literally be prepared last minute, just make sure you have all the ingredients on hand and you can make a dozen of these in less than half an hour!

You can make your own cupcakes or you can just go and buy some chocolate cupcakes without frosting at almost any supermarket!

Same goes for the frosting, either make your own from your favorite recipe or use the store bought stuff!

You will need:

Chocolate cupcakes

Chocolate frosting

Licorice or fruit lace (licorice works better color wise, but my kids don’t like it so much, so I got grape laces, which are almost black and much more yummy as far as the kids are concerned)

Chocolate sprinkles or brown/black casting sugar

Licorice all sorts yellow and black rounds (Walgreens carries licorice all sorts if you are having trouble finding it)

Preparation:

By the way, you can make or purchase the cupcakes days ahead and freeze them. When you are ready to decorate, there is no need to defrost them first. Just decorate on them as they are and by the time you’re ready to serve them they will be defrosted. And if your cupcakes are particularly fragile, use them frozen, they are easier to handle.

Pour your chocolate sprinkles/casting sugar in a bowl.

Cut your laces so they are long enough to go across your cupcake, all the way to the counter and then give them an extra half an inch. Depending on the size of your cupcake this could be around 8 inches or so. Make them longer than you need. You can always trim them later! You need 3-4 licorice laces per cupcake, so cut as many as you need.

Pick out two yellow licorice eyes per cupcake. Or if you have a princess girl too, also use the pink eyes. I used yellow for half and pink for the other half, since we are having a boy/girl party!

Now we are ready to go!

First spread a thin layer of frosting on the cupcake with an offset palette knife.

Criss-cross the laces across the top of the cupcake.

If you are having trouble doing the legs that way you can also do them individually after you frosted and sprinkles your cupcake.

Use scissors to cut six to eight 4-inch pieces of licorice for the legs. Holding all of the legs together in a bunch, bend them in half and crease (if you want the more real looking spider legs.) Push the end of each leg into the side of the cupcake, 3-4 on each side.

Carefully pick it up and spread another, more generous amount of frosting over the top of the cupcake, covering all the laces and going all the way down the sides of the cupcake to the cupcake wrapper.

Place the cupcake on a plate or in a large bowl and sprinkle the top generously with the chocolate sprinkles. The plate/bowl helps you salvage the sprinkle mess. Gently press the sprinkles into the frosting a bit to make them stick better.

Spread a little frosting on the back of both yellow licorice eyes and place them on the cupcake.

Voila - you’re done! Now do all the others!

You can bend the licorice lace to make them look like “real” spider legs by straightening them out and then giving them a kink towards the top third at this point. They’ll look more like Daddy Longlegs like that. Personally, I like the spider legs flailing all over the place. It makes them look even cuter and as I mentioned, I am catering to 6-year-olds!

The other little non-scary decorations on that picture above are the toothy white pumpkin, which is simply a small white pumpkin carved to make room for the child-sized dollar store vampire teeth and a couple of sticky googly eyes!

The mummy is a juice box, wrapped in dollar store white electrical tape and again, two googly eyes!

Just a tip though, when you are wrapping the juice boxes with the tape, do it loosely. If you do it too tight, the juice will squirt out all over the place as soon as you put the straw in! How do I know that? Let’s just say I learn from experience!

Want a cupcake that is even quicker and has ingredients you could pick up at almost any store right NOW?

Here you go!

You need:

Chocolate cupcakes

Chocolate frosting

Chocolate sprinkles (optional)

Oreo cookies

M&Ms or Reese's Pieces

Preparation:

Carefully pull the top of two Oreo cookies. Be careful you leave the filling intact on one side of the cookie. You could use the empty cookie halves to make the dirt for the worms of doom dessert!

Frost your cupcake, place the two Oreo cookies on the cupcake. Use an orange M&M as the beak and stick two yellow (or brown, which I like better but the kids wanted yellow) ones on the Oreo cookies with a dab of frosting.

Optionally, sprinkle some chocolate sprinkles on the “forehead” of the owl.

That’s it!

Worms of Doom (LC, GF, SF)

2011-10-27T13:28:00.001-07:00

Ahhh, back again! I’ve been crazy busy the last few weeks with training, family and weekends away!

My twins had their 6th birthday last week and on Saturday we’re having their Halloween-Birthday party! A lot of the food at the party will be catering to little 6-year-olds, which means there is sugar involved, but there’ll be some other things too. One of the “frightfully” yummy dishes, will be the worms of doom!

They are easy to make, low-carb friendly, gluten-free and quite yummy!

So here we go!

You will need:

2 packs (6 oz.) of sugar- free raspberry Jell-O gelatin mix (strawberry or cherry work too)

3 envelopes of plain gelatin

3 cups of boiling water

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

green food coloring

100 bendy straws

1 rubber band

1 empty milk or orange juice carton

Wax paper

Preparation:

In a bowl or Pyrex measuring dish, place all the gelatin and mix well with a whisk. You want all the gelatin to be incorporated evenly.

Boil 3 cups of water and our into the gelatin. Please make sure you boil all the water - no ice water short cuts here! This is a lot of gelatin, so we need all the water to dissolve it properly!

See how it even looks too thick with just 2 cups?

Stir the water and the gelatin together until it’s dissolved. Now we need to cool the mix down to room temperature. Don’t skip this step!

We need to add some cream to this too, but don’t do it now! Your cream will curdle and your worms won’t turn out! To do it correctly, set your bowl in the fridge for about 20 minutes until the liquid is room temperature. SET A TIMER because if you forget about it, it will turn into a very large red Jell-O lump and you’ll have to start over.

So, while that’s cooling down (did you remember to set the timer?!) cut the top off your milk carton, so you have an even square opening on top. Rinse and dry your carton and set aside.

Make sure you extend the straws to the maximum length by pulling on the ends. Stretch them all out and then place a rubber band around them to keep them together in a nice bundle.

Place your bundled straws into the milk carton!

Make sure to put the bendy necks at the bottom of your container! If they are at the top, your mixture might not fill up high enough to get to the bendy part and you’ll have non-textured worms.

As you will see, I didn’t use a milk carton because I got it in my head that you would be able to see better what I was doing if I used a clear vessel. Well, that part is true, but let me tell you, it was a bit of a pain removing the straws from this! I had to pull them out one by one, while with a milk carton, you can just cut it off! So do yourself a favor and use the easy route!

Now it’s time to get the mix out of the fridge.

Stir in your cream and about 12-15 drops of green food coloring to get a reddish brown, which is more “worm like.” Your cream may curdle just a little anyway, but that’s ok, it won’t be visible later!

Now you will thank me that I told you to use a measuring jug, because you can pour the mix straight into all the straws.

Yes, there will be some coming out at the bottom and come up on the sides around the straws, but that’s ok.

Once all the mix is poured over the straws, chill your straws for at least 8 hrs. or over night.

Don’t worry that the straws will all be unevenly filled and most won’t come anywhere near the top. It’s all good!

Ok. Now for the fun part. After everything is chilled, cut apart your carton and get your straws separated from the mold. Then lay out 12 inches or so of wax paper and starting from the non-bendy end push it down with your non-dominant hand and use the thumb of your dominant hand to push the worms out on the top!

One down, 99 to go!

See how the cream sank a little! It’s like an automatic color gradient on these! Cool, huh?

Once you squeeze the worms out on the wax paper and have an even row of worms, put another layer of wax paper right on top of the worms and keep squeezing! I did 3 layers. Then add one more layer of wax paper over the very top layer and you can roll up the worms in a nice little package and refrigerate! These can be made up to 2 days ahead!

To make the dirt, use any kind of low-carb or gluten-free chocolate cookie and grind finely in your food processor. Then toss with the worms.

For the kids, I used the outside of some Oreo cookies, scraping the filling off with a spoon first and then powdered it in a food processor.

Of course, you quick thinking minds will have worked out that this method could also be used to make regular worms - without the doom! You can use any kind of Jell-O flavoring in that case, you can add cream or not - just keep with the basic liquid to gelatin ration and you’re golden! If you’re making two colored ones, use half the gelatin and make two batches. Use one first, let it set in the straws, then make another batch in a different color/flavor and pour it on top!

If you wanted to make sour gummy worms, proceed as above, then roll the worms in a mix of ascorbic acid (powdered vitamin C, which provides the sour) and powdered erythritol!

Oh and just a little word of caution - don’t let these sit in the sun! It seems obvious I know, but I left them sitting on the kitchen counter after I photographed them and returned to worm-of-doom soup!

They do however hold up fine sitting for a while at room temperature, just don’t let them get too warm.

Low-Carb Pretzel Sticks (LC, SF)

2011-10-11T17:57:00.001-07:00

Yep, they are low-carb!

For weeks now I’ve been wanting to experiment with making low-carb Pretzels! Maybe it’s the Oktoberfest atmosphere in the air!

Anyway, I was pretty sure that actual pretzels would fall short because the larger the piece of dough making it, the more you run into textural problems and sometimes also flavor problems.

But then I thought, what about Pretzel sticks?

So experimenting I went, fully intending to bake the sticks until they were hard and crunchy. But much to my surprise, when the sticks came out of the oven after their first baking at a fairly light “pretzel state”, they tasted very much like actual Pretzels!

Did they taste like real Bavarian Pretzels? No, but then I’m a Brezen snob, so it’s hard to get me to approve of even most high-carb Pretzels outside of Bavaria. They do however taste very close to my low-carb taste buds. Fresh out of the oven with some butter they made me very happy indeed!

As predicted however, this was not quite the case with the normal sized Pretzel I made too, just to see how it would go! It seemed a bit more “low carb” tasting, while the sticks weren’t!

But they were also surprisingly soft-pretzel like in texture, even after they cooled down and not chewy like many low-carb baked goods tend to be! And none of them fell flat after cooling down, which is very unusual for low-carb baked good! Not at all as I thought they would turn out! And for once that was a good thing!

So after we had half the batch right out of the oven (the kids didn’t even notice that they were different than usual) we made the other half into crunchy pretzel sticks! Which were promptly devoured by my kids as soon as I took the photos!

Please also refer to my High-Carb Pretzel tutorial here. The method will be much the same!

Low-Carb Pretzel Sticks

Makes about 20 large Pretzel Sticks

Ingredients:

For the dough:

2 1/4 cups of low-carb bake mix

3/4 cup of boiling water

1/4 cup of heavy cream

1/2 tsp bread salt

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp. butter, melted

2 tsp yeast granules

1 tsp sugar (for the yeast)

For the lye bath:

2 quarts of water

2 tbsp. Food Grade Sodium Hydroxide Lye

To prepare it, get a sealable container, a thick tupperware type bowl like mine for example, and fill it with 1/2 a gallon of cold water. Do NOT use a metal bowl! Glass is ok though! You need it to be wider than it’s deep so you can easily and quickly dip the dough.

Wearing latex gloves and protective eye gear, add the pellets, stirring carefully with a metal spoon until the pellets are dissolved.

They have a tendency to form this crystalized structure at the bottom. Break it up and keep stirring until it is all dissolved.

Careful, the contents can get HOT!
Seal the container until you are ready to use it.

BEWARE:

This stuff is not only poisonous, it is very caustic.
So, please be extra careful and take precautions! PLEASE keep it far away from children! Flush any unintentional contact with plenty of water.

You soap makers and olive picklers out there know the drill, but it can never be said enough – be careful around this stuff!

Directions:

I used my bread machine to prepare the dough. Add in the order stated: water, cream, salt, melted butter, bake mix, yeast granules sugar and baking powder. Let the machine do it’s thing and mix the dough. Knead it for a few minutes until a smooth dough forms.

The dough will be very light and a bit puffy, but not overly sticky.

Now line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Parchment paper is necessary as after the lye bath the dough almost welds itself to anything it touches, so unless you want to chiseled off dough bits later, line your cookie sheets!

Divide the dough into 20 (or more if you like the pretzel sticks to be shorter or thinner) equal balls and roll them out into uniform snakes. Place them on your cookie sheets with plenty of room between them.

Let the sit in a warm place (80F should do it,) UNCOVERED and let them rise. Usually we cover baked goods while rising but in this case we want the sticks to firm up a bit on the outside so they can stand the dunking better!

Preheat your oven to 400 F.

After about 20-30 minutes, put on your safety gear (gloves and goggles.)

Dip your risen dough sticks quickly but carefully into the lye bath. Dip each stick separately by placing it in the bowl, letting it be for about 2 seconds, turn it or roll it briefly and scoop it out, placing it immediately on the baking tray. They hold up surprisingly well to the dipping, but you need to work fast nevertheless because once the moisture penetrates, the dough snakes become very fragile!

~Make sure you get the entire thing dipped, otherwise you’ll get a very patchy stick. You can see further down on a photo that my large pretzel is very patchy indeed. It was the last thing for me to dip and I didn’t want to let go of it as it seemed very heavy and fragile and the lye didn’t get all of the pretzel. ~

Sprinkle all dipped pieces with pretzel or kosher salt.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until you get that deep brown color.

Remove them from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes. They really want to stick to the parchment paper and if you try and pull them off you lose half your stick. Once they cool a little the bottoms seem to be more willing to come up too and you can carefully peel the parchment paper off!

You can now enjoy the sticks like warm breadsticks, with some butter. Yum!

Or, if you’re making the hard pretzel sticks, leave them in there for another 5-7 minutes to bake to a darker brown color. Remove them from the oven, turn off your oven and let it cool down to about 200 F. Place the pretzel sticks back in the oven and with the oven off, let them dry in there for about half an hour or so.

{Crunchy goodness!}

Remove, let them cool, peel of the parchment and then store in an air tight container.

Tips:

If you have the patience and the inclination, you could make lots of mini pretzels.

{Isn’t it just so cute!? It’s about 1” x 1.5”}

Or roll the dough really thin and long, then cut off thin strips, much like the small commercial pretzel sticks.
Or if you have a pasta extruder, use that to make your shapes!
Make dipped pretzel sticks by melting some Lindt 85% chocolate with a little butter or coconut oil, then dip one end of the pretzel sticks in them and roll in chopped nuts or crushed sugar-free candy.

Low-Carb Mashed “Potatoes” - 4 ways

2011-10-11T12:17:00.001-07:00

{Cauliflower and Potato Mash}

With the holidays fast approaching and the summer weather fading, comfort foods like mashed potatoes are more on people’s minds again. If you are on a low-carb eating plan, the “real thing” is pretty much out!

However, there are plenty of ways to give us some substitutions!

Do they taste like the real thing, you ask? No. Only the real thing tastes like the real thing, I’m afraid. But they make some real good side dishes in their own rights that are reminiscent of mashed potatoes.

And with the addition of some real potatoes, even though very little, we do get a whole lot closer to the flavor and texture of the real thing. With all of them, getting them as dry as possible before proceeding further is key!

So maybe the question needs to be: Are these mash recipes creamy, delicious and indulgent and might they just make me miss “real” mashed potatoes a tad bit less? You betcha!

Ok, so let’s get started! My personal favorite is the cauliflower and potato mash as I really like the flavor of cauliflower, but sometimes I rotate through the others too!

Cauliflower and Potato Mash

Ingredients:

5 cups of cooked cauliflower florets (I usually buy frozen florets and steam them soft in the microwave steamer bags for 10 minutes on high)

1/4 cup crème fraiche or sour cream (I prefer crème fraiche as the homemade kind gets pretty thick and helps to creamify the mash without "watering” it down!)

3 tbsp. unsalted butter

1 packed cup of finely shredded cheese of choice (I use Mexican blend)

1/4-1/2 tsp of seasoning salt of choice

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper (optional)

1/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill Idaho Potato Flakes *

1/4 tsp guar gum (only if your mash seems soupy)

Preparation:

Once your cauliflower florets are cooked/steamed, put them in a colander lined with a few layers of kitchen towel and let it absorb the excess water for a few minutes.

With the steaming method you won’t have too much of that, but if you are boiling your cauliflower, it will be much more wet, so it’s important to get that out first. Even press it down a bit with an additional kitchen towel and pad it dry. You want to get out all the water you can.

Next, add the dried cauliflower to your blender, add all the other ingredients and blend until smooth. Check to see the consistency, if it seems a bit soupy, add the guar gum and blend again until completely smooth. Adjust seasonings to taste.

You can now either serve it immediately or place it in a casserole dish, cover with foil and refrigerate until you need it. This can be made a day in advance. To reheat, bake in a 350-degree oven, covered, for 20-30 minutes, or until warmed through.

This makes 46 g of carbs, with 17 g of fiber, so 29 g of net carbs for the whole recipe. At 5 generous servings that is 6 g of net carbs each (with the Bob’s Red Mill Potato Flakes - other carb counts vary widely, so please adjust yours!)

* You can also omit the potato flakes and just go with a delicious cauliflower mash! I often do as I really like mashed cauliflower by itself. In that case, the carb count is 3 g of net carbs per serving.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jicama and Turnips make for very good mock mashed potatoes too, but they are usually more labor intensive. The Jicama requires a long time of pre-cooking and the turnips require a soaking prior to cooking to remove the “turnippy” flavor, but if you are really not into cauliflower, you can substitute other things.

Turnip Mash

Turnip substitution: Peel and chop around 5 cups of turnips. Place them in a bowl, add 1 tsp salt and 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream over them, then fill the bowl with water, so all the turnips are covered by the cream water. Let them soak for one hour, stirring once or twice to get all the turnips submerged evenly.

After one hour, discard the cream water and rinse the turnips. Now boil the turnips over medium high heat until fork tender. Drain them and then proceed with drying them and making the mashed potatoes as in the cauliflower recipe above.

The carb count for the turnip mash, with the potato flakes is 59 g of carbs, 15 g of fiber, so 54 g of net carbs. At 5 servings that is 10.8 g of net carbs per serving. Without the potato flakes, the turnip mash is 40 g of net carbs for the whole recipe and 8g of net carbs per serving.

Jicama Mash

If you are going to substitute Jicama, here is how to do it.

You’ll need about 5 cups of peeled and grated Jicama. Place in the crockpot with 3 cups of water (or stock) and some salt and cook overnight (10 hrs.) on low.

They should be fork tender by then. Drain and pat dry and proceed with the recipe as above.

The carb count for the jicama mash, with the potato flakes is 75 g of carbs, 35 g of fiber, so 40 g of net carbs. At 5 servings that is 8 g of net carbs per serving. Without the potato flakes, the turnip mash is 40 g of net carbs for the whole recipe and 5.6 g of net carbs per serving.

Pumpkin Ice Cream With Candied Pumpkin Seeds (LC, GF, SF)

2011-10-07T09:27:00.001-07:00

Ingredients:

For the ice cream:

2 large eggs
1 tsp stevia extract
1/2 tsp blackstrap molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract or buttery vanilla bakery emulsion
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup low-carb milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 tsp delicious pinch spice mix
1 tbsp. glycerine

for the candied seeds:

1/3 cup pumpkin seeds (or chopped pecan pieces, or finely chopped hazelnuts)
2 tbsp. xylitol or erythritol
1/2 tsp honey
1 tsp of Monin sugar-free syrup

Preparation:

Scald your milk, meaning the milk is starting to slightly bubble close to the sides of the pot, but is not boiling.

Whisk two eggs until light and fluffy, about two minutes. Gradually add the hot milk to the eggs under constant whisking. Do this slowly so the eggs don’t scramble! Add the stevia, blackstrap molasses, extract or emulsion and mix. Then add the heavy cream, pumpkin puree, glycerine and spice mix.
Mix until well blended. Transfer to ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.

Spray a piece of tin foil with a non-stick spray.

Heat xylitol with honey and syrup in a non-stick pan until bubbly. Add the pumpkin seeds and stir to coat everything. Continue to stir the bubbling mixture until the pumpkin seeds start to smell toasty and puff up and the caramelized mix is turning an amber color.

Quickly pour it on the prepared piece of tin foil, spread it apart and let it cool.

Once cool, break it up bit. If you have very large seeds, you may want to chop them a little before stirring them into the ice cream once it has reached soft serve stage. Freeze the ice cream in ice cream containers for an additional 4 hours before serving!

Makes 1 Quart. The whole recipe is 49 g of carbs minus 7 g of fiber, so 42 g of net carbs. That makes it 5.25 g of net carbs per serving.

Pumpkin Spice Syrup (also for Lattes) (LC, GF, SF)

2011-10-05T09:16:00.001-07:00

Ingredients:

1½ cups Monin sugar-free syrup (vanilla works well, or unflavored sweetener base, or caramel) *
3 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
½ tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. ground cloves
1/4 cup pumpkin puree

1/8 tsp. buttery sweet dough bakery emulsion (optional, but rounds it out nicely!)

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan with a whisk and heat over medium-high heat. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, without letting the mixture come to a real boil.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Strain the syrup through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth and store in your container of choice. Keep refrigerated.

You can use this syrup over your low-carb hot cereal, in your tea, over low-carb pancakes, to spice up your whipped cream or anywhere else a bit of autumnal spice seems good to you!

To make a pumpkin spice latte, combine 2 ounces of hot coffee or 1 shot of hot espresso (about 1-1½ ounces) with 5-6 ounces of hot/steamed low-carb milk. Stir in 1½-2 tablespoons of the pumpkin spice syrup.

Taste and adjust amounts to your liking. You can also make an iced Latte by pouring the above amounts of coffee/espresso over ice and adding cold low-carb milk!

If desired, top with whipped cream and ground cinnamon or delicious pinch spice mix.

*Using sugar-free syrups other than Monin won’t result in as thick a syrup.

Sweet & Smoky Pumpkin Seeds (LC, GF, SF)

2011-09-28T09:31:00.001-07:00

These little Pepitas (pumpkin seeds) are an easy, tasty and incredibly addicting snack! And healthy to boot! The are coated in this sweet caramelized glaze with just a bit of salty smokiness - all covering that nutty, toasty little seed! So good!

Try them for yourself today!

Ingredients:

1 cup Pumpkin Seeds, hulled
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp. xylitol or erythritol, divided
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika

Preparation:

Mix 1 tbsp. of erythritol or xylitol, salt, cumin and smoked paprika in a bowl.

Heat a large non-stick skillet on medium high heat. In a bowl, toss pumpkin seeds with oil and 2 tbsp. of the erythritol and add to the hot pan in an even layer.

Let the seeds toast for about 4-5 min, stirring occasionally. They are done when they are until fragrant, toasted and puffed, with some of them golden brown.

When the pumpkin seeds are done, immediately toss with the spice mix.

Allow to cool before serving. I find it’s the easiest and fastest to just spread them out on a lined cookie sheet to cool.

They may seem a little sticky at first, even after they cooled down. Just let them air dry for a few hours or even over night (for a larger batch) and they will loose the stickiness and get a crunchy glaze!

Can be stored in an airtight container for about 2 weeks. Longer in the refrigerator.

The whole recipe is 26 g of carbs, minus 20g of fiber, so 6 g of net carbs.

Tips:

If you are making a larger batch, you may want to do the initial toasting in the oven. In that case, preheat the oven to 350 F and toast the pumpkin seeds for about 6-7 minutes, then toss with the spices!
If you have it handy, use bacon fat instead of the olive oil for a hearty variety! You may however want to cut down on the salt!
You can also use sunflower seeds for this, but you will need to up the seeds to 2 cups. All other quantities stay the same!
If you’d prefer them in clusters, instead of spreading the seeds out on a baking sheet after they are tossed in the spice mix, form little heaps with a teaspoon on the cookie sheet and let them dry that way!
Toss them on a salad, top your favorite casserole or veggie dish with these seeds for a flavorful crunch!

Low-Carb Crockpot Applesauce (LC, GF, SF)

2011-09-26T10:34:00.001-07:00

As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, it’s the season for chayote squash! Which means this low-carber is busy making and canning “apple” sauce!

You see, I LOVE apple sauce! Adore it even! I could eat it on a daily basis. But of course when you are on a very-low carb plan, that’s not really happening. So when chayote season rolls around, I make the most of it and stock up on yummy applesauce that’s ok for me to eat. This mock apple sauce is so close to the real thing, people usually can’t tell a difference, so I’m a happy camper.

The only thing that is slightly different is the texture. It’s closer to slightly “undercooked” applesauce, but it works for me. I hope it works for you too!

Now, I am well aware that I might have some weird and wonderful ingredients in my kitchen that others don’t. Actually there is no “might” about it, so I’m going to give you two recipes. The one that gets you a pretty good applesauce with readily available ingredients and the one that I make because, well I have those other things in my cupboard too!

So, first of all the basic recipe.

Low-Carb Crockpot Applesauce

Ingredients:

5 large chayote squash, peeled, cored and finely diced

2 envelopes of sugar-free spiced apple cider drink mix (gluten-free cooks, please see note at the bottom)

1/4 cup of lemon juice

1/4 cup Monin sweetener base

1 cup of water

1/4 tsp stevia extract

1 cup of unsweetened applesauce

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

Preparation:

Place everything but the xanthan gum in your crockpot and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 6 hours. When that time is up, put your “apples” into a blender, juice and all, add the xanthan gum and blend until smooth. Pour the smooth mix back into the crock pot and cook for another 2 hours on low. Once the chayote has reached the tenderness you like, it’s done!

If your canning, fill into sterile jars and process in a water bath.

Otherwise, let it cool down and keep refrigerated or freeze.

Makes about fifteen half cup servings at 3.7 net carbs each.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And here is the version I made recently, using what I had on hand. I prefer it as it seem to have a more intense apple flavor, but the difference is possibly only noticeable to me!

5 medium to large chayote squash, peeled, cored and finely diced

2 envelopes of sugar-free spiced apple cider drink mix (gluten-free cooks, please see note at the bottom)

Juice of one lemon

1 tsp Ascorbic Acid

1/4 cup Monin sweetener base

1 cup of water

1/4 tsp stevia extract

1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce

1 snack pack of Freeze-Dried Apples (0.35 oz.)

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

Prepare as above.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note for gluten-free cooks: Alpine sugar-free apple cider drink mix contains maltodextrin, so it is not suitable for a gluten-free diet. You can use 1 tbsp. of apple juice concentrate instead (adjust the carb count) or use an apple/apple cider flavor concentrates like this one or this one or this one from nature’s flavors.

All are excellent flavors and are sugar-free, gluten-free and essentially carb free, saving 8 g of carbs per envelope on on “Apple” preparations. However, the sugar-free alpine drink mix is available at local grocery stores (Wal-Mart, target etc.)

Caramelized Macadamia And Pecan Squares (LC, GF, SF)

2011-09-25T14:42:00.001-07:00

The remind me a lot of the Florentine cookies my mom used to make! The subtle honey flavor, the caramelized “brown sugar” flavor, together with the toasty nuts and just a touch of chocolate to round it all out! So delicious! A real treat for sure!

Ingredients:

For the crust:

1/2 cup erythritol, powdered
pinch of salt
1 cup Bake Mix # 2 (or other bake mix of choice - including gluten-free)
2/3 cup of almond flour
1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp sweet dough bakery emulsion (optional)

For the topping:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar-free honey, runny (if it has crystalized a little, warm it in the microwave to liquid state before using)
1/3 cup erythritol, powdered
1/2 tsp blackstrap molasses
1/8 tsp cream of tartar (makes for a smooth caramel and prevents crystalization)
3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
3 cups pecans and macadamias, chopped (Or you can use all pecans, or a mix of any other nuts you prefer)
1/2 tsp buttery vanilla bakery emulsion or vanilla extract (optional)

For an optional drizzle:

2 oz Lindt 85% chocolate
1 tsp coconut oil or butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish and line with parchment paper, if desired.
Mix the bake mix and erythritol together in a bowl. Add the cubed butter and cut into the flour mixture with a fork or pastry cutter until the butter is the size of small peas. Press into the prepared baking dish and bake until it just starts to turn golden brown around the edges, about 15 minutes.

In another bowl, mix together the melted butter, honey, brown sugar substitute, and cream. Add the nuts and stir until all the pecans are coated. Pour on top of the baked crust and spread evenly. Bake for an additional 20-25 minutes.

Cool completely before cutting! I find that I can speed up the process by letting the pan cool for about 30 minutes at room temperature and then stick it in the freezer for an hour or so. I cut the squares, then drizzle the chocolate on. The semi frozen squares set the chocolate much faster and you don’t break the chocolate drizzle when cutting the squares later.

If you’d like to go for the optional drizzle of chocolate over the top, melt the chocolate with the coconut oil. Place the melted chocolate in a small sandwich bag, snip the corner off to make a small opening and gently squeeze as you go over the entire pan of squares in a back and forth sweeping motion.

Let the chocolate set and serve!

These also freeze really well!

Makes 15 generous squares. The carb count depends very much on what bake mix and nuts you use in this, so please adjust your carb count accordingly.

With my ingredients the entire pan comes to 151 g of carbs with 85 g of fiber, which makes a net carb count of 66 g.

With my ingredients it comes to 4.4 g of net carbs per square with chocolate and 4 g of net carbs without.

Kaiserschmarrn - or the Austrian Torn Pancake (LC, GF, SF)

2011-09-22T21:31:00.001-07:00

I grew up with Kaiserschmarrn! It’s truly a comfort food and I made sure my children grew up with it too! As you can see it is enjoyed by adults and babies alike!

I can’t even believe that these were my kiddos almost to the day, 5 years ago!

What is it?

Kaiserschmarrn is a traditional Austrian dessert and literally translated it means “Emperor’s mishmash”, after Emperor Franz Joseph who supposedly invented the dish.

It is an airy pancake made with eggs, flour, sugar, and butter (and optionally rum-soaked raisins.) The pancake is split into pieces while frying, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and served hot with plum or apple sauce on the side.

Here’s the pretty passable low-carb version!

Kaiserschmarrn - or the Austrian Torn Pancake

Ingredients:

4 eggs, separated and at room temperature

1/4 cup low-carb bake mix of choice

1/4 cup of oat flour

1/4 cup of granular sugar substitute

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla flavoring

1/4 cup of low-carb milk

1/4 cup of butter, divided

powdered sweetener for dusting

Preparation:

Melt 2 tbsps. of butter in the microwave.

Whip the room-temperature egg whites to soft peaks. Add the granular sugar substitute of choice and whip to stiff peaks. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the bake mix, oat flour, baking powder and vanilla.

Take a little of the batter and fold it into the stiff egg whites. Keep folding until all the batter is incorporated.

In a large skillet melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Pour the batter into the skillet and cook 5 to 6 minutes, or until the pancake has set and the bottom is golden brown.

Turn over the pancake and cook 3 minutes, or until this side is also golden brown.

If you’d rather not turn the large puffy pancake, place the pancake in a preheated oven (400 F) once you see the edges sizzle a little and cook until the top is golden brown. See the movie for that. Baking in the oven does produce a lighter product as the pancake isn’t deflated by turning it!

Using a spatula or two forks (go with the spatula if you have a non-stick coated pan,) tear the pancake into bite-size pieces. Drizzle with the melted butter.

Cook the pieces a little longer until golden brown.

To serve, sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar substitute and serve with sugar-free preserves or low-carb “apple” sauce.

For a visual aid in preparing Kaiserschmarrn, please view this short video! If you don’t understand Austrian, you don’t need to. Just watch the method and use the ingredients in the recipe on my blog and you’re good to go! Oh and ignore the multiple applications of sugar - that’s a little excessive even for the original high carb version, even though the resulting caramelized side of the pancake is rather nice. At our house we never did that however when I grew up and we would be hard pressed to do it successfully with sugar substitutes anyway, so just omit it!

The carb count of this very much depends on what bake mix you use!

The above recipe serves 2 for a meal or 3 for dessert.

Low-Carb Pita Pockets or Naan Bread (LC, SF)

2011-09-21T12:41:00.001-07:00

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cups vital wheat gluten
1 cup oat flour
¼ cup wheat bran

½ cup golden flax seed meal

¼ cup oat fiber
1/2 tsp acacia gum (optional)
2 tsp sugar (for the yeast)
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp. melted butter or oil of choice
4 tsp active dry yeast
1 to 1 ½ cups warm water

Preparation:

In an upright mixer with the dough attachment in place, place all ingredients except water.

Begin mixing and slowly add water until a dough ball forms. You may need more or less water - it depends mostly on your climate. Start with 1 cup. The dough should be every so slightly sticky, but not wet after 2 minutes of mixing. If it’s too dry, add more water.

Knead for another 4-5 minutes then turn out into an oiled bowl. Oil top of dough ball and cover with plastic wrap or put the bowl in a large plastic bag.
Set in a warm place to rise about 1 hour or until double in size.

Turn the risen dough out of the countertop and cut 12 portions. Fold them inside out a couple of times, then roll out the dough into about 8 inch rounds with a rolling pin, about 1/8th of an inch thick. The dough will want to pull together into a smaller shape, that’s ok. Just roll them all out, then go over them again. Let them rest for about 10 minutes.

While your dough is resting, place a pizza stone or an inverted heavy cookie sheet on the middle rack of your oven and preheat to 475 F. Once temperature is reached, let the stone/cookie sheet warm up for a further 5 minutes or so.

Spray the stone with a mist of water (or splash on some water at the bottom of your oven) and close oven door for 30 seconds. We want to get a warm and steamy environment.

Get ready to work quickly.

Open the oven and place two pitas at the time on the hot stone/inverted cookie sheet. Bake for 2 to 2 ½ minutes until puffed up in the center.
Flip pita over with some tongs and cook for another 30 - 40 seconds on the other side, then remove to a wire rack.
Spray stone/cookie sheet again and repeat process until all pitas are baked.

Yours didn’t puff up? Never fear! Just cut them in half and run a knife between the layers and gently carve out a pocket. They tend to come apart quite easily!

The pitas are pretty large, so I usually cut them in half and fill both sides independently.

{This is half a pita bread filled!}

If you are making Naan Bread, roll your rounds out a bit thicker, about 1/4 inch or so. Preheat the oven as above, but only to 425 F. Preheat a cookie sheet with the oven like above. Once up to temperature, place as many dough rounds as you can easily fit on the cookie sheet, then splash some water on the bottom of the oven and close the oven door. Bake for about 3 minutes, then flip them over, spray with water again and bake for another 2 - 3 minutes until golden brown.

Here’s the texture of the bread:

This dough also lends itself nicely for thick or thin crust pizza and the breads or slightly pre-baked pizza bottom rounds freeze well!

Makes 12.

137 g of carbs, with 57 g of fiber, so a net carb count of 80 for the entire recipe. That makes it 6.66 g of net carbs per pita/naan bread ( at 11.41 g of carbs, with 4.75 g of fiber.)

Chayote Squash and “Apple” Blueberry Crumble (LC, GF, SF)

2011-09-20T10:04:00.001-07:00

‘Tis the season!

No, not that season. Not yet anyway!

I mean Chayote squash season! Those funky little squashes are starting to make an appearance in the stores, which means it’s apple substitute season for low-carbers!

Doesn’t it just make you want to draw eyes on it and make it talk?

Anyway, I digress!

I’ll be posting a few ways to use these little squashes over the next while. They do require a tad of extra work simply because we need to soften them and give them that apple flavor, but it’s not a huge amount of effort and if you are missing apples like me, it’s totally worth it. And it’s such a yummy way to eat your veggies!

First of all, here’s the basic way to make the Chayote squashes into “apples”.

Low-Carb “Apples”

Ingredients:

1 Chayote squash

2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 envelope of Alpine sugar-free apple cider drink mix (gluten-free cooks and carb savers: see note below)

2 tsp sugar substitute of choice

2 tbsp. water

Preparation:

Peel and core the Chayote. Chop into fine dices. In a non-stick saucepan, combine all the ingredients and boil until fork tender. About 15 minutes or so. Keep the lid on for the first little while to keep the moisture in, but take the lid off for the last 5 minutes until all the juice is absorbed by the squash.

And that is it. Makes about 1/2 cup of “apple” dices @ 6 g of carbs with 2 g of fiber, so 4 g of net carbs. If you are using a different spiced cider drink mix, please adjust the carb count!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now you can do whatever you like with them really. Add them to your pancakes, for apple pancakes, toss them in some butter and cinnamon for fried apples, add them to a pie etc. One of my favorite treats right now is some whole Greek yogurt, topped with some Chayote apple dices and a drizzle of sugar-free honey!

Or you could make apple crumble!

“Apple” Blueberry Crumble

Ingredients:

1/2 cup erythritol, powdered
1 envelopes Sweet One (or other sugar substitute)
pinch of salt
1/2 cup Bake Mix # 2 (or other bake mix of choice - including gluten-free)
1/3 cup of almond flour
1/3 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp cinnamon, ground

2 large eggs
1/3 cup heavy cream
4 drops of stevia extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (or almond bakery emulsion)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or buttery vanilla bakery emulsion)
3 large chayote squash, pealed and cut into small chunks
6 oz. of blueberries (or omit the blueberries and use a total of 4 squashes instead to make apple crumble)
1 envelope Alpine sugar-free spiced apple cider drink mix (2 if making apple crumble) - gluten-free cooks and carb savers: see note below
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsps. sugar-free vanilla syrup (or apple, cinnamon, unflavored, caramel - all those flavors work!)
1/4 cup water
Whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Directions:

Place the peeled and chopped chayote into a non-stick saucepan with the lemon juice, spiced cider powder, water and sugar-free syrup. Cook until fork tender, about 20 minutes on boil. It helps to keep a lid on for the first 15 minutes, then take the lid off for the last 5 minutes and cook until the juice is almost all absorbed by the squash.

Place in a shallow dish and let it cool a little while you prepare the rest. Add the blueberries.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together the erythritol, sweet one, salt, cinnamon and bake mix. Using a pastry blender or your hands, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, the cream, the stevia extract and the almond and vanilla extracts.

Pour the cream mixture over the fruit/squash, and sprinkle with butter-flour mixture.

Bake until topping is golden brown and the plums are tender, about 30 -40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream.

This serves 8.

The all chayote apple crumble is 80 g of carbs, 26 g of fiber, so a net carb count of 54 g.

That makes it 6.75 g of net carbs per serving (without the whipping cream and with bake mix #2)

The chayote and blueberry crumble is 97 g of carbs, 27 g of fiber, so a net carb count of 70 g.

That makes it 8.75 g of net carbs per serving (without the whipping cream and with bake mix #2)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of course you could also make this crumble with all blueberries, or blackberries and blueberries, or “apple” and blackberries, all of which tastes quite delicious. In that case you would omit the drink mix, sugar-free syrup and water!

Note for gluten-free cooks: Alpine sugar-free apple cider drink mix contains maltodextrine, so it is not suitable for a gluten-free diet. You can use 1 tbsp. of apple juice concentrate instead (adjust the carb count) or use an apple/apple cider flavor concentrates like this one or this one or this one from nature’s flavors.

All are excellent flavors and are sugar-free, gluten-free and essentially carb free, saving 8 g of carbs on the crumble recipe and 2 g of carbs on the “Basic Chayote Apple” preparation. However, the alpine drink mix is available at local grocery stores (walmart, target etc)

Sesame Crackers (LC, GF, SF)

2011-09-19T10:38:00.001-07:00

Here’s another one of my “old” recipe that have stood the test of time. And a variation on the theme that is also gluten free!

I prefer the second one these days, especially with some fresh garden herbs and fresh garlic! They are buttery and light, while being crunchy. The toastiness of the sesame seeds together with the crunchiness from the browned cheese - totally delicious!

Original Recipe for Sesame Crackers

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds, ground

6 oz. grated cheese (1 1/2 cups)

2 tbsp. vital wheat gluten

¼ cup oat flour

2 tbsp. wheat bran

1 tsp baking powder

4 oz. softened butter (1 stick)

1 egg

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder
1/8 t salt

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients together in a kitchen machine, pulsing until you get a stiff dough. Form dough into a sausage, wrap in plastic wrap and chill until firm. Cut thin slices off the sausage and lay on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 F, about 15 minutes, until golden brown and crunchy.

Let them cool on a rack and store in an airtight container in a cool place.

Makes 40 crackers. The whole recipe is 32 g of carbs with 6 g of fiber, which comes to 26 g of net carbs. That makes it 0.65 g of net carbs per cracker.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now on to Version II.

I love taking these crackers along with me when I need to go to places where I am not sure if there are (m)any low-carb choices.

Or you could make several really thin sausages and cut rounds the size of mini peperoni for a great snack at the movies.

If you are planning on using them with something on top, back off the seasonings a little, to produce a more neutral cracker! Oh, using up left-over garlic butter is mighty fine in this too! And for an even lower carb version, you can omit the almond flour. It still makes some great crackers. I discovered that by accident the other day when I was rushing through the recipe and only realized when I was eating them that I forgot the almond flour. The texture is a little different, but they are still very good!

Gluten-Free Sesame Cracker Version ii

Makes about 50 crackers

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds (just nuke them in the microwave on high for 2 minutes or so)
1/4 cup almond flour
2 tbsp. unflavored whey protein powder
1/4 cup gluten-free oat flour
2 tbsp. golden flax meal

1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. garlic powder (or 2 cloves of fresh pressed garlic)
1 tsp. onion powder
1/8 tsp. seasoned salt 0f choice
1 stick butter (4 oz)
1 egg
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce (optional)
2 cups of shredded cheese (I like to do 2/3 cup grated parmesan, 2/3 cup of Mexican blend and 2/3 cup Mozzarella cheeses)

2 tbsp. of chopped fresh herbs (optional)

Preparation:

Place all ingredients in the bowl of a kitchen machine and pulse until combined.

Roll into a log, wrap in cling film and chill until firm. You can also place it in the freezer for a little while to speed things up a bit. Don’t let it freeze all the way through however, as you won’t be able to get a smooth cut without crumbling if the dough is completely frozen.

Cut into very thin slices, about 1/8th of an inch or so.

Bake on parchment paper 12-14 min. at 375 F. until golden and crispy. Cool on a rack.

Store in a cookie tin in a cool place.

Makes 50 crackers. The whole recipe is 42 g of carbs with 15 g of fiber, so 27 g of net carbs. So that’s 0.54 g of net carbs per cracker! And without the almond flour each cracker is 0.4 g of net carbs!

Almond Semifreddo (LC, GF, SF)

2011-09-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

When I was young, my mother used to make a special occasion dessert she called “Brandy Surprise”. It was a light, semi-frozen, creamy dessert that had ground almonds and candied cherries in it with a hint of alcohol. I’m not sure if there ever was a recipe. I have no recollection of it and if there was, I never found it. I do however, remember at least two occasions where this was served!

This is my low-carb recreation of that dessert!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar substitute (I use 1/2 cup of erythritol, and a couple of drops of stevia extract)

3 tbsp. sugar-free Amaretto or 2 tbsp. Brandy (if you’d like to go without the alcohol, just replace with sugar-free syrup)

3/4 cup almond flour

3 egg yolks

1 egg

1 cup of heavy whipping cream

1/8 tsp glucomanan powder

Preparation:

In a double boiler combine the egg yolks, egg, alcohol and sugar substitutes and under constant whisking gently cook until thick and pale. Be sure to go around the edge frequently, so your eggs don’t scramble!

Set aside to cool.

In the mean time, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks and while still whipping, drizzle in the glucomanan powder. Beat to stiff peaks. Gently whip in the almond flour.

Fold in the cooled egg mix until well combined.

Turn the mixture out into a glass serving dish, loaf pan or shallow bowl. Smooth the top as evenly as you can.

Freeze overnight.

To serve, dip the bowl/serving dish into a little hot water or run a sharp knife around the inside edge of the dish. Invert the dish onto a bowl and garnish with some fresh fruit or a sprinkle of unsweetened cocoa powder. Or both! Let it sit out for 10-20 minutes, then slice and serve.

You can also let this dessert defrost completely and serve as a mousse. It holds together pretty well even when no longer frozen!

Serves 5. The whole recipes has 34 g of carbs, 13 g of fiber, so 21 g of net carbs, which makes it 4.2 g of net carbs per serving.

Sugar-free Honey (LC, GF, SF)

2011-09-16T09:41:00.001-07:00

So, lately I’ve been obsessed with honey. Or should I say the recreation thereof.

I’ve tried so many honey flavorings and been disappointed that I’ve lost count. I’ve tried a host of sugar-free honey substitutes and have either been disappointed in the flavor and texture or couldn’t tolerate them (the mighty maltitol!)

I love the consistency of Honey Tree’s Sugar Free imitation honey (available in grocery stores. I got mine at Wal-Mart I think) - it’s thick and sticky and the taste even though not intensely like honey, could count as close enough. But it’s essentially maltitol syrup and I can barely cope with tiny amounts, never mind the amount I might need to have some honey on toast or a little in tea or drizzled over some yogurt.

I also tried a commercial xylitol honey substitute and well, let’s just say that the only thing that actually reminded me of honey, was the bear squeezy bottle it came in!

Honey is just not an easy thing to imitate, especially while also keeping it low-carb and the gastric distress to a minimum.

So, I thought I’d try and use some of the real thing for flavor, borrow some of the texture of the commercial imitation honey and fill the rest with a more acceptable sugar substitute.

The result was quite good!

It tastes a LOT like actual honey, the carb count is much reduced, and the texture is like thick runny honey! And considering that I only use a couple of teaspoons full here and there, the gastric side effects are non-existent!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup xylitol

1 tsp raw honey (get one with a really intense flavor)

2 tbsp. HoneyTree’s Sugar Free Imitation Honey

1 packet of Sweet One (optional)

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients in a non-stick saucepan over medium heat. Let everything melt and keep on stirring it. It will start to bubble quite vigorously, go with it! Let it bubble for about 2 minutes, then take off the heat.

Let cool for about 10 minutes and then pour into a glass jar. Let it cool completely! It will thicken quite a bit!

{See all the thick sticky goodness?}

Makes about 1/3 of a cup of sugar-free “honey”. The carb count depends on how much you count for the sweeteners and what kind of honey you used! 1 tsp of honey usually ranges in the 6-8 g of carbs area.

Tips:

If you don’t want to use the maltitol and can take the higher carb count, you could also just use the raw honey and xylitol, melt it in the saucepan and “stretch” the honey a bit that way! It will make for a slightly darker product but it has a nice intense honey flavor!
If you happen to have some of those xylitol imitation bottles in your pantry too and you are looking for a way to use them up, add 2 tbsp. to the recipe above and boil it with the rest of the ingredients. It gives you even more of a “honey” yield, and it takes on the honey flavor and texture of the other ingredients!

Note: Much like regular honey, once this cools down and sits in the jar for a day or two, there will be a little recrystallizing. It isn’t hard like erythritol however, it is more like creamy white honey and a quick nuke in the microwave, or a dip of the jar in some boiling water to warm it up gently, will take care of that.

Flour Replacement Formula (Bake Mix #2) (LC, SF)

2011-09-15T20:21:00.002-07:00

Here’s another bake mix recipe I devised years ago. It is a little higher in carbs than my other bake mix, but it is a pretty good and straight forward flour substitute when converting high carb recipes, especially in the cake/bar/muffin type recipes.
The beauty of ratio recipes is that you can do them in any amount you want, as long as the ratio stays the same, it will work!
It is however a little “carby” so this definitely needs to be used in moderation if you are on a very low-carb eating plan!

Combine in a bowl, in these proportions:

4 parts whole grain oat flour
2 parts unflavored whey protein powder
2 parts almond flour
1 part vital wheat gluten

Sift the mixture AT LEAST 4 times to thoroughly combine and “fluff”.
Store in a closed container and use cup for cup as a flour replacement.

This comes in at 22 g of carbs with 4 g of fiber, so 18 g of net carbs per half a cup.