Easy Pear-Raisin Cookies (Gluten Free)

Posting after a long hiatus. This cookie recipe came out so good that I had to post it!

Dry Ingredients
1 C brown rice flour: Use Bob's Red Mill. Arrowhead is too coarse.
1/4 C potato flour
2 tsp baking pdr
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 C raisins
1 tsp cinnamon powder
toasted pecans (optional)

Wet Ingredients
1 pear, chopped fine (puree is fine) OR applesauce 1/4 C
1 egg
1/2 C honey (I used 1/4 because that was all I had.. worked fine).
1/2 C ghee (I don't use butter but clarified butter with the milk solids taken out - makes it casein free)

Oven temperature: 375 F

Kitchen aid wet ingredients. Mix in the dry ingredients well. Drop spoon-size batter on to a parchment sheet and bake 10-12 mins.

Makes 2 doz cookies.

Buckwheat Millet Loaf

Buckwheat flour is quite a versatile flour. Presoaking the groats, drying them and powdering the result is quite a tedious process, but is well worth the effort.
I have used buckwheat flour with some success making idlis, dosas, rotis and now, finally, a loaf of bread.


Ingredient list

Dry Ingredients
1 C buckwheat flour
1 C millet flour
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking soda
2 tsp Xanthan gum

Wet ingredients
1 C ghee
2 eggs
1/4 C almond milk
1/4 C honey (less will work)

Kitchen-aid the wet and dry ingredients really well for about 5-6 mins.

Bake at 350 for about an hour or so.

Amaranth Almond Sweet Loaf

I did it. Finally at the point where I am experimenting with baking!

Dry Ingredients
4 tbsp amaranth flour
3 tbsp coconut flour
1/2 C almond flour

1/2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp orange rind, grated

Wet Ingredients
1/2 C Fresh Squeezed orange juice
1/4 C honey
1/4 C ghee
2 eggs

KitchenAid the wet ingredients for about 10 mins, adding OJ last.

Add dry ingredients and mix really well for another 10 mins, high for at least 2-3 mins.

The resultant mixture will not be stiff.

Bake in a loaf pan (coat with ghee) at 375 F for about 15 mins. Once you start seeing it get brown, reduce the heat down to 225 F for about 10 mins or so. The loaf will *not* rise but you need to make sure its cooked through.

Soft and sweet bread, smells really good despite forgetting to add the vanilla/cardamom/cinnamon!

Cashew-Macadamia Butter Cookies

Adapted from Elaine Gottschall's Peanut Butter Cookies, Breaking The Vicious Cycle (BTVC)

Ingredients
1/2 C Ghee
1 C Cashew-Macadamia Butter
1/2 C honey
1 C coconut flour
2 eggs
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla






Mix all the ingredients thoroughly. Drop on to a cookie sheet (I use parchment paper) and bake at 325 F for 10 minutes.

The cookies are crumbly and fairly decent. I think I prefer the almond flour cookies for taste and texture, but this is a good alternative - high in fat but low in oxalates which makes it BED-friendly.

Avocado Lime Pudding

LIME PUDDING
by Nancy (from scd_recipe_ creators)

1 ripe avocado
3 Tbsp or more fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp honey
a few drops Frontier vanilla
(optional) a few Tbsp yogurt

Mix all ingredients until smooth.

My notes:
The basic recipe is avocado, lime juice and honey (or stevia or whatever you like). Don't skimp on the lime/lemon juice because that will overwhelm the subtle avocado flavor.
Sometimes i substitute the honey for a pear or a banana (which i know is a no-no on BED!).

This works pretty well. You can jazz it up with some cardamom powder or cinnamon if you want.

Squash French Fries

SQUASH FRENCH FRIES
by Sheila

Butternut squash
olive oil

Preheat oven to 425F. Cut butternut squash in thin slices by hand or with a slicer. Toss them in olive oil, and place slices on a *baking stone. Bake until crisp. No turning is required

Cauliflower Popcorn

From pecanbread: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/pecanbread/message/72671

Cauliflower popcorn (from a newspaper)

Who woulda thunk that cauliflower could actually become addictive?
With this
simple high-temperature roasting process known as caramelization, your
basic
off-the-rack cauliflower is miraculously transformed into sweet,
lip-smackin'
candy bombs you and your guests won't be able to get enough of.

1 head cauliflower
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 425F, Cut out and discard cauliflower core and
thick stems.
Trim remaining cauliflower into florets the size of golf balls. In a large
bowl, add cauliflower, olive oil and salt. Toss thoroughly.

2. Spread cauliflower on a baking sheet. Roast for 1 hour or until
most of each
floret has become golden brown. Turn 3 or 4 times during roasting. Serve
immediately. Serves 6 to 8.

Update 11/29/2007
I tried this out. Didn't look like popcorn, but caramelized cauliflower does taste good. It didn't look much different from a crispy cauliflower sabji sans the spices.

Coconut Flour muffins

Almond flour is an SCD staple, but is high in oxalate which isn't so great. This causes oxidative stress and increases inflammation.
I think SCD recommends no more than 4 almond flour muffins a day - I think S eats 4 a day for sure. His lunchbox always has a couple of almond muffins. They're yummy, high in protein and calories.
But from the oxalate point of view: Almonds have 303 oxalates per 1/2 cup, which makes it a high oxalate food. I think I need to start experimenting with other nut flours:
Peanuts - less at 119 per 1/2 cup.
Macadamias 27 oxalates per 1/2 cup
Walnuts 45 per 1/2 cup
Pistachios 32 per 1/2 cup

Coconut Flour is another great alternative, and here are a couple of recipes that I am going to try from: http://www.simplycoconut.com/coconut_flour_recipes.htm

Honey Muffins

This is a basic coconut four muffin recipe you can use to make a variety of muffins.

3 eggs

2 tablespoons ghee

2 tablespoons coconut milk [ I used almond milk]

3 tablespoons honey

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon vanilla

¼ cup sifted coconut flour [Bob's red mill coconut flour]

¼ teaspoon baking powder

Blend together eggs, butter, coconut milk, honey, salt, and vanilla. Combine coconut flour with baking powder and thoroughly mix into batter until there are no lumps. Pour batter into muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees F (205C) for at least 15 minutes. Makes 6 muffins.

I tried this out this weekend. They turned out great. I added raisins to the batter.

Pecan Muffins

Make Honey Muffins as directed and add ½ cup of chopped pecans and ⅛ teaspoon almond extract.

Blueberry Muffins

Make Honey Muffins as directed and add ½ cup of fresh blueberries and ⅛ teaspoon almond extract. Blueberries should be dry. If rinsed, dry before adding to batter. Bake for 16-18 minutes.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Make Honey Muffins as directed but omit the vanilla and add 2 teaspoons of lemon extract. Sprinkle poppy seeds on top of muffins just before baking.

Update 10/15/07
This has now become the weekly staple. These muffins are so spongy and moist they taste like they are made of gluten. The taste of coconut is completely masked if you add a banana. I've also doubled the quantities to make 12 muffins with no problem.

Cranberry Walnut Bread

8 eggs

½ cup coconut oil or butter, melted

½ cup coconut milk

½ cup sucanat or sugar [ replace with honey]

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon lemon extract

½ teaspoon salt

⅔ cup sifted coconut flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup dried cranberries

½ cup walnuts, chopped

Blend together eggs, oil, coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, lemon extract, and salt. Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk thoroughly into batter until there are no lumps. Fold in cranberry sauce and nuts. Pour into greased 9x5x3-inch loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees F (175 C) for 60 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on rack.

PB cookies

PB cookie recipe - 1/2 C butter, 1 C peanut butter, 1/2 C honey , 1 C nut flour, 2 eggs, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp vanilla . cream butter. add PB and mix, add rest. drop on greased cookie sheet and bake 325F for 10 minutes

From SCD_recipe_creators yahoo group.

Update 10/15/07
I tried this recipe out yesterday. The cookies were delicious, soft and the sweetness was just right, but is not great for the lunch box because it falls apart. Sanjay loved them.
I added about 1 tbs coconut flour and left the cookies in the oven after switching it off. This made them much more firm and lunch-boxable.

Spinach Crackers

1 bag of baby spinach (pre-washed)
3/4 cup almond flour
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbs ghee (or butter or oil) you need this much to
make them crispy
1 Tbs water
salt to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 350F
1. In a frying pan melt ghee
2. Add spinach, garlic, water and salt. Cover and
cook till wilted and the water is evaporated
3. Take from the heat and mix in almond flour
4. Spread on a cookie sheet lined with parchment
paper. It should be very thin, about 1/8"
5. Bake for 25 min.
6. Remove from the oven and carefully cut into small
squares without lifting it from the sheet.
7. Lower the oven to 170F and bake (dry) for about
60-80 min.

They are very crispy and hold well together.

Update: Tried this out and it worked out very well, the crackers are crumbly. I also squeezed all the water out of the spinach after i cooked it.

I tried this out with freshly chopped cilantro and grated carrots, but this was a flop - it completely crumbled and I was left with cilantro-carrot flavored almond flour. I don't know where i went wrong, perhaps I needed to cook the cilantro-carrot mixture...

Apple Muffins

OK, so I tried out the almond flour muffins/breads recipe from Elaine's SCD book. the bread looked fine from the outside but was not cooked on the inside. It was grainy, and tasted pretty bad when it was cold.
For someone whose only baking accomplishment so far has been banana bread, attempting baking for the first time the SCD way "cold turkey" was quite an adventure.
So... I first went to the local store to buy a baking tray, turned to scdrecipe.com and tried out the apple muffin recipe. I wasn't very organized, found out I didn't have any almond flour at the last minute, and had to make a trip to whole foods first while I had the egg and applesauce beaten and waiting in a bowl!
Despite all the tamasha, this recipe worked out very well. Muffins are moist, don't fall apart. Mainly, Sanjay likes them (for now!)
Update: The muffins are a snack staple, so I tried this out with pear sauce and 1 whole diced apple. This worked beautifully, the muffins are moist and keep very well.

http://www.scdrecipe.com/recipes/r_029_00353.php

Here's the original recipe with my notes:

APPLE MUFFINS [printable version]

Ingredients 1/2 cup melted butter - I used 1/2 cup casein-free ghee 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce 1/4 cup honey (or to taste) 1 cup nut flour - I used almond flour 2 eggs - I used large brown eggs 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 large peeled apple, diced - I used 1/2 of a large apple cinnamon to taste - I skipped this, I didn't have cinnamon handy

Instructions 1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. 2. Mix melted butter and applesauce. 3. Mix in remaining ingredients except apple and cinnamon. 4. Stir in diced apple. 5. Pour batter into lined muffin pan and sprinkle cinnamon on top. 6. Bake for 23 minutes, or until tops are light brown. 7. Makes 16 muffins.