I had plans for a cookie recipe using buckwheat flour, but Susan left me a message asking if I tried adding cocoa to the cinnamon cookie recipe, and I have to admit that I became curious. So I've left the buckwheat cookie recipe in draft mode, in favor of posting this cinnamon cocoa cookie.
Happy Valentines Day, almost. And happy birthday to M! If you like cranberries, you'll appreciate this cake. It is very similar to the upside down apple cake, with the added tartness of the cranberries.
I didn't realize that tart, dried cherries taste really good in scones. I've been cognizant of a bag of dried, tart cherries sitting in my pantry that I bought at Trader Joe's quite a while ago, occasionally throwing them in salads. But now they are making a play in my scone recipe.
I have memories of eating deep dish pizza at Pizzeria Uno's Pizza on the Upper West Side (of NYC), where I lived for several years. Since it was on my way home while walking up Columbus Avenue, and a few blocks from the Museum of Natural History, it was an easy place to duck into for a meal.
We celebrate a lot of holidays, including Christmas and Hanukkah. And if you like to bake, the holidays are an invitation to go to town making baked goods. I'm not baking oodles of cookies as I've done in the past, but I do have an addiction need for sweet stuff. For the first night of Hanukkah, I made a simple chocolate frosted cake. Here is a quick list of holiday treats from this past year, and some even make great gifts (like the biscotti).
I've been playing around with my fluffy pancake recipe and have come up with a recipe to guarantee fluffiness. The amount of fluffiness is easily controlled and it works with any flour type, gluten-free or not. I prefer buckwheat flour - it has that hardy pancake taste without the weight of a full-on pancake. And I can eat a bunch of these with some real maple syrup and feel satisfied but not overly full and carb-loaded.
A whoopie pie is a great treat for anyone who likes cake and frosting, and portability. These are easy to stash in a lunch bag or wrap up for later. They even taste great right out of the refrigerator. Here are two recipes for the whoopie cake, spiced and chocolate, and two frosting recipes as well - marshmallow and creamy.
There are a couple of things I like about this recipe: it can be dairy-free and still taste just the way I expect it to, it can put up with any kind of squash I have on hand, and it uses so many lovely and exotic spices, that also happen to be really fragrant (thereby spreading the most wonderful aroma through the house). One more thing - the crust stays crunchy.
I love green food. I always have. I was the kid who liked broccoli, spinach, squash, and brussel sprouts. My perfect quick meal is sauteed spinach with onions, olive oil, cheese, and 2 eggs. Basically the filling for Spanakopita, Greek spinach pie. Here is my version of a spinach pie using an almond flour pie crust.
This recipe serves as a muffin or bread recipe, and it calls for a few fresh oranges, or today, it was clementines. Since I'm a huge fan of clementines, as is the rest of the clan here, as soon as they appear in markets, I buy about two bags of them a week. They disappear rather quickly - about three a day for each of us, but they can be stored in the fridge to last a while longer if you find you have too many.
Almond flour makes great muffins. Here is a current favorite, based on this banana bread recipe. Protein rich, gluten-free, and naturally sweetened. Geez, I sound like a commercial.
Making a good cracker is no easy task when you are not using flour or other grains. Obtaining a tasty, crunchy cracker using almond flour is the goal I was after and I think I have one. These remind me of Cheez-It crackers.
Caramelized onions go great on salads, in tarts, on pizza, crackers, casseroles, and just about anything else. They're very easy to make, and so is this savory tart. I finally broke in my larger, circular tart pan and came up with a pastry shell using almond flour and Parmesan cheese.
Continue reading "Caramelized Onion, Tomato, Goat Cheese Tart" »
This was going to be just cherry pie, but then I had a few raspberries left over, and a plum, and a peach, that were all on there last healthy leg. So, it became a party in the pie filling.
This is a simple recipe for a chewy, buttery, cinnamon cookie. It is a great cookie to have around when a craving for a sweet butter cookie comes up, and the texture is just right.
Orange cake goes back centuries. It originates from the traditional Spanish sponge cake that uses Valencia oranges (or other oranges). It is thought that the best oranges are produced in Valencia, Spain. This reminds me that the best clementines I've ever had were from Spain, but they are hard to find here in the United States. But not Valencia oranges - they are grown here as well. So you shouldn't have a problem finding some sweet, organic Valencia oranges.
I treated myself to some fluted French tart pans last week, mostly because they are so beautiful and I've been reading about tarts. I've always wanted to make at least one tart, but now this may become an obsession. It's a good thing I don't have a lot of time on my hands or I would be baking and tasting non-stop, not to mention shopping for kitchen tools.
I'm on a cracker hunt - a hunt for delicious cracker recipes that use nut flour, or other non-glutenous flour, or something healthy and non-traditional, if you know what I mean. There's nothing like a good cracker to support creamy goat cheese, a slice of smoked salmon, or a generous scoop of creamy dip.
This is my first attempt at making cheesecake, AND making cheesecake with yogurt and crème fraîche. There are so many great sources for cheesecake that I never had the need to spend several hours creating this treat. But I'm glad I did. This is a nice alternative to the standard recipe - creamy, with a slightly lighter weight to it.
Continue reading "Cheesecake (with yogurt and crème fraîche)" »
This thin crust pizza is made with finely ground, blanched almond flour. But not much almond flour - and there's more cheese and egg in this recipe than a traditional pizza crust.
Continue reading "Thin Crust Pizza (made with almond flour)" »
It was my birthday a few days ago and I made myself a cake - mostly because I make most of the cakes around here, and I knew exactly what I wanted. An almond flour cake, chocolate ganache, and strawberries, refrigerated for a few hours. That's all. Oh, and our dog, Dexter, singing Happy Birthday along with the gang.
Chocolate biscotti reminds me of chocolate cookies I had as a kid, like Oreos and chocolate sugar cookies. I use a good amount of fair trade cocoa in this recipe, but you can probably go with a bit less and still get delicious results. Although you don't need to add much to these, some nuts or chocolate chips make a great compliment to the crunchy, chocolaty goodness. Dunking in a cup of tea or coffee works too!
Continue reading "Chocolate Biscotti (made with almond flour)" »
Biscotti go great with a cup of tea, coffee, a glass of juice, or dunked in just about anything. This recipe uses almond flour, but the technique is the same as most biscotti recipes - bake, slice, and then bake again until crispy. If you like them softer and a bit more cake-like, don't bake them as long during the second time around in the oven.
These fish sticks were made with Pacific Halibut, which, luckily, is still fairly abundant due to careful fishing management. To find out which fish are a good choice, go here.
I use salmon with this recipe as well, and almost any thick cut of fish will work. I cook it with the skin attached, and the bones out (filleted).
Waffles come out best with a reliable waffle iron. I'm not a huge fan of blog advertising, but when I find something I like or works well, it seems worthwhile to share. So here goes: I love my waffle iron
Donuts back east meant Dunkin' Donuts, and donuts in the Seattle area mean Krispy Kremes. Uh, this was a hard one to avoid, especially since there is a drive-through KK not far from our path home when I shop big. I am guilty of bringing them to class as birthday party treats when the kids were younger. No more though.
The first time I baked a recipe with almond flour it was not at all what I expected. And then I discovered that almond flour can mean a lot of things: almond meal, ground almonds, blanched almond flour, and so on.
Now that I have over a year of baking almond flour goodies under my belt, I have found that for most recipes, finely ground, blanched almond flour works best (organic is even better, but hard to find and even more expensive). Especially in recipes that are designed to produce lighter, cake-like or cookie-like results, similar to baking with unbleached wheat flour or other processed grain flours.
Some of the recipes on Comfy Belly can be made with other flours besides almond and nut flours, however the amounts of flour required will most probably vary, as will the other ingredients. If I have tried a recipe various ways, I will offer the measurement for another type of flour. I am starting to branch out to other flours and will post recipes when I think they work well and are received well on the home front.
Note: I recommend that you avoid baking with Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour/Meal or other almond meal brands because they don't work well for most lighter breads, pastries, cookies, and cakes. Make sure to use blanched almond flour to obtain the consistency and texture of a finer grain-based flour. And keep reading to understand the difference between almond meal and blanched almond flour. By the way, almond meal does work well for some recipes - such as banana breads and denser baked goods, and you can find it at Trader Joe's and other markets.
Some sources for almond flour:
Why do I use blanched almond flour? I started out using it because I wanted to eliminate all wheat and gluten for a while to see if it would help my son. And then I found that it eliminated my underlying anemia I have had on and off since giving birth to my each of my sons, and gave me a good boost of essential vitamins and minerals, including iron and calcium and vitamin E. It also has a higher protein content (and lower carbohydrate content) than other flours and baked goodies. So baking with almond flour is quite healthy - a nice bonus.
Some more good reasons to cook and bake with almond flour*:
It's good for your heart: Studies show that it has more good HDL (good cholesterol) than LDL (bad cholesterol).
Easy to digest: Studies show it is easier to tolerate nuts than glutenous grains. As long as you don't have a nut allergy or intolerance.
It's nutritious: Almond flour contains many vitamins and minerals for healthy bones, nerves, blood and muscles - more so than all-purpose wheat flour, and it provides natural calcium that is easier to digest than dairy products.
It has fiber: It's high in fiber while being gentle on the digestive system.
It is high in protein and mono-saturated fat: It leaves you satisfied longer, so you don't feel hungry soon after eating.
It tastes great: It works well in a number of recipes, from sweet treats to hearty meals, and it carries the flavor of ingredients well.
* Source for some of this information: Grain-free Gourmet, by Jodi Bager and Jenny Lass
What about other nut flours? There are other nuts that make great flours, such as cashew, hazelnut, peanut, and pecan. I use them sometimes, but I mainly use almond flour because I have it in a fine ground state, ready to be used. Nut butters are also good in some recipes, such as baked goods that are softer and/or denser, such as cookie bars, cakes and breads.
How do you store almond flour? I store it in a refrigerator (sealed in plastic or in a glass jar) for a few months at a time. I purchase 25 pounds of almond flour at a time and it lasts me about 3 months or so. It's obviously cheaper to buy it in bulk, but you can buy it in smaller increments, such as 5 and 10 pound bags. I would still store it in the refrigerator in a sealed container or bag, since it does tend to absorb odors from other food if exposed. I know some folks freeze it, but I haven't found it necessary to do so. If you do freeze it, it doesn't take long to defrost and de-lump the flour. And others also store it in a sealed container in their pantry at room temperature. It may depend on how fast you use it up.
Can you make your own? Yes, but I'll admit up front that I don't do it. You can use a blender, coffee grinder, or a food processor, but you must first blanche the almonds to remove the skin. And don't go too far when processing the nuts, or you will end up with almond butter (which it not a bad thing, but not what you were after). So watch it closely. If you don't blanche the almonds and remove the skins, you will have almond meal when you are done processing the almonds. Another way to make a small batch of almond flour is to purchase sliced blanched almonds (Trader Joe's has them) and then process them until you have flour.
This pie is baked in parts and then combined for the finale. The primary reason for doing this is to limit the baking time of the almond flour crust. This makes for a perfect crust, while adding just a few more steps to the desired otucome.
I've been looking for a way to bake apples and a cake together, and I was inspired by a recipe I read at La Tartine Gourmande. I use almond flour, however you can substitute your flour of choice - the amount of flour necessary may vary depending on the type of flour you use. It came out so moist and delicious, my son asked to have just the cake again, or add other things to it. I can imagine putting raisins and walnuts in the cake, or eating it alone as a pound cake. In any case, this cake recipe is definitely a keeper.
Lemony, creamy, and cool - my favorite things about this recipe. I eat this anytime of day or night (even for breakfast).
