Filo, Phyllo...pastry by any other name....

So, I've been looking for a gluten-free alternative to phyllo...and I think I've found it! I started experimenting today with rice paper... treating it almost as I would phyllo, wrapping it around walnuts, chocolate chips, with a little bit of brown sugar and cinnamon mixed in.

Its not perfect, its a little more crunchy than phyllo, but wrapped into logs around the filling gave enough of a feel of pastry...

Here's what I did.

Wetted down the round (I dunked it a few times, until it was starting to soften). Put it down, brushed melted butter over it, and then rolled it up, with the filling placed near the end. Finished off with another dab of butter, and baked in the oven at 350.

You can do them with no butter on the inside, but I do suggest at least having a dab of butter on top... and they do turn out better if they can absorb the butter a little... I do wonder if it would be better to let them sit for 5 minutes before baking...

but it was so nice to have a crisp mouthful of something! And I will be trying this with a savory filling as well...party food!



I then, since I had the ingredients out, decided to experiment with making baklava... The first attempt, shown here, looks well, but the wrappers disintegrated somewhat in the syrup.... I hadn't prebaked the rice wrappers. The top crust was fairly light and crunchy though. I had layered the nut mixture with the fauxfilo, but I made the mistake of pouring on some syrup beforehand, and letting it sit, to try and keep it moister. I think that if I had just done a layering of buttered fauxfilo with the filling, adding a splash of syrup and putting it in the oven instantly, it would have worked better.....

Gluten-free mixes.... some fixes.

Ok, so we all sometimes resort to using mixes. More so than before we went gluten-free. Because sometimes we need to have last-minute brownies, or don't have a lot of pantry space, or are sharing a kitchen with someone, so don't have space for the umpteen kajillion little bags...

So I was with family over the Fourth, and we made gluten-free blueberry pancakes. mmmmmm pancakes. We used Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour blend, but only sort of followed the recipe on the back. We used less flour, added extra leavening, and added orange zest and vanilla to the batter.

When I use mixes for brownies, I add extra cocoa. I add extra baking powder, and sometimes add coffee instead of the liquid specified (usually water). I'll add lots of extra vanilla too.

Do you notice a theme here? Most mixes are ok, but need a punch-up. (The same is true, apparently, of regular cake mixes, which is why The Cake Doctor exists). Usually, though, gluten-free mixes and recipes tend to go a little flat... so you add extra oomph! They also tend, depending on the mix, to taste a little beany or ricey, meaning you have to add a little more of a complementary flavor....orange, lemon, almond, coffee... but nothing that will weigh the mix down....

Gluten-free, dairy-free, tasty!

I made a birthday cake yesterday. The person whose birthday it was can't eat dairy, and, of course, anything coming out of my kitchen won't have wheat....

So I came up with this cake (which could also be called a 1/2 cup cake, lots of half-cups)

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cornmeal-I used Arrowhead Mills
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups almond meal
capful vanilla
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 360.

Blend the brown sugar and cornmeal in the bowl of a stand mixer, add orange juice, and mix thoroughly (the orange juice helps to rehydrate the cornmeal so its not as gritty). Add the olive oil and then the millet flour. Add the rest of the ingredients, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

Put in a cake pan and bake in the oven.

I used a heart stencil and powdered sugar on top. I was not able to come up with a good dairy-free frosting with the stuff I had at home, although that is what the cake really needs.

Cheesecake!

Yes, I know. I have been terribly, terribly lax in updating this site. Tsk, tsk, tsk on me. I've been cooking, just not posting the results. For instance, I had a lovely little dinner the other night of fresh garden peas tossed with gnocchi and a smatter of pecorino romano.... but on to why you are really here, the cheesecake.

There are umpteen kajillion recipes for cheesecake out there. Most seem to have an abundance of eggs and sour cream added in, and what one cookbook tells you to do, the others tell you the opposite. Lots add heavy cream, some cheesecake recipes use cottage cheese (Why? tell me why!)... Some recipes use an incredible amount of sugar, some use flour in the filling (another reason for not eating the filling out of things in restaurants!) My favorite cheesecake recipe ever is from the Nancy Drew Cookbook, just cream cheese, eggs, vanilla, and sugar...Unfortunately, although I had a huge log of cream cheese, thanks to the joy that is a Costco membership, I didn't have enough eggs. So here's where I got inventive:

1 lb cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg (this was a pastured egg, so about the equivalent of an extra-large)
3 tbsp lemon curd
2 tbsp sour cream
1 capful vanilla

The cream cheese should be pretty much at room temp, as should the rest of the ingredients. (The sugar, of course, will be). Preheat the oven to 350. (there were a whole host of different oven temps too, I decided to just go basic).

Start the cream cheese beating until its smooth, add the sugars, and then the lemon curd, the egg and the sour cream. Keep scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla last.

Put into a pan (I just use a cake pan) and toss into the oven.

If you wanted to, yes you could make a crust. You could use gluten-free gingersnaps, whizz them up in a food processor, add a little butter and press them into the pan.

You could also add chopped candied ginger to the batter...

Product review: Trader Joe's English Muffins.

So I ran into Trader Joe's last night because I needed TP. And I found a new GLUTEN-FREE product! It was the last one on the shelf, too, so hopefully it won't be a one-time thing. English muffins. And quite tasty too. A good, elastic texture, absorbing lots of butter.... a little high on the calorie count, but still highly recommended!

Product review: TomYam Rice Snacks, sweet Rice Snacks.

This is one of those Trader Joe's products I discovered while wandering the aisles in a PMS mood. (MUNCHIES! Sweet and spicy?! Yay!)

NAY!

I opened the bag this morning. They are individually packaged, with each little snack nestled in its own little pouch. They are then placed in a plastic tray and finally sealed in the bag.

Broke one out. Open the wrapper. Scent of lemon wafted up at me. Wafted? Too light a word. Blasted is more like it. No wonder these are hermetically sealed. I decided to try one.

Who put lemon scented dish detergent on this snack? All I can taste is overpowering lemon. Dried lemongrass isn't usually this pungent (nor is the fresh I've used). It takes a lot to get this whammo of lemon. Ten minutes later, writing this, I still taste mostly lemon. It would have been good had they not overdosed on the lemon. And it wasn't even a lemon party in my mouth, it was LEMON lemon lemon lemon, more lemon, with a hint of chili and a few cashews.

I may reverse-engineer this, and come up with something similar, but better-tasting, on my own.

The sweet Rice Snacks I only saw once, bought them, and then they went poof. I wasn't thrilled though. I was expecting something a little more interesting than what tasted like a plain, ordinary rice cake with a drizzle of caramel. These too are individually packaged within the package.

So far, not thrilled. Either with the packaging of the snacks, or the flavors. Because we all need more snacks that contribute plastic, plastic and more packaging to the environment. And its either flavorless or painful.

Excuse me...I have to go rinse my mouth out with my lavender dish soap. It would taste better than this stuff. I feel like I ate an artificial lemon.

Losing weight wheat-free...

I'm trying to lose weight. I love food. I love to eat. And it makes it more difficult to lose when gluten-free products are all high-fat, high-sugar, low-fiber. And they all feel like they need something on top to make them palatable. And combined with the fact that you can't get anything in a reasonable serving size... I would love to be able to get ONE cookie, or a slice of cake. Because I do have a sweet tooth, but having to bake mass quantities? Or buy a whole box for one cookie? (I do that, and the rest of the box goes stale or develops moths).

So I'm trying to go low-gluten, high fiber. I've cut out cheese for Lent, since cheese had become my to-go grab and eat snack. I'm trying to have fruit and yogurt for breakfast. I'm trying to eat more whole grains and beans for lunches, and sensible dinners. I'm trying to make foods that create leftovers. Mousaka was my latest. In honor of St Patty's Day, I should probably have picked up cabbage and made a stuffed one. Eating more like I did growing up, lots of rice, fruit, veggies with meat flavor... I'm going to try to experiment with salads this summer...

I really want to come up with some kind of bread that has fiber, but is not a sugary brick. So that's the next attempt!