A Gluten-Free Day

I decided to make some flatbread for this months Go Ahead Honey its Gluten Free event hosted by Naomi at Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried. The theme is breakfast food this month and since I eat this bread almost every morning I decided to make a post about it.

Eating flatbread is actually more familiar to me than eating some regular bread; all of my mothers family is from Lapland and there people traditionally eat flatbread made from different kind of flours. Some of my most vivid and earliest memories are from Saturday mornings back at my grandparent’s house in Lapland. My grandmother started warming a large stone oven very early in the morning and then she baked bread there for hours; in Lapland they used to bake once a week and the bread made on that one day would last for a week. I woke up to the smell of fresh flatbread on those mornings and got to eat it all warm and straight from the oven with fresh butter. I never have forgotten the taste of that bread and it is still what I think of when someone mentions the word bread.

I still associate warm flatbread with my grandmother, happiness, Lapland and of course great food; so it’s no wonder that I like to eat my gluten-free flatbread as often as possible. When living and spending time in Lapland I got to eat the best food; it was fresh and mostly consisted of reindeer meat, fresh fish, cloudberries, vegetables which were home grown and self-made cheeses. I never appreciated it back then, it was a norm to have the access to real food, but now days living in a big city I understand what a privilege it all was.

The flatbread I make these days is far from the one my grandmother made; mine is made with quinoa flour, not with barley and wheat flour and not baked in a stone oven. I make this bread almost every morning because I think it’s fast to make, it doesn’t contain anything unhealthy and it’s made with quinoa flour so it’s not starchy.

You can adjust this recipe in many ways, if you want a more protein rich bread add some nut meal to it, I use the almond meal which is left over from making nut milk quite often in this. Rice flour works here too and some buckwheat flour adds a darker taste to this. I don’t like using xanthan gum since I think it’s disgusting, but it would hold this bread together just as well as the psyllium husk I use, eggs work a as a binder too, grated cheese is also an option for a binder (and it tastes good when added to bread).

Psyllium husk is also great for people who are starting out a gluten-free diet since it promotes the healing of the stomach. I eat it mixed with water and also some glutamine if I accidentally happen to eat some gluten and it helps with the pain at least for me.

Gluten free flatbread

- 1 cup (2,4 dl) quinoa flour

-1/2 -1 tsp salt

-1 tbls psyllium husk

-3/4 cup (2 dl) water

Preheat oven to 200 Celsius (400 F).

Mix the salt, psyllium husk and flour together, add the water gradually so that it resembles a thick porridge, wait for a couple of minutes and then spread the batter on to a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes, the time depends on the flour you used and also on how thick you have spread it. The thinner it gets, the faster it bakes. When I’m in a hurry I usually spread the batter very thinly and it bakes in 10 minutes.

Measure the flour in to a bowl.

Add the salt and psyllium husk.

Add the water gradually if you want to be on the sure side. It should look somewhat like porridge.

Let it sit for a couple of minutes and then spread it on to a baking tray lined with baking paper. I like to make mine small and round.

Sprinkle some seeds, herbs, salt or olive oil on top if you want to. I sprinkled some poppy seeds this morning.

Bake for about 20 minutes.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tags: baking, bread, quinoa

I got this truffle recipe some time ago and I’ve been meaning to try making these ever since. All of my expectations were exceeded when I tasted the first one of these white chocolate wonders; I actually tasted the mixture when it was all liquid still and I swear my eyes just rolled to the back of my head and I pinched my toes together in pure bliss. These truffles just melt in your mouth, leaving behind a sweet taste of white chocolate and saffron; those two tastes mingle together so well, words are not enough to describe how good white chocolate and saffron taste together.

I also wanted to make some lavender truffles since I love lavender chocolate so much. I decided to use pure essential lavender oil, you can use essential oils in cooking, lavender and orange are great for baking and rosemary for example leaves a beautiful taste in foods requiring rosemary; essential oils can also be used as an alternative for dried herbs. You just have to remember to use real essential oils and remember that they are really potent. Also, some people with health problems should avoid essential oils, for example rosemary can trigger epilepsy seizures and pregnant women should avoid essential oils in general. Never, ever put pure essential oils in your mouth without diluting them, diluting them with some oil should make them fine, you should also dilute them if you like using them in skin care.

The sky is basically the limit when you start using essential oils in cooking and don’t limit yourself to just fruit oils, try some sandalwood for example in baking and make different kinds of hot and cold drinks with essential oils. Mix them into a food or drink after cooking (before serving) since they evaporate otherwise. One of the easiest and most delicious ways to use essential oils is to mix them with some warmed honey, try making lavender honey for example.

Lavender truffles

Makes approximately 20 truffles

-220 grams bitter sweet chocolate

-1 1/2 dl (o,6 cup)cream (I used almond cream)

-10 drops essential lavender oil (or less, if you want a milder taste of lavender, any kind of essential oil goes here; mint and orange for example would suit well)

-25 grams butter or dairy-free margarine ( I used extra salted butter, but use any kind of butter you prefer)

-cocoa powder

Chop the chocolate and put it in a bowl.

Measure the cream into a saucepan and warm it on medium heat until it is hot, there’s no need to boil it, just warm it. This almond cream worked really well here.

Pour the warm cream onto the chocolate and leave it be for a couple of minutes, the chocolate will melt into the cream.

Add the butter in small pieces, don’t add it all at once, and mix the butter into it piece by piece.

The chocolate should look like this after you have added all of the butter into it.

Let it cool for a while until it is room temperature. Mix the lavender oil into it after it has cooled down.

Put the chocolate into the fridge and mix it every 15 minutes until 40 minutes has gone by, when you have had it in the fridge for 40 minutes start mixing it every three minutes until it is so stiff that you can roll it.

Take some baking paper and place it on a table together with some cocoa powder in a bowl and take small amounts of the truffle mixture and drop them into the cocoa powder so that they don’t stick to your fingers when you roll them.

Start rolling, you can make them look nice and round, but I don’t mind mine looking like they are hand made, so I pinch them and make them look quite uneven. It also easier this way, that is if you don’t mind them looking quite rustic.

If you want these to be edible after some hours you should really dip these in some melted chocolate and then roll them in some cocoa powder, but if these are to be eaten right after making them you can just go ahead and dust them with cocoa powder without the melted chocolate.

White chocolate truffles with saffron

I have to say at first that I got this recipe from my dad and if this is “borrowed” from somewhere, I’m sorry for not mentioning the original source.

These are much easier to make than dark chocolate truffles, since there is no mixing when these truffles have been put in the fridge to cool down. I used some cognac, but it can be left out. As for making these dairy-free, I’m quite sure that it wouldn’t be a problem, just use dairy-free white chocolate and some soy, almond or oat cream. The honey can be substituted with almost anything; some agave syrup for example would be fine.

This recipe makes for approximately 20 truffles.

-200 grams white chocolate

-3/4 dl (o,3 cup) cream

-0,5 gram saffron

- 1 tbls honey

-25 grams butter

-1/2 tsp cognac

- confectioner’s sugar

Chop the chocolate and place it in a bowl.

Measure the cream, saffron and honey into a saucepan and cook them on a medium heat until everything has dissolved.

Pour the cream mixture on top of the chocolate and mix them together.

Let it cool for a couple of minutes and then add the cognac mixing it into the chocolate.

Put the chocolate into a fridge and let it cool.

When it has cooled take it out and put some baking paper on to a table with some confectioner’s sugar in a bowl.

Take small amounts of the chocolate and drop it into the confectioner’s sugar so that it doesn’t stick to your fingers.

Roll it. These should be stored in a fridge, but take them into room temperature a while before serving.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Tags: chocolate

Summer is almost here and we grilled outside for the first time a couple of days ago since it was Walpurgis Night; it was so lovely, the warmth and the food of course.

I thought  that I’d share one of my favorite grilled desserts, it is really simple, but the taste is so good. It just involves some sugar, cinnamon, butter and apples; so simple, but sometimes the best things are the simple ones, especially with food I think.

You can adjust this to be dairy-free by using some dairy-free margarine and you can make this low-carb by leaving out the sugar. I’ve had this without the sugar a couple of times and it was actually pretty good. Serve these with some vanilla ice-cream or good vanilla custard, my personal favorite would be yogurt with some vanilla added, but that might be a bit too tart for some.

Of course I used some extra salted butter with these, since I’m all for salt, but a normal person would use regular unsalted butter. In general I would say that using salted butter in baking makes everything taste much more interesting, since the salt adds some contrast to sweet desserts, for example a simple thing like chocolate tastes much better with salt, than without it and I would say that it is because of the contrast. Salt also brings out the natural flavor of things in a way nothing else does.

You will need some apples, butter, sugar and cinnamon.

Start by brushing the apple with some butter.

Mix some sugar with cinnamon and put them on a plate, roll the apple in the sugar.

Make sure it is coated with sugar all over.

You can bake these in the oven, if you are not going to grill (barbeque) them outside. Heat the oven to 400 F / 200 Celsius and put the apples onto baking tray and bake them.

If you are going to grill these, wrap them in some foil and add some extra butter and sugar on top of them (not necessary, but I do like extra butter and sugar).

Wrap them so that they look like this.

The time needed for these depends on so many things, the size of the apples, the heat used etc. I would say that half an hour is usually enough.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Tags: apples

I was thinking about something to make for this months Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free event hosted by Gluten A Go Go, the theme is finger food and I thought I’ll make some rice paper rolls. My idea is not highly imaginative, but these rice papers rolls have been a life saver for me; spring rolls are one of my all time favorite foods and I went through some major agony when I found out that I could not have them anymore.

I discovered rice paper some years after going gluten-free and I didn’t actually know that I can bake them or fry them; I just ate them as summer rolls. After some time I tried baking them and they were almost like spring rolls, crispy, but maybe too chewy, this makes them a bit different than spring rolls. They are anyway good enough for me when I want to indulge myself with something crisp and salty.

You can of course use any filling you desire, but my choice is some salty and hot fried cabbage. I ate these kinds of spring rolls for the first time several years ago when I was 16, if I remember correctly, and never forgot about them, I still crave them occasionally. Those fantastic and perfect spring rolls I got the pleasure to taste were made by a Chinese couple; they travel around Finland during the summer and serve food at different summer events. I haven’t been able to do the exact kind of cabbage I tried back then, but I’ve managed to make something almost like it, the biggest flavors in this are garlic and salt. I still regret not asking them what they used in those spring rolls.

Spicy cabbage filling

-3 cups diced white cabbage

-5 scallions

-4 minced garlic cloves

-1 tbls grated ginger

-1 red long chilli, I used the seeds too

-1 tbls rice vinegar

-2 tbls gluten-free soy sauce, I use tamari

-salt according to taste

-1 tbls sugar or syrup of some kind, I use honey or ketchup

-a dash of black pepper

-peanut oil, or some other kind of oil

Heat a pan on medium heat and add the oil and then the cabbage. Fry them until the cabbage has become soft and somewhat see through. Put the cabbage aside and add all of those spices - garlic, chilli, ginger, tamari and ketchup (or sugar) to the oil, move them around a bit in the hot oil and then add the cabbage, salt, black pepper and vinegar. Fry them for a small while and then add the diced scallions.

Taste to make sure you like it, add some spices if necessary.

I have found two different kinds of rice papers.

Start by taking a big bowl and fill it with warm water, then you’ll also need a damp towel and a dry towel.

Dip the rice paper into the warm water so that it turns see through and soft.

Take it out and place on top of a damp towel. Put some of the filling into it like this.

Then turn both of the sides like this.

Turn the lower part like this.

Keep on rolling upwards until you have this.

These can be eaten like this, but I usually brush them with some oil and bake them in the oven for a small while until they are crisp. It is much easier to bake these than to deep-fry them.

Usually I’ll have two kinds of sauces for these; the other one is just store bought sweet chili sauce and the other one is made by mixing hoisin sauce, peanut butter, minced garlic and water. Just mix everything together in a saucepan on medium heat until you have a sauce, taste it and add some more hoisin sauce, peanut butter or garlic according to taste.

Popularity: 8% [?]

A swiss roll is probably one  of the easiest and fastest things you can bake gluten-free, it is also made with very basic ingredients, there’s no need for exotic flours or binders; all you need is eggs, sugar, baking powder and potato flour. You can use almost anything for the filling, the easiest thing would probably be jam, but you can use lemon curd, whipped cream or fruit etc.

I usually make mine with cocoa powder and I use mashed bananas, whipped cream and some quark for the filling.

You can also use this as a cake base by cutting it into the shape you want to and then assembling the cake; much easier and faster than making a regular cake base.  This is also milk-free, if you use a milk-free filling. I’m not sure if you can make an egg-free and gluten-free swiss roll at all; at least I don’t know of any recipes that work, I’ve tried some, but they never work out.

Gluten-free swiss roll 

-4 medium sized eggs

-1 1/2 dl (or 3/4 cup) sugar

-1 1/2 dl (or  3/4 cup) potato flour

-1 teaspoon baking powder

If you want to make a chocolate swiss roll measure 3 tablespoons cocoa powder and then measure enough potato flour so that you end up with 3/4 cup flour mixed with cocoa.

Make sure all you ingredients are room temperature before you start. Preheat the oven  to 200 Celsius (400 F).

Beat the eggs and sugar until they are light and pale. Measure the potato flour and baking powder, mix them together and sift them into the eggs and sugar, fold them in very gently.

Pour the batter into a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Spread the batter evenly.

Put it into the oven when you have spread it evenly, it will bake fast, 10 minutes is usually enough, watch it carefully so that it doesn’t burn.

When the roll is baking in the oven take some more baking paper and spread some sugar on top of it.

When the roll has baked, base it on top of the baking paper with sugar.

Moisten a kitchen cloth with very cold water and move it along the baking paper so that it will be easy to remove; you might have to moisten it many times. Just move it along a small area, and then moisten it again so that it stays cold.

Remove the paper gradually and carefully.

Let it cool for a small while and then start spreading the filling, it will be easier to roll if you use a small amount of filling - the more filling, the harder it will be to roll.

Start rolling it like this, use the paper as help.

Keep on rolling.

Press it down with your hand occasionally.

Cut those uneven ends so that it looks nicer and decorate the roll, if you want to use some decorations.

Marzipan and melted chocolate are among the prettiest decorations you can use in my opinion. Flowers and berries are also pretty and natural looking.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Tags: baking, milk-free