Elana's Pantry Forums User Favorites: Carol

Elana's Pantry Forums User Favorites: Carol http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ Forums for the elanaspantry.com website en Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:40:12 +0000 McJohn on "Cookie Recipes" http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/cookie-recipes#post-459 Sat, 29 Aug 2009 08:14:36 +0000 McJohn 459@http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ This recipe is a lot of work and calls for specialized ingredients, but the results are just spectacular. ECLIPSE BISCOTTI Wheat-free, sugar-free, low-fat or fat-free Ingredients 2-1/2 cups wheat-free flour: 3/4 cup almond meal (http://store.honeyvillegrain.com) 1/2 cup oat flour (natural food store) 1/2 cup brown rice flour (natural food store) 1/2 cup tapioca, potato, or corn starch (natural food store or Asian grocery) 1/2 cup powdered milk 1 teaspoon NOW Foods xanthan gum 3/4 cup unsweetened Hershey's Special Dark cocoa 1/4 cup unsweetened regular cocoa 2 teaspoons baking soda 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1-1/2 cups erythritol (http://www.emeraldforestxylitol.com/index.htm) 1-1/2 cups Splenda for Baking 2 sticks (1 cup) room-temperature light butter (Land o' Lakes or Kroger) or 1/2 cup fat-free Half-and-Half (Land o' Lakes or H-E-B) 2/3 cup Egg Starts or Egg Beaters (Costco or grocery store) 1 to 1-1/2 cups sugar-free white chocolate (http://www.valleynut.com) Equipment Sifter and 4-cup bowl for sifting flours Stand mixer with dough paddle (the macho one) Kitchen towel(s) Rolling pin Plastic cling wrap Round cookie cutters Cookie sheets Parchment paper or Silpat silicon baking sheet Oven Small saucepan or glass measuring cup Stove or microwave Directions Place oven racks as close to the center as you can get 'em and still put in the cookie sheets. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line the cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper, or use a Silpat. If you don't already have the wheat-free flour pre-mixed, sift the flours together a few times. In the bowl of the stand mixer, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, erythritol, and Splenda for baking. Mix on lowest setting for about three minutes--just let the mixer sit there and run for a bit while you lay out the kitchen towels on the counter and put a sheet of plastic cling wrap on top. (You're after a flat surface on which you can roll out the dough between two sheets of plastic cling wrap. The towels will keep the dough from skittering all over the counter.) When the dry ingredients are well and thoroughly mixed, add the butter or half-and-half and Egg Starts. Mix the dough until it forms a ball around the dough paddle. Turn off the mixer, divide the dough in thirds, and roll out each glob until it's about an eighth of an inch thick. Cut out the dough with the cookie cutter(s). The cut-out dough should be about two inches wide at its widest point: it spreads a bit as it bakes, and anything wider will make the biscotti difficult to handle, because they get crunchy. Alternately, you can take a glob of dough, plop it into a sheet of cling wrap or waxed paper, roll it into a tube about 1-1/2 inches thick, and stick it into the freezer for about half an hour. Once it firms up, you can slice it into discs. Lay out the biscotti on the lined cookie sheet(s) and bake them for about nine minutes. They'll still be soft when you take them out of the oven. You can let them cool on the cookie sheet or transfer them to a rack, but they're pretty delicate at this stage, and whatever you do, you'll want to handle them gently. It will probably take them at least a couple of hours to cool to the point where you can proceed to the next step, a half-coating of melted white chocolate. Melt the white chocolate chunks on very low heat in the saucepan on the stove, or in the microwave in the glass measuring cup. (Chocolate burns easily, white chocolate is even more delicate, and sugar-free white chocolate is a rare thing indeed, so better to endure impatience and be careful than full steam ahead and turn it into concrete.) Lots of stirring will help the chocolate melt. When it's completely melted, turn off the heat and dip each of the cooled biscotti in the chocolate, coating it halfway. Lay the coated biscotti onto the (washed and dried) Silpat or onto a fresh sheet of parchment paper. Putting them in the fridge will help the chocolate set up. These biscotti are wheat-free, sugar-free, relatively low in fat and calories, and amazingly good: the cookie tastes a lot like an Oreo, while the white chocolate is a wonderful touch. They are addictive, especially if you've been deprived of decent cookies by food allergies, dieting, or diabetes; however, it's a low-impact kink, so go ahead and indulge. You'll probably react to the richness of the erythritol and quit scarfing before you can do yourself any real damage anyway. Some people have reacted badly to the maltitol in the white chocolate (we call it "maltitol thunder"), but that is entirely a matter of having eaten too much of it, which is an effective feedback loop to keep you from doing that. Carol on "Cookie Recipes" http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/cookie-recipes#post-313 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:41:31 +0000 Carol 313@http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ I am looking for cookie recipes that produce crisp cookies. I grew up with home baked cookies that were crisp enough to hold up to dunking. Unfortunately I have not been able to produce a crisp cookie with almond flour. In fact, the only recipe that I have found requires a combination of brown rice syrup and stevia - the first I shouldn't use regularly; the second is not a pleasing taste for me. Is there a way to bake the almond flour recipes to make a crisper cookie? Ninufar on "Nuts" http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/nuts#post-271 Sat, 16 May 2009 17:22:35 +0000 Ninufar 271@http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ I would also guess that un-roasted (pale white) ones are what you'd need for creamy sauces, etc. They're available on line (I think ohnuts.com even has them on sale at the moment), and also at Asian groceries, if they're not available in a bulk section of other grocery stores near you. Enjoy in better and better health! Carol on "Nuts" http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/nuts#post-270 Fri, 15 May 2009 21:37:34 +0000 Carol 270@http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ I have been on a restricted diet for about 3 years now - no sugars other than a couple of servings of fruits per day, stevia and occasionally maple syrup; only oatmeal and rice for grains; and no dairy - so I have been learning how to cook all over again. I am just beginning to experiment with sauces and desserts and find that recipes that call for cashews do not specify whether they should be roasted, toasted or raw while recipes that call for other nuts are almost always specific. Can anyone tell me what form to use if using them to create the "creamy" base? If raw, is there a web source? I'm not finding raw cashews in the markets. Carol on "Coconut Milk or Almond Milk Yogurt Recipes" http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/coconut-milk-or-almond-milk-yogurt-recipes#post-269 Fri, 15 May 2009 21:25:20 +0000 Carol 269@http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ I'm seeing several recipes that call for coconut milk, some making sure to list "whole" coconut milk or canned and unseparated. I can only find coconut milk in the carton in local grocery store - there appears to be nothing in the baking goods aisle or the Asian/ethnic foods aisle. The grocer does stock two flavored that are sweetened and one original which does not appear to have a sweetener added. Would the "for drinking" milk in the carton work in place of "whole" or canned and unseparated? psixichka on "Coconut Milk or Almond Milk Yogurt Recipes" http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/coconut-milk-or-almond-milk-yogurt-recipes#post-248 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:16:05 +0000 psixichka 248@http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ has anyone come up with anything else? what about using chia seeds? or the gel they produce? i just ordered some tia! ebates on "Coconut Milk or Almond Milk Yogurt Recipes" http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/coconut-milk-or-almond-milk-yogurt-recipes#post-217 Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:13:34 +0000 ebates 217@http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ My son is now on such a restricted diet I'm ready to pull my hair out. We had to axe out honey (caused overwhelming growth of yeast), so now I'm only able to use stevia or xylitol. One of my bright ideas was making homemade coconut yogurt. I bought the outrageously expensive GIProstart, a yogurt maker and a bunch of sulfite free coconut. When I realized that the coconut milk needed sweetener to feed the bacteria I let out a heavy sigh. I decided to try something different. I blended some frozen blueberries and hoped the bacterias would feed off of that. I even added some gelatin to give it some "body". End result was like a yogurt smoothie (Yo-Baby brand) I used to get for my son. Its quite tart (I added a few drops of stevia) and strained it thru a nut milk bag to get all the blueberry skins out. I had actually taken some of the "yogurt" and froze it in my ice cream maker. It was quite slushy, but not bad. I'm thinking of using more gelatin the next time around. Ruth on "Coconut Milk or Almond Milk Yogurt Recipes" http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/coconut-milk-or-almond-milk-yogurt-recipes#post-206 Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:00:16 +0000 Ruth 206@http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ ps I had already done this research; I'm just happy to know that the time I spent is beneficial to others as well!! Ruth on "Coconut Milk or Almond Milk Yogurt Recipes" http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/coconut-milk-or-almond-milk-yogurt-recipes#post-205 Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:59:10 +0000 Ruth 205@http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ Further update on the coconut milk yogurt saga: I use Natural Value Natural Coconut Milk which has only coconut and water, no guar gum. (I don't like additives.) It's *very* thick. I made the yogurt as directed above but I tried it without the pectin altogether (the pectin got lumpy on my 2nd batch) and it was DELICIOUS without the pectin, and very thick. Not as thick as milk-yogurt, but much thicker than I was expecting. I recommend the Natural Value Natural Coconut Milk (I found it at Whole Foods, but a friend in a different city could not find it at Whole Foods), the directions above, giprohealth starter, and NO pectin. Theresa Watson on "Coconut Milk or Almond Milk Yogurt Recipes" http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/coconut-milk-or-almond-milk-yogurt-recipes#post-204 Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:27:06 +0000 Theresa Watson 204@http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ Thank you all so much for your help -- really appreciate you all taking the time to do some research for me!! Isn't this site just wonderful -- Thank you Elana for giving us all a place to exchange ideas and recipes and information. Theresa Watson Ruth on "Coconut Milk or Almond Milk Yogurt Recipes" http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/coconut-milk-or-almond-milk-yogurt-recipes#post-196 Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:00:37 +0000 Ruth 196@http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ Here's the other starter I located: <a href="http://www.customprobiotics.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.customprobiotics.com/</a> But when I called to confirm that it was, indeed, dairy and soy free, the guy changed the topic and tried to hook me on *his* probiotics and said probiotics would cure my allergies. I wasn't impressed, hence went with the giprohealth. The customprobiotics has acidophilus, the giprohealth does not. A recipe that is based on a more low-cost non-refrigerated starter can be found in Nicolette Dumke's most excellent series of allergy cookbooks. <a href="http://www.food-allergy.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.food-allergy.org/</a> Hope this helps. Ruth Ruth on "Coconut Milk or Almond Milk Yogurt Recipes" http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/coconut-milk-or-almond-milk-yogurt-recipes#post-194 Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:54:21 +0000 Ruth 194@http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ Here's a great recipe, I used it, it worked perfectly the first time: <a href="http://forums.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=287507" rel="nofollow">http://forums.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=287507</a> And to get starter, go to: <a href="http://www.giprohealth.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.giprohealth.com/</a> There's only 2 cites I found for non-dairy yogurt starter, and the other one did not give me the greatest impression nor the forum I cited above. Hope this helps. Ruth Vee on "Coconut Milk or Almond Milk Yogurt Recipes" http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/coconut-milk-or-almond-milk-yogurt-recipes#post-185 Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:54:29 +0000 Vee 185@http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ I did a search and found the following article on this. Looks very well written. Hope this helps! <a href="http://knol.google.com/k/rj-ruppenthal/how-to-make-homemade-yogurt-and-yogurt/1w7m8vx5s8vcr/2#" rel="nofollow">http://knol.google.com/k/rj-ruppenthal/how-to-make-homemade-yogurt-and-yogurt/1w7m8vx5s8vcr/2#</a> Theresa Watson on "Coconut Milk or Almond Milk Yogurt Recipes" http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/coconut-milk-or-almond-milk-yogurt-recipes#post-184 Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:33:14 +0000 Theresa Watson 184@http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/ Does anyone have a recipe for yogurt made with coconut milk or almond milk? Can you use agave as the sweetener or does the bacteria need real sugar to grow? Thanks, Theresa