Friday, July 20, 2012

Grain Free Granola - sugar free

Ever since we got a dehydrator I have been thrilled with making my own granola. When we first started going grain free spending 9$ for a bag for only 1 weeks worth was tragic.

Originally I have always been an oatmeal eater, still to this day because it's so delicious; organic gluten free oats; I don't know how you can go wrong.
Sadly, I have been trying to slowly reduce my oats to weekly or biweekly, just because there are good reasons to do that and I like experimenting. 

So I was thinking, a grain free granola? Hm, sounds good. Only I don't just want a mouth full of nuts.  I like almonds, but almonds on top of almonds is a little too much for me.
You know my new favorite ingredient is Whey Powder.  It's delicious, and has many different beneficial properties, besides being low in carb. 

So I thought, how great would it be to use Whey powder as a base for the granola instead of rolled oats.
 Here is what I cam up with:

 

 Grain Free Granola - sugar free 

Make this into, cinnamon raisin, strawberry vanilla, cranberry crunch, etc.

In a large mixing bowl:

4 C sliced blanched almonds*
2 C shredded coconut unsweet
1 C vanilla Whey powder unsweet
1 C organic raisins
1/2 C flax meal or 1/4 C chia


Stir together, In a seperate bowl mix:

1 C unsweetened apple sauce
2 T palm sugar, or equal to in splenda, stevia
1 T vanilla powder or real extract
2 T ground cinnamon
1 t sea salt

Combine the two bowls. Mixture should clump together but not be wet. Spread out on to several racks in dehydrator. Dehydrate at 200 degrees. Every 2 hours stir and crumble granola with your hands until mix starts to clump and dry together. Dehydrate 8 hours or so until crunchy.

Can be made in the oven baked at 200 degrees until crispy. Stir every 2 hours just the same.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Grain Free Bread - Dairy free, gluten free

I know, I know. It's been a LONG time since I have posted.
MY life just started getting busy, and busy, and busy, and it's time for some changes around here.
My business has been taking up all my free time, I am trying hard right now to actually increase my free time and pull away from my business slightly in order to have a life.

I have been cooking and baking just as mush as ever, but I haven't listed anything. I have lots of pictures stacked up. So I hope to have some great recipes to share with you.
I don't know what it is about today, but I felt like baking bread.
I am shocked actually to discover I should be eating more alternative grains then I am used to on a cleanse, so I have been making bread.
I know how some people just stay away from bread all together, but sometimes I am really at a loss for what to do with left over chicken, or ham and I would love just a quick sandwich.
I refuse to buy processed bread. Anything you can buy Gluten free, is full of horrible starches and more rice then I eat in a month. I can't force myself to eat them without feeling awful full allllll day and a total pile of guilt.
I have made some breads in the past.
Coconut flour, tapioca flour, almond flour, and I usually don't really care for them. I will say I don't like finding coconut flour in my bread.
I also don't like really dense cakey bread. But, of course you know it's near impossible to get a fluffy and light loaf without Gluten.
I went to my favorite organic, Natural food store and was very please with their big variety of nut butters. I have honestly never bought anything but almond or peanut. I thought, HEY, if I can make semi good bread from almond butter, what can I make from others?
I dunno if you have noticed but almond butter doesn't really have that much taste.
So what about other delicious organic butters? Raw cashew, tahini, sunbutter, pumpkin seed, hemp seed. There is just so many how can you choose?

Today I knew I was going to bake bread, so I looked in the pantry and had inspiration.
I wanted to see if it was possible to make a better tasting bread that was just as good for sandwiches, as it was to smother with goat cheese and olive oil and eat as a snack. I want it to be grain free, and delicious without a lot of starches.

Delicious and moist, fluffly with air bubbles, and a crispy crust. It's pretty much all I could ask for. Now if only I could get my bread maker to make it for me :)

When it comes to the grocery bill, this is not a cheap bread to make. Compared to the $9 loafs you can buy though they taste better and cost about the same.
 I used a combination of raw and organic nut butters in this recipe with the desire of taste in mind. You can definitely use substitutes in place. The only butter I don;t recommend is coconut. It is by far different and I really don;t know what you would end up with. Changing the recipe could cause your bread to rise differently, bake faster, shorter and change color.
One thing I can note is using sunflower seeds will cause your bread to turn green. Not a very nice green either, but it is totally okay to eat. Using sunbutter you will want to decrease the baking soda in order to decrease the "green" doing so will make your bread more dense.

Grain Free Bread - Gluten free, Dairy free, Sugar free

Yields approx. 4-5 inch tall loaf

*Whey powder will give you a great rise, almost double in size without having to beat your egg whites. I recommend it*

In a stand mixer bowl:

3/4 C Raw Smooth Organic Cashew Butter
                                   - Substitute, Tahini, Pumpkin Seed, Almond, or a combination

1/4 C Organic Sesame Tahini (sesame seed butter)
4 organic eggs
1 T organic apple cider vinegar
1 T sweetener (honey, agave, stevia, sucralose, palm sugar)

Beat well until very smooth. Scrape the bowl and add:

1/4 C unsweetened Whey Powder
                         - substitute almond flour, I prefer to use good for you Whey powder versus
                           beating egg whites. If using almond flour you may want to beat egg 
                           whites separately and fold into ingredients.
2 T pumpkin seeds chopped
2 T chia seeds or hemp seeds
1/2 t sea salt
1 t aluminum free baking soda
1/4 c golden flax meal or arrowroot powder

Beat until smooth and thick. 

Grease a medium size bread pan with coconut oil or "flour" with flaxmeal and use butter.
Spread batter into pan and smooth out the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 min.

**Using a big pan will cause a shorter loaf of bread. If using a big pan double the recipe.
**change out the salt for cinnamon and vanilla if sweet bread is desired**

If you use a different combination of nut butter that you like let me know. I have found this to be my favorite blend. Almond butter will cause a much darker loaf but very delicious.