cooking ala mel

Gluten Free Cut-Out Cookies

April 8, 2012

I’m not sure what it is about Easter and the spring, but it makes me want sugar cookies. With lots and lots of frosting. Because I didn’t want to just make a whole big batch of sugar and butter laden cookies, I decided I’d try out Elana’s recipe for cut-out cookies made with almond flour. I sure have been loving almond flour lately, especially since I’ve started making my own. To make them a bit more festive for Easter, I shaped them into make-shift eggs. They ended up very organic looking; not one of them looks the same, haha. With the frosting I used, I added a few berries into them for color, and I love how it gave them the speckled look.

I was a little bit worried that these wouldn’t taste like what I was craving, but oh my goodness.. they are that and more. Crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, the best sweetness with a bit of an edge that you can’t quite place from the combination of vanilla, cinnamon, and almond. The honey in the frosting really kicks it up another notch, as well.

Like Tessy’s new bunny? We met up with Alex’s grandparents for lunch at Alex’s favorite restaurant for sushi, and they gave us some Easter candies, as well as this bunny for the little sir. He was so overjoyed when we brought this home for him. He loves hiding behind the couch and pouncing out at him.

Gluten Free Cut-Out Cookies

adapted from Elana’s Pantry

makes about 30 cookies

2 1/2 cups almond flour

1/2 t salt

1/4 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup agave nectar

1 T vanilla

In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. In a small bowl, combine the coconut oil, butter, agave nectar, and vanilla. Pour the wet mixture into the dry, and stir until it forms a wet dough. Refrigerate for about 1 hour. Roll out the dough between two pieces of wax paper until about 1/4″ thick. Cut into your desired shapes.

Bake at 350ºF for about 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned, on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Allow to cool on a wire rack. If frosting, allow to cool completely before doing so.

For the Icing:

makes about 1 cup

scant 1/2 cup honey

scant 1/2 cup instant dry milk

1/4 t vanilla

Warm the honey slightly. In a small bowl, whisk together the ingredients. Keep whisking until smooth and thick. For color, add in a few drops of food coloring or a few berries and whisk well (if you use berries, it will turn out speckled).

DIY Greek Yogurt

April 7, 2012

Eating greek yogurt every day is pretty costly. Depending on the brand, a small 6-oz container is anywhere from one to two dollars. I’ve been buying the bulk containers, since I’ve been using it in smoothies as of late, which cuts down on the cost a little bit, but it’s still about $3 for four servings. I knew it was something I could probably make myself and save a lot of money on, but I thought it would be really time consuming, and I just never got around to it. Finally, last week I was pretty much out of yogurt, and we had a lot of milk that we needed to use up, so I decided it was time.

I am so glad I finally took the plunge and made my own greek yogurt. It is SO easy, and the yogurt is much more rich and creamy than what you buy at the store. I usually don’t like greek yogurt plain, but I can’t stop dipping strawberries into this. It’s that good. The kitty approves, too. I let him lick off the spoon once I was all finished, and he’s been wanting more ever since.

The hands on time is only about a half hour, and you can leave it to incubate overnight, so it hardly seems to take any time at all! Strain it in the morning, and you’ve got fresh greek yogurt. My grocery bill is going down significantly already..

DIY Greek Yogurt

from Annie’s Eats

makes about 3-4 cups

2 quarts milk (I used skim, but choose what you like!)

2 t plain yogurt

1/4 cup instant dry milk (optional)

Heat the milk in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it reaches 180ºF (this denatures the proteins so it can incubate). Remove from the heat and allow to cool to 110-120ºF. You need it to be at this temperature so the yogurt cultures will incubate. Any higher will kill the cultures, and any lower will not allow them to set up properly.

Transfer the milk to a large glass bowl (a 2.5 quart Pyrex dish is great in this case), and stir in the plain yogurt (this provides the live active cultures). If using the dry milk, stir in now (this will make it thicker/creamier, especially if using skim milk). Cover the bowl and wrap it in heavy dish towels. Place it into the oven. Preheat the oven to any temperature, and shut off after 1 minute. This will remove the chill from the oven. Close the oven, and allow the yogurt to incubate.

The incubation period can take anywhere from 8-12 hours. If you think it needs it, you can preheat your oven for 1 minute every few hours to ensure that the mixture remains in the correct temperature range (if you do this overnight, don’t worry about preheating it more than once).

Once it is done incubated, you’ll have a thick, yogurt-like mixture. It’ll be pretty watery. Take a fine mesh sieve or strainer and line it with a cheesecloth or thick paper towels. Set it over a bowl, and place the yogurt mixture into the strainer. Place the straining set up in the fridge at this point to strain out completely. Once done straining, you can either discard the liquid (whey) or save it for other uses.

Place the yogurt into an airtight container, and whisk to smooth out. At this point, you can add in some vanilla or any sweeteners you’d like. Keep refrigerated.

Buttermilk Biscuits

April 3, 2012

Yesterday was a rather trying day. I’ve had a persistent cough for the past few months, and this week it’s been much worse than usual. It’s primarily when I’m exercising or when I have dairy products (probably from the casein in milk). After we learned about asthma in my pharmaceutical care class, I was alerted to the fact that it’s possible that I have a mild case of asthma – cough is the most common symptom. Not wanting to leave that to get worse, I tried making a doctor’s appointment to get it checked out. Because my primary care physician is back in Pittsburgh, I learned from a not-so-friendly receptionist that I could only go to an immediate care facility or the ER.

Because I really didn’t want to waste my time at the ER (and wasting health care dollars), I went to an immediate care place right by our apartment. They didn’t have the equipment to do pulmonary function tests, so all the doctor could do was take a chest x-ray and listen to me breathe. Both told him nothing – I seem healthy. Because it’s mostly been a chest tightness and a cough, I knew he wouldn’t be hearing anything.. I never wheeze. So I’m now equipped with an albuterol inhaler for when I exercise, a prescription cough medication, and a 5-day corticosteroid for inflammation, all to just hold me over and see if they work until I can get to my doctor and schedule some pulmonary tests. Today was the first day I tried it, and surprisingly, I’m already seeing a difference in my cough. Not too excited about the fact that I probably have asthma, though..

Thank goodness for today, though. Tuesdays are usually my scheduled laboratory/counseling days, but today I had nothing scheduled, so I looked forward to sleeping in and spending my day restocking my almond flour, almond butter, sunflower seed butter, and reading A Storm of Swords. For whatever reason, though, I couldn’t bring myself to want anything sweet (I consider nut butters sweet, although they really aren’t, particularly..). And then I received two Dorie Greenspan cookbooks (Baking and Around my French Table) in the mail after getting an AMAZING deal on them from Amazon. I saw her basic biscuit recipe, and I was sold..

This is probably the perfect biscuit recipe. A crusty outside, moist and soft inside, with a lovely flakiness.. I used white whole wheat flour, so my biscuits didn’t rise quite as much as they should’ve, but the flavor is so perfect that I can’t find it in me to complain. I added a bit of cheddar for a bit of extra flavor, which turned out lovely. These are perfect with a pat of butter, sprinkled with a bit of sea salt, or just eaten plain.

Buttermilk Biscuits
adapted from Baking: from My Home to Yours
makes about 12 biscuits

2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 T baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 t coconut sugar
6 T butter, cold, cut into 12 pieces
3/4 cup cold buttermilk
1/2 cup sharp cheddar, shredded

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt. With your fingers, rub the butter into the flour mixture until it’s crumbly. Toss in the cheddar. Pour in the cold buttermilk, and stir with a fork until a soft dough comes together. Turn it in your hands a few times to bring it together.
Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and pat out to 1/2″ thick. Cut out as many biscuits as you can (with a 2″diameter biscuit cutter or the mouth of a cup). Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet, a few inches apart for crisp edges. Take the remaining scraps, and bring them together, working them as little as you can, and pat out to 1/2″ thick again. Cut as many more biscuits as you can.
Bake in a 425ºF oven with the rack in the center for about 14-18 minutes, until golden and puffed.