Upside down Apple Cake -- gluten-free, vegan, nut-free

My Bubbi Sarah was a tiny and tough old woman who came here from Poland when she was a young girl. She'd witnessed a tremendous amount of change in her life by the time she died after the new millennia at the age of 102, but one thing was constant -- her love of making the old traditional favourites for her family's eating pleasure. She'd make mandelbrot, poppy seed cookies, roasted eggplant, and her famous apple cake. With a nudge she'd say "Did you try the apple cake? It's good. I made it."

I miss that. So I always think of Bubbi Sarah when I bake an apple cake.

Now, I can't claim to hold a candle to her apple cake. This one is lovely, however. The cake is delicate, soft, spongey, and moist, with perfect integrity, and a light sweetness and spiciness. I'm sure Bubbi Sarah would have been baffled by my use of millet and buckwheat flours, but I like to think she would have enjoyed it.

If, like me, you are allergic to wheat, or if you simply want a change, this gluten-free, nut-free, vegan cake is wonderful.

I love the way an upside down cake looks, with a pretty pattern in apple slices on the now-top. I sprinkle coconut sugar liberally to affect a sort of caramelization on the now-top, and it's a thing of pleasing deliciousness.

equipment:
round 8 inch pan, coated with coconut oil and parchment
mixing bowl
mixing spoon
knife
cutting board
measuring spoons
measuring cups
whisk
oven


ingredients:

a)
1/2 cup millet flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour

b)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp tonka bean powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ceylon cinnamon

c)
1/4 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup warm water

d)
1/2 cup coconut sugar
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

e)
2 tbsp coconut sugar
1 apples, cored and sliced


directions:

preheat the oven to 345 degrees

1. prepare the apple and the pan
2. cover the bottom of the pan with parchment, then cover the parchment with coconut sugar sugar and apple slices (e)
3. combine the warm water and coconut oil (part c) and set aside
4. mix together the dry ingredients from a) and b) in a bowl
5. mix the ingredients from d) into the ingredients from e)
6. using a whisk, combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients
7. pour the batter over the sliced apples
8. bake for 30 to 35 minutes at 345
9. cool and invert onto a plate

Buckwheat Muffins with Hemp hearts and Ginger **

Buckwheat is one of those tricky flours. The texture makes  for spongey, cohesive baked goods, but the flavour can be strident with certain other flavours. Cinnamon and buckwheat are not a harmonious combination for me. However, vanilla and maple can make buckwheat purr.

Here I was inspired to add a hint of ginger to the mix, and I find it pleasing. We've done these muffins without the ginger, and they are exceptionally yummy. Definitely one of our favourites.

These muffins have just a handful of ingredients, mix up in about 5 minutes, and bake in 30. Definitely an easy recipe to make. The part that takes the longest is scooping the batter into the muffin cups.

equipment needed:
mixing bowl
measuring cups
measuring spoons
mixing spoon
muffin cups (I use silicone muffin cups on a rectangular baking sheet)
oven


ingredients:

a)
1 cup coconut sugar
2 cups buckwheat flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch

b)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda

c)
2 cups water
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

d)
1 cup hemp hearts


1. combine dry ingredients (a and b)
2. add water, vanilla and vinegar, and whisk
3. add hemp hearts
4. scoop into 24 muffin cups
5. bake at 345 for 30 minutes

School-friendly fruity spicy shape cookies -- vegan! grain free! gluten free! yummy ...

1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 cup coconut sugar

20 drops orange essential oil
20 drops lemon essential oil

1 tbsp ground vanilla
1 tbsp ceylon cinnamon
1 tbsp saigon or korintje cinnamon
1 tbsp ginger
1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup ground chia seeds
1 cup shredded coconut, finely ground
1/2 cup sunflower seeds, finely ground
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, finely ground
1/4 cup ground hemp seeds

1/4 cup coconut flour


combine, roll out (on parchment!!!), cut with cookie cutters, bake on a lined cookie sheet at 345 for 12 minutes

Apple and Raisin Muffins fit for School -- no gluten, no nuts, no sugar, no kidding

I'm a sucker for the good old fashioned simplicity of apple and spices. These are flavourful and wholesome, and definitely work as a quick meal or snack even if you avoid grains, gluten, processed foods, sugar etc. If you like yummy, try these. They store well in an airtight container in the fridge, and will remain moist and delicious for a week.

ingredients:

2 cups hot water
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup coconut sugar

1 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp ground vanilla
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 ground chia seeds
1 cup ground shredded coconut -- I whirled the coconut around in my coffee grinder
1/2 cup hemp hearts

4 eggs

1 cup ground raw sunflower seeds -- I used a coffee grinder for my raw sunflower seeds


2 cups diced apple -- I used medium sized royal galas -- organic -- and didn't peel them
1 cup raisins -- I used some small thompson raisins -- organic -- not the jumbo ones


directions:

1. combine the ingredients in the order listed.
2. scoop the batter into 24 prepared muffin cups
3. preheat the oven to 345
4. bake at 345 for 40 minutes

In which I try Again to make lemon macaroons

The secret to successful macaroons, at least according to my husband, is that the shredded coconut be more finely ground. If it's ground, he's a fan. If it's unground, he finds the texture off-putting. These were happily devoured by my son and his friend, as well as by my husband. Actually, I walked in on my 4 year old and his friend stuffing their cookies in their mouths so their hands would be free to snag some more. Then again, with these ingredients, it's not a bad thing.

ingredients:

1/2 cup water + 2 tsp egg replacer

1/2 cup coconut nectar

1 1/2 tsp lemon extract
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp ground vanilla bean

1 tsp ceylon cinnamon
1 tbsp ginger

1/4 cup ground chia seeds

3 cups shredded coconut, lightly chopped in food processor or in your coffee grinder

directions:

1. combine the egg replacer and water, then mix in the coconut nectar

2. add the lemon , the sea salt, vanilla bean, ginger, vanilla extract, and ceylon cinnamon

3. mix in the ground chia seeds

4. add the shredded coconut after chopping it in the food processor

5. mix thoroughly 

6. roll into balls and flatten, place on a lined baking sheet

7. makes 24-28 cookies

8. bake at 345 for 16 minutes

9. cool thoroughly

10. store in an airtight container

Sweet Potato school muffins -- nut free, gluten free, sugar free, yummy

In the interest of variety, I've come up with yet another perky little lunch  muffin. Try it. It's great.

ingredients:

2 cups water
1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil
1 tbsp lemon juice

4 eggs

1 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp ceylon cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp korintje cinnamon
1 tsp saigon cinnamon
1 tbsp ground vanilla bean

1 cup shredded coconut, ground
1/2 cup ground flax meal
1/4 cup ground chia
1/2 cup ground sunflower seeds
1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup coconut flour

2 cups shredded sweet potato
1 cup organic raisins

directions:

preheat the oven to 345

1. combine  coconut oil and warm water

2. add the lemon juice, sea salt, vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger

3. stir in the  chia seeds, flax meal, shredded coconut, sunflower seeds, baking soda, and coconut flour
4. add the eggs and mix well

5. stir in the shredded sweet potato and raisins, and mix thoroughly

5. scoop the batter into prepare muffin cups

6. bake at 345 for 50 minutes

Peanut Butter, Honey, and Ginger Ice cream -- wholesome treats

ingredients:

2 cups milk
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ceylon cinnamon
1 tsp ground vanilla bean
1/4 tsp sea salt


directions:

1. combine the ingredients and chill
2. process in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers specifications

Green Sesame Noodles with Bok Choy Saute

green sesame noodles with bok choy saute

We received another organic bin this week, and in it was baby bok choy. Really lovely fresh baby bok choy. I thought green noodles would make a wholesome backdrop to a saute of baby bok choy, perhaps sauced with something in the miso honey and ginger family ...

I wanted to see what would happen if I added chia seeds to my standard green noodle recipe. And then tossed them with coconut oil and toasted sesame seeds after cooking. Here's the amended noodle recipe, and the saute recipe follows.

green sesame chia noodles:

ingredients:

150 g frozen organic spinach, defrosted

1 organic egg (xl or l)

1/2 cup almond flour

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 chia seeds

1 1/2 cups  kamut flour

directions:

1. in a food processor, puree the defrosted spinach. If you are using fresh spinach, let me know how it turns out.

2. add the egg and combine

3. add the sea salt, chia seeds, and almond meal, and combine

4. add 1 1/2 cups kamut flour, and pulse to combine.

5. gather the dough into a ball, flatten, wrap, and set aside to 'rest'.

6. divide the dough into 4 parts

7. roll each part on a mat sprinkled with kamut flour, using a rolling pin sprinkled with kamut flour.

8. if the dough is too sticky, add more kamut flour

9. roll the dough out until it is nice and thin

10. make sure the surface is well sprinkled with kamut flour, and roll it up 

11. set the roll aside and repeat with the other portions of dough

12. once all the portions of dough have been rolled up, cut them into spirals using a sharp chef's knife or bread knife (I prefer a bread knife because the serrated blade makes this task easier)

13. uncoil the spirals and lay them out

14. put the noodles in boiling water spiked with a little oil, and cook for 2 minutes.

15. drain the noodles, and toss with coconut oil and a couple of table spoons of toasted sesame seeds

Ready to roll

Green noodle dough with chia seeds. What country does this look like?

A spiral

Three rolled up portions of dough

Cutting them efficiently with a serrated blade

Spirals before they are unrolled

the noodle spirals, after cutting, before unravelling

unravelling the noodle spirals

boiled for 2 minutes, and tossed with coconut oil, a pinch of sea salt, and toasted sesame seeds

bok choy saute:

ingredients:

2 lbs baby bok  choy, cleaned and cut into bite sized pieces
2 cups carrots, cut into medallions then sticks
1 celery rib, cut on the diagonal, then into strips
1 cup raw almonds
2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
1 or 2 tbsp finely minced fresh ginger

up to 1 tsp sea salt

2 tbsp miso paste
1 tbsp honey
1 or 2 tbsp lemon juice


directions:

1. heat the coconut oil in a large saute pan, and add the almonds, carrots, celery, and ginger, with a little sea salt. Cook until happy.
2. add the baby bok choy and a little sea salt, and stir
3. mix the miso, honey, lemon juice in a small bowl
4. add the miso paste to the vegetables, and combine well
5. serve on a bed of sesame tossed green noodles


Now, if you want to orchestrate the making of this meal in a way that fits into your busy life, you can do it in stages:

1. make the dough, and wrap it and put it in the fridge. The dough can easily be made a day ahead.
2. at your leisure, roll out the dough in 4 parts, roll up the dough, and slice. Put in an airtight container, and put it back in fridge
3. at your leisure, clean and cut the carrots and celery, and store in an airtight container.
4. Before cooking, measure out your ingredients into 'junbi' bowls. 'Junbi' is the Japanese word for 'preparation'. A student of mine who was an amateur gourmet cook used to say to me 'Ryori wa junbi desu', which means 'Cooking is all in the preparation'.
5. You can actually saute up your almonds, carrots, celery, and ginger earlier, and leave 'em in the pan on the stove.
6. Bring water to a boil at the same time as the carrots and almonds are done cooking, and hot.
7. Add the bok choy and do your thing with it, and then toss in the sauce. When that is all ready, set it aside, and cook your noodles. They only need 2 minutes. When the noodles are done, drain 'em, and toss  'em with a little coconut oil and sesame seeds. Put a little bed of noodles in a bowl, and top with the vege stir-fry. Easy-peasy!

ready to top the noodles

ta-da!

:)

Rainbow Chard and Zucchini Saute

We decided to try a 2-box trial from an organic produce delivery company. We received our second box and found in it as well there was a bunch of rainbow chard. So pretty. Sadly, I'm the only person in my house who will eat it. 

I decided to do a quick saute with zucchini and the chard, and it was quite pretty.

ingredients:

1 bunch rainbow chard, washed and cut width-wise into thin strips and ribbons

2 small zucchinis, quartered and sliced

3 organic unsulphured apricots, finely chopped

1 tbsp almond butter

1 tbsp ginger finely minced

sea salt

black pepper

lime juice

1 tbsp coconut oil

2 tbsp hemp seeds, shelled

directions:

1. saute the zucchini in the coconut oil, and add the ginger, almond butter, a little sea salt, blackpepper, and a bit of lime juice.

2. add the chard, and toss well, cooking until hot through but not soggy. Be careful not to over cook the chard or it will be soggy and lose its colour.

3. take off the heat and toss with the hemp seeds

Baked Apples

I really like apples. I have fond childhood memories of going to orchards to pick our own machintosh apples. We'd climb the apple trees, and pick the ripest ones from the very top, their deep red skin and white flesh almost hot from the sun. Crisp and juicy they were, and we'd gorge ourselves on the drive home. Pesticides? What pesticides ;) Not that we didn't care about eating toxins, we were just joyfully oblivious.

Now I stick to organic apples, and often can find lovely organic royal gala at the Indian market up the street. When the apples are a little past their crisp prime, and have edged towards slightly mealy, the time for baking them is upon us.

This baked apple dish is practically an apple crisp without the crisp, an apple pie without the crust. For me, the best part of pie or crisp was always the apple filling, so it just makes it better having the apples with nothing else ;)

ingredients:

6 large royal gala apples (or medium if you prefer)

1/2 - 3/4 cup organic thompson raisins (depends on how much you like raisins)

1 tsp lemon juice (optional)

1 tbsp cinnamon

pinch sea salt

a little freshly grated ginger

1 tsp ground vanilla

directions:

1. combine all the ingredients in an oven-proof casserole. I like to use my magnificent cast iron 'Nemesis' for this. It bakes fruit and vegetables beautifully.

2. bake at 345 for 60 minutes with the lid on

3. turn the heat off and leave in the oven (if desired) for another 30 minutes

Please note that cooking times will vary with the type of casserole used, and if you are using glass, the cooking time might well be shorter, and you should probably just remove it at the end of cooking, instead of leaving it in. I doubled this recipe, and it worked very well.

This is lovely on it's own, or topped with a little whole milk yogurt.

Not Chicken Noodle Soup -- Good for what ails you Part 1 (crockpot soup)

My not quite 3 year old (six weeks to go) woke up in the night with a low fever (his first one I think), and wasn't feeling well when we got up this morning. So, not chicken noodle soup to the rescue.

You may be familiar with the potent anti-viral effects of ginger and turmeric, but did you know turmeric also contains salicylic acid, which can be found in willow bark and is used to make asprin? Salicylic acid is a common compound found in many plants, and has an anti-inflammatory effect. Organic vegetable soup has been shown to have higher levels of salicylic acid than non-organic vegetable soup (but I'm not going to cite the study. You can google it if you'd like.) Suffice to say it's not the chicken soup but the vegetables in the chicken soup that were good for what ails you. We've updated it by forgoing all chicken, and adding plenty of ginger and turmeric for both the anti-inflammatory effects as well as the anti-viral effects.

Plus what could be more soothing that a hot bowl of soup when you are sick?

I decided to make soup noodles to go with the soup. For this I used my favourite pasta dough recipe, rolled it flat, rolled it up, and sliced it quickly. Two minutes in boiling water and voila. Honestly, it takes longer to tell you about it than it takes to make them.

I ended up throwing in some broccoli after the soup was finished. Broccoli is practically a religion around here. And although I was originally going to just make a clear soup with celery and carrots in it, I ended up throwing in some red kidney beans too. Kidney beans are a good choice because they are contain some essential trace elements, lots of protein, and are great for stabilizing blood sugar. Plus they taste good. 

Well, the soup turned out well, and we enjoyed it for dinner. At least, my husband and I did. My son, noodle lover extraodinaire, refused even a bite -- and didn't even have appetite for his Not Chocolate Ice Cream, which he normally adores. :(

ingredients:

2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

1 1/4 cup diced carrots

1 1/4 cup diced celery

1 1/2 tbsp finely minced garlic

1 cup finely chopped onion (purple)

125 g cauliflower, cut into florets, approx 1 heaping cup

1/2 tbsp turmeric

3 1/2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced

2 tsp sea salt

black pepper

1 1/2 cups dark red kidney beans (cooked, not raw. Or canned, if you prefer)

1/2 tbsp marjoram

1/2 tbsp oregano

4 cups boiling water

125 g broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces (optional) (I used frozen, defrosted) (or you can use lightly-steamed) approx 1 heaping cup

directions:

1. saute the garlic, onion, celery, carrot, cauliflower, ginger, turmeric, sea salt, and pepper in the coconut oil on low for 30 minutes, or until very cooked.

2. put the sauteed vegetables into your crock pot, and add  the kidney beans, marjoram, oregano, and water

3. cook on high in your crockpot for 4 hours

4. turn off the heat and add the broccoli

5. let sit for 30 minutes, or over night.

6. ladle hot soup over cooked noodles, and serve 

:)