Most Recent Bread Recipe - Grain Free

 Kind of guessing on measurements:

1 quart kefir
1 cup oil
5 eggs
1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon or so of baking powder

Probably 8-12 cups of Flour mix (I use 50% chickpea flour to 50% starches (and my starches are equal amounts of tapioca starch, sweet potato starch, and potato starch).

Mix wet stuff and salt thoroughly.

Mix baking powder and flour/starch.

You want a mixture that is like semi-thick cake batter.

Dump into OILED cast iron skillet OR into BUTTERED glass cake pans. This amount of batter made 1 of each.

Put into a COLD oven. Turn to 400 Degrees F. 

Bake until golden and cracked on top. Turn out onto a cooling rack (if you leave it in the pans, it sticks and it will rust the cast iron skillet).

Cool completely. Then cut thin and refrigerate or freeze.

Same batter makes dumplings if you spoon drop it into boiling broth (don't Stir cause that breaks the dumplings into dumpling pebbles) and then cover with a lid on simmer for 15-20 minutes.

If you make the batter thinner, it makes pancakes. 

If you pour the batter thin onto a baking stone it makes a fairly good pizza crust.

The bread itself becomes croutons (cube, toss with spices, and bake on 200 for about 8 hours), bread crumbs (a blender on pulse for those croutons), and pretty good toasted cheese sandwiches.

IT DOES NOT DO WELL FOR COLD SANDWICHES. It's too crumbly and dry.

Homemade Grain-free "Macaroni" and Cheese - recipe

Cheese Sauce:

Shred:
8 ounces cheddar
6 ounces mozzarella
4 ounces feta
4 ounces parmesan
3 ounces asiago
3 ounces romano
4 ounces Jack


Mix until smooth
1/3 cup starch mixture (mixture is made of equal amounts sweet potato starch, potato starch, and tapioca starches)
1/3 cup chickpea flour (besan flour)
1 teaspoon dried mustard (powder)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
and 1 1/2 cups water


Mix starch/flour mixture into 6 cups cold milk.  Put in HEAVY bottom pan and turn stove to medium low.  Slowly heat, stirring constantly.  Once see steam rising, start dropping in small handfuls of shredded cheese every couple minutes until all cheese added.  DO NOT LET BOIL.  Simmer at most until slightly thickened and cheese is melted into sauce.

If gritty or clumpy, blend with hand blender.


In large pot, bring salted water to boil.  Boil 2 sleeves Sweet Potato Noodles (these are the ones I use:  Rhee Bros Sweet Potato Noodles) for 10-12 minutes.  Drain.  Rinse with cold water.

Dump noodles into glass casserole dish.  Cover with cheese sauce and stir sauce through noodles until all is covered.  Need to be sure have some extra sauce over the noodles as the noodles suck up the liquid.  I save rest of sauce in fridge until next time I need cheese sauce (broccoli, baked taters, mashed taters etc.)

Bake in over at 350 for 1 hour or more until browned on top and bubbly.

Holiday Cooking Marathon - Pumpkin Mascarpone Pie, Pumpkin Soymilk Pie, Broccoli Casserole with cheese sauce

Holiday Cooking Marathon:

Pumpkin Mascarpone Pies –

3 ½ cups cooked, mashed pumpkin

1 ½ cups honey

6 large eggs

2 cups milk/cream mixture

12 ounces mascarpone cheese

8 ounces apricot preserves/jam

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon sea salt

Mix all until smooth.  Pour into glass or ceramic pie pans (at least 2).  Bake at 350 for 60-90 minutes until dry on top and starting to crack.

Pumpkin Soymilk Pie

8 ounces cooked, mashed pumpkin

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup honey

4 eggs

8 ounces vanilla soymilk

Mix all until smooth.  Pour into metal pie pan.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour until dry on top and starting to crack.

Broccoli Casserole with cheese sauce

Broccoli

3 bunches broccoli cut into bite-sized bits.

3 cups thick chicken broth (chicken broth boiled down to at least ½ original amount to concentrate flavors and to make freezer storage easier)

½ onion, finely minced

3 cloves garlic, minced/crushed

1 cup water

Put all ingredients in large stock pot.  Bring to boil.  Cover.  Boil 4 minutes until broccoli starts to soften and turns bright green.  DRAIN – SAVING THE BROTH!!.  Run cold water over broccoli to stop cooking.  Set aside.

Return broth to stock pan to use in cheese sauce.

Cheese sauce

8 ounces Colby cheese, shredded

8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded

4 ounces feta cheese, shredded/crumbled

4 ounces finely shredded Asiago cheese

4 cups full-flavor broth (ex. Broth from the broccoli, thick chicken broth, chicken broth plus extra bouillon cube, etc.)

1 cup 50/50 bean flour (Besan flour) and starch (I used a blend of tapioca starch and sweet potato starch)

2 cups cold water.

16 ounces sour cream

6 eggs

Bring broth to boil.  While broth comes to boil, mix water and flour/starch until smooth (Important that there are no lumps!!). 

Set cheeses in bowl beside stove.  Set sour cream beside stove. 

Once broth boils, drizzle flour/starch/water mixture into broth STIRRING CONSTANTLY.  It should thicken quickly.  IF too thick add more water.  If too thin add more starch/flour/water mixture.  Target is thick gravy consistency. 

Once thickened, still stirring constantly, start dropping handfuls of cheese into the pot.  Stir until melted.  Add another handful.  Continue until all cheese is added and melted. 

Stir in sour cream.  Bring to simmer.  Remove from heat.

In a large, metal bowl - Whisk eggs until smooth.  Slowly add hot cheese mixture ¼ cup at a time to temper the eggs.  When cheese mixture is completely added, sauce is complete. 

Put cooked broccoli in casserole dish.  Pour over cheese sauce until covered.  Bake in oven at 350 until browned and bubbly on top.

TIPS AND DISCUSSION

I had a ton of extra cheese sauce, so I also cut up a casserole dish worth of baby potatoes and covered those with the cheese sauce.  Still had a quart left, so am going to see if it mixes into mashed potatoes well.

My hands get sore because of fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis – so I did all mixing with a mixer. 

I have allergies, so I used safe for me ingredients.  Because so many of my friends and family have allergies, there are no brands listed here – too much possibility of reactions.

Thick broth – I make my own broth from chickens I stew.  When the bones and skin have had all the wonderful nutrients stewed out, I strain out the solids and then boil the broth down to about 1/6 of what the original volume was.  This creates something like a gel, which has an intense and wonderful flavor.  I use this for my base in lots of things that other people might use bouillon. 

Pies- the pies would probably be more flavorful with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, and other sweet spices – however I am now reacting to cinnamon and clove.  L  However, if this is not the case for you, go for it!

There are no crusts on the pies because I am cooking for myself and several family members so I am working around multiple food restrictions.  If I were making this just for myself, I would use ground nuts, honey, bean flour, and butter to make a crust.

Still to make – grain-free bread which will then be made into stuffing.  Roast.  Wild Turkey.  Devilled Eggs.  Sweet Tea.  Mashed potatoes. 

I think the cooking is my favorite part of ANY holiday!

Latest bread recipe.

I was mostly out of bean flour (besan flour), so I made bread with 75% starch mixture (tapioca, sweet potato, potato) and 25% equal amounts besan flour and almond flour - for about 8 cups dry stuff.

Used more eggs than typical (about 1 egg per cup flour/starch mixture).
Used 2 cups sour cream, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 cup oil.

Used a mixer to beat the liquids smooth and then to mix liquids into dry.

SHOULD BE THICKNESS OF PANCAKE BATTER - if not, add water.

Dumped it into GREASED (OILED) glass 9x13 and 8x11 baking dishes.  DO NOT FILL OVER 2/3 full.

Baked it on low (325 degrees Fahrenheit) for a bit over an hour.  DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR FOR FIRST 45 MINUTES or it falls and gets gummy in the center!

Tastes very good.  Light crumb, so is going to be GREAT to slice each piece into 4 slices to make crackers.  HAPPY MOMENT

Yes - you can sub in any sort of starches for the ones I used, you can sub in any sort of milk thing (soy, almond, hemp, etc) for the dairy based stuff.  For eggs, you could try chia seeds or flax seeds soaked in water - not sure that would work.  But, if not, make thinner and then pour onto metal trays to bake as crackers.