Category Archives: grain free baking

Gluten Free Almond Cookies

I  made these cookies based on this recipe over the weekend and they were yummy!  John told me to make them again – and soon 😀  Gluten free and grain free!

Very few ingredients, too.  Bonus!

Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookies

 

This recipe makes 10 cookies.

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Ingredients:

  • 1 cup of almond flour/meal
  • 1/2 cup of sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 egg white (1 tablespoon liquid egg whites)
  • 10 slivered almond slices (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F.  In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients except the sliced almonds.

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Use a spatula and just keep mixing and mixing thoroughly to get a crumbly dough that will hold it’s shape when you press it together.  It doesn’t seem like much liquid, but trust me, it is.

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It doesn’t look like it will stick, but try it:

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Now divide the dough into 10 equal portions.  I weighed the bowl before and after adding all the ingredients and I came up with a portion of 24 grams per cookie.  So, that is how I portioned it out.  Press each portion of dough into a ball and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

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Now press down on each ball to flatten:

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Press an almond sliver into each cookie.  This is just fancy and you don’t need it 😀

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Bake for 15 to 17 minutes until gloden brown on the bottom.

Gluten free almond cookies

 

These are a nice size little cookies and so tasty!

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Nutritional stats:  Per cookie –  Calories 115, Fat 6 grams, Carbs 12 grams, Fiber 1 gram, Protein 3 grams.

 

Pumpkin Pie Bars – grain free!

How about a Monday recipe post for a change?  Seeing as you all don’t want to see me on a weekday without the espresso machine… One is on the way, though.

And….. my magazine article came out and I have not gotten a copy yet, so I will talk about that on Tuesday!!  Eeeee – I am nervous!

So, here are the pumpkin pie bars that I messed around with and made grain free.  They came out quite good!

Ingredients:

Crust:

  • 1-1/2 cups of almond flour (see note below if you don’t have almond flour)
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 5 tablespoons of butter
Filling:
  • 1 cup of canned pumpkin puree
  • 1 egg
  • 7 oz (approx 3/4 cup) of lowfat vanilla yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Line a 9×9 baking dish with either a parchment or foil sling.  I didn’t do this and I think it will be easier if you do to get these out.

In a large bowl, mix together the almond flour, sugars, and cinnamon together.

Add the butter and using your hands, knead the butter in like you would a pastry dough.

It will look like this:

Reserve 3/4 cup of this crust mixture.  Press the rest into the bottom of the 9×9 pan firmly.

Crust and reserved crumbs:

In the same bowl as you mixed the crust in (saving dishes!!), mix the egg, pumpkin, yogurt, spices, and salt.

Pour over the crust.

Jiggle the pan to make sure the filling is even. Now evenly sprinkle the reserved crust over the top.

Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes.  The time may vary by 5 minutes or so depending on if your pumpkin came out of the fridge, which mine did.  You just want the center set like a pumpkin pie would be.

Cool completely and serve or refrigerate.  Slice into 16 pieces.  These are a little hard to get off the bottom of the baking dish, so I would recommend the sling.  It’s mostly the edge pieces that stick.  Eat with a fork!

I don’t have the nutritional info right now as I haven’t had time to do it.  They do have more fat due to the almond flour, but the pieces are small,and I certainly wouldn’t tell if you ate two.  😉

* if you don’t have almond flour, you can make these as a grain crust with 3/4 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of ground nuts (pecans or walnuts).

Recipe – almond flour biscuits

These turned out pretty good, so I thought I would share the recipe!

It’s kind of based on the 1-minute muffin recipe.  When going grain free, the biggest challenge is wanting baked goods.  You all know I love the coconut flour, but I wanted to try the almond flour as it is a little easier to work with.  Coconut flour soaks up moisture like a son of a gun!  Anyway, the best price I found on almond flour is from Honeyville Grain.

If you join their coupon club, they periodically send 10% off email vouchers, plus there is a flat shipping rate, which makes the 5# bag pretty economical and less than buying it in the store!

Anyway, back to the recipe.  This was designed for the toaster oven and to just make 2 biscuits.

Ingredients:

  • 1 egg
  • 42 grams of almond flour (approx 1/3 cup)
  • 1/2 tsp liquid oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder *
  • pinch of salt
  • pinch of oregano and basil

In a small bowl, beat the egg.  Then add the rest of the ingredients.

Mix well to make a thick batter:

Line your toaster oven baking tray with a piece of parchment paper.

Divide the batter into 2 portions and spread out to make rounds about 1/4 inch thick or so.

Bake in the toaster oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Remove to a cooling rack and enjoy!

The texture is nice on these.  Kind of biscuity and bread like with a nice crumb.

I recommend a bit more salt for them.  I also think that added a little shredded cheddar to the batter would be really, really good!

Nutritional stats:  Makes 2 biscuits.  Each biscuit is 177 calories, 15 grams of fat, 5 grams of carbs, 2.5 grams of fiber, 7.5 grams of protein

Keep in mind almond flour is fatty, so that is why the fat content is high on these.  I am not concerned about that, but then I am eating 1 and not 3 of these at a time.

I  could see using one of these for the base of a mini pizza, too.  I was hoping to be able to slice it in half and use as a bun, but it might be just a bit thin for that.  I will have to try it and see.

* I do realize that most baking powders have a bit of cornstarch in them, so if the miniscule amount matters to you, there are brands out there that are completely grain free.

Socca Bread

I have a bag of chickpea (besan) flour and was not quite sure what to do with it.  Ever wonder why you make those purchases sometimes? :mrgreen:

In trying to do some grain-free days, breads are the things that I was surprised that can be done grain free.  No, they aren’t pillowy and doughy like gluten breads, but surprisingly tasty creations can be made.

I found a recipe for something really simple (which I love) by Dave Liebovitz called socca

I did mine a little differently, but I liked the results, so that is all that counts.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup (120 grams) of chickpea flour
  • 1 cup of warm water
  • 1 tablespoon of oil (I used coconut oil)
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • A bunch of fresh ground pepper
  • 1.5 more tablespoons of oil (to be used in cooking)

The only trick with this recipe is that it needs a little prep time to let the batter soak.  I think you could do this the night before or in the morning and let the batter sit.

In a bowl, whisk together the water, chickpea flour, oil, salt and pepper.

Cover and let this batter sit for at least 2 hours.  So setting this up in the morning would probably be good.

After sitting, the batter didn’t look all that different, so I am not really sure what the long soaking time is for.

It didn’t really thicken up that much. It is like pancake batter.

When ready to cook, take a cast iron skillet (10 inches) or probably a pie plate would work – and put it in the oven and add the remaining 1.5 tablespoons of oil.  Turn the oven on to 450 degrees and let the pan get hot.

Once the pan is hot, give the socca batter a stir and pour into the pan.  It will sizzle.

Bake at 450 F for 15 minutes until the socca is set.

Now turn on the broiler element to high and broil the socca for several minutes until it gets brown spots on it.

De pan and cut into wedges.

I cut this into 4 big wedges (you don’t have to be that greedy).

Nutritional stats:

Per wedge:  165 calories, 10 grams of fat, 13.5 grams of carbs, 2.5 grams of fiber, 5 grams of protein.

The verdict? Yum!  It is sort of like a flat bread with a bit of soft texture to it.  I think traditional socca might be thinner and crisper, but this held up it’s shape to be topped with BBQ chicken and cheese for a  pizza wedge.

It did well the next day popped into the toaster oven to crisp up.  This was just a basic recipe and I have seen those that put onion and rosemary into the batter, which would be pretty tasty I think (especially if the onions are precaramelized).  I am thinking without salt but using honey, this could be the basis for a dessert.  Thinking like a fruit pie or something.

Lot’s o’ potential with this recipe!