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23 Feb As American as Apple Galette…

To celebrate a very important birthday on Monday (sorry George and Abe, it was for a different founding father, my founding father, Bob), I took this blurry fuji apple and turned it into a gluten-free apple blueberry galette.

So far in my gluten-free baking explorations, I’ve tried two different brands of all purpose gluten-free baking mixes: Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Baking Flour and Pamela’s Baking Mix. Sorry Bob of the Red Mill, but I like Pamela’s better. I find Bob’s a little gummy and, while the final products turn out okay, the batter for cookies, brownies, etc just doesn’t taste good (what’s the point of baking if you don’t want to lick the beaters??). Pamela’s on the other hand… yum, beaters and all.

I’m working up to making my own mix and cooking with alternative flours (loving almond flour and coconut flour, trying some bean flours, too), but this dessert was decided on the fly and in a grocery store far away from my pantry, so to a mix I turned once again, straight to Pamela’s Gluten-Free Bread Mix and Flour Blend (it’s good for breads and pie crusts – bingo!).

Apple Blueberry Birthday Galette

Galette crust:

1 package Pamela’s (minus the yeast packet) or use your favorite gluten-full recipe

Galette filling:

one large fuji apple
large handful blueberries
1 lemon, zest and 1T juice
pinch salt
1/2-1t cinnamon (to taste)
1-2t butter (leave out to make vegan)

Instructions:

1. Make crust dough. Either follow Pamela’s package instructions, or instructions for your favorite pie crust recipe. Before you add water and start to work the flours into a ball of dough, zest half of a lemon into the mixture. I’m always afraid (mostly because of the dire warnings I read) to add too much water to the dough. As a result, I error on the dry side and my final product can be a little more crumbly than flaky. I think I finally learned my lesson this time: don’t be afraid to add enough water to make a nice ball of dough.

2. Chill for 30 minutes and get cracking on the filling. First, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

3. Core and thinly slice apple. (You can peel if you want, but I don’t think it’s necessary.)

4. Place apple slices in bowl with blueberries, other half of lemon zest, 1T lemon juice, cinnamon and pinch of salt. Stir with a large spoon to incorporate ingredient and thoroughly coat apple slices.

5. Chill until dough is ready.

6. When dough is ready, take half (wrap up and freeze other half) and roll out between two sheets of parchment paper to approximately 1/8 inch or a little tiny bit more. The beauty of making a galette vs a pie is the liberty you can take in your base shape. Clearly from the pictures, I wasn’t too concerned with being perfectly (or at all) circular. The imperfections will either be hidden by the pleating or add a charming “rustic” quality to the dessert – I love that! You want it large enough to be able to arrange your apple slices in a pretty, medium-tight spiral with enough of an edging of dough to fold and pleat (~1-1 1/2 inches).

7. Transfer galette base (keeping it on the bottom piece of parchment paper) to a cookie sheet.

8. Arrange apple slices in design of choice – you can spiral it like I did (two layers of spiral) or just plop them in the middle – add blueberries.

9. Fold edges of base in a pleat (as loose or as tight and uniform as you like). You want the center of the filling exposed, but you don’t want the juices of the cooked fruit to ooze out of the bottom. (My less than circular base had me doing little patch jobs, which was fine with me – rustic, remember – but did cause a little juice oozing.)

10. Add a dollup or two (1/2 t each) of butter to top of apples.

11. Bake for 20 mins. Check to make sure no edges (apple or crust) are burning and test tenderness of apples. Cover with foil to protect if anything is starting to look too crispy. Bake for another 15-20 mins (will probably depend a lot on your oven). Keep an eye on it. It’s done with crust is golden and fruit is soft.

12. Remove, cool until you can’t stand it anymore, EAT IT. Whipped cream, yogurt, ice cream… all lovely toppers.

Bob was pretty stoked (well, as “stoked” as he gets) with his founding father birthday galette. I wish I had brought a piece back home with me!

03 Jan Cheater, Cheater, Lentil Eater…

Sad, isn’t it. (And, I don’t mean the random crumb bits that you can see. Actually, that is sad.) Dog food, wine, a Russian rye starter I should’ve given away ages ago, apple butter, essential oils and… well, little else of any consequence. I have post-holiday empty ‘fridge syndrome. The bummer is that I came home for lunch hungry, but after receiving my holiday credit card bill the day after Christmas – thank you very much!, I was reluctant to dash to the store to spend a penny on anything, including sustenance. So, what did I do? I had a mini-meltdown during which I combed through my cupboards and freezer, digging deep into the farthest recesses to see exactly what I had in the house. You see, I’m a stocker (no, not a stalker). I have a habit of stocking up on staples when the price is right. I was determined to use up some of this stock to feed myself until the burn from said credit card bill eased. And, know what? I struck gold!

I used to be a boxed soup person, but now I’m a more of a soup from scratch person. However, in a rare moment of prescient genius last month while I was replenishing certain stocks at Trader Joe’s, I grabbed a couple of boxes of soup, just in case (I was already feeling holiday cooking burnout). So… what did I find when I was desperately digging through my pantry yesterday? A jar of green lentils and a box of Trader Joe’s Carrot Ginger soup! And, thus, the wheels started to turn: Carrot Ginger Lentil Soup! (Cooking burnout + starving + no $$ = semi-homemade-from-scratch deliciousness.)

Needless to say this is SO. EASY. and you can do it one of two ways: use the lentils dry (well, rinsed, of course) or soaked. (Not many people soak lentils, but my belly is super sensitive to legumes and beans of most kind and I’ve found that soaking the lentils and/or giving them a really long time on the stove make it a lot easier for me to digest them.) If you’re starving, don’t soak. I had a moment of clarity and a Lara Bar handy, so I opted to soak them for lunch today. One more thing: packaged Carrot Ginger soup can be really, really sweet, almost cloyingly sweet. To balance it out, I added nutritional yeast. I think it took the edge off the sweet and deepened the whole experience. Now, get souping!

Carrot Ginger Lentil Soup

1 C green lentils
~1 C Carrot Ginger Soup (a la Trader Joe’s)
~1 C water
handful kale (or spinach), de-ribbed and chopped fine-ish
1 T nutritional yeast, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste

1. Soak the lentils in 2 cups of water over night.

2. In a medium-sized pot, bring lentils (soaked, rinsed and drained) to a simmer with ~1 C water (enough water to just barely cover the lentils – you can always add more if they keep soaking up liquid or if you want to thin the soup out). Add kale, stir to incorporate. Simmer for at least 20 minutes.

3. Add Carrot Ginger Soup, 1 C to start, more if you want it more soupy.

4. Salt and pepper to taste.

5. Either add nutritional yeast to the pot, or sprinkle over individual servings.

This was very satisfying. It’s been freezing lately and although the rain has stopped and the sun is shining, I just can’t seem to warm up.

What really put this over the top for me was when I combined leftovers with Bhutanese red rice (1/2 C rice simmered in 1 C vegetable stock for 20 minutes or until all liquid is gone, then let sit covered without heat for 5 minutes before fluffing). Nutty, buttery, delicious.

Yum.

23 Dec Oh $&*#, It’s Almost Christmas…

I am so relieved that I’m not the only one who feels a little bit ambushed by Christmas this year. It’s not like I can’t read a calendar but it still completely snuck up on me, like a holly jolly predator that’s been stealthily stalking me since Halloween, while I’ve been wrapped up in other parts of life (“wrapped up” ha ha). So, when the going gets tough and next-day shipping is out of my budget, I get creative with handmade gifts which, frankly, I find way more meaningful to give anyway.

Here are four easy to assemble, delicious and handmade with love gifts that will help your peeps savor life a little more as we slide into the new year (apologies for the lack of pictures – I didn’t want to delay any further getting this live!). Enjoy and happy holidays!

Nut Butters

Homemade nut butters are a new obsession of mine. It’s soooo easy and just requires ½ pint jars, nuts, spices, a little maple syrup and a little bit of patience. I can make enough to fill two jars in 20-30 minutes, and if my multitasking mojo is in fine form, 6 to 8 jars in an hour – yowza! Here are some of my favorite recipes, most from the nut butter queen at The Edible Perspective (sorry, you’ll have to click through to get the real deets from her, it’s only fair). Don’t be afraid to experiment once you’ve got her basic technique down.

I can give you my recipe for Maple-kissed Peanut Butter, though:

2 C dry roasted peanuts
1/4 t salt (less if peanuts are presalted, then go by your taste)
1-2 T maple syrup
1/2 pint jars with lids
1/2-1 T oil (peanut or neutral tasting oil, e.g. grapeseed or canola)

Pour peanuts in a food processor. Process until smooth. It’ll take 5-10 minutes. Be patient, let it whirl away. If the mass of peanut parts get stuck, stop and scrape down the sides. When it is completely broken down and butter (maybe even a little drippy), add salt and maple syrup. Process to incorporate. Taste and adjust salt and/or maple. Then let ‘er rip. If you’re whirling and whirling and still not getting drippy, add a little bit of oil, 1/2 T at a time, with plenty of whirling to fully incorporate, until you get the consistency you like. Then scoop and scrape into jars (I typically get two jars out of two cups of nuts). Don’t be alarmed if the peanut butter gets warm from all that processing. Totally normal.

Note: Also normal for any of the nut butters is if it goes from smooth and creamy to clumpy and doughy after you add the add-ins. Just process until smooth again.

Final note: the jars shouldn’t need to be refrigerated and should be good for at least a month – although, to be honest, it doesn’t last that long around my house, so someone else will have to discover and report back the real shelf-life. FYI- if you do refrigerate, the nut butters will become more stiff.

Pumpkin Butter

Okay, let’s face it, come January Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods will pretend pumpkin doesn’t exist, so here’s a chance to let the love linger into the new year.

29 oz can pumpkin puree (or two small cans will do)
1-2 C apple juice
2 t cinnamon
2 t ginger
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 cloves
pinch salt
1/2 pint jars

Thoroughly combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan (start with 1 c apple juice). Simmer over medium heat for ~30 minutes or until it cooks down to desired consitency. Taste about midway through to adjust seasoning and sweetness (to make it more sweet, add more apple juice – this will increase the cook time). Fill jars, leaving at least 1/4 inch space at top. Tap jars lightly on counter top to pack down filling and remove any airbubbles.

Sometimes the heat from the pumpkin butter will naturally seal the lids. However, when I give this to people, I generally recommned refrigerating the jar(s), just in case. And, of course, refrigerate after openning.

Chai Gift Pack

To me, chai makes everything just a little bit more luxurious – a little spicy, a little sweet, a little creamy, a lot of warmth for a cold winter morning, or fall afternoon, or spring evening… you get the picutre. There are approximately one million ways to make chai, and that’s likely a conservative exaggeration. Between spice formulas and brewing techniques, there is a lot of opportunity for individuality – just Google “chai” and you’ll find countless iterations of the lovely beverage. Here’s what I do to give the gift of chai.

favorite chai whole spice mix - or – create your own with any combo of spices, including: cinnamon bark, cardamon pods, whole cloves, fennel, allspice, star anise, black pepper (brings the heat on)
loose black tea or roobios, optional
Pint jars with lids
tea ball, optional
small jar good quality honey, optional

In a pint jar, pour in your favorite whole spice mix (i.e. a mix of whole spices, not ground spices) or combine your favorite spices to make your own blend. It’s a safe bet to mix one part broken up cinnamon bark, one part cardamon pods, and one part a mix of other spices (personally, I like fennel, with a little bit of cloves and black pepper). Cap the jar. Package with a tea ball, a small jar of tea (optional), a small jar of honey (optional) and brewing instructions:

For a small pot (~3 cups)

tea ball full of chai mix
2 C water
1 C milk (cow, almond, soy, etc)
1 oz tea (optional)
honey, to taste (optional)

Place water in a medium sauce pan (a deep one, so tea ball will be submerged), heat to a simmer. Fill tea ball with chai mix (crushing the spices a little bit with a mortar and pestal brings out extra rich flavor), and add to water (doesn’t need to already be simmering). Simmer for 5-10 minutes, deepending on how strong you like your spice. Lower heat a little and add milk. When chai has heated through again, turn off heat and add tea (either in a tea bag or in another tea ball. Steep for 3-5 mins (again, deepending on how strong you want it). Remove tea and chai tea ball. Either add a few squirts of honey to pot or to individual cups. Stir thoroughly to dissolve. Serve.

Take time to experiment with water/milk, chai/tea ratio to find exactly what you like.

Body Scrubs

Lucious body scrubs are super easy to make and a great way to fill more ½ pint jars (I think I need to buy stock in Mason or Ball). Best to find wide-mouthed jars for this. (Amounts below totally depend on how many you’re making.)

Oil or honey
Kosher salt
Essential oil (lavendar, rose geranium, grapefruit, etc)
1/4 pint or 4 oz. jars with lids

Fill jar halfway with salt. Add oil or honey until jar is 2/3 to ¾ full (total, including the salt). You don’t want it too full or it will overflow when your giftee dips a couple fingers in to scoop the scrubby goodness out. Add a couple of drops of your favorite essential oil (or combo of oils – personally, I like a drop of rose geranium mixed with my lavendar), give it a thorough stir with a chopstick, put the lid on and move on to the next one.

Don’t forget to experiment with musky scents for men, e.g. sandalwood. I have used sweet almond oil and olive oil as the base. Oil is more hydrating than honey, but honey feels really nice, too, and if that’s what you have on hand… go for it. Be sure to warn people to be careful if using on bottoms of feet (they’ll be nice and slippery when they try to get out of the tub/shower — hang on, little tomato!).