French Toast

It would be an understatement to say that we are tired of eating eggs for breakfast, so I've been looking to branch out.  I had part of a loaf of nut butter bread left over and decided to try an old favorite of ours, french toast.  This bread is soft and spongy and worked very well!

To make french toast, first make a loaf of the Nut Butter Bread:
http://grainfreefoodie.blogspot.com/2009/09/nut-butter-bread.html

In a large, flat dish (such as a Pyrex baking dish), put three eggs and several tablespoons of coconut milk.  You may also want to add a dash of vanilla extract and or cinnamon for flavor.  Blend with a fork.

Place slices of the bread in the dish to soak, making sure to flip them over so they soak up the liquid on both sides.  Take care not to soak too long or the bread will come apart when yu try to remove it.  Cook them on a hot greased griddle or skillet, on both sides, until they are brown. 

Serve with butter or ghee, honey, homemade SCD-legal jam, fruit compote, stewed prunes, or honey lemon syrup.  To make honey-lemon syrup:

1/4 C honey
juice of half a lemon
vanilla (optional)

Combine the first two ingredients in a saucepan and heat over medium heat. They will heat up and become much thinner very quickly. Turn off heat, and add vanilla, if using. At this point you can further thin the syrup by adding in some filtered water.

This would also be good with a different fruit juice, such as pomegranate or cherry. The Knudsen's Just Juice line is supposed to be acceptable for GAPS, and this could offer some welcome variation.

Nut Butter Bread

This bread is soft like a quickbread, but stays together well enough to use for sandwiches.  It has a pretty neutral flavor to it, but can be either sweet or savory depending on what you add to it.  It is very similar to the recipe for nut butter muffins already on the site.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup nut butter (or seed butter)
1/4 cup honey
3 eggs
1/2 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 T vinegar or lemon juice

METHOD:

Combine all ingredients except for the vinegar and mix well (this usually requires an electric mixer for me). Add the vinegar or lemon juice and mix well, then pour into a greased loaf pan.

Bake about 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  It is done when a knife or toothpick comes out clean.

For a sweet bread, increase the honey to 1/3 or 1/2 cup and add cinnamon and whatever other spices you like, such as nutmeg or ground cloves.  Adding more honey will extend the baking time so keep an eye on this.

To make it savory, reduce or omit the honey, and add a little more salt as well as crushed garlic, onion powder (if it is SCD-legal), and other savory spices such as thyme.

Gazpacho

We have more tomatoes than we know what to do with right now, so I am doing everything I can think of to do with them.  This is a basic Gazpacho and very tasty. 

INGREDIENTS:

1 large cucumber
4 ripe tomatoes
1 onion
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 1/2 cups diced bell pepper, preferably blend of red and green
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 egg yolk
salt to taste
1 tsp ground pepper, preferably white pepper
1/2 cup tomato juice
Handfull of cilantro (optional)
SCD-legal hot sauce, to taste, optional

Chop the cucumber, tomato and onion, peeling the cucumber first.  You should have about 1 1/2 cups of cucumber, 3 cups of tomato, and 1 cup of onion.

Put the chopped vegetables into a food processor, and add the remaining ingredients, reserving some cilantro for garnish.  Blend until smooth.  Taste and adjust the salt or seasonings. 

Let chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.  Garnish each bowl with cilantro when serving.

Cinnamon Truffles

I've been looking for ways to get more butter into our diet lately (as an aside, I have to point out that you gotta love a diet that leads you to begin a blog post like that!).  I came up with this simple way to make butter into a nice little snack.

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup butter or ghee (pastured if possible)
1 tsp honey (or more to taste)
1/2 tsp cinnamon (or more to taste)
Drop of vanilla extract

To roll the truffles in:
Any combination of shredded coconut or coconut flour, cinnamon (or any other spice you like), or ground nuts or seeds

METHOD:

Cream butter with honey, then mix in the drop of vanilla and cinnamon to taste.  You can add some coconut flour at this point if you want for texture.  Without the flour it is a lot like ganache, adding the flour makes it a bit more like cookie dough.

The next step is to roll it into little balls.  You may need to refrigerate it for awhile to do this, but it will be tough to do because the heat from your hands will melt the butter a bit.  Decide what you want to roll the truffles in- straight ground cinnamon, ground cinnamon mixed with shredded coconut or coconut flour, and straight shredded coconut all work well.  All of those options are in the photo above.

Put whatever you want to roll the truffles in into a small bowl.  Scoop up a small amount of the butter mixture, briefly roll it in your hands, then drop it into the bowl, and continue rolling it in the bowl.  I prefer a ball about 3/4 of an inch across.

Store in the refrigerator when done.

Hazelnut Pizza Crust

This is based on a recipe from Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall.  The recipe in the book calls for almond flour, which we don't use because it is high oxalate.  Hazelnut flour gave this crust the look and feel of whole wheat.  This is the best GAPS pizza crust we've had so far.

INGREDIENTS:

2 eggs
2 cups of hazelnut flour, plus more?
2 tsp olive oil
3/4 tsp salt
dried spices, such as basil, thyme and oregano, are optional

Beat the eggs in a medium mixing bowl.  Add the other ingredients and stir.  If mixture does not easily form a ball, add more flour by the tablespoon.  1 T of coconut flour will also help as it absorbs excess liquid very well.

Grease a pizza pan or cookie sheet, and sprinkle some of the flour on as well.  Place the ball of dough in the middle of the pan and squish it out into the shape you want.  This should be enough dough to mostly cover a standard cookie sheet.  It is fine if it doesn't reach all the way to the edges.

Bake the crust for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees, until it is lightly browned and no longer wet.  Top with sauce and other toppings, and return to oven for 5-10 minutes, or long enough for toppings to heat up and cheese to melt if you are using cheese.

NOTE:  I think this would also work well as a pie crust, but as I am allergic to hazelnut flour so I won't be experimenting with that.  I also think that if you just baked the crust then cut it up it would make nice crackers.

Banana Hazelnut Bread or Cake

We ate this before I could photograph it :)

This is based on the recipe for banana cake by Elaine Gottschall in Breaking the Vicious Cycle.  The hazelnut flour gave it more of a look and feel of wheat then anything else I've tried.  Unfortunately, I also discovered that I'm allergic to hazelnut flour.  This can be a bread or a cake, depending on how much honey you add to it.

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups hazelnut flour (other flour should work as well)
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup melted butter or ghee
1 tsp baking soda (optional, not GAPS legal)
2 extra ripe mashed bananas
honey- 1/3 cup for bread, 2/3 cup for cake

METHOD:

Mash bananas with a fork in a large mixing bowl.  Add other ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Pour into a greased cake, loaf, or baking pan. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40-45 minutes, or until the top springs back when poled.  Baking time will vary depending on the shape of pan used.

Strawberry Shortcake

No, it's not all treats with me! It's just that I expect good soup, roasted meat, delicious vegetables etc. on GAPS. When I find desserts that I think are really tasty, I'm excited, because I didn't expect to be able to enjoy something like strawberry shortcake while on the protocol. This recipe also makes a great cobbler topping.

The cake in this is more like pound cake than shortcake, but it is really good. (You might have noticed that it's awfully similar to my other muffin/cupcake recipes.) The whole family plus picky visitors enjoyed every bite of this. I made it a lot when strawberries were in season around here, but we were so busy I never got a pic. to post. These strawberries are still local and organic, but they must have come from a greenhouse. They were still sweet though.


Ingredients

1/3 cup melted butter or oil
6 eggs lightly beaten
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup honey
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1/2 cup coconut flour

Method

Mix all ingredients together and divide among 12 muffin cups. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20-25 minutes. I like these when they just start to brown. The tops become glossy and yummy!

Cut muffins in half crosswise and top with sliced strawberries that have been tossed with honey to taste and a dash of vanilla extract.

Coffee Glazed Macadamia Nuts

Everybody in my family loves these. They are a great snack or treat. You can leave out the coffee for plain honey-glazed, but I think they're better this way. My neighbor couldn't get enough of the honey-glazed though.

Ingredients

1/4 cup double strength decaf espresso

2 Tbsp. melted butter

1/4 cup honey

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

4 cups raw macadamia nuts

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine first four ingredients well. Add macadamias and toss to coat thoroughly. Put on a baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, stirring about every five minutes during the cooking. Remove from oven when lightly toasted. Stir on the baking sheet as they cool. Place in a jar in the refrigerator for storage. They are fine at room temperature for a few hours, but the coating does start to soften. They do stick together in the fridge, but can be loosened with a spoon or knife.

Peach Ice Cream

This is a rich, creamy, very flavorful ice cream.  The recipe is loosely based on a recipe from France featured in the cookbook "Sun Drenched Cuisine" by Marlena Spieler (this is one of my all-time favorite cookbooks).  The original recipe calls for either peaches or pears, and suggests serving with praline, which can be made with honey and nuts for the adventurous among you.

INGREDIENTS:

4 egg yolks
1 cup coconut milk
4 or 5 ripe peaches (or pears)
1 T bourbon
3/4 cup honey (or less)

METHOD:

Peel the fruit and puree it in a food processor, set aside.

Blend together the egg yolks, honey, and bourbon.  Add the fruit puree and blend until smooth.  It may help to heat the coconut milk slightly first and dissolve the honey in it, then combine with the other ingredients.

Freeze in an ice cream maker or popsicle mold.

Crepes

I am always pleased when I find a food that my whole family enjoys. This definitely fits the bill. I brought these to a non-GAPS brunch recently and was told that they are better than regular crepes. I think they are virtually indistinguishable. The key seems to be generous amounts of vanilla, plus delicious fillings of course.

A lovely lady named Millie, from the GAPSHelp group, posted this recipe http://www.tiana-coconut.com/coconut_flour_recipes.htm recently. I modified it slightly to work for GAPS and my taste buds

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs
1 teaspoon honey
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup coconut milk
2 tablespoons coconut flour

Method

Blend together butter, eggs, honey, vanilla and salt. Stir in coconut milk. Thoroughly mix in coconut flour. Heat 1/2 teaspoon butter in a small skillet. Pour one tablespoon of the batter into the skillet; immediately rotate skillet until there is a thin even layer of batter. Crepe should be about 4 inches in diameter. Cook until batter is bubbly and cooked (I find it easier to flip if they are slightly browned) around the edges. Turn and cook the other side for a moment. Cover one side of crepes with your choice of chopped fruits, nuts, honey lemon curd, apple butter or homemade jam. Roll up and serve.

I usually double this recipe and keep them warm in the oven until serving time. Leftovers refrigerate well. I'm going to experiment with freezing too.

Makes 6 or more crepes.