Any Kitchen Will Do

Give me a kitchen and I will cook.

Archive for the category “coconut flour”

07 Jan 2013

Acorn Squash Bread

squash bread

I bought a big, beautiful acorn squash a week or two ago. We have leftovers from the holidays filling the refrigerator and freezer, so in the process of figuring out what to do with the squash, I realized we were running low on goodies for Little B. Additionally, she was to begin a new preschool soon and we needed to stock up on portable wheat free snacks for her. And on top of THAT, I got an awesome new mini loaf plan as a gift and was itching to break it in. To make a bread that has some sweet and savory I included nuts and spices. Of course, relying on coconut flour and eggs to beef up the protein was a must. Little B likes this stuff a lot, and this particular squash was sweet, so the squash/snack/loaf pan goals were met with one recipe. Three birds, one stone. Big D bit into it and groaned – in a good way – it reminded him of his grandmother’s banana bread, and it had no bananas. Now THAT is a compliment!

Acorn Squash Bread

1 cup cooked, mashed acorn squash
½ cup walnuts
6 eggs
½ cup olive oil
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
½ cup coconut flour
¼ cup golden flaxseed meal
1 cup granular erythritol
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In blender combine squash, walnuts, eggs, oil and vanilla. Blend until smooth and nuts are broken up to around the size of little peas. In mixing bowl combine flour, meal, erythritol, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add blended ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until well mixed. Pour batter into greased bread pan or mini loaf pan(s). Bake for 40 – 50 minutes if making one large loaf, or 25 – 30 minutes for mini loaves. The bread is done when the loaves look set (no longer liquid) and the edges begin to brown. Let cool in the pan before removing. Breads made with coconut flour need to cool before they are set enough to remove from pans, but making sure the pans are greased well make the removal process easier.

Posted in baked, bread, cinnamon, coconut flour, eggs, flaxseed, nuts, Silver Spring Kitchen, snack, squash, wheat free | Leave a Comment
15 Dec 2012

Cranberry Roasted Chestnut Muffins

After you do some holiday baking and roast chestnuts on an open fire, you want to do more! We set aside some chestnuts from our recent roasting adventure so I could make these muffins. A recipe for my extra special secret cornbread dressing includes the wonderful inventions of roasted chestnuts and fresh cranberries. I have yet to convince myself to share the recipe, especially since I have not made it in a while, but did recently have a hankering for the flavors that make up the dressing. The evils of corn (it is not the fault of the natural corn, but the sugary nature of the vegetable, which is why I avoid it) have discouraged me from making the dressing in recent years. To recreate the flavor and texture in a corn free way I came up with these muffins. The flax seed gives them the texture that hints at cornbread (and adds extra fiber), while dancing well with the cranberries and chestnuts. Muffins continue to give Little B a sweet treat while keeping her diet high in fiber and low in sugar. She still gets a little confused sometimes when she can have muffins at home and not when we are out, but I have taken to having muffin back ups in my purse for such occasions. She helps make the muffins pretty much every time, which helps keep her interest, and they sate her desire for baked goods. So good so far!!

Cranberry Muffins with Roasted Chestnuts

6 eggs
6 Tbsp butter, melted
4 Tbsp heavy cream or half and half
1 tsp vanilla3 drops liquid stevia
½ tsp sea salt
½ cup coconut flour
¼ cup flaxseed meal
¼ cup powdered erythritol
½ tsp baking powder
8 ounces fresh cranberries
4 roasted chestnuts (can substitute with 10 raw pecan or walnut halves)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare muffin pan with liners. In blender add wet ingredients, nuts and cranberries together. Blend on low until cranberries and nuts are broken up in small pieces. In separate bowl combine dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Divide batter among the 12 muffin cups. Bake for about 15 minutes until tops begin to brown. Let cool for about ten minutes before serving.

Posted in baked, coconut flour, eggs, muffins, nuts, Silver Spring Kitchen, wheat free | Leave a Comment
26 Nov 2012

Soupless Green Bean Casserole

I like holiday meals. Partly because of all the lovely foods we don’t make during other times of the year, but also because the meals often require cooking all day. Darn. Heh. We like spending time in the kitchen. Besides keeping us close to the alcoholic beverage supplies, it is a place where we have great conversation and create or try new things. This is a good thing, in my opinion. Besides a huge bird, or a massive ham, I always look forward to green bean casserole. There is something about the beans and the creamy sauce and the occasional mushroom bits all swirled together in a single bite. This version of the casserole does not include the crunchy fried onions, because of the wheaty carbiness of them, but it still turned out to appease my comfort food craving for the soupy, crunch version. I don’t know how well this would work with whole fresh beans, but with the canned french style the sauce coated every bit very well and the richness I love so much was able to shine through. I am not partial to all the extra stuff they put in canned soups, as I have ranted about before, so I am always glad to figure out versions of comfort foods I enjoy with out the canned stuff. Big D got a little perturbed at how much I liked the green bean casserole over the flaxseed dressing, which was pretty good. His holiday comfort food goes back to his grandmother’s dressing, filled with biscuits, cornbread, apples and sage. I don’t know that he ever gave green bean casserole a second thought before we got together. What can I say, I am a green bean casserole girl. Have I mentioned I like green bean casserole? That last one was for Big D.

Soupless Green Bean Casserole

2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp coconut flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp erythritol
1/4 cup onion, diced
2 cups mushrooms, diced
1 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
3 cans green beans, drained
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350F. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in flour until smooth, and cook for one minute. Stir in the salt, erythritol, onion, Worcestershire sauce and sour cream. Add mushrooms. Cook mixture until mushrooms sweat and liquid reduces by about 50%. Add green beans, and stir to coat and heat. Transfer the mixture to a 9×9 casserole dish. Spread shredded cheese over the top. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is golden and cheese is bubbly.

Posted in baked, beans, casserole, coconut flour, onion, side dish, Silver Spring Kitchen, soup, vegetables, wheat free | Leave a Comment
30 Oct 2012
1 Comment

German Chocolate Cake

A special treat for a special guy. Big D’s birthday happened a few days ago, and on the short things he actually wanted was a German Chocolate cake – his favorite kind. To keep with our diet of low carbohydrates, no sugar and few grains, I felt a challenge coming on. Is there a way to make a German Chocolate cake following those guidelines? I knew it was out there somewhere. I searched and experimented and finally found one that I thought would work. And it did! He was so happy with the rich, dense cake to top off his birthday. He leaned back from the table after eating it with a big grin across his face, surrounded by his consumable and functional presents (he is not a buy-me-something-to-sit-on-a-shelf-so-I-can-dust-it kind of guy). Good thing that German Chocolate cakes are coconut centric by nature, because the coconut flour worked really well. Of course, being cake, Little B scarfed down a whole piece, clueless about how good for it actually was. For this effort I pretty much followed the instructions closely from Maria’s blog here. She has a bunch of other absolutely delicious recipes, so check them out too! The only variation I did to the noted recipe was use a 9×13 pan instead of two round cake pans. After the cake was frozen it popped right out of the baking dish, I cut it up and trimmed the edges off to make a rectangular two layer cake. The recipe cooking times and frosting quantity were both effective for my approach, so I don’t recommend any changes. This approach also gave Big D another birthday treat. He grew up watching his grandmother trim and decorate special occasion cakes, nibbling on the cake scraps while he watched. When he saw there were cake scraps from this cake his face lit up like he was a little kid. I will definitely be making this cake again, maybe experiment with some other flavors for the holidays. If nothing else, I surely know when I will make it German and Chocolate, in about a year…

German Chocolate Cake

Cake
2/3 cup butter or coconut oil
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
8 egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
2 whole eggs
8 egg yolks
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup Truvia (or erythritol and 2 tsp stevia glycerite)
1 tsp Celtic sea salt
1 tsp vanilla (or coconut extract)
1 cup coconut flour

In a saucepan, melt the coconut oil (or butter) over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and mix well. Remove from heat and cool. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form; set aside. In another bowl mix together coconut milk, 2 whole eggs, 8 egg yolks, sweetener, salt, and vanilla. Slowly mix in cocoa mixture. Add coconut flour into batter and mix until it is very smooth. Fold egg whites into batter. Pour batter into 2 greased round 8 or 9×1½-inch layer cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool (I put mine in the freezer overnight…it frosts really easy then). Fill layers and cover top and sides of cake with Coconut-Pecan Frosting

Coconut-Pecan Frosting
1/4 cup coconut milk
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup Truvia
1/2 cup coconut oil or butter
1 tsp coconut extract
1 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup pecans, chopped (or more to taste)

Mix coconut milk, cream cheese, sweetener, and butter until well combined and very smooth. Add vanilla, coconut, and pecans. Frost the cake and enjoy! Serves 16.

Posted in baked, chocolate, coconut flour, eggs, Silver Spring Kitchen, wheat free

Post Navigation

Newer Entries →