Category: Dessert -Gluten free

Blueberry CRISP ~ New and Improved!

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Blueberries are at the top of the nutritional food chain. I have them in my fridge all the time: fresh or frozen. Always GOOD!

Blueberry Crisp

  • Servings: 8
  • Difficulty: easy
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INGREDIENTS
FILLING:
4 cups Blueberries (plus other fruit -optional)
3 tablespoons Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon Lemon Zest
1/8 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1 teaspoon Gluten Free Vanilla Bean Paste (or vanilla extract)
2 Tbsp (30 mL) Truvía® Brown Sugar Blend ~or~
⅓ cup Sweet Potato or Butternut Squash for sweetness
TOPPING:
1 heaping cup Almond Flour
¼ cup(60 mL) Truvía® Brown Sugar Blend
1/8 teaspoon Kosher Salt
¼ teaspoon Cinnamon Powder (or grated stick)
¼ teaspoon Fresh Ginger -Grated
1/8 teaspoon Nutmeg -Grated
¼ teaspoon Cardamon – 2 to 3 cardamon pods -ground
½ teaspoon Baking Powder
5 tablespoons Unsalted Butter (cold and cubed)
Optional: ⅓ cup Walnuts, Pecans -or mixed nuts (chopped)

INSTRUCTIONS
1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make the blueberry filling. Mix together your fresh (or frozen!) blueberries and other fruit with lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, truvia or sweet potato (or squash) in a medium bowl.
2. Divide your blueberry mixture to buttered ramekins and set it aside while you make the KETO crisp topping.
3. In another medium bowl, combine the almond flour, baking powder, chopped nuts, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, sugar substitute, cardamon and Kosher salt.
4. Cut the cold butter into smaller pieces and add it to the dry ingredients mixture and blend into a crumb-like texture.
5. Sprinkle the crumble topping over the blueberry mixture, cover with foil and bake for about 40 minutes then remove the foil and bake for about another 10 minutes -until the topping is golden brown. Optional: mix ½ cup gluten free oats to the topping.

TOPPING (Additional)
Add a dollop of Greek Yogurt and garnish with lemon or chocolate mint.
310 cal. per serving Prep: 15 min. Bake: 40-50 min.

TIP: Pile Blueberries as high as you can. The blueberries will cook down. Remember, as fruit cooks -they get sweeter and sweeter -without added sugar!

Mix and Match!

⅓ Blueberries + ⅓ peach, apricot or apples + ⅓ butternut squash -or- ⅓ sweet potatoes, You can mix and match for your filling. Rhubarb pairs well with blueberries. I do not add any sugar in my filling. The sweet potato or butternut squash is my “go to” sugar substitute (If needed).

Blueberries are sweet and slightly tangy. They pair well with a sweet, crunchy topping. Don’t forget the salt. Kosher Salt is an important flavour enhancer!

Alton Brown’s TIP – Good Eats (Food Network) ..see below…

GLYCEMIC INDEX

The GLYCEMIC INDEX (GI) is a number from 0 to 100 assigned to a food, with pure glucose (a simple sugar) arbitrarily given the value of 100. Glycemic Index ranks carbohydrate-containing foods by how quickly they digest and raise your blood sugar or glucose levels.

G.I – Ice Cream vs Yogurt Topping

Many desserts have an added dollop of ice cream or whip cream. Let’s make it better!
Remember, the GI index for ice cream is 88. and the GI index for GREEK yogurt is: 11. Add “full fat” Greek yogurt instead of whip cream to your dessert. Note: GI under 55 is considered as a low GI. Y

What is the best yogurt to buy: (i) no-fat, (ii) 2%, or (iii) whole fat? Full fat – Greek style yogurt – is the right answer. It has the least amount of carbs. The carbs in Greek yogurt is very LOW. Doctors agree that a low fat or 2% yogurt is not the healthiest choice. Full Fat – Greek Yogurt Is your “Best Choice”!

Thick, Creamy Greek Yogurt GI: 11 With Blueberry Crisp!
Blueberries GI: 53 Apples GI:38 (Diabetic Protection)
GI INDEX Is A Most Important And Valuable Guide to Controlling Your Insulin Level
Good Living With Healthy Choices

SO-O-O GO-O-OD!

A MEMORY FROM CHILDHOOD

I am cutting down on cane sugar. Blueberry crisp can be enhanced with cardamom, lemon and ginger. Sweet potato is a good cane sugar substitute – if you want more sweetness.

EXTRA NEWS ~About Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes are known to be beneficial to individuals with type 2 diabetes due to the high levels of magnesium and fiber, which helps in reducing insulin resistance and stabilizes blood sugar. Sweet potatoes do have a large level of carbohydrates. But, they generally have a low glycemic index:

Butternut squash GI 52
Sweet Potato GI:61

Orange Sweet Potato (most common), Red Jamaican (white inside) and Japanese Sweet Potato: (red inside).

ALTON BROWN suggests to add crackers, breakfast oatmeal packets, crumbled plain or cinnamon bread to the blueberry crisp. Before baking, mix half your mixture with the blueberries. The other half is the topping! Kind of like mock bread pudding with fruit. Alton you’re so creative!

Gingerbread Cookies ~ Holiday Gifts

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This holiday season enjoy a nutritional treat! Healthy, soft, chewy, sugar free gingerbread cookies.

Gingerbread Cookies (Sugar-Free Keto) Recipe

  • Servings: 2 dozen
  • Difficulty: easy
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INGREDIENTS
2 cups almond meal*
1/4 cup melted coconut oil (or salt free butter -or- ghee butter)
3 tbsp maple syrup
4 Medjool dates
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
¼ tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
A pinch of salt

INSTRUCTIONS
(1) Combine almond meal, dates and all of the spices in a food processor. Process until combined.
(2) Add coconut oil (or unsalted butter), maple syrup and egg. Process again until a soft dough forms.
(3) Remove the dough and roll flat between 2 pieces of parchment paper (about 1/8 to 1/4 inch). Thicker cookies are chewier
(4) Place in the freezer for about 30 minutes to firm up.
(5) Preheat oven to 300 °F (150 °C)
(6) Cut out into shapes with a gingerbread cutter and place cookies onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
(7) Bake at for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and cool.
Optional step: After cooling, add sugar free cream cheese frosting. ..see link below
CHEWY Cookie: Reduce Cooking time. e.g. instead of 15 minutes, take cookies out at 11 minutes. (suggested by Mrs. Fields). You be the judge.

  • One cookie = 77 Calories

Finished Cookie

The above recipe results in light coloured cookies .. & dark specks from the almond meal. For a darker cookie use almond ‘flour‘ and substitute in coconut sugar or brown Monk’s fruit for the maple syrup. Changes the cookie to a darker colour. Monk Fruit –> LINK —>Monk Fruit . I thought about adding food coloring. I need to research this a bit more. Experiment for yourself to get the results you wish to achieve.

Baking – STEPS

To get the classic brown colored cookie–> Recipe LINK–> Keto Gingerbread Cookies. These photos below are from the ‘darker’ version of the gingerbread cookies. Still keto friendly!

Cream Cheese FROSTING

Decorate these low carb gingerbread cookies with a simple frosting : 1 cup sugar substitute, add low calorie cream cheese until the icing has the right thickness (like toothpaste). Place mixture in a writing tip piping bag or a sandwich bag (finely cut the corner) and decorate your cookies. IMPORTANT: Grind sugar substitute to a fine powder in a magic bullet. Otherwise your frosting will be grainy.

Cookie Tips

This is the most important part. Chilling the dough firms it up so that it’s easier to work with. If it takes you a long time to cut all the shapes, it may soften, so chill again if necessary. Add flour for too soft dough. Add cream/ half and half, if dough is too hard. You may roll the dough right on the parchment covered baking pan. Use your cookie cutter and remove the side bits of dough for more cookies. CARBS ( ‘cane-sugar’ free): 1.4 grams. CARB count with flour & sugar: 21 grams per cookie.

Cooking Hack 👩‍🍳

If you make these thicker, they’re a little chewier, which is nice; if you make them thinner, they’re more crisp and “snappy,” which is also nice. Regano suggests, “Pat the chilled dough into a log shape almost the length of the baking sheet. Place plastic school rulers on each long side and roll along the length with the pin resting on both rulers. I get a uniform thickness appropriate for a bakery style cookie with no high or low places. I use the cookie cutter directly on the parchment/baking sheet. When finished baking, I lift the parchment, with cookies still on it to the cooling area, no breaks!”

Storage 🎄

1 week in the refrigerator. You can freeze these cookies for 2-3 months. Make sure that you let them cool completely and freeze in a single layer before transferring to a freezer bag, so they don’t stick to each other.

*Almond Meal (skin on) & Almond flour (skin removed)

However, almond meal has a slightly higher fiber and mineral content due to the presence of almond skin.

Peach Crisp ~LESS SUGAR Mo’ BETTER

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Peach 🍑 Season Is Still Here!

I was overly ambitious when I bought a basket of end of season peaches. “What am I going to do with all these peaches?” Peach Crisp sounded good to me. An easy, light dessert. When I ran out of ramekins, I used small mason jars. Store these delectable delights in your freezer for 6 months. A healthy, freezer dessert: re-bakes at 350F for 15 minutes.

Fresh Peaches! YUM-M-M!

Peach Crisp ~LESS SUGAR Mo' BETTER

  • Servings: 8
  • Difficulty: easy
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INGREDIENTS
For the Filling:
3 ½ lbs semi-ripe peaches, peeled and sliced into 3/4 inch wedges
2 tablespoons truvia sugar [ substitute: I used sweet concord grapes about 5 or 6 per ramekin ]
1 ½ tsp cornstarch
½ orange zest + 4-6 tsp juice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground ginger
⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
⅛ tsp Kosher salt
2 tbsp gluten free flour (to bind)
For the Topping:
¾ cup gluten free flour
1¾ cup old fashioned rolled oats -gluten free [grind ½ cups of the oats to powder]
2 tablespoons sugar -truvia
½ cup packed brown sugar -gluten free
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cardamon
⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp Kosher salt
1 tablespoon lightly ground flax seed – in mortor
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 tablespoons of chilled salted butter, cut into cubes
½ cup nuts: walnuts, pecans, or sliced almonds

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Place one oven rack on lowest position and another oven rack on middle position. Preheat to 375F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Gently toss peaches and trivia together in a bowl. Let sit for about 45 minutes. Lightly stir to allow maceration.
3. Meanwhile, make the Topping: In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, truvia, brown sugar, and all spices. Whisk to combine. Drizzle vanilla extract over the top and stir to combine. Add cold butter pieces and use pastry cutter to gently work it into a crumbly mixture. Gently stir in the nuts.
4. Scatter topping into a single layer on lined baking sheet. Bake on middle rack until dry, slightly browned and firm, 8-10 minutes. Gently toss halfway through baking.(Like making granola.)
5. Lightly mix filling ingredients to the peaches and place in ramekins. Pile high as fruit shrinks in baking. Add crispy, warm topping and place in 375F oven for approximately 40 minutes. Check and turn ramekins. NOTE: To prevent the topping from browning quickly rest a “tin foil tent” on top of the ramekins until the peaches start to bubble. Remove tent. Then allow to brown further if needed. For the first time baking, watch your baking/oven.

No ramekins? Use small mason jars. You can lid them and pop in the freezer for several months. Make extra topping for another bake. Measure separately and omit butter and toasting. 🍑 🍎 🍒 I bought peaches and my favorite concord grapes the same day. I decided to use the grapes as a sweetener for the filling. Once I forgot the truvia for the topping and it was still delicious! ❄️

What Is The Difference Between Peach Cobbler And Peach Crisp?

Both are fruit desserts made in a baking pan. They have a layer of baked fruit, a sweet baked topping, with no bottom crust. The difference between a cobbler and a crisp is the type of topping they have. A cobbler has a cake like or biscuit style topping while a crisp has more of a streusel type of topping.

Best Oatmeal For The Job:

Use instant oats or rolled, not steel-cut! Instant oats will cook up faster, giving you the perfect topping texture. Rolled oats are slightly raw even after an hour of cooking. If you’re not familiar with the differences, here’s an article that details them.

Peach Crisp Made With Almond Flour

Apples, blueberries, currents, dried cranberries and blackberries pair well making peach crisp.

Brown sugar is Gluten Free

I still like brown sugar only in a fruit crisp recipe. I grew up on apple crisp and “brown sugar”. Once I made it without brown sugar. ☹️ It was not the same taste. Adding molasses to white sugar makes it brown. Brown sugar nutrition facts gives it an advantage over regular refined white sugar. Brown sugar is high in minerals like calcium, iron, magnesium, and phosphorus. No nutritional value.

Homage To Paul Prudhomme!

My inspiration and a deserved homage is to Paul Prudhomme. A true magician in the kitchen. He said, “Spices in the filling should be also added to the crust“. PAUL made peach pie [before Food Network]. This video is gone now. But, I did have dinner at K-Paul Louisiana Kitchen when he was spreading his magic in his kitchen in New Orleans. A kind, charismatic chef.

Hail to you PAUL Prudhomme!

Watch Paul Prudhomme’s video on spices and pie crust!

Chocolate Roulade – No Flour

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Lighter-Than-Air Chocolate Roll
No flour = no gluten. It is so easy to make with  just a few ingredients.  Delight your friends with this intense chocolate flavour! You would never believe it’s healthy! Gluten-free, paleo, and vegan too!  Vegans know that flax egg is a chicken egg substitute. Plant-Based Milk (such as soy or almond) replaces the double cream. Vegan whip cream is made from – aquafaba (liquid from canned unsalted chickpeas or white beans)

INGREDIENTS

  • 6 oz chocolate (semisweet or dark)
  • 5-medium eggs
  • 4 oz sugar substitute
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 cup of double cream
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla essence (this is an estimate, add to taste) or 1/4 tsp rum essence  or 1/4 tsp brandy

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DIRECTIONS: – – – Line a 12 “x 8” Swiss roll tin with oiled parchment paper or brush a paper case   (see below -for instructions) with  melted butter.- – –

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F and make paper case if you have not already done so in advance
  2. Melt chocolate in the water using a double boiler.
  3. Separate the eggs.
  4. When the chocolate is a thick cream, remove from heat and let cool.
  5. Meanwhile, beat yolks and add half of the sugar substitute gradually with pinch of salt until mixture is lemon coloured.
  6. With a spatula blend chocolate into egg yolk mixture. Do not beat.
  7.  Whip the egg whites until they form a firm snow.
  8. Gently cut and fold the egg whites into the mixture. If there are pieces of egg white remaining, that is fine. Pour the mixture into the prepared oiled parchment case.
  9. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until firm when touched. Do not over bake.
  10. Wet a clean cloth in cold water and wring out.
  11. Remove roulade from oven, allow to cool slightly, then cover with a cloth. I use a cotton tea towel. This will prevent any sugary crust from forming.
  12. Leave in a cool place for 12 hours or in a fridge overnight.
  13. Whip the cream with the other half of the sugar substitute and flavour to taste with the vanilla extract.
  14.  Turn the  roulade upside down onto the cloth/kitchen table top and carefully remove  the parchment paper.
  15. Spread with the whipped cream. Keep the whipped cream an inch from the end to prevent overflow. You can optionally add berries to this layer.
  16. Using the towel, gradually roll up like a Swiss roll.
  17. Place on a serving dish and decorate with whipped cream (optional) and fruit if you wish. ( Decorate using  a pastry bag with a star tip or fill a zippered plastic bag with whipped cream and cut a hole in the corner like I did.)
  • How to make a roulade paper case:

    Roulade Case

    Swiss Roll Tin

    Swiss Roll Tin

  1. Using parchment paper or nonstick kitchen paper.
  2. It should be 8″ by 12″.  Pencil can be used to draw the dimensions but fold to keep the pencil marks to the outside of the case.
  3. Fold the border on all 4 sides.
  4. Use paperclips  or staple to secure the corners.
  5. Lightly brush with  melted butter or oil.
  6. Slide the case onto a baking sheet.


Dark chocolate is good for you!

If you follow the rule of eating or cooking with 70% cocoa solids – dark chocolate – then you are ahead of the game. Chocolate lovers do not have to abstain from chocolate due to its high fat and sugar content. After all dark chocolate is rich in minerals, such as iron, magnesium, and zinc. The cocoa in dark chocolate also contains antioxidants called flavonoids, which may provide several health benefits.

Almond Cookies -Keto Friendly

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SIMPLY SWEET
This almond cookie is an explosion of flavour,  yet shockingly simple to make. Gluten free. Keto – friendly and does not spike your blood glucose levels. This is my all time favourite  ‘cookie’.  You may be hooked like I was, with your very first bite.  The vanilla extract makes these gems extra good!

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Bernini says. “I’ll give you a hand ( a paw that is)”…

INGREDIENTS
2-3 Egg whites
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup of sweetener  ( Monk fruit )
3 cups of sliced blanched almonds
a pinch of salt

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. Mix egg whites with a fork. Add sweetener, salt and vanilla.  Mix again.  Toss in almonds and mix. (check your egg white consistency here)
  3. Spoon and flatten cookie mixture  on a silicone sheet or parchment or on a cookie sheet.
  4. Bake 20 minute – to a media brown colour
  5. If bottom still soft and sticky  ..turn over bottom side up and put back in the oven
  6. Turn off oven ..let cookies sit 5-10 minutes to dry out.

VARIATIONS
Dip cookie in dark or light chocolate after baking. Flip chocolate side up. Let cool  (see below).

Chocolate Lovers

TIP!
Egg whites vary in size.  Make sure you have enough ‘egg white’ to have a thick consistency when blending – well coated ( sort of gooey). If it looks dry, you may have to add another egg white . Beat the ‘additional’ egg white separately before you add it to your cookie mix. Err on more egg white. Crumble the cookie on yogurt, hot, morning oatmeal, ice cream, salad or cooked green beans. There are more ideas as you  might guess. The ingredients are healthy and you can dress up any meal with healthy almonds.

DID YOU KNOW?
Almonds are not a true nut. It is a seed or pit similar to a peach or olives. My uncle, who reached his 100th birthday,  would enjoy six almonds daily for good health.  Did you know Bill Gates’  frequently snacks on  ‘nuts’.  I’m sure the almond squeaked its way in the mix.   Monk fruit is the trending sugar substitute,  some say no aftertaste. There are various Monk fruits to buy  with varying sweetness. Investigate them before using in a recipe. Monk fruit  toots a higher sweetness level than sugar. Tasting is believing. Swerve is another emerging substitute for sugar you may want to try.

A study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association suggests that consuming almonds increases vitamin E levels    Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that defends your cells against damage on a daily basis and prevents artery-clogging oxidation and also lowers cholesterol levels. Almonds have a  significant  increase the amount of antioxidants in the bloodstream. Blood flow is improved along with reduced blood pressure.