Category Archives: Food

Low Carb / Gluten Free Eggroll Wrappers

05 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by in Food, paleo-cuisine, Recipe

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So, you want an egg roll, or some crab rangoon, and you don’t want the 11 grams of carbohydrates per wrapper?

Ingredients

  • 175 grams Almond Flour
  • 2 TBS Golden Flax
  • 2 TBS Powdered Psyllium Husk
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • Scant cup Boiling Water

Instructions

Prepare whatever filling you are going to use. Make sure it isn’t watery, and let it chill completely.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, and mix well. Add the boiling (and I do mean boiling) water, and blend well. This gives you the dough.

Take a blob about the size of a golfball, and press it flat in a tortilla press. If you don’t have a tortilla press, you can roll the dough out, but that will take longer. This is a forgiving dough, if it tears, you can press it together or patch over it.

Lay a small column of filling along the center of the wrapper, stopping a bit short of each end. Fold the top and bottom over the filling, then fold the dough from left to right over the filling, and then roll it closed. Seal the whole thing up with your fingers, you should be able to pinch the dough closed. If you have any tears, use a small piece of dough and patch over it. Repeat until all the dough or all the filling is gone, putting each roll aside on a nonstick surface (I usually use a Silpat).

If the filling is going to be messy, you can also pre-prepare the filling by creating the columns on another Silpat, and then freezing them before constructing the rolls.

Bring 1/2″ or so of oil up to 325 degrees in a small pan (smaller pans allow us to use less oil). Cook the rolls two at a time, until a dark golden brown on all sides, and then drain.

Gluten-Free Devil’s Food Cake

08 Thursday May 2014

Posted by in Baking, Food, paleo-cuisine, Recipe

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This can be used to make a cake, or to make baked chocolate doughnuts, if you use an appropriate pan.

Dry Ingredients

120g Almond flour
2T / 20g Coconut Flour
1/4 cup Cocoa
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
The sweetening equivalent of 1 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Liquid Ingredients

225g Buttermilk
2 large eggs
30g Melted Unsalted Butter or Ghee
1 tsp Almond extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 if you are using a convection oven).

Spray your baking pan with olive oil.

Combine dry ingredients and blend well.

Combine all wet ingredients except the butter, and mix well. Then add the
melted butter and mix.

Combine all ingredients into a batter, and pour or spoon into the pan or pans.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool fully before removing the cake/doughnut from the pan(s).

Almond Flour Flatbreads

08 Thursday May 2014

Posted by in Baking, Food, paleo-cuisine, Recipe

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Please note, this recipe is based heavily on this bread recipe from Maria Emmerich. 

Ingredients

175g Almond Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Sea Salt
2 TBS Powdered Psyllium Husk
3 TBS Powdered Egg Whites
2 TBS Olive Oil
6 TBS Water
1 cup Boiling Water

Instructions

Heat a griddle to 400 degrees. This is easiest to accomplish with a non-stick electric griddle.

Cut a heavy duty quart plastic bag such that it has three of the four sides open (making it effectively a hinged pair of plastic sheets).

Combine the dry ingredients, and mix well. Add the olive oil and the non-boiling water, and mix well. Add the boiling water, and mix well.

Form a ball of dough roughly the size of a golf ball. Put it between the plastic sheets you made earlier, and use a tortilla press to flatten it. Cook the flatbread on the griddle until it is lightly browned on each side. Once you are comfortable with this, you can cook multiple flatbreads simultaneously.  This recipe should make roughly 18.

Chocolate Cake (in just a few minutes)

13 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by in Baking, Food, paleo-cuisine

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Please note, this is an adaptation of Barbara Kafka’s brownie recipe from her book Microwave Gourmet, modified to be free of gluten and refined sugar (other than that in the chocolate). The result is more of a cake than a fudgey brownie, but getting a soft cake in a few minutes is a win.

Have 5-10 minutes? Want Chocolate Cake?

You’ll need the following cookware:

  • A 3 cup Pyrex Baking Pan (7.6″ x 5.6″)
  • A 2 cup Pyrex Measuring Cup
  • A Microwave Oven
  • A Spatula
  • Two mixing bowls
  • General measuring devices and flatware

And the following ingredients:

  • 2 Large Eggs
  • 1 tsp Vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp Liquid Stevia extract OR 1/2 cup Splenda
  • 57 grams unsalted quality butter or ghee (i.e. Kerrygold, or a good grass fed Ghee if you are avoiding milk solids)
  • 85 grams of good quality Dark Chocolate (in chips, or splintered if it was whole)
  • 100 grams of Almond Flour
  • 1/4 tsp of Baking Powder
  • A pinch of Kosher Salt

First, combine the almond flour, baking powder and kosher salt in a mixing bowl.

Second, if you are using Liquid Stevia, break the eggs into a mixing bowl and add the stevia and vanilla. Beat the eggs well.

Next, combine the chocolate and butter/ghee in the measuring cup, cover, and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Remove the measuring cup (be careful, it will be hot), and blend the chocolate and butter together until the chocolate has dissolved.

If you are using the Liquid Stevia, slowly pour the chocolate mixture into egg mixture, blending constantly. If you are using the Splenda (and thus have no egg mixture), first add the Splenda to the measuring cup and mix well. Then add the eggs (one at a time) and likewise mix well, before adding the vanilla extract. Either way, the result at the end should be a chocolate mixture with a puddinglike consistency.

Add the chocolate mixture to the almond flour/salt/baking powder and fold it in with the spatula until fully blended. Then pour the resulting batter into the Pyrex pan, smooth and even it with the spatula, and cover tightly with plastic wrap (i.e. press it down onto the surface of the batter).

Cook in the Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Remove the plastic wrap, and the cake is ready to serve. Refrigerate any uneaten cake.

Additional Notes:

The pan is very specifically chosen here. Pan sizes and shapes drastically affect Microwave cooking. If you want to increase the amount, make multiple batches.

You can also use this same recipe to make chocolate Biscotti. Double the amount of fat (you can also use coconut butter) to 114 grams, and cook first covered on high for 4 minutes, and then uncovered on high for 2 minutes more. When the pan is removed from the Microwave, you will see it foaming with cooking fats. As soon as the fat subsides, take a knife or offset spatula and cut thin slices across the pan (i.e. the slices should be the width of the 5.6″ side, and less than an inch thick). The cooked batter is going to harden quickly, and you want to cut it while it is soft. Leave it in the pan until it cools, and then refrigerate.