Monday, January 16, 2012

the best loaf! Almond Bread! loaf loaf loaf

This is a tasty bread made with almond flour (yay!) and flax (hooray!)  It makes us so happy because GOOD bread without gluten is hard to find. Almond flour has a yummy flavour and does not have the sandy texture other gluten-free flours tend to have. Who eats sand? Nobody. Sandworms do.



Ingredients:
  • 2cups almond flour (buy ground or make [grind in food processor until fine {not too fine or you'll have almond butter woa!}]. making it is fun and noisy)
  • 1cup chopped walnuts or pecans or BOTH
  • 3 tbsp ground flax seeeed
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon or more. don't be shy when it comes to cinnamon.
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup butter or oil (we like to use coconut oil. tasty)
  • 1/3 cup coconut milk.  eat the rest of the can of milk with a spoon and a bashful expression
  • 1 mashed banana. we just like to mash things.
  • pinchy salt
To do:
  • Make sure you yell while food-processing the almonds. This is a great time to let out some frustrations.
  • Oven 375
  • oil pan
  • combine dry things. mix. smile at the nice pile of ingredients.
  • combine wet ingredients. mix. wink.
  • add wet to dry.
  • pour /press batter/dough into pan 
  • bake 45 mins
  • cool for 20 minutes. DONT DISMISS THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS STEP. we broke the bread with impatience.



Yum! slice and eat sandwich-wise with things like avocado, sprouts , fancy-style mustard and fresh basil.  Bread is a little crumbly on account of the almond flour (try to get flour ground really fine if doing it yourself) so be careful and treat it well.  It will treat you well in return.

Lemon Goat Cheese Cheesecake!

We are huge fans of everything goat! Crumbled soft goat cheese on a tossed green salad, triple creme goat brie with a glass of bold red wine, goat yoghurt with fresh fruit and goat butter on steamed veggies. Goat dairy is much easier on our digestive systems and it tastes so darn good. So why not use goat cheese instead of traditional cream cheese for a cake?



Ingredients:

400 gm soft unripened goat cheese (expensive but we were fortunate to find it on sale this week)

1/2 cup zylitol (obviously sugar can be used)

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 lemon, zested

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

6 eggs, separated (We suggest using your hands to separate yolks from whites. Gently pass the yolk from hand to hand and allow the whites to drop into a bowl)




Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. In a bowl mix the goat cheese, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla extract and zylitol. If we had fancy kitchen equipment we would have used an electric mixer on medium speed. If your kitchen is rustic like ours just get messy with your hands until the ingredients are sufficiently blended. Have a taste! The lemony cheese mix is delicious.

3. Mix in egg yolks two at a time.

4. In a separate bowl beat egg whites until the mixture becomes firm. You'll know they are ready when you can make peaks with the egg whites. We used a manual hand beater for this but if you have an electric mixer it will make this process much faster and easier.

5. Mix 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter. Then fold the remaining egg whites into the batter.

6. Pour the batter into a 9" spring form cake pan. Bake for 35 minutes.

7. Garnish the cake with cooked berries and candied lemon peel.

Wondering how to make candied lemon peel? It's remarkably easy. Peel the zest of one lemon in strips. Be mindful not to include the white pith, which has a bitter taste. Boil the lemon peels in one cup of water. Repeat 3 times. Then bring to boil the lemon peel in a sugar water solution consisting of one cup water and 1 cup sugar. Reduce heat to a simmer for 15 minutes. Drain liquid and enjoy the sweet candied lemon peels.

 We enjoyed a delicious 2006 tempranillo from Spain while baking. Such a treat!

Kitchenaide equipment might not be in our budget but a can of paint is! Check out our new green walls and crisp white cupboards! Thank you Behr Paint for creating Celery Bunch Green.

This flourless goat cheese cheesecake is light and oh so delicious! Try it for your next dinner party.