Thursday, September 22, 2011

Gluten-Free Naturally Sweetened Apple Crisp


With fall comes real apples! I'm not talking the waxed and polished things you can get in the grocery store all year round (of course you can make this with those, too--it just won't be as tasty)! We go to a local farm that sells fresh produce to get our apples and you just can not even compare them to the grocery store apples! 


Gluten-Free Naturally Sweetened Apple Crisp

What you'll need:

About 10 medium size apples
3/4 cup of butter (1 stick and a half)
1 cup of brown rice flour (or other flour of your choice)
1 Tblsp cinnamon plus extra for sprinkling on the apples
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1/3 cup of honey

Apples:
Preheat oven to 350.  Wash, peel, core and slice your apples into a casserole or baking dish (I use a glass 13"x9").  Grease your pan with butter.  Layer the apples in and as you get one layer in, give a nice sprinkling of cinnamon on each layer.

Topping:
Melt the butter.  Mix dry ingredients.  Add honey and melted butter.  Mix well and spread/drop on cinnamon sprinkled apples.  Bake for 45-60 minutes.  Top with whipped cream or just eat and ENJOY!



Monday, September 19, 2011

Chocolate Bean Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting



This recipe started out as Healthy Indulgence's recipe, but I've tweaked it enough to our needs and tastes that I think that I can safely call it my own version. 

My recipe makes a very thin 4 layer cake.  The layers are wafer-like and rather "fudgey" when refrigerated! It is DELICIOUS! People will never believe when you tell them what it is--unless of course you're weird like me--then people really WILL believe you that you made a cake out of black BEANS! ;)

What you'll need:
2 - 15 ounce cans of plain black beans or (3 cups cooked beans)
1 1/4 cups of Passionate Homemaking's Flaxseed Egg Substitute (you'll need to double her recipe, at least--see below note on using eggs)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup butter (12T)
2/3 cup honey
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda


Preheat oven to 325.  Drain and rinse your beans off.  Put your beans, egg substitute, vanilla and salt in blender or food processor.  Mix very well, stopping to scrape the sides--remember you want the beans to be completely non-bean-like ;)!



In small bowl: mix cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder.
In large bowl: Cream butter and honey together.

Add bean mixture to butter mix and combine.  Add cocoa mixture and mix well.




Grease a 9" round cake pan (or heart shaped pan, like I use :)).  Dust it with cocoa powder.  Place parchment paper in the bottom.  Divide the batter between your pans and bake for 35-45 minutes--it's going to depend on your pan and oven.  A toothpick is not going to come out "clean" from this, but it will not be really-really gooey. 



Note on using eggs: if you wish to use 10 eggs instead of the flaxseed binder, you can, BUT it is going to be much puffier so you'll probably want to halve the recipe and do a 2 layer

 Peanut Butter Frosting
1 cup butter (softened)
1 cup honey
1 cup peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon salt

Whip ingredients together and spread on completely cooled cake (works best to refrigerate the layers).



After you have frosted the cake, refrigerate it for at least 12 hours (overnight or a couple days is best).  You CAN eat it right away, but it is beyond compare when it is refrigerated!! This is very RICH so ENJOY it with a glass of milk or cup of coffee! ;) You can also easily halve the recipe for a 2 layer cake.


Honey-Sweetened Whipped Cream

I thought that I would give my whipped cream recipe it's own post so that it would be easier to find.


Whipped Cream
1 pint heavy whipping cream (organic and raw is best)
1 tablespoon honey (raw is best)
pinch of salt
splash of vanilla

Whip cream and rest of ingredients together until desired consistency.  Eat straight or top a tasty dessert with it! ;) ENJOY!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Balsamic Cherry Tomatoes and Cheese Cubes




This recipe was inspired by my sister, but I made some changes to accommodate my tastes and what I had on hand.  This is my version:

 Balsamic Cherry Tomatoes and Cheese Cubes

 Wash your tomatoes off and de-stem them if needed. 

  

 Cut the tomatoes in half (my sister quartered her's).


Then cube up some cheese (I used cheddar and my sister used curds).


Then throw in some minced garlic (Sis used garlic powder).


Now add salt, balsamic vinegar and olive oil to suit your taste (and proportions).  Mix up and ENJOY!