ISO deserts, snacks- gluten free, sugar free, chemical free

Seraph

Sun, Sep 25 2011, 10:00 am

nylon wrote:

Seraph wrote:

Can you really just exchange sugar and honey in recipes?

No, because the sweetener in honey is fructose which is sweeter and you have to account for the extra liquid in the honey. It also affects texture because honey is hygroscopic (attracts water) which is why honey cakes and cookies stay soft--I am not sure you could get a crunchy cookie. (By extension, this is why crunchy cookie recipes use white sugar, and chewy cookie recipes use a higher proportion of brown; molasses does the same thing.) Reduce the quantity by 25% (cup for cup... I'd have to do math to do it by weight as honey is heavier than sugar) and reduce the liquid in the recipe by 2 Tb for every cup of honey. I'd recommend using a milder flavored honey, as well.

That's what I thought, which was why I was asking for recipes that call for honey specifically instead of adjusting a recipe so that hopefully it will work with honey instead of sugar.

hadasa

Sun, Sep 25 2011, 10:05 am

Frozen compote is a favorite in my family : cook up a big pot of whatever fruits you like, sliced, with just an inch of water or juice in the pot and a pinch of salt. I've used apples, pears, peaches, plums, mango, kiwi. My mother puts in oranges, too, but I prefer without, or at least remove as much as you can of the pith. When soft but not mushy, you can add sweetener if necessary. This is good fresh, or you can freeze it. Let it soften a bit before serving.

willow

Sun, Sep 25 2011, 10:10 am

I own a mandolin and make delicious beet and sweet potato chips that have no heavy fat. Just a spray using a miso of olive oil some coarse salt and it looks and taste gorgeous.

I make my own granola using honey or aguav.

Fruit smoothies you can also freeze and make ice cream from.
3 colored popcorn (curry, regular and hot chili or paprika) also looks beautiful

simple slices of fruit of course is yum with sprinkle of cinnamon
Baked apples

saw50st8

Sun, Sep 25 2011, 10:22 am

We make icepops with blended fruit, water and flax seed meal (just for some added nutrition LOL). Freeze in molds or cups. The kids think they are awesome.

Its best to use fruit thats starting to go because its extra sweet.

September June

Sun, Sep 25 2011, 3:17 pm

There was a recipe for natural strawberry fruit leather in the Ami a few weeks ago. I didn't try it, but it meets your specifications.

32 Ounces strawberries (fresh or frozen)
1 cup applesauce
Optional: Honey

If using frozen strawberries, let thaw.

1. Puree strawberries until smooth

2. Combine 2 cups of puree with applesauce.

3. Add sweetener to taste.

4. Pour on 10x15 baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

5.Place in oven at 200 for 4-6 hours

When done, mixture will not be tacky to the touck. You won't leave a fingerprint and fruit leather will pull off parchment easily.

6. Slice into rectangles and roll up.

freidasima

Sun, Sep 25 2011, 3:52 pm

Do you use the gluten free flour that they sell for celiacs? If so no problem to make muffins. If you don't use it you can get chumus flour in health food stores and do the following.

2 cups whatever flour (we use buckwheat)
1 cup orange juice
1 T baking soda
1 T baking powder
a bit of honey or agave nectar or maple syrup or apple concentrate - don't ask me how much, enough to make the batter sweet - taste it.
2 eggs
4 heaping tablespoons cocoa

Grease pan and bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

it's a chocolate cake BTW...

cold pancake rollups with maple syrup or applesauce or whatever fruit filling you want
make pancakes with buckwheat flour, almond mild, agave nectar or maple syrup, baking powder, eggs, mix and pour into a greased or ceramic frying pan that doesn't need greasing and then when warm put on filling and roll up like blintzes, they are fluffy and kids without teeth do well with them.

Then there are chewey bars using puffed whole organic rice, apple concentrate, applesauce, raisins, and eggs, mix and bake.

Flower Mom

Sun, Sep 25 2011, 4:04 pm

I have recently been cutting out a lot of grains and came across this blog - elanaspantry.com. Elana and her sons are gluten - free so she has created many recipes using almond flour as a base. If you're allergic to nuts, this may be a problem, but I love them. I have made cookies, brownies, muffins and they are all delicious.

She uses agave nectar as a sweetener but I wasn't happy about the high fructose content so prefer to use substitions such as applesauce with Splenda but I'm sure you can use honey without a problem.

The only problem with almond flour is that it is quite expensive, but I buy it in bulk so that saves some costs.

Best of luck!

OOTBubby

Sun, Sep 25 2011, 5:30 pm

Flower Mom wrote:

Could you give some examples of which of her recipes you've used successfully with the applesauce substitution? Thanks.

Flower Mom

Sun, Sep 25 2011, 6:15 pm

OOTBubby:

I have bought her Almond Flour cookbook, there is a delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe where I substitute the exact amount unsweetened apple sauce for the agave nectar and then mix in Splenda to taste - I don't measure the amount of Splenda but you could add around the half the amount applesauce eg. 1 cup applesauce needs half cup Splenda but it's really a matter of taste! I usually taste the batter to see if it needs more. Also in the cookie recipes I usually add an egg.

I also made her Cinnamon apple muffins from the book with the same apple sauce substitution - I don't think these recipes are on her site, so let me know if you want them.

I have tried a lot of recipes from her blog, and always used the applesauce substitute. I must say they all came out delicious! She also has a recipe for fish cakes in her book from which I decided to incorporate almond flour into my regular baked tuna patties recipe instead of the matzo meal. It was great! As you see I am a real fan! Smile

OOTBubby

Sun, Sep 25 2011, 6:43 pm

Flower Mom wrote:

Thanks so much. I'm going to try some of her recipes with the applesauce substitution. I use Stevia rather than Spenda, but I don't think that should matter. I have found that I do so much better without gluten or sugars that I've been experimenting with almond and coconut flours.

Karnash

Mon, Sep 26 2011, 3:03 am

These are good, easy and healthy:
Date Truffles:
500 grm. pitted dates (comes packaged)
2 Tbs. tehina
1/2 cup crushed walnuts or other nut
1/4 cup chpd. raisins

Combine, form small balls - wet hands, it's sticky - and then roll in crushed roasted pistachios or coconut or crushed roasted almonds. Keep refrigerated. Makes about 30 truffles

de_goldy

Mon, Sep 26 2011, 5:59 am

Overripe bananas, frozen strawberries, blueberries, mangos, rhubarb (any combination of the fruit), add some water, blend in blender or food processor and freeze in ices container.

For chocolate ices:
2 overripe bananas
3 T cocoa powder
3 T natural unsweetened peanut butter.
a little water

blend and freeze (the less water you use the creamier and more ice-creamy they will be).

I find a lot of great recipes at ohsheglows.com

One of my favourites (you can just use extra cashews instead of the oats - I did it once because I ran out of oats). I roll them into balls, freeze on the tray for ten mins and then put into an airtight container in the freezer. I used maple syrup for the balls and the chocolate chips. Only problem - these are ADDICTIVE!

http://ohsheglows.com/2009/05/.....kies/

This is also good:
http://fooddoodles.com/2011/03.....ding/

Seraph

Mon, Sep 26 2011, 8:14 am

Karnash wrote:

Looks terrific. I think I'll try it with ground sunflower seeds.

Seraph

Mon, Sep 26 2011, 8:28 am

Thanks for your suggestions. Deserts/snacks for chag will be:
Natural applesauce
Pears poached in (homemade) wine sauce
Date truffles
Popcorn
Maybe roasted chickpeas.

I've looked at Elana's pantry. I dont remember why but I didnt like her site so much. I think it was because she relies a lot on expensive almond flour and sorghum flour which I can't get here.

Yes, freidasima, I can get gluten free flours but I prefer to make my own because its much cheaper, but since its a lot of work, I'd rather not do a gluten free baking that is very based on gluten free flours.

OOTBubby

Tue, Sep 27 2011, 11:53 am

Flower Mom wrote:

I just made her blueberry muffins using your applesauce/spenda sweetener substitution and they are very good. I just need to get used to the taste of coconut flour. While I like coconut, I find its taste in recipes like this to be not totally to my liking. I'm going to try her cinnamon muffins next I think.

OOTBubby

Tue, Sep 27 2011, 12:13 pm

I just made a great peanut butter cookie:

1-1/4 c. splenda or other sugar substitute
1 cup peanut butter (I used Trader Joe's sugar & gluten free crunchy one)
1 large egg

Mix everything well. Bake on parchment. Preheat oven to 350. Make tablespoon sized cookies and flatten with a fork making criss-cross lines. Bake for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with cinnamon after baking if desired (I didn't).

cbsmommy

Mon, Oct 10 2011, 10:44 pm

Seraph-

A take on the peanut butter cookie that OOTBubby posted (that we make all the time)

1 c. natural pb
2 egg whites
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 c. honey

Mix. Drop onto parchment paper.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, and NOT A MINUTE MORE otherwise they burn and taste AWFUL.

Annie

Tue, Oct 11 2011, 1:10 am

I was just coming on to post a cookie recipe similar to the one OOTBubby just posted. It's the same as what she posted except that I added a few tablespoons of cocoa so it was more a chocolate cookie than a PB cookie. Next time I make them I'm going to try and sub agave nectar for the splenda. I'm looking for non-sugar, no flour recipes too, I haven't really found any I liked that weren't just dressed up fruit.

OOTBubby

Tue, Oct 11 2011, 9:04 am

I just made this one -- yummy:

Gluten Free Almond Butter Blondies from Elana's Pantry

1 (16) ounce jar creamy roasted almond butter
1 cup agave nectar
2 eggs
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup dark chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, with a hand blender, mix almond butter until creamy
2. Mix in agave and eggs
3. Add salt and baking soda
4. Mix well with hand blender until all ingredients are thoroughly combined
5. Mix half of the chocolate into the batter
6. Pour batter into a well greased 9x13 inch Pyrex baking dish
7. Scatter the other half of the chocolate on top of the batter
8. Bake at 325° for 35 minutes
9. Serve

Serves 24

I did not use agave and instead substituted a cup of unsweetened applesauce and 3/4 cup stevia. I also used sugar free chocolate chips.

It was really good. If I do it again, I might try it with natural peanut butter instead of almond butter.