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Creme Caramel (grain free, dairy free, nut free, GAPS-legal)

Last night I tried another GAPS book recipe. It’s another single serving, nourishing dessert. This one does require baking, so you have to plan ahead. But the preparation takes about 30 seconds. This creme caramel turned out well. It’s kind of custard-like in the middle. Slightly sweet. I enjoyed it. And it was good to get another egg in my diet at the end of the day. I’m sure I’ll make this again. I bet it would be good with a little sweetened sour cream on top. If you’re looking for ways to get your kids to eat eggs give this a try. I ate this right out of the oven. Next time I’ll let it cool a while first I think.

Creme Caramel
serves 1

1 egg
3 Tbsp. water
1 tsp. honey
cinnamon to taste

Mix egg, water and honey in small oven safe dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 300 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.

Russian Custard (grain free, dairy free, nut free, GAPS-legal)

I often read through the recipes in the GAPS book. There really aren’t many. And I don’t know that I’ve actually made any of them aside from the ferments and cultured products. But there are a couple simple recipes I’ve been wanting to try. I finally got around to one of them last night…Russian custard. Sounds fancy. But really it’s just egg yolks 😛  The recipe is for single servings, which is nice.

I made one serving for my snack last night. A nice little nourishing treat.

This is a great snack for those days where you want something just a little sweet. There is only a little bit of honey. And you can make it in minutes. You can serve it over fruit or mix things in. I added a few sweet cherries and some crispy almonds. It can also be used in recipes (*see note from GAPS below). I’m glad I finally tried this. Any way to get extra egg yolks down is good. By having a little treat I added 2 to my intake yesterday. Love it.

This is also a great substitute if you can’t have yogurt. I like to add fruit and homemade cereal for a little parfait.

I use my hand mixer to make this. It gets thick and gooey. My whole family enjoys it. I have adjusted the recipe to my liking. This is how I make one serving for an easy breakfast or snack.

 
 Russian Custard

serves 1

3 egg yolks
1 Tbsp. honey

Whip egg yolks and honey until it gets thick and almost white, about 3-5 minutes with a hand mixer, depending on the speed of the mixer.

*”Russian custard can be used instead of cream on fruit or you can serve it on its own with some chopped nuts on the top or pieces of fruit. It can also be used instead of cream in making cakes.”

Cooked Yogurt

After making raw yogurt I decided to try a cooked version. At first it looks hard. It seems like there are a lot of steps. But in reality it’s very easy. You’re basically doing 4 things – heat the milk, let it cool a little, add the culture and let it sit. So it’s really not much more work than making raw yogurt. You just have to heat it and let it cool a little first. I followed my SIL’s directions at Today’s Menu Take It Or Leave It. Very easy to follow.

And the outcome…great! This produced a very smooth, creamy, flavorful yogurt. I made some vanilla yogurt with it for Justin this morning. He thought it tasted great. I’m sure Rebecca will like it too. This will definitely be my go-to method for making yogurt. I still want to play around a little with how long I let it culture. This batch was very mild…not much of the tang of normal plain yogurt. But that’s not a bad thing.

I’m so glad I FINALLY got around to making my own yogurt (I’ve been wanting to for about a year now…don’t know why I never did). There are several reasons I’m glad to be making this now. First…it’s healthy! Lots of healthy bacteria. Second…it will save a lot of money! That’s a big one. I buy yogurt every week. It’s one of the biggest expenses. I hate spending so much for so little. This will be a huge money saver…especially since we’ve got all this great raw milk to use up anyway. Third, it will save me trips to the store 🙂  I don’t have to worry about running out of yogurt. If we’re getting low I can just make more. This will really help me with my goal of only going to the grocery store every other week instead of every week. Finally, you can make any flavor you want 🙂  If I want to buy organic full fat yogurt at the store I can get plain, vanilla, strawberry or chocolate. That’s it. Now I can make whatever flavors we want. I made vanilla this morning. But we can make any kind of fruit flavor, peanut butter, chocolate, apple cinnamon, whatever. And I don’t have to worry about feeding my family unhealthy sugar. I can use honey or maple syrup to sweeten it…and I’m sure less of it than the boughten variety.

Now that we have this great yogurt I am so anxious for me to be able to eat it!! Yogurt is one of the foods I miss the most from going dairy free. I used to eat it daily. Hopefully in a week or two I can add it back in. That will be a happy day 🙂

If you have never made your own yogurt I encourage you to try it! It really is very easy. It does not require much hands on time at all. And if you get it going in the morning you can have some ready by the afternoon. I thought it was easy the first time I made it. So I’m sure it will be even easier now that I know how. Even if you don’t have raw milk, you can make your own yogurt. It will still be healthy and much cheaper.

I didn’t take step-by-step photos like my SIL did. If you want a really detailed description check out her blog. Here’s the slightly condensed version of her recipe.

Homemade Cooked Yogurt

Ingredients and Equipment:

milk (preferably raw, but pasteurized willwork…NOT ultra-pasteurized)
yogurt starter (I used some plain, boughten yogurt for my first batch and I’ll use my homemade yogurt from now on)

quart sized jars with lids
large stockpot with lid
water for boiling
a dish rag
a thermometer, either candy or meat will work
a large cooler or incubator
a large towel

Put your dish rag in the bottom of your stockpot. This helps stabilize the jar(s). Then pour milk into your quart sized jars. Make sure you leave about an inch or so of room from the top of the jar. Place the jar in the pot and fill the stockpot with water at least half-way up side of jar. You’ll want to bring this to a boil. I place my thermometer in the water so that it sterilizes.

Once your water is boiling, turn the heat down a little, to around medium to medium-high… enough to maintain a good simmer. Move your thermometer to a jar of milk… having it in the water till boiling sterilized it. You’ll want to keep it going until it reaches 180-185 degrees (this only took a few minutes for me once the water was boiling).

Once the milk has reached 180-185 degrees, turn the burner off. Lift the jar out of the water and onto the counter. Put a cap on the jar. Do not pour the water out of the pot. Put a lid on the pot and place it inside your cooler, making sure the towel surrounds the pot so that it doesn’t melt your cooler. Leave the lid on the pot and put the lid on your cooler.

Now you wait for your milk to come down to between 90 – 120 degrees. I’ve found that between 100 – 105 is optimal for me… this makes a nice, thick, creamy yogurt. This takes about an hour and a half. You can either check the temperature with your thermometer once you think it could be reaching the proper temperature. Or you can just feel the outside of the jar. Remember that our body temperature is 98.6 degrees, so you want it to be slightly warmer than your hands. If its too hot to hold, its not there yet. I checked the temperature with the thermometer the first time I made yogurt, but haven’t checked it since. I just go by feeling the heat on the outside of the jar.

Once your milk is at the proper incubation temperature, you will need to stir in about 2 Tablespoons of yogurt starter into each quart of milk. Be sure to stir gently, as you are stirring in living organisms and don’t want to jostle them too much.

Next, place the lid back on the jar tightly. Open up your cooler and place the jar(s) into your cooler next to the warm pot of water. Remove the lid from the pot and be sure the towel is nestled around your jar(s). Place the lid back on the cooler and let it incubate for 4-24 hours.

The longer it sits, the more tart it will get. I’ve incubated my yogurt for anywhere from 6 hours to 14 hours. I found that at 6 hours, it wasn’t quite thick enough for my liking. 8 hours seemed to produce a good, thick, creamy yogurt with a hint of sweetness. I didn’t notice much change in thickness by increasing the time, just a more tart taste. I try to only let mine go 8-10 hours normally (I did 8 hours…it was good!)

Once your incubation time is up, transfer your jar(s) to the freezer for about an hour. Don’t open them before you do, just put them right in there. After that time is up, transfer them to the refrigerator. You’ll get a true sense of the consistency of the yogurt at this point. Don’t be alarmed if there is some whey on top of the yogurt, this is totally normal. Just stir it into the yogurt.

Before you start enjoying your new batch of yogurt, be sure to reserve a couple tablespoons of your fresh yogurt in a small glass jar in the fridge. This will be your yogurt starter for your next batch. And remember to reserve more than a couple tablespoons if you make more than a quart at a time.

———————-
That is a lot of wording for a simple process. Here is the shortened version:

1. Heat milk in a quart jar in a pot of boiling water to 180 -185 degrees.
2. Remove from water, cover and let milk cool on counter to 90 – 120 degrees.
3. Stir in yogurt culture.
4. Cover and keep in a warm spot for 4-24 hours to culture.
5. Chill.

Flavored Yogurt

You can mix in anything you like to flavor your homemade yogurt. To add extra nutrition stir in egg yolks and coconut oil. Here are some ideas:

Vanilla – stir in homemade vanilla extract and maple syrup or honey
Fruit – blueberry, strawberry, cherry, raspberry, peach, banana (you can mush up whole fruit, mix in pureed fruit or use homemade fruit preserves/jams) with honey or maple syrup for sweetness if needed
Apple Cinnamon – stir in homemade apple butter and honey
Pumpkin Pie – stir in pumpkin puree, honey and cinnamon (we’ve even added a little crumbled pie crust for a real treat)
Peanut Butter – stir in smooth, natural peanut butter and honey (or any kind of homemade nut butter) (add a few chocolate chips for a real treat/dessert)

Guest Post – Pumpkin Smoothie…Plus GAPS-legal Pumpkin Ice Cream!

Today I have a guest post at Gapalicious! My first guest post. Go check it out. Thanks, Hannah for asking me!

A little add on to my smoothie post…you can turn it into ice cream! Yesterday morning I made my usual smoothie. Then I put half of it in my ice cream maker. 15 minutes later…GAPS-legal, nourishing pumpkin pie ice cream 🙂  If you don’t have an ice cream maker you can just freeze it as is. I’ve done that too. Still a tasty cold treat 🙂  And you can freeze it in single servings so it’s all set to go when you want it…and so you don’t go overboard 😉  Ice cream is my absolute favorite food…and the hardest thing I had to give up. But I’m finding ways to get my fix again…the healthy way.

Pumpkin Pie Pudding Parfait

We are currently getting 3 gallons of milk a week. And since I can’t drink milk yet, that is a fair amount to use. So I was trying to think of things to make with it last week and decided to make a batch of creamy chocolate pudding. Then as I was thinking about what dessert to make when we have guests this weekend I thought it would be fun to do a parfait. So I came up with the idea of a pumpkin pie pudding parfait. I didn’t want my first experiment to be on guests, so I made some last night. I made a slightly sweetened pie crust and a pumpkin cream cheese mixture. And layered that with the pudding. Turned out great! When I make it for real I’ll use vanilla pudding. But it was good with chocolate too. And I love that this uses all (well, mostly all…I did use some powdered sugar) good, homemade ingredients…even the cream cheese was from our homemade raw yogurt. I didn’t measure anything when I made the pumpkin filling. And I only made a small batch. So I’ll have to guess on that. This is a fun, healthy, fall dessert.

This post is linked to Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager.

Pumpkin Pie Pudding Parfait
serves 2

Pie Crust:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup palm shortening or butter
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup cane sugar
1/4 cup water

Mix flour, salt and sugar. Blend in shortening until crumbly. Add water until soft dough forms. Roll onto parchment paper and bake at 375 for about 25-30 minutes…until golden. Let cool.

Pumpkin Filling:
1/2 cup pumpkin
1 cup cream cheese (preferably homemade)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. honey or maple syrup

Mix all ingredients together. Adjust sweetness to taste. Chill.

Creamy Vanilla Pudding (Heavenly Homemakers recipe):
(this is a full recipe of pudding…you don’t need this much for 2 parfaits)

2 1/2 cups milk
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup real maple syrup (grade B is best for you) or honey
4 Tbsp. arrowroot powder (or organic corn starch)
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla

In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk, egg yolks, maple syrup, arrowroot powder and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring CONSTANTLY until pudding begins to thicken. Stir over the heat for about 15 more seconds. Remove immediately from the heat, and continue to stir until pudding is creamy. (I use my whisk the whole time for stirring and find this works great!) Add butter and vanilla and continue to stir until mixed. Pour into a glass container, cover and chill.

Parfait:

Just before ready to serve assemble the parfait. Layer chunks of pie crust, pumpkin filling and pudding. Then repeat. End with pie crust.

Pumpkin Nut Butter Bread

Yesterday I made a pumpkin version of nut butter bread to go with our chicken apple chili. I just kind of guessed on quantities, lowering the pb to add the pumpkin. So I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. But it worked great! Rebecca loves it. We’ll see if our guests like it tonight 🙂

Pumpkin Nut Butter Bread

3/4 cup peanut butter (or any nut butter)
3/4 cups pumpkin
3 eggs
pinch salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/3 – 1/2 cup honey

Blend all ingredients in a bowl (I do it by hand). Pour into a greased loaf pan (1 large or 2 smaller). Bake at 350 for 45-70 minutes (depends on the size of pan you’re using…just keep an eye on it that it doesn’t get too dark on top).

Dutch Letter Cookies

This week we are learning the letter D. So what’s more fitting for a Dutch girl than Dutch letter cookies? 🙂  I had actually never heard of these before. I just did a search for Dutch desserts and found this recipe on All Recipes.  So Rebecca and I made them yesterday. They turned out pretty well. I can’t say they are the easiest cookie to make with a small child. But still a fun one. The dough and filling are super easy to make. Rebecca liked helping with that. The assembly was a bit tougher. I think I should have made my dough a tiny bit wetter and rolled it a bit thinner. But the phone was ringing, baby crying, little hands trying to help and eat all the dough, etc. So I had to just do what I could. I didn’t end up making many actual letters. But we managed a couple. In the end they turned out ok and taste pretty good (this coming from someone who doesn’t really like almond/almond paste). I forgot to do the milk/sugar topping until after I had them in the oven already. So I quick took them out and just sprinkled a little sugar on. No milk. I had some filling leftover, so I just put that in a little dish and baked it with the cookies. That’s the grain free version of this dessert 😛  A fun experiment. Maybe we’ll try it again when Rebecca is a little older. And we have more time to roll and shape the cookies properly. I didn’t take any good pics since I was dealing with a baby that just woke up, trying to finish the cookies and get Rebecca to eat lunch.

Dutch Letter Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour (I used organic whole wheat flour)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, chilled
1/3 cup ice water
8 ounces almond paste
1 egg
1/4 cup white sugar (I used organic cane sugar)
2 Tbsp. milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar for decoration (I used organic cane sugar)

In a medium bowl, stir together flour and salt. Cut in chilled butter until the texture of the mix is mealy with pea sized lumps (I made the dough in my food processor). Add ice water gradually while stirring with a wooden spoon until dough forms a ball. Cover your dough and chill for 1/2 hour.

To make filling, in a small bowl, mix together the almond paste and sugar. Add the egg and mix well.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C ). On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 to 1/8 inch thickness, making as square as possible (I did this in two batches). Cut the dough into strips 6 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide (about the width of a ruler) (I made my strips much longer, else you’d never be able to shape it into a letter). Using a pastry bag or a strong plastic bag with a small hole cut from the corner, pipe almond filling down the center of the strip starting halfway down. Fold the top half of the strip down over the almond filling to match the bottom (I experimented with lengths/folds. And I made sure to seal the edges well).

Shape strips into desired letters, brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Easy GAPS Snack Ideas

At the beginning of the month I said I wanted to make a snack list so that I wouldn’t run out of ideas (meals are easy…snacks are tough). It seems I’m always wondering what to eat between meals when I just need a little something. So here are some GAPS legal snacks. I can’t eat all of them at the moment (the ones with dairy). But they are still good options for a healthy snack for our family. I’ll keep adding to the list as I think of things. And I’ll add links to recipes as I have time.

GAPS Snacks

pesto
navy bean hummus
crispy nuts
hard boiled eggs
leftover roasted veggies
raw veggies
coconut milk ice cream
kefir smoothies
nut milk smoothies
zucchini cakes
nut butter pancakes
nut butter w/ fruit or on pancakes
gf granola
frozen fruit
fresh fruit
honey butter or honey coconut oil
roasted beets
olives
cheese crisps
leftovers
gf baked goods – scones, breakfast cookies, muffins, bread
chicken, salmon, tuna or egg salad
salmon cakes
broth
apple raisin bars

Grain Free Pumpkin Muffins (dairy free, GAPS-legal)

Continuing with my experimenting in the kitchen yesterday I made some grain free pumpkin muffins to go with our pumpkin soup. What a perfect combo! I used my other grain free muffin recipes as a starting point for this. Then just went for it. Again, I didn’t really measure. I’ll estimate what I used. These turned out great! All 3 of us really like them. I added some cinnamon chips to a few of them (Justin and Rebecca really liked those :). I try not to go overboard with grain free baked goods because of the nuts. But these actually had quite a big of egg and pumpkin. So better than some recipes. I’ll make these again for sure. I did not have time to do the egg yolk/egg white method. I just used a little baking soda. But if I have time I’ll separate the eggs next time.

Grain Free Pumpkin Muffins

1 1/2 cups of nut meal or flour (can be made by grinding crispy nuts in a coffee grinder or food processor. I used almonds, macadamia nuts, cashews and walnuts.)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup of honey
1/4 tsp. of sea salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup pure pumpkin
1/2 cup cinnamon or chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare muffin tins with liners or grease with oil or butter.

To make without baking soda:
In a small bowl beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Set aside. In separate bowl mix all other ingredients (except chips) until smooth. Fold in egg whites. Fold in chips. Fill muffin cups.

To make with baking soda:
Combine all ingredients (except chip) until smooth. Fold in chips. Fill muffin cups.

Bake for 45 minutes. Makes 9 muffins

Mint Chip Coconut Milk Ice Cream (grain free, dairy free, GAPS-legal)

I made one batch of coconut milk ice cream this summer…and it sure was a nice treat for me. But not my favorite flavor. So now I want to experiment with flavors. Yesterday I tried mint chocolate chip. It turned out quite well. It did not taste like coconut milk AT ALL (that’s what I was hoping for). However I did add a bit too much mint flavoring, so it was kind of strong. But still good. I came up with my own recipe and didn’t really measure anything. I’ll estimate what I used. This is a no-cook ice cream (always good). And I added avocado for green color and creaminess. Even Rebecca liked this ice cream (she was not a fan of the chocolate version). So it must be pretty good. I did add a few mini chocolate chips (not GAPS-legal…or healthy). But I figure a few mini chips per dish isn’t a big deal. I ate some last night with hot fudge on top (updated GAPS recipe to come). YUM!!! Very creamy…tastes just like regular ice cream.

Mint Chip Coconut Milk Ice Cream

1 can full fat coconut milk
2 egg yolks
1/2 avocado
1/4 – 1/3 cup honey
1 tsp. mint extract (to taste)
1 tsp. chocolate extract (to taste)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Blend all ingredients (except chips) in blender until smooth. Adjust honey, mint and chocolate to taste. Chill in refrigerator (probably not necessary…but helps). Pour into ice cream maker and process according to directions (my Kitchen Aid mixer took about 20 minutes). Add chocolate chips during last minute of mixing. Store in freezer.