Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake

Yes, that's my homework under my dessert.

Let's make this clear, this isn't a cheese cake, this is a cake with cream cheese in it.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it came out very tasty and filling.  It was very chocolaty, not very moist, but still very good.  I baked this last weekend when I should have been doing my homework.  I had a huge craving for chocolate though, so I took a break from my accounting studies. 

Here's what you'll need:
2 cups hazelnut flour
2 cups almond flour
2 1/2 cups Stevia Extract in the Raw or 1 1/4 cups New Roots Stevia Sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup salted butter melted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons liquid stevia

First preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a Bundt pan entirely with butter and place it in the freezer.

In a large bowl, combine the hazelnut flour, almond flour, stevia, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt and whisk until well mixed.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and liquid stevia and mix with an electric mixer at medium-low speed.

Add the flour mixture one or two cups at a time, and mix at medium-low speed until it makes a smooth, thick, pourable batter. 

Remove your prepared pan from the freezer, then dust the entire inner surface with almond, pecan, or coconut flour (I used coconut because I have a lot more of it than the other two).  Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and jiggle it to evenly distribute the batter into every nook and cranny.

Bake for 30 minutes, then gently rotate and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until the cake is springy when pressed in the center and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack.  Let the cool for at least 20 more minutes before slicing and serving.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon-Apple Muffins

This recipe comes from The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking (I told you I would be using this cookbook a lot).  I made the recipe yesterday morning and they turned out very yummy.  The recipe didn't make a lot of them, the recipe says 9, but I was only able to make 8.  I'm trying not to eat them all within a couple of days, it's been difficult because they're really good.

Here's what you'll need:
3/4 cup hazelnut flour
3/4 cup almond flour
1/2 cup Stevia Extract in the Raw
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs
6 tablespoons unsweetened soy milk or other milk
2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon liquid stevia
1/2 cup coarsely chopped apple (about 1 large apple)
1/4 cup chopped almonds, pecans, hazelnuts, or walnuts (which was used in this recipe) for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line 8 or 9 muffin cups with paper or foil liners, then mist them with spray oil.

In a medium bowl, combine the hazelnut flour, almond flour, stevia, baking powder, and cinnamon and whisk until well mixed.

In a large bowl whisk the eggs, milk, applesauce, vanilla, and liquid stevia together until thoroughly blended.

Add flour mixture and stir with a large spoon for 1 to 2 minutes to make a smooth, sticky batter.  Fold in the apples.

Spoon or scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups, dividing it evenly among them; the muffin cups should be just about full.  Sprinkle the nuts evenly over the muffins.

Bake for 20 minutes, then rotate and bake for about 20 to 25 more minutes, until golden brown and springy when pressed in the center.

Let the muffins cool in the pan for at least 5 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Cheesy Herbed Pizza Crust Pizza

Before I tell you how to make this pizza, let me tell you this:  This was the most delicious pizza I have ever eaten!  I have had gluten free pizza in the past and it was never this good.  I have also grown up outside New York City where pizza parlors are on every corner and every Friday night when I was younger, we would order pizza.  So I know good pizza and I know great pizza, and this was beyond great, in my opinion anyway.  Maybe it was the flavoring in the crust, maybe it was because it was homemade, or maybe it was the Penzeys' pizza seasoning I used.  Either way, I highly recommend making this pizza crust the next time you make a homemade pizza.

Here's what you'll need:
1 cup sunflower seed flour (buy sunflower seeds and grind them in a mini-food processor)
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour (not garbanzo fava bean flour, there is a difference)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup shredded or grated mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded or grated cheddar cheese
2 egg whites
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Brush the surface of a 12-inch round pizza pan with olive oil.

In a medium bowl, combine the sunflower seed flour, garbanzo flour, baking powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, oregano, and thyme and whisk until well mixed.

Stir in the cheeses and stir the mixture to distribute the cheese.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites and broth together until thoroughly blended.

Add the flour mixture and stir with a large spoon for 1 to 2 minutes to make a thick sticky dough.

Transfer the dough to the center of the prepared pan.  Using oiled fingers, press it out to evenly fill the pan, making the edges slightly thicker if you like.  Prick the surface every 1 to 2 inches to help prevent bubbles and air pockets during the baking.

Bake for 15 minutes, then rotate and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned and firm to the touch, with blisters of melted cheese all over.

You can immediately top the crust with your favorite toppings.

To bake the topped pizza, have the oven at 325 degrees and bake for 6 to 8 minutes, or until the cheese has melted or until the toppings are heated through and cooked to your liking.

Slice and serve immediately.  Enjoy!

Basic Brown Bread

Hi, everybody!  Today's recipe comes from The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking.  It's starting to become my go-to cook book when it comes to baking goodies for myself.  I just received in the mail either this week or late last week, two new cook books on how to bake using alternative flours. One is all about coconut flour (which I have a lot of), and the other focusing on almond flour.  Hopefully, I'll get to those books sooner rather than later, but don't count on it because school is my number one priority right now (as it should be).

This bread looks more like a banana bread, and is very filling, it also has a very nutty taste to it.  It's also extremely healthy for you considering it has two cups of flaxseed meal in it.

Here's what you'll need:
2 cups brown or golden flaxseed meal
1 cup hazelnut flour (the most expensive flour I've bought to date)
1/4 cup Stevia Extract in the Raw or Splenda
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 cup unsweetened soy milk or other milk
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup salted butter melted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line the bottom of a 4 1/2 by 8 inch loaf pan with parchment paper, then mist the pan with spray oil.

In a medium bowl, combine the flaxseed meal, hazelnut flour, sweetener, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt.  Whisk until well mixed.

In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer (which the recipe recommends), combine the eggs, milk, water, and butter and whisk or mix with the paddle attachment at medium-low speed until thoroughly blended.

Add the flour mixture and stir vigorously with a large spoon or mix at medium speed for 2 minutes.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then stir even more vigorously by hand or mix at medium-high speed for 2 minutes to aerate the batter.  It should be smooth, sticky, and pourable.

Pour mixture into the prepared pan.  Bake for 35 minutes, then rotate and bake for about 35 minutes, until golden brown and springy when pressed in the center and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

(I can't tell if this picture is pre-oven or post-oven...sorry.)

Let the bread cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before turning out the loaf.  Let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving.

Enjoy! You can put anything on this bread too, cheese, turkey, peanut butter & jelly, or butter like I did this morning. 

Cocoa-Nut Brownies

This recipe comes from my The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking cookbook.  These brownies were made using alternative flours such as pecan and almond flours.  The recipe also requires the use of Stevia or Splenda. I always choose the more natural one, so Stevia in this case.  If you're on a diet and still want to eat yummy snack food, you should probably pick up this cookbook.  Every single recipe calls for a type of nut flour, which you can find at your local health food store, however if you are allergic to nuts, this book isn't for you then.

Here's what you'll need:
2 cups (8 oz.) pecan flour
1 cup (4 oz.) almond flour
2 cups Splenda or Stevia Extract in the Raw, or 1/2 cup New Roots Stevia Sugar
1/2 cup (1.5 oz.) unsweetened natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened chocolate soy milk or chocolate almond milk
1/4 cup salted butter or margarine, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon liquid stevia

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line the bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, then mist the pan with spray oil.

In a medium bowl, combine the pecan flour, almond flour, stevia, cocoa powder, and baking powder and whisk until well mixed.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, soy milk, butter, vanilla, and liquid stevia together until thoroughly blended.

Add the flour mixture and whisk or stir with a large spoon until all of the ingredients are evenly incorporated to make a smooth, sticky batter.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, spreading it in an even layer if need be.

Bake for 15 minutes, then rotate and bake for 10 minutes, until the brownies are just slightly springy but still jiggly when pressed gently in the center.  If you like fudgy brownies, remove them from the oven at this point.  If you prefer them to be more cakelike, continue baking for a few more minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the brownies comes out clean.

Let the brownies cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes.  Cut them in a 3 by 4 grid, to yield 12 brownies.

Enjoy!

Almond-Pecan Piecrust & Apple Crumble Pie

First I'd like to say is my heart goes out to everybody who was affected by Hurricane Sandy.  I live close to NYC and just north of NJ, and had lost power last night for about 10 hours, I'm quite lucky it came back on, considering there will be many people without electricity for a while.  :-(  Growing up in NJ and having gone down the shore every summer with my family while growing up, it's difficult to see how much Sandy destroyed.  :-( 

Since I had off of work yesterday, as did everybody in the Tri-state area, I wanted to bake something since I was very bored, and had time to pass.  So I decided to bake the apple pie I've been wanting to bake since the first time I brought back my half bushel of apples.  I was very apprehensive at first, since the lights were flickering a bit, but the news kept saying the worst would come later.  The slow apple peeler that I am, the pie was in the oven when the power shut off.  My stove top is gas, but not the oven.  :-(  The pie was nearly done, but I waited until this morning to finish it.  It came out alright.  It tastes really good, but it was falling apart and didn't look like a pie once on the plate.  Oh well, maybe next time I use this recipe it'll turn out better looking, oh, and I won't be stupid and think I have enough time to bake a pie while a major storm is going on.  Duh!

 This recipe came from my cookbook, The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking.  I made the crust first out of almond flour and pecan flour.  I had to special order the pecan flour from King Arthur Flour.  I don't think Bob's Red Mill sells pecan, but they do have almond and hazelnut.

Here's what you'll need for the Almond-Pecan Piecrust:

1 cup (4 oz.) almond flour (Bob's Red Mill)
1 cup (4 oz.) pecan flour (King Arthur)
1/4 cup Splenda or Stevia Extract in the Raw (I used Stevia), or 2 tablespoons New Roots Stevia Sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup salted butter or margarine melted
3 tablespoons unsweetened soy milk (I used soy) or other milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Lightly mist a 9" or 10" pie pan with spray oil.  In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, pecan flour, sweetener, and baking powder and whisk until well mixed.

Add the butter, milk, and vanilla and stir with a large spoon for 1 to 2 minutes.  The dough will be stiff and playdough-like.  Put the dough in the prepared pan and lightly mist the top of the dough with spray oil.  Spread the dough with your fingers, pressing it in an even layer to line the pan.  Prick the bottom and sides with a fork to help prevent bubbles (I forgot to do this) and air pockets.  Set aside.

Now, what you'll need for the Apple Filling:
5 cups thinly sliced apples (about 1/4" thick)
1 cup Splenda or Stevia Extract in the Raw, or 1/2 cup New Roots Stevia Sugar
1/4 cup (1 oz.) almond flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons salted butter or margarine melted
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon liquid stevia

What you'll need for the Crumble Topping:
3/4 cup (3 oz.) almond flour
1/4 cup Splenda, Stevia Extract in the Raw, Truvia, or Zsweet, or 2 tablespoons New Roots Stevia Sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 cup (2 oz.) salted butter or margarine, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

To make the filling, put the apples in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, combine the Stevia, almond flour, cinnamon, butter, lemon juice, and liquid stevia and stir gently with a large spoon or rubber spatula until thoroughly combined.  Add this mixture to the apples and mix together until all the apples are thoroughly coated.

Then pour the mixture, juices and all, into the unbaked piecrust; the apples will mound up higher than the edges of the pan.

To make the topping, put all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir with a large spoon or rubber spatula until thoroughly combined.  The mixture should be crumbly and dry.  If it lumps up rather than forming crumbles, refrigerate for about 30 minutes until hardened, and then crumble it with your fingers. 

Sprinkle the crumble topping evenly over the apples.

Put the pie on a baking sheet and cover the edges of the crust with foil to prevent burning.  Bake for 20 minutes, then rotate the baking sheet and bake for about 20 more minutes.  Remove the foil from the edges of the piecrust and bake for about 10 minutes, until the topping and crust are golden brown.

Let the pie cool for at least 1 hour before slicing and serving.  Keep refrigerated.

Enjoy! 

Thumbprint Jam Cookies

Hey everybody, sorry it's been a while.  Things have been busy at work and when I come home my husband has usually made dinner or is about to start dinner.  However, this past Wednesday I had off and since my husband, Tom, surprised me last week by giving me a new cook book I wanted to try baking one of the recipes.  The new cook book is called The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar Free Baking by Peter Reinhart & Denene Wallace.  Since I love to bake, I'm always looking for new recipes and new ways of baking.  This book doesn't use regular Gluten-Free Flour, but other alternative flours, like Pecan Flour, Coconut Flour, and Almond Flour.  So if you are allergic to nuts this book is not for you.  They also replace sugar with either Splenda (which I wouldn't recommend using since it's not natural) or Stevia (which is natural).  You can use Stevia Extract in the Raw or New Roots Stevia Sugar, or Splenda.  Splenda is a lot easier to find, it's at your local grocery store.  However, finding Stevia was a little more difficult.  I could have bought many many many boxes of it in those tiny small packages, but I wanted a large bag.  The only place I found it was at Walmart.  As for the New Roots Stevia, I think it's more expensive and I don't know where you can buy it, Amazon.com maybe? 

The first recipe I decided to try were these Thumbprint Jam Cookies, they were easy and came out delicious.

What you'll need:

2 1/2 cups (10 oz.) almond flour (I always weigh out my flour because I've noticed the end result is always better.)
1 cup (4 oz.) coconut flour
1 1/2 cups Splenda or Stevia Extract in the Raw, or 3/4 cup New Roots Stevia Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1/2 salted butter or margarine, melted
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
About 6 tablespoons sugar-free jelly or jam (I didn't use sugar-free, I just used what I had lying around in the refridgerator.)

Position 2 oven racks in the middle of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly mist 2 baking sheets with spray oil, or line them with parchment paper or silicone mats and then lightly mist the surfaces with spray oil.

In medium bowl, combine the almond flour, coconut flour, sweetener, baking powder, and salt and whisk until well mixed.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, butter, and vanilla together.

Add the flour mixture and stir with a large spoon for 1 to 2 minutes to make a stiff, playdough-like dough.  The spoon should be able to stand straight up with out falling.

To form each cookie, scoop out 1 heaping tablespoon of dough and, using oiled hands (I put jojoba oil on mine), roll it into a ball, then press it gently between your palms to flatten it slightly.  Place the cookies on the prepared pans, spacing them 3 inches apart.  Press your thumb into the center of each cookie to make an indentation.  Spoon 1/2 teaspoon of the jelly into each indentation.

Bake for 8 minutes, then rotate the pans.

Switch racks and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until golden and firm to the touch.

Immediately transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving to allow the jam to cool.

Enjoy!