Chocolate Syrup

Chocolate Syrup

1½ cups coconut sugar or maple syrup
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 cup water
dash of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Heat all the ingredients together.

You can serve it warm or refrigerate it until cool.

Chocolate Milk

Place about two tablespoons of syrup into an 8oz cup of cold milk.

It is great for topping ice cream or dipping fruit in it as a chocolate fondue.

You could also make hot chocolate. 

Strawberry Short Cake Gluten-Free Almond Flour

Sweet Drop Biscuit Recipe

2 ½ cups almond flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ cup butter

2 eggs

4 tablespoons honey

1 lb strawberries

1 cup heavy cream

Combine the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Combine both together and mix well. Use a spoon to scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet. Adjust the size according to how big or small you want your biscuits. Bake them for about 15 minutes or until brown. 

While the biscuits are baking. Prep the strawberries. Wash, core and slice them into fourths. If your strawberries are not sweet you can add 1 tablespoon of honey and let them soak in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. 

When the biscuits are done let them cool slightly. Top with strawberries an then a dollop of whipped cream. 

Brazilian Cheese Rolls

Brazilian Cheese Rolls

1 cup whole milk

¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter

¼ cup oil (I used more butter J)

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons tapioca flour

2 eggs

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine milk, butter, and oil (if using) in a saucepan and bring to a boil on medium heat, stirring to melt butter and keep milk from scalding.  Once mixture reaches a boil, remove from heat and stir in tapioca flour. 

Stir in eggs one at a time and then add cheese.  Mixture will be very stiff.  Cool in pan until easy to handle. 

Take heaping tablespoons of dough with tapioca-floured hands and roll into balls.  Place on a baking sheet about an inch apart.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until puffed and golden. Makes about 20 rolls.

I halved this recipe when I made it.  The first time I forgot to half the milk which meant I had to use more flour, but they still tasted great.  The second time I did it right, except that I used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil.  Coconut oil has too strong a flavor for these rolls, so in the future I will use only butter.  I also do not bother to roll them out, I merely blob them onto the baking sheet.  They turned out great.  Enjoy!!

This recipe was adapted from The Gluten Free Bible page 130

Gluten-Free Cranberry Lemon Muffins

I found this recipe at Elanas Pantry.

2 cups almond flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup grape seed oil
3 eggs
1/2 cup agave nectar, honey, or maple syrup
1 teaspoon lemon or orange zest.

Combine wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately, then combine together. Place in a lined muffin pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Gluten-Free Breakfast Bars

I found this recipe at Elanas Pantry. My husband does not care for raisins so he made these with cranberries. They were really good. He eats a bar just before going to the gym. It holds him over until breakfast. We took them to work one day for a snack but they were a little too greasy. I would rather eat them at home.

1 ¼ cup almond flour

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ cup grapeseed oil

¼ cup agave nectar, honey, or maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup shredded coconut

½ cup pumpkin seeds

½ cup sunflower seeds

¼ cup almond slivers

¼ cup raisins or cranberries

Mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Then add grape seed oil, agave, and vanilla. Then add the remaining ingredients. Press into a 8x8 pan with wet hands to push down the dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Gluten Free Almond Flour Brownies

I was amazed at how well these brownies tasted. The texture was very similar to the glutenous ones. They are so yummy, gooey, and have a strong chocolate flavor.

Almond Flour Brownies

3/4 cup almond flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon instant coffee granules (optional)

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the almond flour, salt, cocoa powder, and baking powder in a large bowl.

Melt 4 oz or 1/2 cup of chocolate chips with the butter. Beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and coffee granules together and then add the melted chocolate. Mix well and add it to the dry ingredients, mix again. Pour the mixture into a greased 8 x8 pan. Sprinkle with the remaining chocolate chips. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

In Korea cocoa powder is cheaper than chocolate chips and Korean chocolate chips are sweeter than what we would buy in the states. So we are going to use cocoa powder in the future instead of the half cup of chocolate chips for melting. We will still add the remaining chocolate chips onto the top.

Gluten-Free No Flour Peanut Butter Cookies

Gluten-Free No Flour Peanut Butter Cookies

I found this recipe at Nurturing Naturally. There are so many things I love about this recipe. It only has 5 ingredients. They are mostly equal parts so I only need one measuring cup. It is gluten free but does not use an expensive substitute that I don't have access to in Korea. They only take a few minutes to mix together and bake in the oven. They are very thick and delicious. You will not miss the flour. Chris said he would want me to make these even if we were not on a gluten free diet.

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg beaten
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Measure out the brown sugar first. Rinse the cup slightly. To keep your peanut butter from sticking to the measuring cup you can add a small amount of olive oil to the cup to grease it up and the peanut butter will come right out. Add the egg and baking soda, mix everything together. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Place the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet. Press down the cookies with a fork. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. They take 14 minutes in my oven. Let cool and serve with a large glass of milk. They will be really soft when the first come out of the oven but they will harden as they cool.

Chocolate, Banana, Peanut Butter and Honey Smoothie

2 frozen bananas broken into pieces
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 cup peanut butter
dash of cinnamon
1 cup milk
1 tbsp honey

Place all ingredients in blender, blend until well mixed. If a thicker smoothie-shake is desired, add more frozen banana after blending other ingredients.  Pour into glasses and serve.  Makes two tall glasses of smoothie.

Chocolate Cup Cakes

Chocolate Cup Cakes

1 1/2 cup of sugar
1 3/4 cup of flour
3/4 cup of cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 cup of boiling water

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Line cup cake pan with liners
3. Combine dry ingredents, add liquid ingredients minus the boiling water; beat on medium speed. Add in the boiling water. The batter will be very thin. Pour into cupcake pans about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 22 - 25 minutes.


They should look like this.

Not Like This:

This is what happens when you forget to add flour to the batter. I calls these my "Gluten Free" Cupcakes.

Gluten-Free Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I am trying to eat healthier. I would like to cut back on sugar and white flour. I am so excited that Elana from www.elanaspantary.com came up with this recipe. While making it I ran out of agave nectar so I used about 3/4 of what it called for and then added honey to make up for it. You can completely replace the agave with honey.


Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies 2 ½ cups almond flour ¼ teaspoon sea salt ¼ teaspoon baking soda 10 tablespoons butter, melted 1 tablespoon vanilla ½ cup agave nector 1 cup dark chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients, then combine the wet ingredients and then mix the two together. Often I just mix them in the same bowl I haven't noticed a difference. Use a spoon to form them into cook shapes on a cookie sheet. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

French Silk Pie

French Silk Pie

6 Servings Prep: 40 min. Cook: 10 min. + chilling

Ingredients

1 precooked pie shell

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ cup olive oil

1 tablespoon instant coffee

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

4 teaspoons sugar

Whipped cream and chocolate curls, optional

Directions

Prebake your pie shell (Click here for recipe). It should be room temperature when you add the filling.  In a sauce pan mix the sugar and eggs until blended. Cook over low heat and stir constantly until the mixture is 160 degrees or coats the back of a metal spoon. Remove from heat. Add the cocoa powder, olive oil, coffee, and vanilla. Mix until smooth then let cool to room temperature (About 90 degrees), stirring occasionally.

In another bowl, cream the butter and add the chocolate mixture. Beat on high speed for 5 minutes. In a blender mix the cream and sugar. Beat on high until the cream is firm. You will hear a difference in the blender when it reaches this consistency.  Fold the cream mixture into the chocolate mixture. Pour into pie shell. Chill for at least 6 hours.

Coffee Cake

Coffee Cake

1 cup butter (room temperature)

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 cups sour cream or plain yogurt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar*

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon nutmeg

1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan. I rub butter along the bottom and the sides. Then I use my fingers to rub the butter into the edges where the cube could not reach.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder; set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar, brown sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon. (This is the sugar mixture)

In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar, butter and eggs until smooth. Stir in the sour cream/yogurt and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and beat until smooth. 

Spread half of the batter into the 9x13 inch pan. Sprinkle a layer of the sugar mixture, then spread the remaining batter and top with the rest of the sugar mixture. Spread the melted butter over the top.

Bake for 1 hour  in the preheated oven, until cake springs back to the touch, or if you insert a tooth pick or chop stick in the exact middle it comes out clean.

Let the cake rest for at least 10 minutes before serving. While the cake is cooling is the perfect time to make a pot of coffee to go with it.

* I didn't have confectioners' sugar so I blended white sugar in a blender until it was powdery.

Banana Bread

When I visit my sister Regina she often says "Sis, I have some old bananas, please make me some banana bread." The bread is the best answer for those last few bananas that are over ripe. Don't throw them away. Make this banana bread or peel them and place them in the freezer until you are ready to make the bread.

Ingredients:

3 or 4 ripe bananas, mashed

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350°f (175°c). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Makes one loaf. You can freeze this bread and reheat it later. It makes a great snack. Sometimes we will eat it for breakfast. 

Cinnamon Rolls - Easy

I love fresh baked cinnamon rolls. However I don't have much patience to deal with yeast. So I am thankful to my friend Cheri who made me cinnamon rolls one day that did not require yeast. Here is a recipe I adapted from ehow.com. If you go to their website you can see their step by step pictures. I am only posting the pictures I took of my rolls..


Read more: How to make easy Cinnamon rolls in 10 minutes | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4686415_make-easy-cinnamon-rolls-minutes.html#ixzz15xkWGzKB

These are what they looked like fresh out of the oven before I put the glaze on. I don't own a cookie sheet so I used two glass pans. They fit perfectly into my roaster oven. I used the wire rack from my toaster oven as a cooling rack.

 Things You'll Need:

DOUGH

2 cups of white flour

3 teaspoons baking power

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup of butter (softened)

2/3 cup milk

FILLING

3 Tablespoons melted butter

1/4 cup of white sugar

1/4 cup of brown sugar

3 teaspoons of cinnamon

3 teaspoons of nutmeg (Optional)*

GLAZE

1/3 cup packed powdered sugar**

1 Tablespoon milk

1. Assemble all ingredients, big mixing bowl, measuring cup and spoon. Getting all your supplies together, makes for quick mixing. I measured out the dry ingredients first and set them aside because I only have one measuring cup.

2. DOUGH - Sift and mix all dry ingredients.

3. Add the butter to the flour mix. Mix with a fork or beaters until it is the consistency of cornmeal.

4. Add milk, the amount of milk tends to vary. Add until dough makes a soft ball, with a little dry flour mixture around the ball.

5. Roll out on a floured board, in a rectangular shape. Dough should be about 1/4" thick. Spread melted butter all over the top of the rolled dough.

6. FILLING- Mix the dry filling ingredients and spread them over the melted butter.

7. Roll the cinnamon buns,starting from the longest side, lengthwise. Roll tightly all the way up, slightly pinching the edges together.

8. Use a piece of dental floss or a sharp knife and cut the roll into 1" slices. I cut some thick and some thin. We decided that we like the thicker rolls better because they are soft in the middle.

9. Put on a greased cookie sheet, with about 1/2" between each cinnamon roll. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until slightly brown on the top.

10. After the cinnamon rolls have cooled, add a white icing to the top. Serve slightly warm and enjoy!

*Nutmeg is not in the original recipe I added it because Chris always asks for nutmeg whenever I add cinnamon and sugar to something.

** I did not have powdered sugar, but that is not a problem. I just took regular sugar and blended it in the blender.

Apple Banana Bread

I often make this cake when I have apples and bananas that are to old to eat. 

1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 stick butter
3 ripe bananas
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups flour
1 tsp. vanilla
2 or 3 peeled, chopped apples

Beat sugar, eggs, and butter. Slice in bananas. Mash them with a spoon or a potato masher.  Add baking soda, vanilla, and flour. Fold in chopped apples. 

Place a round piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the crockpot and rub butter around the sides. Cook on high for 1 hour and then cook on low for 1 or 2 more hours until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. 

You can also bake the cake for 60 minutes at 350 degrees in the oven instead of the crockpot. 

Tip: When the cake is cooling remove the lid. We forgot to do this so our cake was a little gooey on the top. 

Strawberry Short Cake

Well after 16 months of living in Korea without an oven we finally have one. So of course I had to make my favorite dessert.

Strawberry Topping:

4 cups of  whole frozen strawberries

2 tablespoons of sugar 

1 cup of heavy cream

1/4 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Yellow Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 cup milk

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs

1. Remove the strawberries from the freezer. Place them in a bowl and add 2 Tbs of sugar. Let them defrost. As they melt use a fork to pry them apart. You can mash them up if desired.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9x13 inch pan. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.


3. In a large bowl, cream sugar and shortening until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating just to combine. finally, stir in vanilla. Pour batter into the prepared pan.


4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.


5. When the cake is cooked let it cool. 10 minutes before you are ready to serve the dessert prepare the whipped cream.


6. Place the heavy cream in a blender (A mixer is better, but I only have a blender). Add the 1/4 cup of sugar and the tsp of vanilla. 


7. Blend the mixture until it thickens. 


8. Slice the cake. Place the strawberries on top of each slice and then top them with the cream. 

Crockpot Coffee Cake

Crockpot Coffee Cake

Batter:

1 ½ cups flour

2 ½ cups baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 egg

¾ cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

½ cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

Topping:

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup flour

¼ cup butter, softened

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.  Beat eggs until frothy. Beat in the sugar and butter. Beat until well blended. Add the milk and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients slowly; do not over mix or it will be dry. Pour into a well greased crockpot. (I rub butter along the bottom and sides.

Mix together the topping ingredients and pour over the batter, spreading evenly, but do not mix it in with the batter.

Cover the crock pot for two hours turning it on low. Check after 1 ½ hours.  It is done with the sides are crisp and it is not longer gooey in the middle. Try not to lift the lid too often or it will not cook evenly. 

Chocolate Covered Bananas

I was bugging Chris one night  to find us a snack. I usually have only one rule when it comes to snacks: it must always involve chocolate. One night we were almost completely out of chocolate (yes, my world was coming to an end) and Chris came up with this quick and simple snack.

1 banana
2 tablespoons of Nestquick chocolate milk powder

1. Split the banana in half long ways and place it on a plate
2. Sprinkle the banana with the chocolate powder
3. Place the banana in the freezer for 15 minutes until chilled. 

The first time we made this we froze the banana competly and it was to hard to bite into. We have also tried it without putting it in the freezer and came to the conclution that 15 minutes is just enough to chill it.

Enjoy. This is a quick, simple and not too unhealthy snack.

Skillet Brownies

We were given several boxes of brownie mix in one of our first care packages from America. We struggled with how we could cook them since we don't have an oven. At first we tried using our toaster oven. All I can say is that it was a disaster. So Chris came up with the idea of cooking the brownies in a skillet. Yes, at this point we were desperate to eat brownies.

1 box of brownie mix
Eggs (amount the box calls for)
Oil (Also the amount called for on the box)

1. Mix all of the ingredients as listed on the back of the brownie box, except omit the water. 
2. Heat a large skillet on low heat
3. Place spoon fulls of brownie mix in the pan in the shape of cookie.
4. Treat them like pancakes. Cook them for a long time on low heat on the first side. Then when they look done flip them over and cook them for only a few minutes on the other side. 

If you are not able to get brownie mixes from the states don't buy them in Korea. They are about 9,000 won which is equivilant to 8 or 9 American dollars. On the same isle as the brownie mixes you can find almost all the ingredients that you need to make your own mix.

For a gluten-free brownie recipe try Gluten-Free Almond Flour Brownies