Tuesday, January 18, 2011

I was busy baking today! Gluten Free Of Course!

As many of you know, I eat basically gluten free and I'm always looking for new and yummy recipes.  I found some and thought I would share with you!  First, 2 of these recipes come from http://www.elanaspantry.com/ .  They are easy to make and very delicious!

Now, I must apologize for some of the pictures. My kitchen has very little light so the pictures aren't great. Sorry!

The first recipe is flax focaccia. Her recipe is here. I did change 2 things.  1) I didn't add any agave nectar 2) I used only 1/4 cup of oil (not 1/3). I used Bob's Red Mill flax meal for this recipe.

I lined the pan that came with my Japanese oven with parchment paper. 

 She recommends letting it sit for 2-3 minutes before pouring it into the pan but I did that the first time and it was much harder for me to smooth out the top. So, this time, I mixed it and poured it right away and smoothed out the top. This is what it looks like before going in the oven.



This how it looks like once I cut it up. This "bread" is great. I usually toast a piece and then put 2 sunny side up eggs on it for breakfast. It is super filling!




The next recipe I tried was the vanilla cupcakes. This uses all coconut flour. These are to die for!!! The recipe is here.  I used Bob's Red Mill Coconut flour (which sadly isn't in Japan so I had to have a friend send me some-totally worth it!).  I didn't use agave in these either. I used honey since I had some on hand.  I made both cupcakes and a loaf. I found that using parchment liners for  the muffin tin and a strip of parchment on the bottom of the loaf pan is VERY important.  This is how they looked once the came out of the oven.


 Here is what they look like after I put some chocolate icing on them ( I used my own recipe for the icing). Honestly, these are also fab without the icing!


 Honestly...these are some of the best things I have ever eaten. They are moist and very cake like. I was really shocked at how good these are considering it is just coconut flour, eggs and a few other things. I will be using the recipe as a base and will be adding things like chocolate chips, nuts etc.

Tonight I made pizza!  Now, I don't remember where I found this recipe as I just wrote it down.  I will warn you that if you are looking for an exact copy of a regular wheat filled crust..this isn't for you. It isn't crust in the traditional sense but it is gluten free, lower carb and I think very good. And even my husband likes it.

4 eggs
1/3 cup  coconut flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1/3 cup flax meal (I used Bob's Red Mill)

1/2 cup of some kind of milk ( I used unsweetened regular almond milk)
herbs
Cooked toppings of your choice.


I mixed the coconut flour, flax meal and herbs (I used an Italian mix-not sure how much but I did find more is better to cover up the slightly coconut flavor) in a big bowl. In a smaller bowl, I mixed the eggs and milk. Then I poured the milk and egg mixture into the flour mixture. I mixed really well. Then, on  a parchment lined pan, I scooped out the mixture using a 1/2 cup measuring cup and made 4 shapes (can't really call them circles).  I made them fairly thin as they do rise.  Then I put them in an oven preheated to 350 degrees F or 180C.  First bake them for 10 minutes. Take them out and flip them (which is why making 4 smaller pizzas is much easier than 1 big one). Then the recipe says to bake for another 10 minutes but this time I baked them for 15 to try to make the crust a bit "crispier".

While they were baking, I cooked mushrooms, onions, ham and bacon and prepared some cheese. Once the crusts are done, take them out, add your pizza sauce and cooked toppings and of course...cheese! Pop them back in the oven under the broiler until the cheese is melted. Yummy! 

 This after I flipped them.




I am totally loving cooking and baking! I hope you give these a try! If you do, let me know how you liked them!


11 comments:

chinamommy said...

I've had my hubbie on the jorge cruise lose the belly fat diet, the food is GREAT, although i don't know if it's gluton free?... i may try some of your recipes, I'm off to the grocery now- yuck!
~cm

Anonymous said...

Hi!
you should check this blog: blog:
http://cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com
the writer is a cook, and is on a gluten-free diet as well. All the recipes look sooo yummy!
;-)

chiaracat said...

aaaaaaaaaaaaa!! I am on diet, I want die ^_____- all seems so YUMMY

William Wilson said...

Looks delicious. But why gluten free? Is it healthier? Or less calories?

FromJapanWithLove said...

Chinamommy....you really should try the cupcakes....honestly they are to die for!! (I'm going to go eat one now!)

Annonymous-thanks for the link! She has amazing pictures!!

Chiaracat-good luck!

BillBill-I shouldn't eat/can't eat gluten as it makes me sick. A lot of people are allergic or sensitive to gluten. Celiac disease is an example. I do think it is somewhat healthier in that it seems we cook/bake more from scratch using real ingredients and not so much fake or artificial ones. I guess you if people just ate all the packaged gluten free stuff it might not be so healthy.

Sarah P. said...

I subscribed to your blog a while ago just because you are in Japan (I'm in Okinawa). I also can't eat gluten and for the first few months living here always got frustrated because it is everywhere! I've discovered that a mixture of rice flour and mochiko flour work really well as substitutes in cookies for normal flour. My husband who can eat gluten actually prefers the gluten free versions of cookies :) I've tried chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, and sugar cookies with this mixture and they all seem to work well. Just thought I'd give you some more ideas for baking with ingredients that are easier for us to get here.

FromJapanWithLove said...

Thanks Mrs P! I have used rice flour to make "chijimi" (Korean savory pancakes) and "okonomiyaki" (Japanese savory pancakes) and they were great! I guess I'm also trying to cut down on carbs as well. Not low carb or zero carb per se but rather ...I guess shaking things up a bit. And actually, I don't bake that much as most gf cakes, breads etc either require a ton of different unique (impossible to find in Japan) flours or a mix. I love www.fbcusa.com and use them to order many hard to find gluten free items but now that I have found some sites that use almond flour (easy to find in Japan on line-way too expensive in the supermarkets) and coconut flour (my friend sends me but as she is always sending me stuff it isn't that big a deal) I think I will be baking and trying new recipes more!

Carla said...

Your lighting looks just fine, nice and bright to me! Your cooking looks excellent; very yummy! I live in the U.S. and also blog gluten-free recipes. I would happy to share some with you. Keep up the great work! Staying gluten-free at every meal and snack is the way to go! Inflammation can occur from just cheating one time.

Japan Australia said...

Thanks for the recipes. They look pretty good and I will give them a try at home.

Anonymous said...

Hi! I just find your blog and couldn't be happier ^o^
I'm an Italian girl who really loves Japan. I lived in Tokyo for one year in 2009 and got sick because of gluten (I'm still trying to recover).
I didn't stop loving Japan and want to go back there as soon as possible but still I'm a bit scared because of my gluten-free diet and don't really know how to behave when I eat out with friends.
Finding your blog told be it's not impossible and it really helped me a lot! ^__^ I also wonder if you could give me any advice about eating out in Japan. Anyway, I'll keep following your blog, really like it! ^^

Anonymous said...

Oh my God! haha simple and delicious.
Thanks for sharing.

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