Gluten Free Buttermilk Biscuits!

I've never exactly understood the whole idea behind gravy and biscuits... but I do love biscuits with butter or jam or used to soak up a lovely golden egg yolk, or even as the foundation for delicious summertime strawberry shortcake. It's definitely on the top of my most missed gluten foods. Well, not anymore!!

Look how golden and beautiful on the bottom and fluffy inside these are!!

I'm very pleased to announce that missing biscuits is now a thing of the past! And the ultra good news is this is a super easy recipe as well.

Gluten Free Buttermilk Biscuits

• 1 3/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup potato flour
• 2 Tablespoons corn starch
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon cane sugar
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 6 Tablespoons cold butter
• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

2. I used a food processor but you can also use a pastry cutter. Combine all dry ingredients and process in food processor until thoroughly combined.

3. Add cubed cold butter and pulse till meal consistency is achieved. 

4. Add buttermilk and stir till just combined.

5. Flour cutting board or countertop with brown rice flour. Dump biscuit dough out onto surface, it will be wet, dust with more brown rice flour to make it easier to work with. 

6. Do not using a rolling pin! Use your hands to lightly pat out dough to 1 inch thick and then using a biscuit cutter or just a glass cut out circular biscuits.

7. Place biscuits onto un-greased baking sheet. I used a silipat for this but you can parchment paper or just a decent baking sheet.

8. Bake in oven for approximately 15 minutes, you are looking to achieve a golden brown on the bottom and just a lightly golden top. 

9. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, this will allow you to remove them from the baking sheet easier and not have them crumble. 

10. Serve warm as you wish! I also found these reheated very nicely as it makes about a dozen biscuits and I certainly can't eat 12 biscuits in a sitting. haha!

Enjoy! xoxo - Iris

Filled generously with butter and drizzled with honey!! 

Homemade Sodas

Grapefruit Soda, Black Currant Soda and Lychee/Strawberry Soda

It struck me as kind of strange that Hanson's soda marked their soda as gluten free until a few weeks ago when I was planning on buying a grape soda at Walgreens and discovered it had "modified food starch" as an ingredient. What the heck is that even doing in there?

I talk a lot about my gluten sensitivity but I'll explain a bit here too about what led me to a gluten free lifestyle. I suffer from, aside from the typical digestive issues associated with gluten sensitivity and celiacs, extreme dysphagia. Dysphagia basically means the sensation of choking. My diet has become slightly more limited in terms of texture because of this condition. Going gluten free dramatically reduced my symptoms but one of the interesting things that really helps is carbonated beverages. It's much easier to swallow with the sensation of the bubbles... I've also heard this technique is used with the elderly who have swallowing limitations.

So back to soda... we certainly would all like to avoid high fructose corn syrups and all the other preservatives that are unavoidable in store purchased pop. If your looking to create your own soda beverages at home but would rather not invest in one of the latest forced carbonation devices now available at Bed, Bath and Beyond and other such home gadget stores, I have the solution for you.

Champagne yeast.

I recently started ordering the stuff online, Red Star Champagne yeast. It's the yeast used to make mead
style alcoholic beverages.  However in shortened fermentation periods you can make a fabulously carbonated beverage from just a few simple ingredients.

For simple sodas with juice bases, think peach, grape, black current, grapefruit and orange you can follow these instructions.

1 liter swing top glass bottle, thoroughly cleaned, these can be found at most home brew supply stores.

1/3 cup cane sugar, you can use organic or the cheaper "non-GMO certified" cane sugar available at most markets.

Carbonation in Grapefruit Soda

1/8 teaspoon champagne yeast

12 fluid oz juice of choice

filtered water

Use a funnel to pour sugar into bottle, then add yeast, juice and then fill water up to neck line. Close bottle and shake. Set in a warm place for 24 hours. At the 12 hour market slowly rotate bottle to mix sugar.

Once appropriate fizz level has been reached refrigerate. Serve cold.

You can make your own variations on this by essentially using other juices or creating other "flavored" waters by adding homemade syrups such as ginger syrup with lemon juice for ginger ale or other varieties to create custom homemade sodas.

I swear you will NEVER want to drink store bought soda ever again... I mean EVER again! I tried to drink some Canada Dry a few weeks ago and I was like "what is this watery week flavorless stuff?!"

This is a summer MUST have! Enjoy and feel free to share whatever awesome flavor combos you come up with.

xoxo- Iris

Gluten Free Tres Leches Cake Recipe!

I have a policy at work that when someone who works in the same department as me has a birthday they can request what kind of cake they want and I'll make it. A few years ago one of the assistants in the office, who is from Mexico, requested a tres leches cake. My knowledge of tres leches cake up until this time was limited to the sighting of single slices of questionable yellow cake sitting in a puddle of milk in the bakery section of Food For Less. Needless to say I hadn't actually eaten any of the stuff myself.

wheat containing Tres Leches Cake

Not one to balk at a challenge I googled a recipe for Tres Leches Cake. At this time I was still naively poisoning myself with wheat products. The next day I brought in my homemade cake after following the recipe, which essentially is a sponge cake soaked in a sweet cream mix topped with whipped cream.  We all had a good laugh once it was actually explained to me that in fact this a cake that should remain in a dish... this seems obvious now as the milk seeped out from under the cake... Also the "traditional" cake is topped with maraschino cherries which are on my "are you sure thats edible?" list so I used fresh strawberries.  It was delicious, I still think a cake better eaten fresh homemade rather than store bought.

Flash forward...

When making a recipe "gluten freed" its important to consider texture as the key factor in replacing one flour for another. Sponge cake is actually excellent adapted to gluten free because of the egg base and the light texture.  I've been making this with a lot of success and so here is my recipe from Easter that was enjoyed by all.

Gluten Free Tres Leches Cake

• 1 1/4 cup cane sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 5 egg whites
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/8 cup potato flour
• 1/8 cup corn starch
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
• 1 pint whipping cream
• fresh berries of your choosing

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour using brown rice flour your cake pan... as long as it will fit that batter use whatever you prefer. I kind of like a casserole dish as you can serve it in the pan you bake the cake in.

2. Beat the egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar until light in color and doubled in volume. Stir in milk, 1 tsp vanilla, combines flours and baking powder.

3. In a small bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar. Beat until firm but not dry. Fold egg whites into yolk mixture. Pour into prepared pan.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 to 50 minutes or until tooth pick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool.

5. Mix together condensed milk, evaporated milk and 1/4 cup of the whipping cream. Pour mixture over cake and allow to absorb. Whip the remaining whipping cream with a 1/4 cup of sugar and a tsp of vanilla until it thickens and reaches spreading consistency. Frost cake with whipped cream and garnish with fresh berries.

Set aside in the fridge, serve after an hour... it will instantly disappear, I kid you not people were going back for seconds and licking their plates clean. 

xoxo - Iris

Carob Peanut Butter Oat Cookies

Here is another recipe for your carob cravings and since this is a chocolate free cookie feel free to share with your dog. For some reason my oldest dog, Mina, was going nuts for these!

Please note this recipe does call for oat flour which is not always gluten free so be sure that you either verify that the oat flour you are using is gluten free or make your own from whole gluten free oats. Trader Joes sells affordable gluten free oats, just dump the bag into the food processor and blend till grainy flour texture. I return the blended oats to the original bag and store them this way on the shelf.

CAROB PEANUT BUTTER OAT COOKIES

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup cane sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup carob flour
• 1/2 cup gluten free oat flour 
• 1/8 cup brown rice flour
• 1/8 cup potato flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Mix butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg and vanilla extract in electric mixing bowl.

3. Combine flours with baking soda and salt. 

4. Add dry to wet mixture and beat till combined. 

5. Roll into balls and place on foil lined but not greased cookie sheet.

6. Flatten balls by pressing fork in crossing pattern. 

7. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven but let cool on sheet.

8. Remove from baking sheet and enjoy!

The resulting cookie is a little bit delicate but definitely soft and delicious. 

Enjoy! xoxo- Iris

Carob Bark

Let me start off today by saying that I had an excellent food weekend. Friday I tried out my new spiralizer and made zucchini pasta, this was accompanied by a homemade sauce of crushed tomatoes with olive oil, garlic and fresh basil, topped with parmesan cheese. I also had garlic bread on the side, a recipe I fully intend to share soon but have been holding off because I really want it to be my first cooking video.

 Tamales w/my enchilada sauce from last week.

Saturday I had enchiladas for breakfast topped with a fried egg. The enchilada sauce was my homemade batch that I made a few weeks ago and froze. I was so pleased to find out how insanely easy it is to make your own homemade enchilada sauce. Mine was made with 6 dried ancho chiles, 2 dried guajillo chiles and 2 small dried chipotle peppers, simmered in water with 3 garlic cloves and some cumin seeds. Once the chiles were rehydrated I turned off the heat and let it cool, blended it in the blender with one 6 oz can of tomato paste, salt to taste and added water till it got to the right texture. I've been living off this stuff ever since, its great on enchiladas, tamales, as a dip for corn chips, everything!


The weather was so nice that I went with a friend over to check out the old historial Evergreen Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Los Angeles (est. 1877,) located in Boyle Heights. It was a perfect day for it. The neighborhood is actually really interesting and the cemetery grounds are beautiful, lots of large oak trees and shade.

When we got back to my place we ate pie and butter pecan ice cream. I had made a gluten free pie with pumpkin apple butter filling and the butter pecan ice cream was from a few weeks ago, it had a coconut milk base, sweetened with brown sugar and pecan pralines.

Same pie, just this slice is topped with a dollop of whipped cream.

Saturday night for dinner I made a vegetarian tempura soup. I simmered shitake mushrooms, and kombu seaweed for a few hours. I removed the mushrooms and kombu and added some ginger slices, a little vinegar, tamari sauce, sugar and a garlic clove and let it continue to cook on a low heat while I made my tempura. The batter was simple, 1 egg, beat with 1 cup gluten free flour (I did my standard brown rice flour, potato flour, corn starch blend) and one cup sparkling water. I made tempura sweet potato, green beans, tofu, zucchini and shitake mushroom. I ate the broth on the side with the tempura dipped in the broth and also in a sweetened tamari sauce. I can't even remember the last time I was that full but it was AWESOME.

Sunday I had toast, eggs, and potatoes for breakfast with some of my homemade catsup sauce. The rest of the day was spent thrifting and on a mission to find gluten free carob chips. Which leads me to the point of this post...

A friend of mine texted me yesterday asking about where to find carob chips. I believe she was using them to make dog safe treats. Carob is an excellent safe substitute for special doggy treats. As soon as she mentioned the word carob I immediately needed to have something with carob! Once my mind gets hooked onto something my body goes into full craving mode.

I haven't really eaten carob since I was a kid living in upstate NY. I confess to once eating a carob  Three Dog Bakery oreo cookie that was intended for dogs and admittedly it was tasty. So you ask what are the health benefits of carob? I'm not really in the camp that its a substitute for chocolate, to me it tastes very different, smokier, however it is caffeine free. Carob is already naturally sweet so it needs less additional sweetener, it regulates your blood glucose levels and lowers cholesterol. Carob also is an excellent antioxidant, anti-viral, anti-allergetic, anti-ceptic and anti-bacterial agent and aids in the digestive process as it reduces acids... thats a lot of antis! And if that doesn't sound good enough yet, ladies, a study published in Plant Foods for Human Nutrition Journal indicated that the flour has the capability to attack and target specific cervical cancer cells.  More here on the benefits of carob.

I bet just reading this you've already begun craving carob.

I tried calling over to the Ralphs around the corner, it took them about 15 minutes to confirm they do not stock carob, there was a lot of confusion as to the fact that carob was something and not a brand. My only option was to trek over to the Whole Foods in Pasadena (this became justified by my decision to also check out the Pasadena Goodwill, never miss an opportunity for potential thrifting.)

The Whole Foods in Pasadena is pretty shi shi, its two stories high, there are multiple juice, cheese and beer bars, and frankly in my opinion its completely confusing as there are about ten different places that one item could potentially be shelved. In my search for carob chips, at this time I was imagining baking up a batch of oatmeal carob chip cookies, I headed over to the baking section.

I found a bag of Sunspire sweetened carob chips, but my excitement was quickly squashed when I found that the first ingredient listed on the back is "malted corn and barley." GAH! not gluten free!

No one in the store seemed to have any idea where to direct me for gluten free carob chips. I function in the world of food sensitive restrictive dietary habits so its hard for me to imagine that I am the first person to ask for this at Whole Foods. I will say in his defense the guy who was helping me did say he had just started working there and apologized for not being able to provide me with more information.

So there I stood, in the baking section of Whole Foods with not a carob chip to my name... when suddenly I saw it: Bob's Red Mill Toasted Carob Powder.  I will warn you that the bag clearly states "Manufactured in a facility that also uses soy, wheat, and milk." however the only ingredient is ground toasted carob so for myself personally I feel its fairly safe.

So I bought the bag with no real direction as to what I would do with it... enter, carob bark!

CAROB BARK

• 1 cup coconut oil
• 3/4 cup toasted carob powder
• 1/4 cup Lyle's Golden Cane syrup
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup roasted salted cashews
• 1/4 cup chopped apricots
• 1/4 cup raisons (I like golden but use whatever is available and looks good.)

1. Melt coconut oil in double boiler.

2. Add cane syrup and then mix in vanilla and carob powder. Do this all quickly or the mixture will seize up and separate.  

2. Pour onto pan (think pie pan, or small brownie pan, should be deep but not huge) covered with plastic wrap.

3. Sprinkle nuts, chopped apricots and raisons over the mixture. Do not stir in.  

4. Cool in the fridge or freezer. 

5. Break into pieces. Keep in the fridge so that it doesn't melt. 

I think you can probably change this up depending on your personal preferences, maybe different dried fruits or nuts. Stick to the ratio and order of the first part though, this was surprisingly difficult to make and my first crack at it the coconut oil separated from the carob. Tasty yummy but didn't look so hot.

Be healthy, happy and eat well! xoxo - Iris