Prize winning recipe - Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies (GF)

Chocolate, Chocolate, oh Chocolate, you are calling my name……….

When you love chocolate as much as I do, you have to find a way to enjoy it with all of the calories. I created this recipe for several reasons. One sister is allergic to peanuts. I am intolerant to wheat. A friend said all of my desserts weren’t suitable for diabetics. So I thought about how to try to make something all of us could eat.

The attempt was to make it as simple as possible, so that anyone could make it with common ingredients. Although black cocoa isn’t common to most, Hershey’s Special Dark can be used for the entire recipe. Oat flour can be ground from oats in a good food processor and sifted using a fine sieve to get the same consistency as purchased oat flour.

Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies (GF) Reduced sugar, gluten-free, peanut-free chocolate cookie

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients
1 cup creamy almond butter
1/2 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 T honey
1/4 cup lite sour cream

Dry Ingredients
3/4 cups oat flour
1 T arrowroot starch
3 T dark cocoa (used Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 T black cocoa (used King Arthur Flour black)
1 tsp baking soda

Oats
1/3 cup old fashioned oats (pulsed to consistency of quick oats or coarse oat flour)

Add In
3 T or enough white chocolate chips to insert 3 chips in each cookie



Procedures
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream the first 6 ingredients with an electric mixer until fluffy (well mixed).

Combine dry ingredients and sift together to remove any cocoa lumps. Add the oats from the food processor.

 Use a wire whisk to combine.

Gradually add to wet ingredients. Mixture will be stiff and possibly slightly crumbly due to differences in nut butter

Shape dough into 30 balls, inserting 3 white chocolate chips into the center of the ball.
Gloved hands work well for this task

If you plan to freeze the cookies, place in a single layer on a sturdy wax or parchment paper covered flat container. Cover with cellophane wrap and freeze. Once frozen, move balls to zippered freezer bag. Return to freezer. Use within 2 months.

To bake, place each ball on a parchment covered baking sheet. Flatten to about 1/2 inch. The cookie spreads very little.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees F

Remove from oven and allow cooling about 1 minute on cookie sheet before moving to another cool cookie sheet to finish cooling. Cookies will be a little brittle before cooling. Serve plain or drizzle white frosting over.



Yield: 30 cookies
Servings: 30
Nutrition Facts: Nutrition information calculated from recipe ingredients.
Amount per serving
Calories 82.62
Total Fat 6.09g
Saturated Fat 0.98g
Cholesterol 7.84mg
Sodium 83.07mg
Potassium 93.26mg
Total Carbohydrates 6.13g
Fiber 0.99g
Sugar 1.1g
Protein 2.21g

Tips
Variation: Instead of the white chips, use mini chocolate chips mixed into the dough.
Sugar equivalency: 1/2 cup granulated + 1/2 cup brown
Extract substitution: Vanilla powder can be substituted at 1/2 the extract, as it has a more intense flavor. Powdered vanilla works well in gluten free baking due to the bland nature of most flours.
Tools: It is wise to use a wooden spoon or gloved hands to thoroughly mix dough.



Source

I submitted the recipe (Print Friendly copy) and won the MixingBowl.com 2009 Creative Christmas Cookie Bake-Off Contest.

It is also featured in the Fall/Winter 2010 Mixing Bowl Magazine, page 85

Sweet Potato Butternut Squash and Raisins Breakfast Bread

It is now Fall. It is time to hide under the heavy sweaters and jeans. Fall brings about the best tasting fruits and vegetables. Sweet potatoes, sweet pumpkins and sweet squash all are just waiting to be made into dessert or a meal!

When it comes to pies, I prefer pumpkin because they aren’t as sweet as sweet potato pie. I would rather eat sweet potatoes baked or used in biscuits or quick bread. I have all kinds of visions floating around about things to make with the new crop of sweet potatoes, pumpkins and sweet squash!

This one is a favorite of mine. It can be made with a combination of butternut squash and sweet potatoes or just sweet potatoes.

Sweet Potato Butternut Squash and Raisins Breakfast Bread


Fragrant gluten free breakfast bread filled with some of the late Summer Harvest

Dry Ingredients
1 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cups white rice flour
5 Tbsp cornstarch
3 Tbsp arrowroot starch
1/4 cup millet flour
1 tsp xanthan or guar gum
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Wet Ingredients
1 cup cooked butternut squash
1 cup cooked sweet potatoes
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
4 oz butter
2 large eggs
Add Ins
3 oz raisins, chopped
1 Tbsp Turbinado sugar


Procedures
Gather all of the ingredients

1. Combine all dry ingredients into a container and shake to mix thoroughly. Set aside
2. Chop the raisins with the Turbinado sugar, to keep them from clumping. Set aside
3. Puree the squash and potatoes in a food processor with the spices. Scrape the mixture into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and eggs and mix until creamy.

4. Fold in the dry ingredients alternating with the raisins, Do not over mix.

5. Divide into four small loaf pans or 2 small and one medium pan.

6. Bake small pans 28 to 30 minutes, medium pan 30 to 40 minutes at 350 degrees F.
7. Place pans on second rack from bottom of oven for on-half of baking time, moving up one rack, half-way thru. Test for doneness with a toothpick within 5 minutes of final cooking time for each pan size.

8. Remove from oven, turn out onto cooling rack. Serve warm or cold.

Servings: 12
Yield: Makes 4 small loaves or 2 small and 1 medium loaf

Oven Temperature: 350°F
Nutrition Facts
Serving size: 1/12 of a recipe
Nutrition information calculated from recipe ingredients.
Amount per Serving
Calories 276.86
Total Fat 9.22g
Saturated Fat 5.24g
Cholesterol 55.59mg
Sodium 197.48mg
Potassium 188.68mg
Total Carbohydrates 46.76g
Fiber 2g
Sugar 16.88g
Protein 4.1g

September 2010 Recipe Challenge - BakeSpace.com

Quinoa is the challenge ingredient for September.

It is so easy to make a dish with the whole grain because it really has no taste of its own.

For my meal, I planned to have quinoa seasoned with garlic and sweet red peppers, mixed with black beans over a grilled Portobello cap. My side dish would be Brown Sugar Baked Sweet Potatoes and Butternut Squash.

There is really no recipe, per se.

To prepare the quinoa

Measure 1 cup tan quinoa into a wire strainer and wash under running water for about a minute. Drain and set aside to finish draining as much water as possible.
Heat a large iron skillet with a tablespoon of olive oil.
Add in 5 garlic gloves, 1/2 sliced, chopped sweet red pepper.
Add 1 tablespoon of minced ginger (fresh or jarred)
Sauté until the garlic is soft (or use pre-prepared garlic in oil)



Stir in the quinoa, turn heat to high and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the quinoa starts to change to a golden color.

Add in 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock and 1 cup hot water.
Stir to move all of the grain down into the liquid.

When the mixture is bubbling, turn heat to low and place a cover on skillet. Let it cook undisturbed for about 10 minutes.

In the meantime, open a can of black beans, dump in the same wire strainer as used for the quinoa (after you have rinsed out the strainer) and rinse under water until all foam disappears. It will be quicker, it beans are placed in a bowl or container with water then poured into the strainer.

When quinoa is finished cooking, add in beans and stir with a fork to prevent smashing the grain.

Portobello Caps

I prepared these the day before. Just spray 4 Portobello caps with olive oil and grill on a ‘George Foreman’ type grill or an iron skillet until done.

Brown Sugar Baked Sweet Potatoes and Butternut Squash.

This is an existing recipe, find it here: Brown Sugar Baked Sweet Potatoes and Butternut Squash.
Makes 4 meals





So, what exactly is quinoa?
Wiki:

Quinoa (pronounced “keen-wa”) is a seed originally grown in South and Central America, with some of the crop now grown in Canada. Quinoa has a high protein value; complete with all eight of the essential amino acids needed for tissue development in humans.

Quinoa is a protein rich grain which is also high in unsaturated fat and lower in carbohydrates than most grains. It may be used in any dish in place of rice or similar grains.

Though it’s not technically a grain (it is a seed from a leafy plant), quinoa can be substituted for grains in cooking (like rice or couscous). Quinoa is rich in protein, iron, potassium, a good source of fiber, and is easily digested.

Called the Mother Grain by the Incans, this grain was a staple in the diet of that civilization. Quinoa is coated with saponin and must be thoroughly rinsed before it is cooked. Some brands have already been rinsed, but to be on the safe side, always rinse it!