I'm Moving!

Well it's taken me a couple of months to get there, but I finally have my website up and running!  This blogspot platform was a temporary jump off point and I have moved all of the content from this page to the new website.

All of my new posts will be made at www.redhillrecipes.com.  I have just put up a new recipe for fructose free muesli bars.  Come on over!  

Coffee Scrolls For Valentines Day

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When I met Lincoln in August 1996, his favorite biscuits (‘cookies’ to non-Australians) were Coffee Scrolls:  A crunchy cinnamon flavoured bit of loveliness with a big pink dot of hard icing on top.  I can’t remember which company made them (Arnotts maybe?) but I loved them too.  They really were just so perfect with coffee.

I can’t remember the exact time frame, but it would only have been a couple of years later that they disappeared from shop shelves, never to be seen again.  A great mystery, to be sure, and an indubitable tragedy which has often been lamented at our house.  

Anyway, we are in penny-pinching mode at the moment (I believe that's a common side effect of building a house!), and it is Valentines Day today.  Well, actually it’s tomorrow, but Lincoln is going to be away then, so we are having ours a day early.  And instead of spending money on my honey this year, I shall attempt to recreate his old favorite biscuit.  Coffee Scrolls (fructose free, of course), complete with a big pink dot of icing.  Is that romantic enough?  Happy Valentines Darling!  (Excuse me while I go sample a few...)

Coffee Scrolls

This recipe makes 70 or so.

Ingredients

1 cup (250 gr) butter

1/2 cup (150 gr) glucose syrup

1/2 tsp pure non-bitter stevia powder

2 tsp bicarb soda/baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

2 1/2 cups (370gr) plain/all purpose flour

Icing 

1 cup (170 gr) dextrose

3 Tbsp water

1 tsp coconut flour (corn or wheat flour would work here too, but I like coconut)

big pinch cinnamon

a few drops of pink food colouring (optional - but obviously the icing dot won't be pink without)

Directions

1. Add butter, glucose syrup, stevia, bicarb soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger to a mixing bowl.  Blend until smooth.

2. Add flour and combine.  This is a thick dough, so a wimpy mixer might struggle.  If so, just incorporate the flour by hand (rather than wreck your mixer).

3. Split the dough in two, and shape each lump into a long even log, about 28cm long and 4cm in diameter (11 inches long with 1 1/2 inch diameter). 

4. Roll dough logs up in cling/plastic wrap, and refrigerate for an hour or more (till firm).

5. While the dough is chilling, make the icing.  Add the icing ingredients to a small saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly to break up any lumps of coconut flour.  Allow it to boil briefly, then remove from heat and let it cool.

6. Take one log out of the fridge, and using a piece of dental floss, cut 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) thick slices, and place rounds on a baking/parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  If the dough is really hard, a sharp knife may work better. You don't need to leave much room between, these don't spread much.  Repeat with the second dough log.

7. Bake at 160C (320F) for 15-18 minutes, turning cookie sheet around half way through.

8. Let cool on a rack, then add the very important big pink dot of icing to the middle.  I used a little teaspoon, put a dab of icing on, then spread it around a bit.  If the icing has gotten too hard to spread, just warm it a little on the stove, and it will melt again (I had to do that several times, it's much easier to get a smooth dot when the icing is a bit runny).  Allow the icing to set.  

A Fructose-Free Pantry Makeover

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My pantry has had several makeovers since I enforced a fructose-free change upon it.  Immediately after reading ‘The Sweet Poison Quit Plan’, I piously tossed out nearly every thing with a sugar content.  Whereupon it quickly began to resemble Mother Hubbard’s cupboard. (You know... the one that was bare?  Oh, never mind.)  Out went the sauces, the cereals, the tinned soups (yes, really!), the dried fruit, the packet mixes... etc.  I actually had it organized for a few months, with neat little rows of things all in order (I should have taken a photo...).

And then I went through a brief uneducated stage of using low carb sweeteners.  I had several suspects in regular rotation.  Xylitol, erythritol, and splenda were my initial favorites.  I learned to cook and bake with them.  And then I discovered, through a bit more research, that as much as I wished it otherwise, they were ‘rubbish’.  Just another form of poison.  Not addictive like fructose perhaps, but harmful in other ways (in a nutshell, they are bad news for our livers).  

And so my pantry tried on yet another new look.  Low carb sweeteners are SO last season. (With the notable exception of stevia.)  And it seems we’ve got it right now, so here we stay!  This look suits us very well, and we do not consider it a trend...  

From left to right: dextrose, rice malt syrup, stevia powder, glucose syrup and malt extract.

This is what we have ended up with:

• Dextrose - which is simply the powdered form of glucose, our body’s favorite fuel.  Dextrose is finer than sugar, similar in texture to caster sugar, and tastes similar to sugar, but isn’t as sweet.  And that last comment really applies to all of these sweeteners; not as sweet.  Dextrose can be found in the brewing section of the supermarket - apparently it works better for beer making than sugar.  Make sure you don’t buy ‘brewing sugar’, which is dextrose mixed with sugar.  The packaging looks similar.
• Glucose Syrup - thick and sticky, clear and a bit sweet (any guesses about what it breaks down to?). I get this in the baking section of the supermarket.
• Malt Extract - Another thick and sticky one, it reminds me a little of molasses, though not quite as dark in colour.  This is usually found with the spreads (like peanut butter & molasses) in the supermarket.
• Rice Malt Syrup - lovely and honey-like in colour and texture, and upon digestion, breaks down to good old glucose.  I buy this in my local Coles supermarket in the health food section (although, due to flooding here it sounds like our Coles will be closed for awhile).  It should be easy to find in a health food shop too, but it’s cheaper at Coles.
•  Stevia - is 300 times sweeter than sugar so you can pump up the sweet factor in your recipe by adding just a tiny bit of stevia!  It’s low carb and doesn’t trigger much of an insulin response (sorry - medical term alert!) if any at all.  I have quite a bit to say about stevia... prepare to be bombarded.  It is my #1 choice to use in compensating for the less-sweet-than-sugar aspect of all the other sweeteners listed above.

About Stevia: If you can source a pure, non-bitter stevia powder locally, do, but I couldn’t find one.  The ones I tried were horribly bitter.  But I recalled that back in my xylitol/erythritol phase, I read a low carb baking blog that recommended NuNaturals stevia as the best tasting one.  It really sounded as though the girl (Lauren from Healthy Indulgences) had taste tested them all, and rather than wasting more money on inedible things, I took her advice.  I ordered mine from the US.  Here is the link: Where to buy NuNaturals NuStevia.  It cost US$60 for a 1 lb (454 gr) container (plus US$8 for shipping to Australia).  This amount will last nearly your whole lifetime as you only need to use 1/16 -1/2 tsp per recipe.  I think it’s worth it (unless you can find a good one closer to home, and if you do, please tell me!).   

A word of caution if you try to find stevia locally though:  don’t buy one that is mixed with fillers.  It might say ‘baking blend’ or ‘granulated’.  Check the label and if it lists anything like 'maltodextrin', ‘polydextrose’, ‘inulin’ or ‘erythritol’ don’t buy it!  Those things are what I refer to collectively (along with lots of other things that harm us in quiet unseen ways) as ‘rubbish’.  I prefer not to go into the medical and scientific reasons behind my opinion of various forms of ‘rubbish’, but rest assured, I have done my homework before lumping them in that category.

I have to say that a few things with a small sugar content have snuck their way back into my pantry.  I am somewhat less of a Fructose Nazi than I was at the start.  But I am a big label reader, and there is nothing with more than 3 gr of sugar per serve allowed.  

The labels don’t say what sort of sugar it is though, so it is worth reading the fine print to see if it is glucose, dextrose, lactose or maltose, all of which are fine:  They break down to glucose, and are perfectly acceptable in a fructose free diet.  So for example, the label of my favorite full fat Greek Yogurt says ‘Sugar: 5.9 gr/serve’... well above my 3 gr limit, but in the ingredient list there is no added sugar, so I know that the sweetness comes from the naturally occurring lactose in the milk content.  And lactose breaks down to glucose, so we’re all good.

The real label trap comes with any one that confusingly reads ‘Sugar Free’.  Almost all ‘sugar free’ soft drink, lollies/candies, chocolates, cookies, jelly, jam, ice cream, you-name-it is sweetened with ‘rubbish’, in one or several of many forms.  As a rule of thumb, just avoid them.  The day may come when food companies get on board with making fructose free products, but as far as I can tell it hasn’t happened yet, and you pretty much have to make your own sweet treats.  But don’t worry.  I’m doing my best to help with that!

A Healthy Carrot Cake Masquerades As Decadent

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I don’t know.  You put carrots in a thing, and then call it dessert?  What kind of bizarre talk is that?  

And zucchini?  ...That’s another vegetable.  

SO many eggs?  Are you sure this is a cake, and not a frittata?

...Well I do admit that the combination is maybe a little on the ‘innovative’ side.  (I like that term better than 'weird'.  It suggests 'genius' instead of the opposite).

And in my defense, I did add cinnamon, spices, and other sweet tasty stuff which overrides any resemblance to the frittata you may be imagining.

I like cake.  I like dessert.  I do abstain most days of the week, but I’ve got that foodie curse of feeling a compulsion to obey the desires of my tongue (more often than I’ll admit).

This cake is a compromise.  Between what I want (dessert) and what I need (a few more green beans).  But it doesn’t taste like a compromise.  Promise.  And it's gluten free (for those who require such things, or cook for ones who do).  And it's even nearly considering being kind-of-sort-of-low-carb. 

May I quote that nasty woman from back in the 1700’s?  “Let them eat cake!”  (But my take on the statement has got a nicer connotation than that other woman's).

Healthy Decadent Carrot Cake

Ingredients

Cake:

1/4 cup (25 gr) coconut flour

2 cups (180 gr) almond flour/meal

2 Tbsp oat bran (optional - makes it healthier)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp pure non-bitter stevia powder

1/2 cup (125 gr) butter softened

1/4 cup macadamia or coconut oil (or other mild flavour oil)

1/4 cup (75 gr) rice malt syrup

2 Tbsp (40 gr) glucose syrup

1 tsp vanilla

6 eggs

2 cups (250 gr) coarsely grate carrot

1 cup (150 gr) coarsely grated zucchini (I peeled mine to disguise it from my kids, who are suspicious of green flecks)

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts (you could use macadamias here instead)

1/2 cup (40 gr) fine desiccated coconut

Icing

150 gr unsalted butter softened

120 gr cream cheese softened

1 cup icing dextrose (see note below about how to make this)

1/8 tsp pure non-bitter stevia powder

1/4 tsp vanilla

Directions

Cake

1. Grate carrot and zucchini, place in a bowl, add coconut and walnuts.  Set aside.

2. Combine coconut flour, almond flour, oat bran, baking powder, salt, stevia, and all spices, whisk together.

3. Add butter, oil, rice malt syrup, glucose syrup, vanilla and eggs to the dry ingredients, beat till combined.

4. Fold in carrot, zucchini, walnuts and coconut with a spoon or spatula.

5. Line two 20 cm (8 inch) round springform pans with baking/parchment paper, spoon half of the batter into each, and smooth with a spatula (the batter is very thick).  Or you could use one 28 x 18 cm (11 x 7 inch) baking dish if you don't want a layer cake.

6. Bake at 160C (320F) for 30-40 minutes (or until the top of the cake springs back when touched gently in the middle) turning half way through.

Icing

1. Beat butter and cream cheese together.  

2. Add icing dextrose, and vanilla.  Beat till pale and smooth.

Note:  Icing Dextrose - Add the dextrose to a food processor or blender and pulse/blend till very, very fine (like icing sugar!). You will need to stir it a few times, but let it settle before taking the lid off or you will have clouds of powdered dextrose floating around your kitchen! I like to blend a whole packet of dextrose at a time, and keep it in a container ready for the next icing episode.

Iced Tea... A Cool Idea

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It is hot today!  And massively humid! I can happily take either one without the other, but both together equals a miserable me.  Ugh.  (Don’t worry... that’s my whinge finished.)

This kind of day just calls for a cold drink.  Once upon a time I would have said ‘Coke!' (which is full of sugar).  More recently it would have been ‘Coke Zero!’ (which is full of rubbish).  But my healthy, fructose free options are limited. Water is kind of boring.  I really enjoy cold sparkling water, maybe with a bit of lime, nowadays, but instead of that, I decided on something different today.  (No, I don’t normally deliberate over my drink choices this much...)

I boiled some water, poured it into a little jug and added some delicious smelling tea leaves.  And while that was cooling, added a little rice malt syrup and stevia powder (not to make it really sweet, just a touch).   There was only one sad, somewhat less than fresh little lemon and a slightly less sad lime in the fruit bowl, but they are still perfect for this kind of thing (plump fresh ones would have been nicer to photograph, mind you).   I dropped in a few slices of lemon and lime to add their special zippy flavours (and look pretty).  

 I confess I was getting a bit impatient (how LONG does it take for boiling water to cool?!).  So to hurry the process along a bit, I topped up the jug with way more ice cubes than usual.  (I freely admit I prefer instant gratification, and the process of waiting for a hot drink to become a cool one is trying.)  Not surprisingly, I wished I had thought of doing the whole process yesterday evening, so it was ready in the fridge.  I’ll do that next time.  Maybe.

But anyway, I now have my second glass of iced tea in my hand.  And I am trying to decide whether to drink it, or keep holding the wonderfully cold side of the glass against my cheek...

Iced Tea

Ingredients

Boiling water

Tea leaves of your choice (or use tea bags if you prefer - I just like to see the leaves prettily floating about, I use teabags if I make it for the kids)

Rice malt syrup or dextrose

Pure non bitter stevia

Fresh lemon and lime slices (optional)

My Way: I used a 750ml jug, 2 Tbsp red emperor tea leaves, 3 Tbsp rice malt syrup, and a big pinch of stevia powder.  But you should adjust the amounts to suit your own tastebuds.

Kid Friendly Version (more 'Lipton's-ish):  750 ml boiling water, 2 decaf teabags, 1/4 cup dextrose (and even with decaf teabags, I make the tea pretty weak for the kids)

- Strong tea, weak tea, sweet tea... There is no right or wrong way to make this, just do it your way.  Lots of people like their iced tea sweeter than I do (more like the stuff you buy), so load it up with rice malt syrup or dextrose, if that's you!

Directions

1. Boil water and pour into jug with tea leaves.
2. Add rice malt syrup (or dextrose) and stevia to taste
3. Add lemon and lime if using
4. Wait f-o-r-e-v-e-r until it’s cool or add heaps of ice

Toasted Muesli Makes Breakfast Easy. Or Lunch.

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Breakfast is difficult.  Some mornings it’s hard to think past the first coffee or two, never mind having to make a decision about what on earth I feel like eating.  I try to eat low carb foods most of the time.  I like to save my carb intake for amazing taste sensations.  They never (well... hardly ever) pass my lips unless they are truly delectable (fresh cinnamon bun anyone?).  So it’s not at all hard to resist the few breakfast cereals left in the pantry after my fructose cull.  They so do not fit in the ‘taste sensation’ category.  

Honestly, most of the time I have a cooked breakfast.  You know, some variation on bacon and eggs.  Occasionally something wonderful like hollandaise sauce may feature.  Or a nice bit of sausage.  The nice thing about eggs is their versatility.  Fried, scrambled, omelet-ed, poached, soft boiled etc... But even so, sometimes I just kind of miss a bowl of cereal.  

Like muesli (aka granola).

But it’s pretty carb-y as a rule.  Even if it is made delicious enough to fit into the ‘amazing’ category.  So I decided to see what could be done about making some that is amazing and low-ish carb.

The answer of course is nuts.  And seeds.  Lots and lots of them.  Flaked almonds remind me of corn flakes, bran flakes and all their flaky friends. It wouldn’t be muesli without some rolled oats, but surely the ratio could be improved.  I decided to cut oats back, use lots of nuts and seeds and add some oat bran (which my naturopath mother-in-law calls ‘a sponge for fat’) Apparently oat bran soaks up fat and then carries it out of the body with it.  And we shall not discuss the pathway it takes.  Not in a muesli post.  

Yes I know with the oats and the rice malt syrup it’s not properly ‘low-carb’, but it’s close enough for me to justify (which is the main thing...)

Anyway, my batch of muesli was finished just in time for lunch today, and our entire family opted to try it out immediately, instead of waiting for breakfast tomorrow.  (Because sometimes lunch is hard too.)

Toasted Muesli

Ingredients

Dry:

3 cups rolled oats (whole oats, not quick oats)

1/2 cup oat bran

1 cup shredded coconut (the courser the better)

2 cups flaked almonds

1 cup pepitas (inside bit of pumpkin seeds, with skin removed)

1 cup chopped macadamia nuts 

3 Tbsp sesame seeds

1 tsp cinnamon

Wet:

3 Tbsp rice malt syrup

4 Tbsp coconut oil

1/8 tsp pure non-bitter stevia powder

Directions

1. Add all dry ingredients to a large bowl.

1. Mix well
2. Combine rice malt syrup, coconut oil, and stevia, heat till syrup is melted, and mix well.
3. Pour wet ingredients in dry, and mix well.
4. Spread mixture out on 2 baking pans (I use my oven shelf, which is like a tray, and line it with baking/parchment paper)
5. Bake at 160C (320F) for 20-25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes so that the muesli toasts evenly.

Variations:

1. If you like clumpy muesli, add an extra Tbsp or two of rice malt syrup, and coconut oil.  And don’t stir vigorously during baking.
2. You could add goji berries (we have some member of the family who don’t like them, so that’s an ‘add later’ at our house)
3.  For a lower carb version, you could use less oats and increase the nuts.

A Very Necessary Condiment: Heinz-ish Ketchup

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I grew up in Canada, and let me tell you, we North Americans like our condiments. A well stocked North American fridge should have at least an entire shelf given over to condiment storage (or most of the narrow shelves on the fridge door anyway). There really ought to be ketchup, mustard (yellow for sure, dijon and seeded as well maybe), relish (two or three kinds), BBQ sauce and mayo, as the bare minimum. And that’s not to mention thousand island, ranch and italian salad dressings (as well as a few others probably). HP sauce, steak sauce, tabasco sauce, tartar sauce. And then there are the Asian sauces: hoisin, plum, sweet chilli, teriyaki, et al. Am I missing any regulars? I’m sure I am. I’m not as current with the condiment trends as I should be. An old friend of mine mentioned mushroom ketchup the other day, and I had never even heard of that before (it does sounds amazing).

Having lived in Australia for over 16 years now, and condiments not being quite as important a part of the culture here, I had already cut back on the selection in my own fridge before cutting out sugar. But I could still have put together a very well dressed hotdog or burger. In Australia a well dressed hamburger would not be considered so without beetroot, fried egg, and maybe a pineapple round or a sausage for good measure (along with the usual meat patty, cheese slice, tomato and lettuce). But there would likely be only BBQ sauce on it. (!!!) A North American could happily accept one with just meat, cheese, tomato and lettuce (bacon and onion might be considered essential too), but the burger could not be considered well dressed were it not spread with ketchup, mustard, relish, and preferably mayo as well. At least. Probably BBQ sauce too, among other logical possibilities. A proper burger ought to be good and messy. (Mind you, a piece of beetroot also has certain qualities that can up the ante in the mess stakes. I have to give it that, if nothing else.)

But sauce. (This post is about sauce, not burgers.) There is a nasty reality check in store for anyone who decides to cut out sugar, and then starts reading condiment labels. Sugar is in everything! Sometimes masses of it. It’s an effort, but I have been learning to make my own condiments with ingredients I feel better about. I’m not one to give up on delicious-ness just because the store bought version is full of rubbish.

Who wants to contemplate french fries with no ketchup? Not I! (Unless there is a nice pot of gravy nearby instead...). So I set out to see if I could come up with something suitably Heinz-ish enough to satisfy my very discerning (read: fussy), sauce-loving offspring. And not too labour intensive.

The verdict, when served with steak, salad and fries, was: ‘Two thumbs up and 10 outa 10!’ This was communicated in hand signals as the mouth was stuffed full, and busy chewing.

I’ll take that as a win.

Ketchup

This recipe is adapted from this one, and makes about 1 1/2 cups.

Ingredients

2/3 cup (170gr) tomato paste (Preferably organic. I check the labels and choose whichever brand has no added sugar, and lowest sugar content. Tomatoes are quite sweet by nature, so there are some natural sugars in a concentrate - usually about 2.5-3gr per 25 gr.)
1/2 cup (160gr) glucose syrup
1/2 cup (110gr) white vinegar
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/16 tsp ground cloves
1/16 tsp dry mustard powder
1/16 tsp pure non-bitter stevia powder

Directions

1. Add all ingredients to a small saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Let ketchup cool, and then refrigerate.
5. Serve with everything except dessert.

The preservative qualities of vinegar, glucose syrup, and salt will allow this to stay fresh in the fridge for weeks.