Category: Baking

Low Carb Donuts

I have not tried these yet, but the look delicious, and I need to try them sometime …

Mix
1/4 cup baking cocoa (sugar free)
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda. (I was out so I used baking powder. Ha! You do what you can.)
4 eggs
1/2 cup coconut oil
3 Tbs sugar-free maple syrup

Bake 15-18 min at 350 degrees

Glaze:

A handful of Lily’s chocolate chips and some coconut oil in a microwave safe bowl and nuked them together for about 30 seconds. Then I stirred in about 5-6 drops of stevia.

Voila! Low carb chocolate donuts WHILE maintaining healthy blood sugars.

Thanks to the “Let Me Be 83: My Dude with Diabetes” Facebook group for this one, I can’t wait to try them out …

Here is a direct link to the recipe.

Alternative for Mixed Spice

I was making a low carb carrot cake for my son’s birthday and the recipe called for mixed spice. It’s the first time I’ve made a recipe that called for mixed slice, and add such I didn’t have any in the kitchen.

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The alternative that I came up with using is to use cinnamon and nutmeg in a 2:1 ratio, so 2 parts cinnamon to 1 part nutmeg in place of mixed spice.

Using this alternate for mixed spice turned out pretty good, and the gluten free, lactose free, low carb carrot cake was a winner for our son’s 14th birthday…

Using Psyllium Husks in Gluten Free Baking

Xanthan and Guar Gum is a common addition to Gluten Free baking to make up for the lack of binding that comes from the lack of gluten. Both Guar and Xanthan Gum can be difficult for some people to digest, and can lead to bloating and digestive problems.

A natural replacement for Xanthan and Guar Gum can be Psullium Husks. Finding the correct ratio for the replacement of the Gums for Psyllium Husks has always eluded me, until I read The How Can It Be Gluten-Free Cookbook Volume 2.

Here are the ratios that the book recommends:

  • Baked Goods (except drop biscuits) – 2 tsp Psyllium Husk to replace 1 tsp Xanthan or Guar Gum
  • Drop Biscuits / Cookies – 5 tsp Psyllium Husks to replace 1 tsp Xanthan or Guar Gum

Woolworths Macro Psyllium Husk

Classic Beer Aussie Damper Recipe

I’ve written a few other recipes for damper (here and here). My last one was from the Aussie Griller web site, and this one is too …

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups plain white flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 60g melted butter
  • 1/2 bottle of beer
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 200C (400F)
  2. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl
  3. Kneed the dough to form a ball for about 4 – 5 minutes until the dough is smooth.
  4. Flatten the dough ball, brush on a bit of milk and dust it.
  5. Place in on a floured baking tray.
  6. Place it in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes.
This looks like another one that I’m going to enjoy trying out …

Classic Beer Damper Recipe

Cheese, Bacon and Chives Damper Recipe

Previously I have written up the damper recipe that I usually use. I’ve experimented a bit with that base recipe by adding different herbs to it, but this cheese, bacon and chives damper recipe by the Aussie Griller looks delicious.

Here is how to make it:

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups plain white flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 60g melted butter
  • 200ml milk
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Handful diced bacon
  • Handful shredded cheddar cheese
  • 2 tbs chopped chives

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 200C (400F)
  2. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl
  3. Kneed the dough to form a ball for about 5 – 8 minutes until it’s nice and firm
  4. Flatten the dough ball, brush on a bit of milk and dust it.
  5. Place in on a floured baking tray.
  6. Place it in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes.
  7. Enjoy!

Cheese, Bacon and Chives Damper Recipe

I can’t wait to try this one and I have subscribed to the Aussie Griller YouTube channel as well so that I can try out more of their great recipes.

Recipe for Calzone and Home Made Pizza Pops

Tonight we tried something a bit different and decided to make our own Pizza Pops.

The good thing about this recipe is that it is very easy to make and is a good meal to be made with the kids. My kids were all for it tonight, until their eight-week old brother was brought out for some play time. I very quickly lost my co-cooks.

So, back to the recipe…

Ingredients:

  • 2 x Packs of refrigerated pizza dough (I used Pillsbury pizza dough crust as it was on sale)
  • 1 x large grated carrot
  • 4 x slices of ham, cut into small pieces
  • 1 x small can pineapple chunks
  • 1 x cup grated cheese
  • 4 x tablespoons BBQ or pasta / pizza sauce

Instructions:

  • Preheat the oven to 400F (375F if convection)
  • Unroll the pizza crust dough on a floured surface and roll them flat
  • Cut each of the the pizza crust dough in half
  • Put 1/4 of each of the ingredients in each half of the cut pizza dough
  • Fold the four halves in half and press down on the three edges to seal the pockets
  • Place the four pizza pockets on a non-stick baking tray
  • Put the baking tray in the oven for 12 – 15 minutes, until the crust is baked

And that’s it. Only about 30-minutes from start to finish for this recipe.

Each pizza pocket feeds two kids or one adult. This recipe has very quickly become a new family favourite.

I think that next time I might try this recipe from Pillsbury.

Australian ANZAC Biscuit Recipe

History

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps whose soldiers were known as ANZACS. The biscuits were sent by wives to soldiers overseas because the ingredients did not spoil easily and they kept well during the long travel on boats to reach them.

Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 heaped cup rolled oats
  • 1 heaped cup desiccated coconut
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp. golden syrup
  • 2 tbsp. boiling water
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 125g butter

Instructions:

Mix oats, coconut, plain flour and sugar together. Stir in melted butter. Mix golden syrup, boiling water and baking soda together. Combine with butter and dry ingredients. Place teaspoons of mixture on a greased tray and lightly press down with a fork.

Oven Temp: 140 C / 284 F (convection), 170 C / 338 F (non convection)
Bake Time: 15-20 mins.

Note: Pull out of oven before thoroughly cooked if you prefer a softer style biscuit, as they will harden slightly upon cooling.

Healthy Oatmeal Cookies Recipes

Finding a healthy cookie at the store to add to my kid’s lunch or snack box is pretty much impossible. Our kids can’t have certain preservatives, which eliminates a lot of options, and most of the cookies that you can buy at the store have a lot of sugar or sugar substitute. The best way for me to provide healthy snacks for my kids is to make it myself.

Healthy Oatmeal and Raisin Cookie

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup white flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 6 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup cooking oil (olive or canola)
  • 1/4 cup low fat milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup raisins or chocolate chip (raisins are obviously more healthy, but chocolate chips are always nice)
  • 1 1/2 cup oatmeal (not instant)

You can add 1/2 pecans or walnuts, but the kids school is a nut free school, so I have left that out of the ones I’m sending to school with the kids.

Instructions:

Start pre-heating the oven to 375F (190C).

Put the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon in a mixing bowl and stir it all together. Add the wet ingredients to the bowl and mix it all together.

After it’s all mixed well together then add the raisins or chocolate chip, and the oatmeal and fold it all together.

Put down parchment paper on your baking tray and drop teaspoon size clumps of cookie dough 1” apart on the tray and bake it for 10 – 12 minutes.

At the moment our oven is dead, so I did this in a toaster oven and it still worked out pretty well. It would probably also work on a BBQ like I did my Aussie Damper recipe, but it’s always hard to regulate the temperature.

Links:

The original recipe that I based this recipe from can be found here.