Apr 13, 2020 | Anna's Best Recipes, Cakes, biscuits & bars, Desserts & drinks
I love these and just baked a load after a lovely walk in our woods close-by. Once my supplies of unusual ingredients like healthier-than-sugar xylitol and erythritol run out I will be going online to shop in www.evergreen.ie , www.nourish.ie or nipping into my local shop Get Fresh in Ballyroan for supplies. This recipe is from Darina Allen. The only change I made was dropping sugar and substituting xylitol.
I like to eat these with some fresh raspberry/strawberry coulis sweetened with xylitol/erythritol/stevia and a big dollop of whipped cream. To make a coulis pour some frozen/fresh berries into a pan, cook until thawed and soft, mash a bit and add your (healthier) sweetener. It is a really good idea to avoid chemical sweeteners like sucralose, saccharin & aspartame because ironically these sabotage good gut bugs and contribute to weight gain!! These scones are not a health-booster but are less health-sabotaging than sugar-laden scones.
Tomorrow back to normality after my binge on high carbohydrate foods like breads, cakes and potatoes since lockdown. But for today, these yummy scones.
To make 6-7 decent size scones
138g white or blend of white and brown rice flour (I like Dove’s Farm mix of white and brown)
25g tapioca flour
2 tsp gluten-free baking powder
1 rounded tsp xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt (sea salt/Himalayan salt)
2 rounded tablespoons erythritol/xylitol
55g butter, chilled
55g sultanas (optional)
1 egg, organic if possible
125-175ml natural yoghurt or (better for dairy-sensitive folk) natural, home-made kefir
Egg wash (optional, if you like a shiny top on your scones) – this is just a beaten egg
1. Preheat oven to 250C (235C fan)
2. Sift all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.
3. Rub in the butter, then add sultanas and gently mix together.
4. Lightly whisk the yoghurt/kefir and egg together.
5. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, add the egg yoghurt/kefir and mix to a soft dough. Add a little more yoghurt/kefir if needed.
6. Turn onto a rice-floured board and knead lightly, just enough to shape into a round (knead too much and the result will be tough)
7. Roll to around 2.5cm thick, stamp into scones with a 5.5cm round cutter. Place on a rice-floured baking sheet and if using, brush with the egg wash.
8. Bake for approximately 10 minutes until golden brown on top. Leave to cool for a while on a wire rack.
9. Serve split in half with butter, or my fruit coulis (above), some no-added sugar jam like Follain or St Dalfour and whipped/clotted cream.
Why these are better for you:
OK, so a snack made from grains, cream and sweet stuff is never going to be a net health-promoter but by avoiding added sugar you are really helping reduce inflammation and helping your immune system fight off bad bugs. Did you know that gluten, in “normal” baking, opens up the normally tight barrier in your small intestine. These “tight junctions” are there to prevent toxins, bacterial by-products and undigested food spilling from your gut into your bloodstream. Gluten produces this reaction in normal, healthy volunteers and has been videoed live by researchers using capsule video cameras. Who knew!! This loss of barrier function lasts for 3-5 hours after gluten hits your small intestine. Remember, this is not only in people with gluten sensitivity. Why this is relevant to your health is that a damaged gut barrier opens the door to ALL chronic health conditions and stresses your immune system, leaving you more open to infection. A damaged gut barrier also increases sepsis in hospital patients.
Switching to a home-made fruit coulis (with healthy sweeteners) or a no-added sugar jam like St Dalfour/Follain brands means less of an assault on your immune system. Stay well.
Apr 4, 2020 | Anna's Best Recipes, Desserts & drinks
I have adapted this from the recipe by littlejarofspices. Had it last week and it was GORGEOUS. The original recipe uses an additional 2 tbs of coconut sugar which after the first 10 minutes of baking you sprinkle over the top of the clafoutis to give a caramelised top. I didn’t bother. A dollop of coconut-based yoghurt or whipped cream is lovely on the side. I personally used half gluten free flour (my own blend of sorghum, millet and oat flours) and half finely ground almonds but either works well.
Makes 8 servings
4 stalks (200g) of rhubarb
4 medium eggs
100g almond flour (finely ground almonds give a nice smooth texture, or use your own blend of gluten-free flour flour or glutinacious)
45g coconut sugar (for a lovely caramel flavour)
70g xylitol or erythritol (e.g. Dr Coy’s Stevia Erylite)
250 ml unsweetened almond milk, coconut milk or milk
1 tsp vanilla extract (vanilla “essence” contains gluten)
Coconut oil (or if you eat dairy, butter) for greasing
Pinch of pink salt or sea salt
1.Preheat oven to 190°C and grease a ceramic pie dish/pyrex dish with butter or coconut oil.
2.Wash the rhubarb stalks, chop off and discard the ends and cut them into 2.5 cm pieces and place them in the dish.
4. In a bowl, combine almond flour/gluten-free flour, coconut sugar, xylitol/erythritol and salt. Whisk in the eggs, milk and vanilla extract. The batter should be very thin & liquid.
5. Pour the batter over the rhubarb pieces in the pie dish and place in the oven on the middle rack. Bake for 25 minutes. If it still looks very very liquid in the centre, you might need to give it another 10 minutes until just set.
6. Let cool around 20 minutes before serving.
Why this is better for you:
This avoids a lot of the problems of conventional sugar which suppresses immunity and raises inflammation. Coconut sugar has a lower glycaemic index than sugar and still contains some nutrients. But do remember that coconut sugar is still a high carbohydrate (high natural sugar) ingredient. So this dessert isn’t a staple but more of a weekend or special treat.
Apr 3, 2020 | Anna's Best Recipes, Desserts & drinks
Are weaning off eating foods with a ton of added sugar in? This one will satisfy even the sweetest tooth. This is decadent, unctuous and toffee-like. It is by Nigel Slater from Real Fast Food. Though totally free from refined sugar its still a very high carbohydrate dessert. So its best eaten after a protein meal.
As you can see from the photo I used sliced raw pecans instead of the almonds (I had accidentally munched my way through my flaked almond supplies). If you don’t have the nuts, it doesn’t matter. If you wanted to, you could also decorate with peeled slices of fresh orange.
For 2
95g stoneless dried dates/110g dates with stones in
1 tsp (teasp) orange flower water (if you don’t have any, use a dessertspoon of fresh orange juice instead)
150ml single cream
2 large bananas, ideally ripe (a little spotty)
1 heaped tbs flaked almonds
1. Stone and chop the dates, slice the bananas thinly and place in a bowl.
2. Add the cream and orange flower water/juice, mix and leave for an hour or two in the fridge.
3. Lightly toast flaked almonds on a day pan (watch them closely, and stir, so they don’t burn!) and reserve.
3. Just before eating, sprinkle the lovely crunchy toasted almonds on top.
Why this is better for you:
Although this is a very sweet, very high carbohydrate dessert it IS free from added sugar so tends not to deplete nutrients. Bear in mind though that eating desserts high in even natural sugars does cause blood sugar spikes – i f you don’t have a protein-rich meal in your tummy first. Blood sugar spikes cause inflammation, metabolic stress and exacerbate ALL chronic health issues from anxiety to psoriasis to acne.
Mar 27, 2020 | Anna's Best Recipes, Dressings, rubs, spreads, sauces & more
Did you know that shop-bought spice mixes often contain gluten which is not always listed on the packet? Anyway that’s only really relevant for you gluten-sensitive people out there.
Once you taste this beautiful five spice powder in your stir fries, sprinkled on salmon before grilling, or in a home made hotpot you will never want to go back to commercial, tasteless five spice. Do keep your spices in airtight glass jars somewhere dark. Left in the sun, they lose their marvelous antioxidant potency and their taste too. All spices have hundreds (and some thousand) of peer-reviewed clinical research papers showing various health benefits. When you cook food with spices the food generates fewer toxic by-products (e.g. from grilling, sauteeing or roasting) and the spices stimulate your body’s own antioxidant defences.
1 dsp (dessertspoon) ground Ceylon cinnamon
1 dsp ground cloves
1 dsp fennel seed, ground
1 dsp ground star anise
1 teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns, ground
Electric coffee grinder or spice grinder
1.Grind your fennel, star anise and peppercorns.
2.Mix the spices together and store in an airtight jar somewhere dark.
Mar 15, 2020 | Anna's Best Recipes, Cakes, biscuits & bars, Desserts & drinks
St. Patrick’s day home-baked treat, anyone? This is lovely and moist and soaked in rosewater and lemon syrup. Make it at least 2 hours before you want to serve it so the syrup has time to soak in. You can buy unsalted shelled pistachios in Middle Eastern and Asian Stores. The recipe, adapted by me to be healthier, is from Claudia Roden’s Arabesque. I am including 2 sizes of cake so you don’t have to go with enormous all the time, if you don’t have 12 people to serve. I increased the amount of lemon, to give a little more tang, and switched the immuno-suppressing sugar for xylitol/erythritol (from health shops). If you want to make serving this more spectacular, get yourself some rosepetals/rosebuds from a Middle Eastern shop and crumble some of the rose petals around and on top of each slice.
To serve 6
Cake:
3 eggs, seperated
60g xylitol or erythritol
25g coarsely chopped raw unsalted pistachios (optional)
100g pistachio flour (finely ground raw unsalted pistachios)
1 x 10-13cm round loose-bottomed cake tin
Syrup for small cake:
75g xylitol/erythritol
90ml water
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs rosewater
To serve (optional):
125ml Abbot Kinney’s/Coyo non dairy coconut yoghurt or whipped cream (I like to mix in a few drops of rosewater to either)
Large cake (to serve 12)
5 eggs, seperated
120g xylitol/erythritol
50g coarsely chopped raw unsalted pistachios (optional)
200g pistachio flour (finely ground raw unsalted pistachios)
1 x 23-25 cm round loose-bottomed cake tin
Syrup for large cake:
150g xylitol/erythritol
180ml water
2 tbs lemon juice
2 tbs rosewater
To serve (optional):
250ml Abbot Kinney’s/Coyo non dairy coconut yoghurt or whipped cream (I like to mix in a few drops of rosewater to either)
1. Make the syrup. Bring the xylitol/erythritol, water and lemon juice to the boil, simmer till everything is dissolved. Stir in the rosewater.
2. Let the syrup cool, then chill it.
3. Beat the egg yolks with the xylitol/erythritol to a pale cream, then add the ground pistachios and mix very well. Beat the egg whites until still and fold in gently. Pour into a greased cake tin and sprinkle the coarsely chopped pistachios, if using, on top.
4. Bake in pre-heated oven (180C/fan 165C).
Test for done-ness (where needle or point of knife comes out clean) after 35 minutes for the small cake and 40 minutes for the large, which should take around 45 minutes. If the cake is still sticky, give another 5 minutes, then test again.
5. Turn the cake onto a deep serving dish. Make little holes over the top with a fork and pour over the syrup. The holes will let it soak in quickly.
6. Serve, if you like, with the coconut yoghurt or (if you’re not dairy sensitive) cream.
Why this is better for you:
OK, so raw nuts are much better than baked (because nut/seed oils get damaged by heat) but this cake is high in protein and contains no sugar. This means it won’t disrupt blood sugar levels. Maintaining blood sugar balance is important if you care about your vitality and health. Erratic blood sugar levels contribute to fatigue, mood issues, inflammation, auto-immune conditions and so, so much more. Stay well.
