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May 3, 2012

Recipe – Gluten Free Pizza Crust

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Gluten Free Pizza

Pizza has long been one of my very favourite foods, so to think I could never eat it again would probably kill me. So I set out to try and develop a gluten free pizza crust recipe to try.

If I’m totally honest, this crust was decent, but nothing particularly groundbreaking. It was at least as good as store-bought generic normal pizza, but it was definitely not the amazing pizza crust that you would get from your favourite takeout restaurant. Even so, I figured that while I work on it for the future, I would share the recipe for this one, which will see you through in a pinch.

Gluten Free Pizza Crust
Recipe Type: Main
Author: Katie Vyktoriah Reed
Prep time: 2 hours 30 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 2 hours 45 mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 – 1.5 C lukewarm water
  • 1 tbsp active dried yeast
  • 4 1/3 C GF all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ tsp ground black pepper
  • 2 tsp clear honey
  • 2 tbsp garlic olive oil
Instructions
  1. Stir the yeast into about half of the water and leave for around 10 minutes.
  2. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients together.
  3. Once the yeasty water has set for the appropriate time, add in the honey and olive oil and stir it up.
  4. Make a well in the flour mixture and dump in the wet stuff.
  5. Stir with a wooden spoon to create a sticky dough. Then slowly add in as much of the warm water as needed to get the correct consistency.
  6. On a floured surface, dump the dough out and knead it for about ten minutes, making sure it is well combined and nicely pliable.
  7. Place the dough in a large oiled bowl, cover and set aside until it has doubled in size. 1 – 2 hours
  8. Once it has risen, punch it down again, then take it out and knead it for a further 10 minutes.
  9. Once it is kneaded, divide it into four sections and roll them into balls.
  10. Each ball can then be made into its own pizza crust.
  11. Once the crust has been stretched and flattened onto a pizza pan, brush it with a bit of oil and then bake it at 350F for about 5 minutes.
  12. Remove from the oven and add your toppings and then place back in the oven for another 10 – 12 minutes until the cheese is melted and the rest of the base is cooked.

 

Filed Under: Blog, Gluten Free, HerFoody · Tagged: , , ,
Apr 29, 2012

Recipe – Gluten Free Coffee Cake (Made with Sweet Potatoes!)

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Gluten Free Coffee Cake

Ever since I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, I’ve been living  mostly on pre-packaged gluten free cookies and lots of vegetables. I’ve accidentally ingested gluten two or three times now (mostly from salad dressings!), which is frustrating. I am a person who loves to cook meals from scratch, but finding gluten free recipes has proved difficult. So I’ve mostly just steered clear.

But a few months ago, I had found a lovely coffee cake recipe which used yams to keep it moist! And although I couldn’t find the exact recipe, I was able to look up a few different coffee cake recipes online and create my own GLUTEN FREE version of this happy little dish.

I hope you enjoy it, as it is actually AMAZING and so much healthier than other cakes. And my whole family loved it.

Note: Given that I am also struggling with diabetes, I have had to replace the sugar with diabetic sugar, which means I only used 1/3 of the amount of sugar as normal. If you are using real sugar, you need to triple the amount. I also used a low-fat butter substitute, but that’s just a personal preference. Measurements were the same.

Gluten Free Coffee Cake
Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: Katie Vyktoriah Reed
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 60 mins
Total time: 1 hour 15 mins
Serves: 10
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup softened butter
  • 1/3 C diabetic sugar (Splenda or Truvia)
  • 1/4 cup packed diabetic brown sugar (Splenda or Sweet n Low)
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup creme fraiche
  • 1 cup cooked, mashed sweet potato
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all purpose Gluten Free flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder (make sure it’s gluten free)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (optional)
  • 4 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup packed diabetic brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 C toasted pecans
Instructions
  1. Mix the softened butter, sugar and brown sguar in a bowl until combined.
  2. Add in the eggs and cream them all together.
  3. Add in the creme fraiche, mashed sweet potato and vanilla extract and combine all ingredients together until there’s a creamy looking soup mixture.
  4. Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, stirring until you have formed a thick batter. Then add the cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice and stir some more.
  5. In a separate bowl, mix the melted butter, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon to form a crumbly mixture.
  6. Pour half of the cake batter into a greased spring form pan.
  7. Take half of the crumbly mixture and sprinkle it across the top of the batter, making sure it is well distributed.
  8. Add the rest of the cake batter on top and then crumble the rest of the second mixture on top of that again.
  9. Chop up some toasted pecans and sprinkle them over the top of the entire mixture.
  10. Place the pan in an oven at 350 F (175C) and let it bake for about an hour. It is ready when a metal knife stuck in the center comes out clean.

 

Filed Under: Blog, Gluten Free, HerFoody · Tagged: , , , , ,
Mar 29, 2012

Recipe – Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

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While watching my daily Nigella a few weeks ago, I saw her make a gorgeously decadent Peanut Butter Cheesecake. It looked really yummy, but being me, I had to try it for myself to make sure. But when I looked the recipe up on her site, I realised that there were some ways I wanted to change it.

So loosely based on her recipe, I put together this moreish treat for all to enjoy. I know we have!

Fair warning, though – it makes a LOT, and it is probably best to make it when you have company to serve, as otherwise you’re gonna be responsible for eating it all yourself.

assembled ingredients

Recipe – Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake
Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: Katie Vyktoriah Reed
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 60 mins
Total time: 1 hour 15 mins
Serves: 10+
Ingredients

Crust:

    • 10 oaty biscuits (Nigella uses the traditional digestives, but I like the texture of oat)
    • 100g dark chocolate
    • handful of peanuts
    • 1/2 cup of mini honeycomb candy (Nigella missed a trick here – these are awesome)
    • 2 T butter

Filling:

    • 500g cream cheese
    • 3 eggs
    • 3 egg yolks
    • 1 C caster sugar
    • 1/2 C sour cream
    • 1 C peanut butter (Nigella uses smooth, but I use chunky. You use what you like)

Topping:

  • 1/2 C sour cream
  • 150 g chocolate (Nigella suggests milk, I used a mix of dark and milk chocolate)
  • 1/2 C brown sugar
Instructions
  1. First up, throw all of the ingredients for the crust into a food processor. Make sure the butter is quite cold (I use it straight out of the fridge) and is in small cubes. Blitz them all together until they have the consistency of wet granola.
  2. Press the resulting mess into a spring form pan. I’m not sure what size mine is, but it’s as big around as a dinner plate, so quite large. The base should be pressed in firmly and will be about half an inch thick.
  3. Once the base is looking good, set it in the fridge to firm up. Using the cold butter in the first place helps out this process a lot. It should be nicely set once you’ve done the filling.
  4. To do the filling, it really couldn’t be easier. Take a large bowl and add in all of the filling ingredients. It helps if you’ve taken out the cream cheese in advance, as it makes it smoother and means no lumps in the finished product.
  5. Take a hand mixer and just beat the ingredients together for a couple of minutes. No need to overbeat. Just make sure they’re all combined. The mixture will be slightly runny.
  6. Then dump the filling onto the base (after taking it out of the fridge, of course!). And place the whole thing in the oven at 170C for 50 minutes.
  7. After 50 minutes, remove it from the oven and set it to the side while you make the topping.
  8. In a small saucepan, mix the sour cream, brown sugar and chocolate together, melting over a low heat. Make sure to stir often, as you don’t want to burn the chocolate!
  9. Then, when it is ready, gently pour it over the cheesecake, using a rubber spatula to ensure good coverage.
  10. Then, put the whole thing back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes.
  11. Let the whole thing cool for a bit and then wrap it in cling film and put in the fridge. You don’t really want to eat this warm, so be sure you’ve left enough time to refrigerate it.
  12. Then, remove from the springform pan, slice it up and dig in!
Notes

This is a VERY rich dessert and a small slice is more than enough for a person. I find this will easily feed ten hungry people, but it can stretch as far as 16 if you are conservative.

Filed Under: Blog, HerFoody · Tagged: , , ,
Mar 13, 2012

Recipe – Compost Cookies

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A long time ago when I was just a little Katie, I dreamt of a cookie. It was part chocolate chip, part honeycomb, part candy and part pretzel and potato chip. I was a weird kid. Ask my parents – I once invented something called Banana Croak Pie, a masterpiece I never actually got around to CREATING.

Anyway, imagine my surprise when one day, not long ago, I came across a reference in a book about something called a Compost Cookie. It includes pretty much the contents of your kitchen junk food cupboard, INCLUDING, but not at all limited to COFFEE GROUNDS!

Invented at the Momofuku Milk Bar in NYC, I have read only RAVE reviews of this amazing biscuit… though I have yet to sample it for myself.

But in the spirit of trying something new, I went ahead and created my own easy, fast and highly experimental Compost Cookie recipe.

Recipe – Compost Cookies
Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: Katie Vyktoriah Reed
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 35 mins
Serves: 9
Ingredients
  • 2 packages of chocolate chip cookie mix (you can make your own recipe if you like, but it should yield at least 16 cookies)
  • 1.5 C crushed potato chips (crisps)
  • 1 C crushed up pretzels
  • 4 T chopped nuts
  • 1 chopped up chocolate bar of your choice
Instructions
  1. Firstly, mix up your cookie dough according to the packet instructions (in my case, it was just add water).
  2. In a ziplock bag, crush up the potato chips and pretzels into small pieces. Add this mix into the cookie dough.
  3. Mix it all together and then add in the chopped up chocolate bar and the nuts.
  4. Overturn the entire thing onto a piece of cling film and then roll it into a long cylinder. The dough needs to be put in the fridge for a couple of hours so that it is very cold.
  5. After a couple of hours, remove from the fridge and cut it into disks. Try not to handle the dough too much, as your body heat could affect it.
  6. Place the disks on cookie sheets and bake in a moderate oven until they are golden brown on top.
  7. Finally, let them cool and then eat and enjoy!
Notes

This recipe is extremely loose, and you can really add anything that you fancy, sweet or savoury. It’s highly forgiving…

The saltiness and texture of the savoury snacks make this quite a chewy, but not too sweet biscuit. I dread to think about the calorie count, but it really is a strangely exciting little cookie.

When I have a weekend free, I’m going to try the ACTUAL recipe from the link above, but for now, these strange little sweets are hitting the spot.

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