Gluten/Grain/Sugar Free LCHF Cheddar Biscuits

Okay, that is an obnoxiously long title. LOL

So, I was craving bread. Cheesy, bread to be exact. I've been going strong not eating any wheat, and staying pretty low carb (60-75g a day) because carbs are not my friend when I'm struggling with my blood sugars. So I decided to take a drastic step and heavily restrict my diet. I'm not counting carbs or calories. However, I've been keeping a food journal with an app and it has a food list that has all the nutritional info for most things I have been eating. If it doesn't have it, I can add that from a label or use a recipe nutrition calculator to find out the nutritional info on something I've homemade. I'm tracking my blood sugar trends and trying to figure out the weird blood sugar spikes I've been getting even if I haven't eaten anything.

Anyway, so all that struggle led me to searching for a way to use my coconut and almond flour to make bread that won't spike my blood sugars. This led me to Yummly  which is super handy because it has all these filters to find exactly what you are looking for in a recipe. I had to tweak the recipe I used a bit, and considering conditions where you are might be different from mine, and/or differences in brands of flours used, you might need to fine tune this recipe. The point is, you can adjust until the consistency of dough is more like a drop biscuit, if your dough starts out too runny. It should be easily mounded up on a spoon. Don't skip greasing your sheet pan or else your bread is very likely to stick. I heard some people grating parmesan cheese on top before baking, which sounds delicious, as does using aged white cheddar. Either way, have fun and enjoy your results!

Keto Cheddar Drop Biscuits

     Keto Cheddar Drop Biscuits

• 1/4 cup coconut oil or butter, melted
• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 1/3 cup almond flour
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Blend together eggs, coconut oil or butter, salt, and onion powder. Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk into batter until there are no lumps. Fold in cheese. Drop batter by the spoonful onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Tea Jelly

Strawberry Pomegranate Tea Jelly

If you enjoy sweet tea, tea with your toast in the morning, herbal, green, black, any kind of tea, you will love tea jelly. Not to be confused with tea infused jelly (which is also delightful) that is made using gelatin. No, this is a jelly like you spread on toast and made using pectin. I was going through a jam/jelly making phase recently and ran out of strawberries and rhubarb to put in pretty jars for gifts this winter. So I started researching and doing a bit of trial and error. I found that liquid pectin produced more success than powdered pectin. Here is a basic recipe and I encourage you to explore with different tea. Chai tea seems like it would be particularly delicious spread on a scone with clotted cream. What is your favorite tea? Is it fruity like ginger peach? Is it spicy like Chai or Market Spice? Have fun and create collections to give as gifts!





Basic Tea Jelly

Tea Jelly on a Biscuit

• 1 3/4 C water
• 12 tea bags (I used strawberry pomegranate herbal)
• 1/4 C orange juice or related juice (I used white grape)

*if not using juice, increase water to 2 C

• 3 C sugar
• 1 (3oz) pkg liquid pectin

1. Bring water to boil, add tea bags and steep for 30 mins. Discard tea bags.
2. Add juice and sugar to brewed tea and bring to a boil stirring until dissolved and then occasionally to prevent burning. Don't stir too vigorously. It will tend to foam up.
3. Boil for 2 min. stirring ocassionally. 
4. Remove from heat and add pectin, return to boil and allow to do so for 1 min. Skim off any foam. 
5. Pour hot jelly into jars and process for 20 min. I got 4 8oz jars from this recipe.

Enjoy your tea, spread on toast next time, rather than (or in addition to) in a cup!

Adapted from a recipe by Sue Neitzel from her blog Old Fashioned Living.

Thai Tea Infused Cookies

I woke up this morning, thinking about how lovely Thai tea smells when it's brewing. Like sweet baking cookies. It has notes of vanilla and caramel. I started my day with a cup and then thought, "there has to be a way to get those flavors into cookies!". I went to Google of course, and searched, 'how to incorporate tea into cookies' and was delighted by the first post I found. Stef of the blog "Cupcake Project" posted a very helpful tutorial for how to infuse tea into baking. I'll walk you through the recipe I altered, but please follow the link over to her post "The Secret To Baking with Tea" for full instructions as well as more delightful recipes. The recipe I altered came from a blog called "This Silly Girl's Kitchen" and utilized her recipe for "Cinnamon Cream Cheese Cookies". Check out her blog for more delicious recipes as well! Lets get started!

The tea I used which is found on Amazon.

 

Creamy Thai Tea Cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 stick) softened
• 12 teaspoons Thai tea
• 3 ounces cream cheese softened
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch kosher salt
• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

Instructions For Tea Infused Butter

1. In a saucepan, place butter on low heat and melt until just liquid. 
2. Add tea leaves and stir. 
3. Allow to steep on low heat for five minutes, and remove from heat. 
4. Allow to stand for an additional five minutes. 
5. Strain butter out of tea by placing cheesecloth in a strainer. Press well to get as much butter out as possible. You can gather up the cheesecloth and twist to get the last bits. You'll lose a little butter, but that's okay. I increased the amount of butter for this recipe in order to compensate for that. 
6. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Instructions For Cookies

1.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese with a hand mixer until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar until combined. Add egg, baking powder, and salt. Mix to combine. Add flour in slowly until fully incorporated, scraping the sides as needed. Place in fridge for one hour to rest.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, add sugar. Set aside.
3. Roll dough into 1 inch sized balls, about 2 teaspoons worth of dough. Roll until coated in sugar. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. 
4. Bake for 9-10 minutes, until just set. Do not over bake, it is hard to tell when these cookies are ready, they will puff up but won't get golden brown. Let cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool completely.
   
   And there you have it! Delightful tea infused cookies! Serve with either a warm mug of Thai tea with a splash of milk or tall glass served as a classic iced Thai tea with sweetened condensed milk. Yum!
   
   

   Bonus!

   

   
   

   How to make Iced Thai Tea:

   Thai Tea is made from strongly-brewed black tea, often spiced with ingredients such as star anise, crushed tamarind, cardamom, and occasionally others as well (often making this beverage a favorite among masala chai tea fans). This brew is then sweetened with sugar and sweetened condensed milk, and served over ice.

   
   
   

   • 1 cup (80g) Thai tea
   • 4 cups (960ml) water
   • 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
   • about 1 cup (240ml) sweetened condensed milk 

             or half and half
   

   • ice

    
   

   1. Bring water to boil and add the Thai tea mix. Add sugar and gently stir to completely dissolve sugar. Gently boil tea for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
   2. Allow tea to steep for at least 30 minutes and allow it to cool. The more concentrated the tea flavor, the better the Thai tea tastes.
   3. If you are using the Thai tea mix, strain the tea leaves. Set finished Thai tea aside to cool.
   4. You can make this ahead of time and have the Thai tea chilling in the fridge. I like to make this tea mix one day ahead.
   5. Fill glasses with ice and pour in Thai tea leaving enough room to fill in your sweetened condensed milk (or half and half for less sweet flavor). Stir. ENJOY!

Scrambled Eggs w/Umami

If you don't know what umami is, let me first explain that.

 

According to Wikipedia, Umami, or savory taste, is one of the five basic tastes (together with sweetness, sourness, bitterness, and saltiness). It has been described as brothy or meaty.

Since umami has its own receptors rather than arising out of a combination of the traditionally recognized taste receptors, scientists now consider umami to be a distinct taste. 

Some of you might not know what miso is, so lets next explain that.

 

High in protein and rich in vitamins and minerals, miso played an important nutritional role in feudal Japan. Miso is still widely used in Japan, both in traditional and modern cooking. Typically, miso is salty, but its flavor and aroma depend on various factors in the ingredients and fermentation process. Different varieties of miso have been described as salty, sweet, earthy, fruity, and savory.

So now lets get down to how to make some of the most delicious and satisfying scrambled eggs you've ever tasted. I didn't invent this. I stumbled across a recipe that touted, "You have to drop everything and try this right now!!" So I did. Now you can too!

Umami Scrambled Eggs

4 eggs
4 tsp white miso paste
3 green onions (scallions) diced
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 C finely diced onion

1. Carefully crack eggs into bowl. Add miso paste. Whisk until well combined and slightly frothy. Stir in 1/2 green onion into egg mixture.

2. Melt butter in skillet until bubbly. Saute onion until soft. Pour in egg mixture and agitate with a heat proof spatula. Do this carefully for 15-20 seconds, then remove from heat and continue stirring. (add rest of green onions at this point) Do this until eggs are just barely cooked. Since they continue cooking in the hot pan, you don't want to wait until they are actually done. You'll dry the eggs out and the texture will suffer.

3. Plate and enjoy with bacon (more umami!), and/or toast... or whatever you fancy with eggs.

Note: I live in southeast Alaska and it's really hard to find exact ingredients so we often have to be creative. I couldn't find miso paste. So I bought miso soup mix and used a sifter to separate out the freeze dried veggies and tofu. Then used 2 Tbsp of the powder, and added 1 1/2 Tbsp boiling water to create the paste. I'll be checking Amazon for white miso paste in a tube on Amazon.