Categories for Food

Today i baked the Dutch Appeltaart. Not for myself, but for a friend. Too sweet for me i confess. It is lovely of course. Filled with apples surrounded by a sweet baked dough. Cinnamon and vanille are the main tasty ingredients. Apart from the apples and the sugar and the flour. I used Goudreinette, the apple i use to make an applesauce most of the time. A sweet and sour apple which does cook easily to a pulp.

I used a recipe i found online on Eef kookt zo. In Dutch of course.

Ingredients

• 1 kilo of Goudreinetten apples
• 450 gr flour (any you want, i used a wheat flour which was partly freed of brown stuff
• 250 gr butter on room temperature
• 225 gr light brown sugar
• 100 gr raisins – sultana’s are the ones i used
• 2 eggs
• 3 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of vanille paste
• salt
• fresh lemon juice

Method

1. Put the raisins in a bowl of warm water and let it sit for a couple of minutes
2. Heat up the oven to 175ºC
3. Mix the flour, butter, sugar, vanille paste, salt and one and a half egg until it is nice and compact
4. Grease a springform of 23-25 cm wide in with butter and press in 3/4 of the dough in the form, going up all the sides
5. Core the apples, peel them and cut them in small wedges. Put in a bowl with the freshly squeezed lemon juice. Pour the water away from the raisins and add them to the apples. Mix the apple and raisin misture with a spoon of sugar and the cinnamon.
6. Fill the dough with the apples. Press down with a bit of force.
7. Take the remaining dough and roll out to a thin layer, slice strips of it. Weave the strips over the appeltaart.
8. Use the remaining quarter of the egg to brush over the dough at the top.
9. Bake for an hour in the oven until it is golden brown
10. Enjoy!

Last Friday there was a first harvest of courgette (zucchini for you USA people). I decided to make a courgette cake with, as i made tens of times before in the years past. This time though, it would be a keto cake. No sugar, no wheat flour. In stead, i will use erythritol and almond flour. No sultanas this time, i stopped eating them the beginning of this year. Too sweet.

To be honest, i found the cake a bit too savory. I should have thought about the lack of sultanas and add a bit more sugar. I think for next time i will buy some sultanas, even though they are too sweet for me personally. But, on the whole i enjoyed the cake. Especially the almond flour adds a really nice flavour.

Ingredients

• butter, for the tin
• 3 medium eggs
• 125ml vegetable oil
• 100g erythritol
• 350g courgette, coarsely grated
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar (optional)
• 300g almond flour
• 1 tablespoon of psyllium powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 85g almonds, roughly chopped, or any other nut or seed you have
• a pinch of salt

Method

1. Heat oven to 160C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and sugar, then add the courgettes and vanilla.
2. In another bowl, combine the remaining ingredients with a pinch of salt.
3. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, then pour into the tin. Bake for 1 hr and ten minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool, then serve, or freeze for up to 1 month.

Since January this year i’ve been getting more into a keto diet. Not that i really want to loose weight, no. I want to keep my glucose level and lower. Since a year i had been eating low carb, but it didn’t really work that well. So this keto diet seemed the next step. More serious, more hardcore, less carbs, hardly any sugar, more fat, the same proteine.

I did need to find new ways to bake. I did settle mostly on almond flour and erythritol. Way more expensive, yeah, sad to say.

Today i wanted to bake me some cookies. I bought chocolate, a 85% dark chocolate. I did have all the other ingredients at home. Half the mix i’m saving in the fridge. I will bake more cookies tomorrow, and take them with me to the garden.

The almond flour tastes great. The cookie is not as sweet as usual, with the dark chocolate into it. But i love it!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 1/8 cup boconut oil
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup erythritol
• 1 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 100 gr dark chocolate

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180° degrees Celsius. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or use a baking mat.
2. Melt the butter and coconut oil.
3. Add the erythritol and egg and mix until combined.
4. Mix in the salt and baking soda.
5. Add the almond flour a little bit at a time to avoid any clumping, Whisk everything together.
6. Chop the chocolate in small bits. Fold and stir in the dark chocolate chips.
7. Shape the dough into tablespoon cookies a few inches apart.
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until it begins to brown around edges. Let the cookies cool for around fifteen minutes.
9. The cookies taste best on the day they are baked. You can put the dough in the fridge or the freezer and bake them within a couple of days.

Yesterday at the garden i picked a few rhubarb stems. My first ever! So today i baked a rhubarb almond cake, which i will bring with me to the garden tomorrow. I just had my first piece. Lovely!

I used this recipe from sugaryandbuttery.com as a basis. I did not use regular sugar for this, but erythritol, which doesn’t spike my glucose. I also used wheat flour in stead of corn flour. I don’t mind the gluten. I used my brownie 20×20 cm form.

Ingredients

• 6 eggs, separated
• 200 gr erythritol powdered (i use my coffee grinder to powder)
• 60 gr wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 200 gr almond flour
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• pinch of salt
• 3 stalks of rhubarb (this is all i had picked in the garden – was luckily enough for the cake)
• sliced almonds

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160ºC and grease a 20×20 cm rectangle cake pan.
2. Wash, peel and cut rhubarb, set aside.
3. Beat the egg yolks, vanilla and sugar for about 5 minutes until light and creamy.
4. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
5. Beat the egg whites until stiff.
6. Carefully fold the almond flour and egg yolk batter into the egg whites, do not stir or beat.
7. Pour batter in cake pan and sprinkle the rhubarb pieces on top evenly.
8. Bake for 20 mins.
9. Sprinkle the almond slices over the cake and bake for another 30 mins.
10. Let cool or enjoy warm.

Yesterday Nitai came by and brought a 1 kilo Cheddar cheese pack from the dumpster. It was a bit moldy, so i did cut of the sides. We shared it. I had seen the recipe for these Cheddar Cheese Crackers earlier, so today i thought i would make these.

These crackers are great for my low carb diet. And yes, i would like to loose a bit of weight, but most importantly it is good for my glucose level. I still have the wish to get rid of the diabetes injections and medicine.

Ingredients

• 200 gr almond flour
• 110 gr cheddar cheese, grated by hand
• 15 gr nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoons chili pepper
• 3 gloves garlic, very finely
• 1 small onion, cut finely
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC and place the rack into the middle position. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the dimensions of your sheet pan. Grate the cheese.
2. Measure the dry ingredients (the first 8 ingredients) into a medium bowl, stirring thoroughly with a whisk to break up any lumps.
3. Add the eggs and the oil to the bowl with the dry ingredients. With a rubber spatula, work the ingredients together to form a ball of dough.
4. Place the parchment on the counter and the ball of dough on top. Flatten the dough slightly with your hands. Cut a piece of waxed paper longer than the parchment. Begin rolling out the crackers. Cut any dough that goes beyond the parchment and patch it to areas that need more. Continue until the dough is even in thickness and just about to the edges of all sides of the parchment.
5. Cut the dough into 4 cm columns and rows. Make a small hole in the middle of each cracker.
6. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes. Carefully break up the crackers, spread them evenly in the pan, and place them back into the warm oven for 10 minutes to complete baking. Cool completely before enjoying. Store in an airtight container on the counter or in the refrigerator if you prefer.

My quest for finding edible food for my low card diet continues. Today, for the second time, i made linseed crackers, also known as flaxseed crackers. I did do a search for other recipes. I settled for a vegan one with other seeds and i decided to finally use the nutritional yeast i had bought a month or two ago.

Ingredients

• 120 gr broken linseed
• 2 tablespoons of sunflower seeds
• 2 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds
• 4 tablespoons of nutritional yeast (or nooch)
• 2 table spoon of whole linseed
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
• salt
• pepper
• water

Method

1. put water over the broken linseeds till they are covered with around a centimeter and leave them for half an hour at least
2. heat the cumin and coriander seeds and grind them fine
3. add the sunflower, pumpkin and whole linseeds to the broken linseed mixture together with the nutritional yeast
4. add the ground cumin and coriander seeds, salt and pepper
5. add a bit more water if the mixture is too dry
6. roll out half the mixture on baking paper (i baked the other half after the first one
7. bake in a 150ºCelsius hot oven for half an hour

You may break the large crackers into smaller pieces and leave them in a closed box. Not sure for how long, a week or two i guess. I do enjoy the nutritional yeast in this, it gives a savoury flavour to the crackers.

There are many different spices and herbs you may add: rosemary, thyme, garlic or turmeric for example. You could also add sundried tomatoes and olives.

Enjoy your weekend!

I love quince. Last year was the first year i ate them. Here in the Netherlands they are not well known. But we have them in the garden, so i started to look for recipes. And there are plenty. The membrillo i made two weeks ago. Jams and jellies. And cakes!

I’m taking a Nigel Slater cake as inspiration. I didn’t have golden syrup, so i added a bit more muscovado sugar and some honey i still lying around. This week i saw quinces on the market at a Turkish stall, for 80 cents a kilo. I bought four big ones.

Ingredients
water 1.5 litres
caster sugar 150g
quinces 3, medium
lemon 1

For the cake:
self-raising flour 250g
ground cinnamon 1 tsp
ground ginger 1 tsp
bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp
salt a pinch
honey 200g
butter 125g
dark muscovado sugar 125g
eggs 2
poaching syrup from the fruit 240ml

Method
First you need to boil the quinces until they are soft in the water and sugar liquid. I let mine boil for around an hour. The recipe said to core them afterwards with a teaspoon. That didn’t work for me. So i halved the quinces again so i could cut out the cores. It worked reasonably well. Some bits broke off. To me it still looked good.

Pre-heat your oven at 180ªC. Use a round cake tin with a diameter of around 24 cm and butter it.

For the cake you mix the dry ingredients. Then you warm up the butter, muscovado sugar and the honey (or golden syrup if you have that). The two eggs and 240 ml of the poaching liquid are mixed separately. Add the butter and sugar mixture to the dry ingredients and mix them. Then add the egg and liquid mixture. This leaves you with a slightly runny cake mixture. Pour this over the quinces in the tin.

Bake the cake for around 40-45 minutes.

Enjoy!