Yummy Soft-Baked Spiced Molasses Cookies

fresh from the oven

We were all in the mood for some warm cookies on a cold afternoon.  Little Brother and I decided to make these for snack and surprise Big Brother.  Little Brother and I enjoyed with some homemade coconut milk, while Big Brother enjoyed with some fresh Mill King milk. Next time, we will flatten them a bit more.  Three cheers for vitamin and mineral power-house: blackstrap molasses! original recipe found here. 

What you need:

130 g almond butter (Trader Joe's has smooth raw almond butter free of peanut cross-contamination)
130 g unsweetened applesauce
50 g coconut sugar
80 g blackstrap molasses
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp all spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp pink salt
60 g coconut flour
60 g arrowroot starch
optional: sugar for sprinkling on top for added sparkle

What you need:

preheat oven to 350 degrees

combine and blend  in TM bowl, almond butter, applesauce, coconut sugar and molasses.  

add and blend the lemon juice, spices, vanilla, baking soda an salt

add the coconut flour and arrowroot

blend to form thick dough.  Dough should be sticky, but manageable.  If too thin, add 1-2 tbsp more of coconut flour

break off large sections of dough and roll into balls

arrange on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

you can do 6 large cookies or 10 medium ones

sprinkle with sugar if using

press to flatten

bake for aproximately 12 minutes

let cool and enjoy

Cooking With Friends: Tembleque

Tembleque is a coconut dessert pudding from Puerto Rico.  We had the fortune of making it with our friend from Puerto Rico. We love the texture and flavor of tembleque.  Free of egg, dairy and gluten and a great choice to make for friends and family with dietary/allergy restrictions. We made this on a hot August afternoon after serving a batch of not-so-perfect idli for lunch.  This is my first post in too many months away from the blog. 

Scrumptious Saturdays

persimmons! a little early this year! the pure joy of waiting and eating locally and seasonally

Little Brother picked up with a huge, happy smile.  we share our love of persimmons.

totally excited to dig right in

while putting away market provisions-making foccacia, carmelized onions and hardboiled eggs.  eggs are only hardboiled in a specific pot which is cleaned with soap and water before going in dishwasher. 

the fresh market onions are ready

fresh, hot, allergen-friendly foccacia with Blue Heron green goddess, avocado, smoked sockeye salmon and caramelized onions. Animal Farm arucula salad along side.

just made some gazpacho in TM using today's tomatoes, green and red pepper and cucumbers

Little Brother has avocado and smoked salmon.  the rest of us take utmost care to avoid his contact with goat cheese. if you sit at our table, there are strict cross-contamination rules.

Big Brother making cucumber salad with toady's market cucs.

what I love about Saturdays: downtime, playtime, cooking time, family time. this "track" eventually runs the whole downstairs. Boys play so nicely together.

Teatime Today: acai bowl

Little Brother and I went to Trader Joe's yesterday with the idea that we would get the needed ingredients to copy his favorite treat from Sustain: the acai bowl.  We picked up frozen mango, frozen strawberries and frozen packets of acai.  Today, at 3:00, he reminded me that soon it would be teatime and that we had to make the acai bowl.  So together, along with our best kitchen-friend, Thermomix, we blended this up.

step one: add to TM bowl frozen strawberries, frozen mango, frozen cubes of almond milk and frozen acai

what mixture looks like blended on speed 8 for about 10 seconds

 

we added in some homemade coconut milk and blended up this ice cream

Cupcake Love

I once read that empathy is when head, heart and hands come together and act in alignment.  These vanilla and chocolate cupcakes for our end of the year class party are a metaphor of empathy, loving care and kindness.  A mom, a friend, allowed our allergic children to join in and enjoy a treat with the whole group.  What joy to be included!  I will always remember how I felt when she told me what she was planning for dessert.  I will always remember my child eating this cupcake with his class.  Thank you! These cupcakes are from Jodycakes.  My friend requested the cupcakes be made according to the same recipe Jody uses when we order.

froze leftovers for future parties

Scrumptious Saturdays

enjoying the last weeks of peaches

fresh grapes for chicken salad

fragrant papalo showed up in my life in a few ways 

freezer drawer all summer long

Buckwheat Millet Bread

We were in today.  Boys are congested.  Little Brother has had breathing difficulty as he always does along with any respiratory cold.  Could it be the high daily mold count and medium weed and grass pollen count too?

The Boys were playing and feeling better as the day progressed. They started to ask what we were going to make for dinner.  We agreed that we should try out the sandwich bread recipe we had discussed making at some point this summer.  We thank Quirky Cooking, a favorite source of the type of recipes that work for us, for providing exactly what we were looking for in sandwich bread.   Original recipe found here.

The bread baking was an experiment with unknown results; the process of making the bread filled the boys with wonder. I cherish the matched joy in their eyes as the bread was ready to come out of the oven.  How would it slice up?, we asked.  Would the texture be what we were hoping for?, we wondered.  How would it taste?, we thought as we patiently waited for the loaf to cool down.  

What you need: 
70g buckwheat kernals
80g millet
60g chia seeds
170g arrowrrot
1 heaped tsp instant yeast
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp real salt 
30g olive oil
30g raw honey
250g room temperature water

What to do: 
1. Place buckwheat, millet and chia in TM bowl and mill 1 min/speed 9
2. Scrape down sides of bowl and add remaining dry ingredients. Mix 10 sec/speed 6
3. Add wet ingredients and mix 10 sec/speed 6
4.  Knead on interval speed for 2 minutes
5. Add mixture to baking paper lined pullman loaf baker 
6. Smooth out top with a little water using spoon
7. Let rest in warm space for 1 hour
8.  Preheat oven to 344 degrees F
9.  Bake for 50 min.
10.Turn out loaf to check that underside is cooked enough
11. Let cool, then slice and enjoy