recipes

Yes, it’s possible to have a low-carb Chocolate pie on Pi Day.

Crust:

1 c slivered blanched almonds

1 c coconut flour

1/2 c blended cocoa

1 t baking soda

1/4 c Kidsweet or other non-nutritive sweetener

1/2 c coconut oil

1 t vanilla extract

1/4 c water

2 eggs

1. preheat oven to 350F.
2. pulverize almonds in blender/food processor
3. add other powders.  Mix.
4. Add eggs, oil, and liquids and blend.
5. Press evenly into 9″ pie dish.  Clean up top edge so it doesn’t burn on the edges.  Blind-bake for 20 minutes, then cool.

Chocolate:

4 oz, by weight, baking chocolate

3 oz, by weight, coconut oil

1 oz, by weight, Kidsweet

1 oz, by weight, water

1. combine ingredients into bowl.  Microwave 2 minutes on high.  Stir to blend, then place in refrigerator to cool.  Stir occasionally.
2. when the chocolate has cooled to 60 degrees, microwave again for 30 seconds.  Stir and set aside.

Filling:

1 12oz package soft silken tofu

1 batch chocolate, as above

1 T Kidsweet

1 t vanilla extract

1 t instant coffee

1/3 c water

1. combine all ingredients in blender/food processor, for about 1 minute.
2. pour into cooled pie crust.  Place in refrigerator to cool/set for 2 hours.
3. Slice into eight pieces.  Try to believe it’s sugar-free and low-carb.

1 large yellow onion, diced

1 oz minced Anaheim chili

1 oz minced jalapeno chilies

3 oz cooking oil

2 T sea salt

3 t garlic paste (~6 cloves)

1/2 t ground peppercorns

1 1/2 T oregano

2 T toasted cumin, ground

2 T coriander, ground

1 T paprika, ground

2 t thyme

2 lbs leftover dark meat turkey

28 oz diced tomatoes

2 c chicken stock

1 can hominy, drained

1 can black beans, drained

2 c frozen mixed vegetables (w/ corn)

1/2 t potassium salt (salt substitute)

2 cups tortilla chips, partly broken

2 c mexican-blend cheese (shredded)

1. Coat pot with 2T cooking oil and start tomatoes cooking in pot on high.

2. Saute onion and chilies in saute pan in 2T of cooking oil with 1 t salt until golden.

3. Add garlic paste, pepper, oregano, 1T cumin, and paprika.  Cook for three minutes and add mixture to tomatoes.

4. Place turkey in saute pan and cook over high heat with 2 t salt, thyme, remaining cumin, and 2T cooking oil.  Break up pieces and pan-fry on medium-high heat until browned and stringy.

5. When tomato mixture begins to stick to bottom of pan, add chicken stock, vegetables, hominy, black beans, and salt substitute.  Bring to a boil.  Mix in turkey.  Check for salt.

6. Stir in tortilla chips until thoroughly mixed.  Stir in cheese until evenly distributed.

7. Add water to desired thickness.

Crock Pot Beef Stew

2.5 lbs chuck
1/4 cup bacon grease
salt
fresh cracked mixed peppers
1/8 c cooking wine

1 onion
12 oz beer

1 lb bag carrots
8 medium potatoes

8oz mushrooms

2 t minced garlic
1 t thyme
1 t marjoram
1/3 t ground celery seed
1/2 t white pepper
2/3 t salt
2 c bone stock

Heat 2/3 of bacon grease in griddle (or heavy pan) on high.
Cut beef into 1" x 3/4" x 3/4" pieces.
Liberally salt and pepper the beef.
Brown beef,  4 minutes per side, no stirring.

while beef is browning:
Slice onion.
Place onion in bottom of crock pot.
Add beer.
Set crock pot for 8 hrs, low.

Slice mushrooms.

Peel and chop carrots & potatoes.
Add to crock pot.

Add browned beef to crock pot.  Deglaze griddle with cooking wine.
Dissolve drippings into wine & pour into crock pot.

Sautee mushrooms in rest of bacon grease.  Add to crock pot.

Add garlic, herbs & spices, celery, and salt to crock pot.
Cook three hours or until sizzle is heard from crock pot.  Stir.  Add
bone stock.  Allow 8-hour cycle to complete, stirring every two hours if
available (otherwise add all ingredients at beginning and it will be
almost as good).

This will yield a thick stew.  Add and heat water for soupier stew.

Here’s the recipe for the “Christmas Cream” adult beverage that I whipped up for my wife-  seems to be a big hit with her lady friends.

 

Single Serving:

1/4 c ‘natural’ coffee creamer

1/4 c milk

1 T Creme de Cacao

2 t Whipped Cream Vodka

2 t Peppermint Schnapps

Mix ingredients and serve over ice.

 

Party Sized Recipe

1 quart heavy cream

1/2 gallon skim milk

(makes 1 1/2 gallon half-and-half; use that if it’s less expensive)

2 1/4 cup sugar

2 T vanilla extract

1.5 c Creme De Cacao

1 c Whipped Cream Vodka

3/4 c Peppermint Schnapps

1.  Heat milk and cream to 180 degrees (bubbles around the edge).

2.  Add sugar and mix to dissolve.

3.  Add vanilla, mix in.

4.  Mix in alcohols.

5.  Bottle if making ahead and refrigerate before serving over ice.

 

 

I got a 2-lb bag of Lindley Mills’ SuperSprout Sprouted Whole Grain Wheat Flour (from King Arthur Flour) on a lark, and boy am I glad I did.  This flour is amazing.

The texture is so fine – almost like a brownie box mix.  As a benchmark, I used my standard bread flour loaf bread recipe with the whole bag of flour:

2-lb bag SuperSprout

1 1/2 c buttermilk

5/8 c water

4T honey

2T butter

4t yeast

3t sea salt

(it needed more water than bread flour), and made six mini-loaves in a silicone baking pan (35 min at 350).  It came out better than any white bread or whole grain bread I’ve made to date.  The rise was perfect, the texture was perfect, the dough bounced back perfectly after the second rise, and I didn’t even kneed it all that much (the 5-year-old boy had that job).  I suspect this flour would make a nice pizza dough as well.

The first mini-loaf was gone before I could get the stew on the table – just the warm bread and buttery spread was sufficient for the hungry family to demolish.  Fortunately this bread cuts really easily too.

I’ve had sprouted-grain crackers and such before, and this flour doesn’t taste anything like that.  Perhaps a little bit like spelt, but much nicer, and somebody eating a loaf of this bread will just think it’s wonderful wheat bread.  If this flour goes into mass production, it could really change the way the average person bakes bread at home – I have to spend much more time and effort to get standard flours to perform not quite as well as this one does with ease.

Besides all that, the manufacturer says it’s easier for people who have wheat intolerance to digest.

These are the most decadent cookies I’ve made yet.

Method:

First, make a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough.  Use your favorite.  Here’s the one I used (oz are by weight):

Cream in mixer for two minutes:

2 sticks butter, softened

8 oz brown sugar

2 oz white sugar

Add:

2 eggs

1½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Separately, mix:

12oz all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

and slowly add to wet mixture.  Incorporate:

8 oz chocolate chips (dark belgian chocolate chips are good)

OK, then, spray a bowl with cooking spray and set outside to cool:

If you don’t have a snowy woodpile, a refrigerator or freezer would suffice.

Next, spread out 18 Double-stuff Oreos on an insulated jelly roll pan, and set on top of the woodstove:

The temperature here was 113° F:

If you don’t have a woodstove, a warming oven, or a second oven about 120° F would do.  The idea is to make the cookies warm enough that they’re not cooling the cookie from the inside while they’re baking, but if this goes on too long or too hot, there will be a gooey cookie mess.  Once the top cookie rotates freely, it’s warm enough.  This took about 15 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 325° F (but see discussion of temperatures below).

Spray some cupcake tins with cooking spray:

Set out a rolling mat, or flour a counter with the chilled dough (use more flour than shown in this picture):

and flour the dough as you roll it out (this is sticky dough):

The final thickness of the dough will be determined by the thickness of the chocolate chips:

What you’re going for is about 1/4″ thick:

Now, take a biscuit cutter and cut the dough into as many disks as will fit:

Gently remove the excess and lift the disks into the cupcake tin:

Now, place an Oreo in each tin.  Try to center them as well as possible:

And then add a disk to the top of each one:

It’s not necessary to seal the top to the bottom, but I did push the edges down a bit, to make a bit of a dough dome.

These are set for the oven.  Place on the middle rack and bake for 17 minutes.  I’ve verified that my (gas) oven’s thermostat is property calibrated, but many recipes assume an oven that runs too hot, so if your oven runs hot, reduce the cooking time.  Here’s what they look like when they’re done:

Set them outside on the woodpile to cool for 10 minutes (photo is of second batch):

While the first batch is baking, roll out the rest of the dough:

and when you’re down to the last of the dough, it helps to just mark the dough before cutting, so you can count out an even number of tops and bottoms:

In the end, I had 36 rounds, for 18 tops and 18 bottoms.

Now, then, bring the cooled cookies inside and gently run a butter knife around the edge to make sure they don’t stick.  Transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling through to room temperature (as if you’re not going to eat one hot…):

[

](https://billmcgonigle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/on-cooling-rack.jpg) I made these as a gift, so I arranged them on a plate:

Now then, about temperature.  Here are two cookies, the left is baked at 350° F and the right is baked at 325° F:

At 350, the cookie does not rise as high and is more cooked through.  At 325, you get a higher rise, and a more gooey chocolate chip batter.  I find the 325 cookies to be the most popular, but it’s a matter of personal taste.  At 350, bake for 14 minutes instead of 17.

Here are some inside shots, again 350 on the left, and 325 on the right:

Enjoy!  A full glass of milk is required per cookie.  I guess that’s not really a surprise, since these are really four cookies in one.  Best to have these only once a year!