Low Carb Cinnamon Rolls

So, I broke down and bought Carbquik. You can get it from Netrition.com or you can take yourself to Health Foods Unlimited and buy it there. Now, it's like a Bisquick sort of deal, but I'll tell you right away that it has an odd smell and an odd texture in its "raw" state.  However, I'm discovering things that it can do--hence the rolls.  

1 2/3 cup Carbquik
1 Tbls Splenda (white)
1/2 cup low-carb milk (or 1/4 cup cream and 1/4 cup water)
1/2 cup softened butter
1/4 cup brown sugar substitute (Splenda Blend or SugarTwin)
3 teaspoons cinnamon 
1/2 cup nuts (Optional)

Icing:

1/4 block of cream cheese
1/3 cup UNSALTED Butter
3/4 cup Splenda
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine Carbquik, 1 Tbls Splenda and milk until moist. Let it sit for a minute. Stir again until well combined. Sprinkle some Carbquik on a kneading surface and turn dough onto surface.
Knead for approx. 3-4 minutes. Add more Carbquik if necessary to keep dough from sticking.
Roll into a rectangle shape. Spread butter over entire rectangle, then sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar substitute. Roll up lengthwise and slice into 6-8 rolls.Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Spread icing over top and serve warm!

Icing:
Whip on high speed for 2 minutes

This recipe contributed by: Aediekins (Low Carb Friends)

Comments:  Needed more liquid to get the right doughy consistency--I used the cream and water, but it was closer to a cup than a half by the time the dough felt right...but then, I'm not the most careful when it comes to measuring flour-type things. Knead the snot out of it until it gets that stretchy texture! Use the butter liberally (ignore the measurements, just schmear it on), the brown Splenda blend is awesome, and don't skimp on the cinnamon. Mine were done at about 15 minutes--I didn't want to overcook so I yanked them when the tops started to get brownish.  Also, I used "normal" butter for the icing--didn't make a bit of difference. It does make small rolls--I haven't worked out if it can be doubled with success yet.  No pictures because, well, we ate them. Boy said he wouldn't know that they were low carb, but they don't have the yeasty taste that normal rolls do. They were pretty darn close, though. A keeper!

The Great Macaroon Adventure

So, I tried French Macaroons, using this recipe and well, here they are. A few things that are good--they have "feet" and they are not hollow on the inside...nice chewy texture inside with, and the tops didn't crack. However, they are not smooth on top...which means, at my best guess that my almond meal needed to be ground finer than it was.

I have read that you can smooth out the tops with a fingertip and water, and that tapping the pan (like I do with cakes) can help them flatten out. *sigh*

I should point out that I made powdered sugar Splenda (a combination of Splenda and cornstarch processed together until it resembles actual powdered sugar) and used that instead of actual sugar-sugar. I don't think this had anything to do with the lumps--I really should have ground the almond meal to a finer consistency.

While researching the issue, I found a wealth of posts and articles about the difficulty of making French Macaroons--the fact that humidity will screw with them, getting them the same size is impossible (unless you have one of these) and egg white are tricky no matter what.

They really do taste good, though--I opted for the almond extract in this batch, although I think they would be good without it, or with a lemon or orange flavor. I used Nutella as the filling since that's what I had handy (come on, like Nutella isn't good on *everything* anyway) and I thought it would taste good with the almond.

At any rate, I will be trying these again. The cookie piper worked fairly well for getting a somewhat even amount, but I was trying to make rounds instead of just letting them round out on their own. And heck no, the recipe did not make 84 cookies...not even close.

Vegetable Chowder, a.k.a "Funny Soup"

2 carrots
2 celery stalks
1 small onion
2 cups water
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup flour
1-2 cups milk or cream
1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Put carrots, celery, and onion in blender with 2 cups water. Blend until only small pieces remain, almost a puree but not quite. Put into sauce pan. Add chicken stock. Cook 10 minutes or until soft. Whisk flour with a small amount of milk or cream to make a thin paste. Add 1 to 2 cups of milk or cream to mixture in sauce pan. Stir and add in flour mixture. Cook until thick and smooth. Add 1 to 2 cups shredded cheese. Stir until melted. Do not boil.

Comments: I use about 2 cups of cream (as in the no-carb heavy cream), and waaay more cheese. Three cups worth, probably. Also, "small onion" means SMALL ONION. It will overpower the other stuff if it's too big. This is probably my favorite soup on the planet.

Oatmeal Buttermilk Quickbread

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix oatmeal with buttermilk and let stand for 30 minutes. Stir in oil, egg, and brown sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to oat mixture and mix well. Pour into greased/floured loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes or until done.

Comments: Well...this would have been great had I not dropped the loaf pan on the counter and caused the top to explode. What we did get to eat (the bottom half of the loaf) was very good. I threw some vanilla in to the mix, as well as a little bit of cinnamon and some raisins. Turned out like a typical quick bread---moist and soft. I think this would be good with dried cranberries and the like in it as well. Again, my oven was done early, and I pulled it when the top started to get too brown. A larger, flatter pan probably would have solved that problem.

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n' Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar

This bar will destroy your soul.

This is not my recipe, and these wonderful people at this website are EVIL.

No, not really. These were awesome and made me gain 8 pounds.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (12 ounces) milk chocolate chips
1 pkg Double Stuffed Oreos
1 Family Size (9×13) Brownie mix
1/4 cup hot fudge topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream the butter and both sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed for 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well to thoroughly combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt, then slowly incorporate into the mixer until the flour is just combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread the cookie dough in the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish that’s been lined with wax paper and sprayed with cooking spray. Top with a layer of Oreos. Mix together brownie mix, adding an optional 1/4 cup of hot fudge topping to the mix. Pour the brownie batter over the cookie dough and Oreos. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-55 minutes. To half this recipe for an 8×8 brownie mix, just half the chocolate chip cookie dough ingredients. Enjoy!

Comments: Where to begin? I used peanut butter Oreos, and the Hershey Ultimate Fudge Brownie mix (the kind with the goo your pour in?) and I left off the fudge topping. The oven that I used had them done at around 35-38 minutes--I should have pulled them when I started to smell the top getting dark. No matter, they were still delicious. I had never baked anything *in* waxed paper either, but that worked out ok. Very thick bar, very rich. I would like to try putting the little square caramels in between the Oreos, or pour some sort of caramel sauce in there too. Sugar free it's not---but you could get close by using Splenda and sugar free chips in the cookie dough, sugar-free Oreos, and sugar free brownie mix. Make sure you have some milk (and your glucose monitor) close by when you eat these!

Pumpkin Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 can pumpkin (15 oz)
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon vanilla

Cream butter, sugar, and egg. Add the pumpkin and mix well. Add all other ingredients and mix together for several minutes. Batter will be soft. Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake at 8-10 minutes until just set. Allow to cool for a minute of two before removing from cookie sheet.

Comments: This makes a really yummy soft pumpkin cookie. Very moist! They also make great whoopie pies with cream cheese frosting. I found that it works out best when I use a cookie scoop to get them all the same size (and I don't get as sticky) and parchment paper lets me slide one sheet off and move on to the next batch without waiting. My oven takes about 9 minutes and I pull them when the tops start losing their give. Leave them in longer if you like a drier cookie.

Simple Coffee Cake

2 cups brown sugar
2 cups plus 6 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

Mix flour, sugar, and butter until crumbly. Reserve 3/4 cup for topping. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Pour into a 8x10 pan. Sprinkle on topping. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Comments: I needed something easy to use up buttermilk, and this one looked yummy. I probably used more vanilla and cinnamon than what was called for (because I don't so much measure as toss in) and I added cinnamon to the topping. It was done prior to the 45 minutes in my oven--the crumbly bits were starting to get dark, so I pulled it at around 38-40 minutes. It had a nice taste and soft texture that wasn't overly sweet.

Springerle

4 1/2 eggs (beat one egg, pour half into bowl with the other 4)
1 pound powdered sugar (by weight)
1 pound cake flour (like Swan--the really white, fine stuff, and again, by weight)
1 fl oz flavoring (lemon, anise, almond, etc--the tiny bottles are the right size)

Whip eggs for about 6-8 minutes at a high speed if using an electric mixer, until they are soft and foamy. Use a whisk to sift through the powdered sugar to break up any lumps, or you can sift if you have a sifter. With mixer on low, add powdered sugar by half cups until well blended and airy. Add your teeny bottle of flavoring. Mix flavor in well, and then switch to the paddle attachment as the dough will get sticky and heavy. Add the flour in half-cups until mixed. Scrape the excess off of the paddle, cover bowl with a damp cloth and let dough rest for 10-15 minutes. Dough is STICKY--you will need more cake flour on your rolling surface, for your hands, your rolling pin, and your molds or your molded rolling pin. Brush flour into the surface of the mold or the pin. Use only about 1/4 of the dough at a time, and keep the damp towel covering the bowl. Use your hands to work the dough into a ball on the floured surface (like you would pie dough) and roll out to an even thickness. Press the mold into the dough, or roll the molded pin over the dough firmly enough to make an impression. Use a fluted pastry cutter or a pizza cutter to cut out the cookies. Dry on parchment paper for at least 12 hours. Bake at 300-325 degrees on the bottom rack of oven until the bottoms of the cookies are lightly browned. Small cookies can cook hotter and faster (300-325, 6-8 minutes) than large cookies (275 to 300, 12-15 minutes). Cookies should be crisp on the outside and soft in the middle. Don't brown the tops.


Comments: Wow, a two-day cookie. Anise flavor is very strong, but really good. They stay really white (if you don't over cook) and are fairly solid. Important Note: Anise oil can melt plastic. Stick to metal measuring spoons if you need to measure out a larger/smaller quantity. Some dried faster than others--I flipped the slower ones over at about 12 hours to dry the backs, as I discovered that the ones with the not-so-dry backs stuck to the parchment paper after baking. (So half the cookies are still drying as I type!) This made 4 sheets of about 1.5x1 cookies--that was the size of the patterns on my rollers. I used a pizza cutter to separate the cookies, although a pastry cutter with the ruffled/fluted edge would have been prettier. There are a few websites out there with high dollar springerle molds of all sizes that are really elaborate and beautiful, and some videos about baking and painting them with the edible food coloring/paint stuff. I'm totally not Martha Stewart, so no hand painting here. Boy is eating them as we speak, so they must be fairly decent.

Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk, Yogurt, and Raisins

4 tablespoons butter
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yogurt
1 can coconut milk (unsweetened)
2 teaspoons turmeric
2-4 tablespoons golden raisins
3-5 boneless skinless chicken breasts

In heavy pan with a lid, saute butter, onions, and garlic until soft and lightly brown. Add spices and fry for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add chicken and brown on all sides. Mix yogurt, coconut milk, and turmeric together and add to chicken. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and simmer for 35-45 minutes until chicken is done and tender. Serve over rice.

Comments: This was really good!! It didn't have the heat that you would expect, but then I don't like hot-hot food anyway. The raisins added a little sweetness to it, and I would think you can also add chopped potatoes for a vegetable. Don't be afraid of the coconut milk! Sauce was creamy and flavorful, and I used the Uncle Ben's 90-second Jasmine rice because I'm a lazy, lazy cook. I used my large dutch oven on the stove top as it had a suitable lid, and I knew it would fit the three large pieces of chicken that I had. I used yellow curry powder, and didn't have any turmeric, so i mixed a little more curry powder into the yogurt instead. I left out the cayenne and let Boy season his own plate. The original does state that if you don't have curry powder you can use coriander, cumin, and cayenne in 1-teaspoon amounts instead. Not sure what the flavor would be like with a red or green curry. At any rate, Boy said I could make it again, so it must be a keeper.

New favorite website

Foodzie.com

I want one of everything.