I've been craving apple pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate chip cheesecake, hot pretzels, butternut squash and pork chops, pot roast and all sorts of yummy seasonally-type foods. Which, bit by bit, I'm working on nixing off my current cravings list. Some of these are easier than others. For instance, cheesecake. Considering I'm not allowed dairy or sugar or wheat, that will be a might bit harder to come by. Now, butternut squash and pork chops? That's easy.
 |
| Caramel-y apple pork chops, white rice, broccoli and butternut squash! |
Pot roast. Another easy thing to come by.
 |
| Beef, carrots, turnips, potatos, onions and tomato sauce. Mmmm |
Pretzels. Almost done perfecting the recipe, but I'm close enough to share it as is, and see if anyone else has any suggestions for these babies. Now, I'll say it here and now, these are not your Auntie Anne's pretzels. Not yet. Auntie Anne's has wheat in their pretzels, and that's one of the key points. Not to mention the gluten, which keeps the dough more elastic and easy to stretch and mold as a pretzel.
Now these babies have teff flour in them, which is packed with calcium, phosphorous, iron, copper, aluminum, barium, and thiamin. It is considered to have an excellent amino acid composition, with lysine levels higher than wheat or barley. Teff is high in protein, carbohydrates, and fiber. It's also completely gluten free-which is a major plus! The color ranges, tan, brown, reddish purple, ivory...the flavor varies by the color, it can be sweeter, more like molasses, or more earthy and somewhat like hazelnuts. It's a great grain from Eithopia, and is the smallest grain in the world!
The teff flour I used in these today is a brown flour, so it's a bit more earthy and not as sweet. But they have that fresh dough consistancy that we like. Today we tried them with just some salt on them, but tomorrow we're going to brush some butter on them as well. *yummy* TBG and I were considering melted cheese, but since I can't have dairy, he didn't want to be cruel and dip his in cheese in front of me. But that's a great option too! Or some type of caramel dipping sauce, or with pepperoni's on it and some marinara sauce, it's pretty versatile! Either way, it's helped with some of my pretzel cravings. Yay!
I got this recipe out of my Grandma's honey cookbook. I had to tweak it a bit as far as the flours were concerned, but the beautiful thing is that there was no sugar or dairy to pull out. Huzzah! The original recipe called for 2 cups of wheat flour and 2 cups of all-purpose flour, so just in case you want it with gluten and flour, use those flours instead. ^_^
Pretzels!
1/2 cup TG all-purpose flour (previously listed in the scone post)
1 cup Teff flour
1/4 cup Quinoa flour
1/4 cup Amaranth flour
1 heaping tsp xanthan gum
1 pkg dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup warm water
2 TBSP honey
3 TBSP vegetable oil
Sea salt
How to make them:
- Mix flours together
- Mix 1 1/2 cups of the flour with yeast and salt, stir in liquid ingredients until smooth.
- Add enough of the remaining flour to make at stiff dough. With gluten free baking, stiff dough is harder to achieve, so don't overdo the flour here!
- Divide dough into about 8 equal parts, roll each part into a rope and shape like a pretzel. Gluten free dough is rather hard to keep its shape, so I had rather thick ropes and thicker pretzels. But that's fine! If you use wheat flours, I imagine you could make about 10 pretzels or more, give or take.
- Place on a greased cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt.
- Bake in oven at 425 for about 20 minutes.
 |
| Yummy, straight from the oven! |
If I ever am allowed cheese again, oh baby, oh baby! This pretzel will be AMAZING then! TBG and I split two, and I tossed the remaining two in a ziploc bag and then into the freezer. They keep really well, so I can pull them out and reheat next time I have a craving. ^_^ I like planning ahead like that.
I have a plan, and we'll see how that plan works out. Maybe an apple pie next?...
No comments:
Post a Comment