Nuts for Ginger - Gluten-Free Ginger Nuts

I never had a major sweet tooth in my glutenous past. The only two types of biscuits that I've ever really, really liked are ginger nuts and oat biscuits. This is my attempt at recreating ginger nuts without gluten. My ginger nuts are not brittle like glutenous ginger nuts but soft and more bread-like. I love their taste but I do miss the crispiness of glutenous ginger nuts. I am currently trying to develop a second ginger nut recipe that would result in a similar taste but a crispier texture. I reckon you could also make these biscuits a bit crispier by forming smaller/thinner biscuits, and by lowering the temperature to 170-180 degrees and keeping the biscuits in the oven a bit longer. I will try that next time I make this dough.

NUTS FOR GINGER

2 dl cooked white beans

3 tablespoons coconut oil
0.5. dl honey

0.5 dl boiled and blended sweet potatoes

5 tablespoons ground flax seeds

1.5 tablespoons ground ginger
1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
0.5-1 teaspoon ground cloves (or 10-20 crushed clove buds)

a couple of pinches of sea salt

0. Soak the beans overnight, then cook and drain them.

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
2. Peel a sweet potato, cut it in small pieces, steam until soft and blend until smooth.
3. Mix the honey, 0.5 dl of blended sweet potato, 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, the ground flax seeds, the ginger, the cinnamon, the cloves and the sea salt, and let the mixture stand.
4. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

5. Blend the beans and two tablespoons of coconut oil until smooth.
6. Add the spice mixture and blend. The dough will be quite solid.
7. Use two teaspoons to form seven biscuits: both spoons to get the batter onto the lined baking tray, and one teaspoon dipped in water to shape and flatten the biscuits.

8. Bake for about 15 minutes until the biscuits start browning.

9. Place the biscuits on a cooling rack, and let them cool down.

10. Enjoy.

Cocoa Loco - Fudgey Chocolate-Ginger Cake

I've recently been looking for gluten-free cake/muffin/biscuit recipes. The impression that I have is that, to bake gluten-free, you need to buy lots of exotic flours and ingredients (or a gluten-free baking mix but that would be cheating, wouldn't it?). Considering how rarely I bake (this was my second ever gluten-free baking experiment), I don't really feel like buying all that stuff, and none of the recipes I came across really took my fancy... until I happened to find this exciting cake recipe that uses beans instead of flour: 
http://www.healthyindulgences.net/2009/05/healthy-chocolate-cake-with-secret.html 


I guess that the word "bean" is enough to turn a lot of people off but I can guarantee that there really isn't a hint of bean taste in the end product.


Anyway, instead of using the original recipe, I decided to try to replace the eggs with something else... but what?! I did some research on vegan egg replacements, and decided to try to replace some of the eggs with banana and some of them with agar agar, which I had never used before. I spread the batter between two cake pans, one of which I took out of the oven after 45 minutes, after I had come to the conclusion that the batter wouldn't really solidify (or rise). At that point, the texture was similar to that of Finnish chocolate kissel, and I happily ate it all(!) while it was still hot. I left the other cake pan in the oven for 25 minutes more but the batter still hadn't solidified properly after an hour and ten minutes, and the cake was still as flat as a pancake. I left the cake pan to cool down in room temperature for 20 minutes and, encouraged by the fact that the batter had started solidifying (thanks to the agar agar?!), put it in the fridge for another 20 minutes. After that, the texture was sort of fudgey, and the cake was easy to cut. My camera is broken at the moment so, if you want to get an idea of the texture, please check out the pictures of this cake, whose texture looks very, very similar to mine:
http://www.egglesscooking.com/2012/02/22/gluten-free-flourless-vegan-chocolate-cake-recipe/


The recipe in this post is the recipe for the fudgey cake, which I will definitely make again. I'm now thinking, though, that it might be easier to try to bake gluten- and egg-free biscuits than cakes to get a more "conventional" end result. So, please stay tuned for my upcoming biscuit experiments!


If anyone has any ideas for egg replacements that would result in a crumbly cake rather than a fudgey one, do leave me a comment with your advice :-)


COCOA LOCO


1.8 dl cooked white beans (I soaked 1 dl of white beans, and was left over with some after using 1.8 dl for the recipe)
5 tablespoons agar agar flakes
1 1/2 small ripe bananas
1 1/3 tablespoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil
0.6 dl honey
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda


0. Soak the beans overnight, then cook and drain them.
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
2. Grease two 15-cm round cake pans (or one cake pan with the same total area) with coconut oil, and dust cocoa over the inside of the pans.
3. Mash the bananas using a spoon.
4. Place the beans, the mashed bananas, the ginger and the salt into a blender, and blend until smooth.
5. Whish together the cocoa powder, the baking soda and the baking powder.
6. Beat the coconut oil with the honey until light and fluffy.
7. Pour the bean batter into the coconut oil/honey mixture and mix well.
8. Mix the agar agar flakes with a little bit of water (I started with just 8 tablespoons) and boil for about five minutes, stirring constantly (keep adding water until there is enough for the agar agar flakes to melt).
9. Add the agar agar mix in the batter and mix well.
10. Stir in the cocoa powder/baking soda/baking powder mixture, and beat until smooth.
11. Pour the batter into the cake pans and smooth the tops.
12. Bake for 1 h 10 min.
13. Allow to cool down in room temperature for 20 minutes.
14. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
15. Enjoy!


Annika

Fluey Lewis and the News - Warming Ginger-Eucalyptus Drink

I have been down with a nasty cold for the past few days, and I wanted to come up with something nice to drink - something that would keep me warm and... well... help me get rid of the mucus. This is what I came up with.

FLUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS

0.5 liter of water
1-1.5 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh ginger
2-3 dried eucalyptus leaves
the juice of half a (small) lemon

1. Bring the water to the boil in a pan.
2. While the water is heating, peel the ginger and chop it finely.
3. When the water starts boiling, turn off the heat.
4. Add the ginger, the eucalyptus leaves and the lemon juice into the water.
5. Cover the pan and allow to steep for about 10 minutes.
6. Pour the drink through a sieve, removing all the solids.
6. Enjoy.

Annika

Ginger Pop - Spicy Popcorn

I've been in a bit of a popcorn phase recently - so much so that I've started feeling a bit guilty about my "carby" habit (I should avoid excessive carbs). So, I thought I'd make my popcorn a bit healthier somehow. Here's what I came up with (google "ginger" for its health benefits).







GINGER POP

Sunflower seed oil
Popcorn kernels
Sea salt
Ginger powder

1. Add a thin layer of sunflower seed oil at the bottom of a pan with a reasonably thick bottom.

2. Add one popcorn kernel in the pan and cover the pan with a lid.

3. Heat the oil using a high temperature until the test kernel pops.

4. Wait for about 15 seconds, add the rest of the kernels, and cover the pan with a lid again.

5. When the kernels start popping, make sure to shake the pan vigorously on a regular basis, to avoid the popped kernels to get burned. You might also want to lower the temperature a bit.

6. When the popping has stopped, take the pan off the stove, and pour the popcorn into a bowl.

7. Put cold water in the empty, hot pan, and enjoy the resulting "ksssshhhhh" sound.

8. Add sea salt and ginger powder to taste, and enjoy your spicy snack.

Annika