A sugar free, low carb cut out 'sugar' cookie - no wheat!

Over the past 12 years I have often tried to find a good sugar cookie I could make 'sugar free' and without flour. I've made simple 'drop' sugar-free cookies before but I really wanted to find a dough I could cut out as well.  I finally did.

When cooking and baking with sugar free products and wheat-free products, the taste, texture and final product can be completely different just by using a different brand.  Even the recipes I've made 3 or 4 times can fail the next if I have a different sweetener or different almond flour on hand.  I've even used the SAME product and brand and had it fail when it worked perfectly so many times before (I posted about that on my Caramel Sauce with Just Like Sugar recently...  even the company has no idea why that particular bag (batch) failed for me but the other batches of the same product worked perfectly).

I use all different brands of sweeteners, but more and more often I'm finding myself loving Ideal brand.  I like how Just Like Sugar works in my baking so instead of using 1 sweetener, I used a combination of both.  (You can play with that).  Also, I don't like baked good baked completely and only with almond flour so I usually try to add a bit of coconut flour and/or xanthan gum to help the almond flour bake for me.  I used both here.  I am not sure I need the xanthan gum since I decided to put egg in this, along with some cream cheese so the next time I make them perhaps I'll leave it out and see what happens. But this time around this is what I grabbed out of the cupboard to try and I really love how they turned out.


Also:  If you can, make these a day ahead of time.  I found the taste improved even more after I stored the finished cookies in the refrigerator all night.


A wheat free, sugar free 'sugar' cookie!

1/4 c butter
1/4 c cream cheese
1/3 c Ideal baking sweetener
2 T Just Like Sugar baking sweetener
1 egg, beaten
1 t vanilla extract
1/4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 c coconut flour (scant)
1 3/4 c almond flour
1 scoop vanilla whey powder
1/4 t xanthan gum

Cream the butter and cream cheese with the sweeteners and vanilla.  Add half of the beaten egg. Beat in the dry ingredients.  Chill in the refrigerator.  Preheat your oven to 350.  Roll the dough between parchment paper dusted with a bit of vanilla protein powder or coconut flour.  Cut out shapes.  The dough is delicate so carefully transfer to your baking sheet.  I used a parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake about 12 minutes until the edges are turning golden brown.  Carefully flip each cookie over and continue to bake an additional 3-4 minutes until the cookie is more firm and golden on the second side.  After cooling for 2-3 minutes on the pan, remove to a wire rack so they can cool completely.  Frost with your favorite sugar free frosting. 

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Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Sauteed Mushrooms and Feta

I hate clutter, and that includes my computer files.  And, I have too many photos just waiting around patiently for me to post them.  But sometimes they skipped over because I just don't feel like writing out all the recipe and instructions, other times there isn't really any recipe...  like this one.

Faced with chicken breasts and some mushrooms I wanted to use up before they went brown, this was made... and enjoyed very, very much!  I know my oldest daughter loves stuffed chicken breast recipes so I wanted to get this one up here.  I didn't measure anything... no recipes... it's just a 'brainstorm' picture.  Make it your own by adding or deleting things you like.


Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Mushrooms and Feta

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts - pounded fairly flat
1 cup sliced, fresh mushrooms
butter and a little olive oil to saute' the mushrooms
salt and pepper
feta cheese
cream cheese (option)
panko crumbs or bread crumbs - seasoned with Italian Dressing mix

Saute' the mushrooms until golden brown and season lightly with salt and pepper.  Place in a dish and mix in a handful of feta cheese crumbs.  Add a tablespoon or two of cream cheese if you wish.  Place a rounded heaping tablespoon full onto the chicken, roll up.  secure with a toothpick if you wish.   Roll and press into your bread crumbs.  Place on greased pan.  Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes until chicken is done and golden brown.

Cauliflower Bites (with bacon and cheese and sour cream... oh my!)

One of the first dishes I started to make back in 2002 to replace mashed potatoes was to use turnips and cauliflower to make faux mashed potatoes.  When you have mashed cauliflower you can then do almost anything with it that you normally make with potatoes.  One of the dishes I used to make prior to 2002 was mashed potatoes in muffin tins topped with various toppings from green onions to sour cream, butter, cheese, bacon, etc.   After 2002 they were often made with mashed cauliflower.

This week I did something different I've never done before.  Because my kids are young adults now and 2 of them have 'flown the nest' with just the one remaining, we can't eat a whole batch of these anymore in one sitting.  So this time around I decided to freeze the remainder and make a "kit" for future meals I could throw together in mere minutes. 

I tried it first - before posting - to make sure I liked the texture.  And?  It's a hit.  

Play with this to make it yours.



Steam or microwave cauliflower until it's very, very tender.  Drain in a colander very well.  Use the back of a spoon to press out extra water.  Process it in a food processor to get it smooth.  I add a bit of butter and cream cheese or sour cream to mine.  You usually don't need to add liquid because cauliflower holds so much - but if yours is too dry you can add cream - only a tablespoon or so.  You will end up with soup before you know it.  If I'm serving these as "mashed fauxtatoes" I then put in a serving bowl with some butter, salt and pepper.  But since I want to form these into their own patties I added 1 egg to my mixture.

 
Press into muffin tins.  I chose to use cupcake liners because I wanted to try freezing them - but usually I just bake them in the tins for serving immediately for dinner.

I used a coffee scoop to press down to a little bowl shape which makes it easier for me to fill them with toppings later.
Baked at 350 for about 30-35 minutes.  I didn't time them.  I just watched until they were turning golden brown at the edges and looked like they had dried.

I used the first 6 for dinner and made a 'kit' for the freezer out of the rest.  I wanted to use cheese and bacon - and just to make sure I would have it ready to go when I needed them in the future, filled two snack sized Zip Locs with shredded cheese and some bacon I made, cooled and crumbled.  I froze the pan (with the cauliflower in it) until they were solid and then took them out and put them in a gallon ZipLoc with the 2 smaller toppings.  Sealed and back into the freezer they went.

Last night I took 6 cauliflower bites out of the freezer, removed the liners and set them on a foil lined baking sheet I had lightly greased.  I used cheese and bacon to top them before putting them in the oven with the stuffed chicken breasts we were having.  When the cheese was melted, the bacon crisped and the cauliflower bites golden brown, I took them out.  We topped them with sour cream at serving time.  I would have sprinkled some green onion on them too (yum!) but my green onions are currently growing in my newly planted garden and are only about 2 inches tall.   Ha ha.

Here they are ready to put into the oven.

Low Carb, Sugar Free Muffins - (good replacement for corn muffin or donut or breakfast muffin)

2014: As always with low carb and sugar free baking... the brand makes a difference.  Not only in carb counts but in texture, taste and unfortunately, how your final product turns out.  So I know what I used... and LOVE LOVE LOVE these little muffins but the taste will be different with different products.

Mini Muffins

2/3 c low carb baking mix*
1/2 c coconut flour
2 scoops vanilla whey protein
1 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 c Ideal Brown Sugar Substitute
1/2 c Ideal Sugar Substitute Granules
2 T oil
1/2 c cream
1 c unsweetened almond milk
1 T vinegar, white
1 t vanilla
1 egg

Mix all with a wooden spoon just until incorporated and smooth.  Do not over beat.  For waffles, heat your iron and pour into the slots and make according to directions.  For muffins, heat your oven or mini countertop cupcake maker.
If you want them to be similar to corn muffins, you can cut back on the sugar substitute by 1/4 cup.
For a sweeter breakfast muffin keep the recipe as written.
For a donut style muffin add about 1/8 - 1/4 t ground nutmeg.

I baked mine in a mini cupcake maker about 4 minutes or until the centers were done and they were golden brown.  Removed to a baking sheet to cool a little bit.  I enjoyed 3 then put the tray in the deep freezer to freeze before popping them into a gallon sized Ziploc to store in the deep freeze and take out to use when I want.  I had 3 more this morning dipped in sugar free pancake syrup.  Delicious!  




*My original recipe for these as waffles called for 1 c Now Brand Gluten Flour and 1/2 c coconut flour.  I don't have gluten flour right now so instead I used my own 'Faux' Atkins Baking Mix.

Back in the early to mid 2000's, you couldn't find any low carb baking mixes except through Atkins and I didn't have money to buy Atkins brand things so I never bought it.  Instead, I started to mix up my own;   1 cup soy flour, 2 cups soy protein isolate, 2 T baking soda and 1 t salt with 2 T Splenda.   Through the years more products have become available so I replaced my homemade Faux Atkins Mix with different products but I always have this dry mix on hand in a glass Mason jar in my freezer.

Faux Atkins Baking Mix

1 c soy flour
2 soy or whey protein isolate (I used vanilla Isopure Whey Protein Powder)
2 T baking soda
1 t salt
2 T Splenda (now there are many natural sweeteners and I will use Ideal for my next batch)

I baked in a mini cupcake maker - about 4 minutes.

I keep these in the freezer in a Ziploc and remove the ones I need.

.... and homemade Rose Petal Wine

I'm really having fun with my foray into 'flower' wines. When you have a view like I do from my kitchen window (photo above) how can you not jump from dandelion wine to violet wine and rose petal wine? I'm actually not a wine drinker usually (ok, I rarely drink anything with alcohol in it... ever.  But making wine is so much fun!!!).

I decided to make my Rose Petal Wine in roughly the same way I made the Dandelion Wine (link) and my Violet Wine.  Using my own roses, I knew they had not been treated with any chemicals.

After picking my roses I put them into a crock and heated a half gallon of water on the stove to boiling.  I then poured the boiling water over them to steep.  While I left the dandelions for a couple days, I didn't do so with the rose petals because as you can see from the photos, the boiling water got all the color out of them right away, and there isn't much flavor to impart so that was immediate as well.  As a matter of fact, it was obvious that roses are part of the cabbage family as I could definitely note a cabbage undertone.

After the boiling water the petals were quick to lose their color.

After just 1 afternoon of seeping them, I strained and drained them, discarding the used petals and keeping the rose water.

After I added;

5 cups of sugar
1/2 t ginger
1/4 c lemon juice
1 t dried orange peel

I then decided to add 1 T frozen cranberry juice concentrate to deepen the rose shade just a bit.  

I warmed it briefly on the stove while I started about 2 teaspoons of yeast in a cup with a bit of warm water and a teaspoon of sugar.  Most people just add the yeast direct, but starting it has yielded really good results with my other two wines so I did this one too.  Your liquid can't be 'hot' or it will kill the yeast, so barely warm, I added the frothy yeast, stirred, and then poured into a clean, sterilized jug.  Topped off with a washed out balloon with a couple holes pricked into it, it went into the closet with the Violet Wine to ferment and bubble for a few weeks.

The Dandelion Wine was bottled.  The Violet Wine is on the tail end of fermenting as the bubbles and gas have almost ceased.  The Rose Petal Wine is fermenting and smells heavenly.  It seriously smells so good!  Even to someone who isn't a big wine drinker.  Somehow making my OWN wines makes me want to drink them all that much more!

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