From my Grandmother's Recipe Box: French Cream Pie (a fruit and cream ice box pie)

 

French Cream Pie

1/2 lb. graham crackers - rolled fine - butter a cake pan (large) put in 1/2 of the crax crumble. 
1/2 c butter (very soft) add 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 unbeaten eggs, mix thoroughly and pour over crax crumbs.

Whip 1 pt. cream add to 2 cups diced peaches and 1/2 cup nutmeats.
Pour over the egg mixture then cover with rest of crax crumbles.

Let stand 12-24 hours in ice box or a cool place.  

Serves 12 generously. 
Can use other fruit instead of peaches but I like peaches best of any I've tried.

A make-ahead or use now low-carb, keto pie crust... make two! One for now and one for the freezer!

 

 

There are certain foods that have an unwritten rule about them:  If you're going to make one, make two.  Pie crusts are one of those things.  You've already got the ingredients out, it will only take about 5 minutes more and you know, that whole 'easy as pie' thing.

Last weekend I was craving a pie but wasn't sure when I would get the time to make one.  However, when it comes to pie, the crust is always a little more time consuming and throwing together almost any kind of pie seems so much easier when you already have a crust ready to go.  That's why I made a crust... and then made two.

This one is a keto version since we primarily eat low carb and sugar free.  This is one of two pie crusts I use (the other already posted on the website a few times).  In my opinion, all almond flour based pie crusts are persnickety and a bit fragile so keep this one cold and pop it into the freezer for 1 minute or so if it gets too warm when you are working with it.  So what if your crust isn't 'pretty'?  Anyone who judges you on pretty pie crusts doesn't deserve to have a piece of your yummy homemade dessert anyway....

Low Carb Pie Crust

1 c almond flour
4 T coconut flour
dash salt
6 T cold butter
1/2 t xanthan gum
2 oz. cream cheese
1 egg
2 t apple cider vinegar

In a food processor, briefly pulse the flours, xanthan gum and salt.  Add the butter and cream cheese, pulse again just till it turns crumbly.  Add the egg and vinegar, and pulse a few times until it just starts to come together and forms a ball. 

Turn the disk out onto lightly greased parchment or saran wrap and place another on top.  Roll out as usual to form your pie crust.  Almond flour crusts are more fragile than wheat based, so carefully use the parchment or saran wrap to transfer the crust to the pie plate.  (You can see me doing this in one of the photos below.)

Crimp or press the edges and cut off excess if needed.  I covered mine in plastic wrap and popped them into the freezer to use later this week but you can also use them immediately.  Put them into the freezer while you prepare a filling of your choice, remove, fill and bake in a preheated oven according to your pie direction.

You can also prick the bottom crust with a fork and pre-bake the crust until golden and flaky, let cool and use for an unbaked pie or dessert like with a pudding filling.

 

 

 Pulse just until it forms a ball.

 

 

Ready to cover and roll

 

 

Pressing into a pie plate with the help of the saran wrap

  

Press the edges to smooth out cracks or rips.  Use pieces to patch if necessary. Freeze for a minute if it's too warm to work with.

Crimp or pinch the edges or make them fancy if you wish.  You can also freeze at this point.

 

 

 

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Coffeecake - Keto style

 

 

I certainly keep it real on this site, and lousy photos taken quickly on my cellphone is one of the ways!  And to make it better this time... I don't have a finished product picture!

One day last week I whipped up a pumpkin spice cake with a layer of cheesecake and a layer of streusel.  Lots of streusel. And I usually throw in whatever nuts we have on hand, usually almonds and pecans and sometimes walnuts.  I've added a little flax before as well.  I would add some oatmeal except this a low-carb version so... nope.

Normally I also do not like baking with coconut flour... I can taste it in any food it's used in, even in small amounts, and I really don't like it.  But when it's a pumpkin or carrot based cake, cupcake, muffin or bread, I'm totally ok with coconut flour as it blends perfectly and doesn't stand out at all. 

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Coffeecake - Keto Style

Topping:
1 c almond flour
1 c pecans, chopped
1/4 c toasted chopped almonds or sliced almonds
2/3 c brown Swerve
1 t cinnamon
6 T butter, soft or melted

Cake:
2 c almond flour
1/4 c quality coconut flour
2 t baking powder
1 t pumpkin pie spice
1/8 t salt
1 c pumpkin
3 eggs
3 T cream
1/2 c sweetener (erythritol/monkfruit)
2 t vanilla

Cheesecake Layer:
12 oz. cream cheese
1/2 c sweetener (erythritol/monkfruit)
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 t espresso powder
2 T water
1/8 t pumpkin pie spice

Mix the streusel topping together in a bowl and set aside.

For the cake, mix the dry ingredients:  almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt.  Add the pumpkin, eggs, cream, sweetener and vanilla.  Mix well.

Line a 9" baking pan with parchment paper and spread half the cake batter in the pan.

For the cheesecake layer:  Mix the cream cheese and sweetener until smooth, then add the egg, espresso, vanilla, water and spice. 

Spread this over the pumpkin batter in the pan.  Spread the second half of the pumpkin batter over the cheesecake layer.  Top with the streusel topping. 

Bake at 350 for approximately 45 minutes.  Let it cool completely and then chill in the refrigerator at least 2-3 hours. 

 

  

 

 

  

Homemade Keto Buns - 6 net carbs (Really yummy and a great texture!)

    

Another batch, hot and fresh from the oven!  Second day in a row...

I've previously used this same recipe and same keto flour to make bread, and it was fine.  One of those "fine for now but....." recipes.

Last night I wanted to make hamburger buns and decided to use my same recipe and same keto flour, since I do use it exclusively for my Southern Keto Biscuits and I love it.  So without much confidence in the end result, I went ahead and made the buns to use in our Chicken Bacon Ranch Sliders.  

They turned out just lovely!  I want to make sure I get them down into my saved recipes so here we are.

The main difference in ingredients or method between the initial trial run of this recipe (the bread I wasn't completely in love with) and the buns I'm very happy with is the yeast I used.  I've found I must use Fleischman rapid rise yeast for the right texture and rising I like. 

The recipe is originally from King Arthur and is printed on the back of their keto flour. All the previous times I've used it for breast I've used an active dry yeast, but never the rapid rise because I never keep it on hand and almost never use it.  However, I couple months ago, during a "stock the pantry and freezer" grocery trip, I randomly picked up a strip at the store and put it into the freezer and forgot about it.  

Last night as I prepared to make the dough, I remembered I had seen some yellow envelopes of yeast stuck in the freezer and grabbed one out.  It was the rapid rise yeast and BINGO.  That was all the difference in this bread dough. 

Keto Buns

3 1/2 - 3 2/3 c King Arthur Keto Flour
1 1/2 c water - cool, not as warm as with regular yeast as you don't proof it
1 t white vinegar
1 1/2 t Rapid rise instant yeast
1 t salt
2 T soft butter

Combine all the ingredients into the bowl of your stand mixer.  Use a dough hook to knead the dough for 5 minutes.  Use a little more flour or a little more water drizzled to make sure the dough is mixed well. Cover the dough and let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

Shape the dough into buns and place in a greased pan.  Cover with sprayed or greased plastic wrap and place in a warm place to rise.  (I turn on my oven, place the plastic wrap over and then turn the oven off so it's barely warm; and then place the pan in the barely warm oven with the light on).  Let it rise until it's about 1" above the top of the pan for bread or doubled for buns.  This might take 1 1/2 - 2 hours. 

Bake in a hot oven (350 degrees) for about 30-35 minutes until golden brown.  Remove and let cool a few minutes then turn out onto a rack to cool completely before cutting.  If you cut when they are still hot or warm, the centers will be a different texture; dense and squished and too wet.

King Arthur bread loaf made with this recipe yields 18 slices at 3 carbs each.  I made this into 9 buns so they would 6 carbs each.

 

Hot keto buns fresh from the oven

 

Old School Pizza Burgers! And I made them into a Keto Pizza Burger Too!

Pictured are low carb - using a keto bun and served with keto 'faux' fries - not potato based french fries

 

When I get a food memory/craving stuck in my head, it lives there until I finally make it.  I got it into my head I just had to have something from my childhood.  Not just my childhood, but an elementary school lunch item; pizza burgers.

Now, I wasn't able to recreate it exactly to my memory.  But it's close.  So close.  I'm going to tweak it a little more at some point in the future - as I know my school used canned tomato soup in their version as well; and we don't ever have canned tomato soup in our house because we are lowcarb/sugarfree.

To make it a little more difficult, I was having to not only recreate something from a childhood memory, but we eat sugar free and low carb so I had to try to make it keto!  

If anyone from the internet stumbles upon this recipe through searching; remember - YOUR school might have made these differently.  I suggest you do your own taste tests and see if it's similar to the version your school cooks made.  Mine just needs a little bit of tweaking (needs a bit more... tang I think) but it was SO close, I was happy with the results for now.  (And, since this is the first time I've craved them in over 30+ years, I might not have another craving for years!  Ha ha).

Old School Pizza Burgers

1 1/4 lb. ground beef (approximately - I didn't weigh)
1/2 lb. (about) ground ham
1/4 c onion, finely minced
1- 6 oz. can tomato paste
1/2 c water (use the can to pour as to rinse out the can as well)
1 c (scant) ketchup  (I'm going to use part tomato soup next time as I KNOW my school did)
1 1/2 T dried parsley
1 t Italian seasoning
1/2 t salt and some fresh ground black pepper
onion powder
sage
oregano
2 t vinegar
2 - 3 T cream or whole milk

Hamburger buns
Shredded mozzarella
Shredded or sliced up American cheese


Brown the ground beef and onion, add the ground ham. 

(I used an S-blade in my food processor.  I didn't want to over process it, but after I was ready to add it, realized I should have processed mine a little more - but I was lazy and didn't want to bother so the pieces in mine in the photos are little larger than I'll do next time).  Season with salt and pepper. 

While the meat cooked I mixed up the sauce separate (although you TOTALLY could add it to the meat in the same pan.  I just made mine while the meat was still cooking as I like to multi-task and have no patience to just stand around browning meat without doing other things as well.)  Mix the tomato products and the seasonings.  For the onion powder, safe and oregano, I started with about a teaspoon of each.  You can adjust this later.

Add the tomato mixture to the meat.  Let it simmer for about 10 minutes over low.

After mixing with the cooked meats and letting it simmer for a few minutes to blend the flavors; do a taste test.  I added about 1/2 - 1 teaspoon more of each of the oregano, sage and onion powder.   When you are happy with the meat filling, stir in about 1/2 cup cheddar cheese IF you wish - or some of the American cheese into the mixture.  Use the rest of the mozzarella and/or American for the top later.

On a baking sheet (lightly greased if you wish) but not on parchment as the buns need to crisp up a bit, lay out about 8 buns to make 16 sandwiches.  Or lay out 4 buns, open to make 8 sandwiches and you can freeze the rest of the meat mixture.

NOTE:  I used KETO buns for this meal with only 4 carbs total per whole bun, so only 2 carbs total when eating just the one half, as these are served "open faced".  Regular buns usually run about 24-30 carbs, so each half would be about 12-15 carbs.

Sprinkle the tops with shredded cheeses.  Bake at 350 or 375 (I baked at 370) until golden brown buns, melted cheese and heated through.  About 12-15 minutes depending on the heat of your oven.