I should preface this with an acknowledgement that, while, yes, we are bored, we are also so, so lucky: both the adults in our household are getting paid; we live in a very rural area and can go hiking as much as we want; our yard is almost an acre and features a stream; we've (probably) all had covid-19 already and are okay; and the kids actually play with each other.
Nonetheless! I am permanently pissed off that our terrible government response has defaulted to 'let's quarantine everyone and then have Lots of Bad Ideas' combined with "It's totally practical to test-trace-isolate something that started community spread almost three months ago even though our testing system is in shambles and we would need a bare minimum of 100,000 tracers and also tracing is useless with this much community spread".
So I've been baking!
Previously featured:
Pumpkin pie bars
Coconut macaroons
Chocolate torte
Since then:
King Arthur Gingerbread Bundt Cake. (I make all these with a GF flour mix which I concoct, but without the tapioca, since I'm allergic.) Friends, I was out of both molasses and cinnamon, so I made this as a kind of spice cake with raisins, candied orange peel, fennel, and cardamom. I thought it was delicious but my spouse refused to eat it. 10/10, would bake again.
King Arthur GF Cinnamon Rolls. These were so good that I made them twice, though the second time I tried to cut back on the sugar and they were less delicious, so I fed them to the kids for breakfast.
King Arthur Carrot Cake. (look, I'm very suggestible!) Made it for Pesach in a giant sheet pan. It was delicious even with pear butter swapped in for a lot of the oil.
David Leibovitz's Mint Chip Ice Cream. Made two batches, one with half and half, and one with coconut milk. (I grow mint and also it grows wild by the creek; you need a giant amount for this). Delicious, with a delicate mint flavor. Halved the sugar and added a little cornstarch.
Banana Cream Pie... Jello Mold. Kind of like this recipe, only with Greek yogurt and without following it in any conceivable way. Also, featuring half and half, since I forgot that a half-gallon is eight cups. Very popular with the family; the latest features a chocolate stripe in the middle.
Jello Roll-Ups, by request from the kids. You would think a recipe involving only boxed goods would be impossible to screw up, and yet, you would be wrong. It was strange. The kids ate it anyways.
Fish Quiche. Don't. Just don't.
Turkey sausage, riced cauliflower, and potato quiche. Tasty! Would have been less work if I just scrambled it all together.
That's all for this installment of Stuff I Baked While Bored! Tune in next time for whatever random things I've cooked while everyone else played D&D!
I almost jumped for joy when I saw the GF cinnamon rolls but kicked rocks when I saw the need for xanthum gum. I wonder if my Bob's Red Mill GF flour that's supposedly a straight up flour replacement already has xanthum gum. Crossing my fingers very hard for this.
ReplyDeleteAnd boy howdy am I regretting decanting my last bag of GF flour into the flour container and NOT properly labeling it with detailed information so I'd know what the heck I was using. I stopped using it 8 months ago and now I have no clue which version of GF flour it is. Oops.
Have you tried using sugar replacement stuff like monkfruit sugar instead of reducing the sugar? Maybe that would work ok?
I use stevia sometimes but I really want that crunchy, gooey cinnamon roll filling, you know? It's not the same. It was plenty sweet with less sugar, just less, you know, delicious. I think Bob's does have xanthan gum in it! The extra is to make it more stretchy like.breed . If it has any tapioca starch you don't really need the xanthan gum I don't think, it'll just be more gooey. I don't know! But they are tasty.
DeleteIt turns out they have two versions and I foolishly bought the Bob's without xantham gum. I have purchased xantham gum now!
DeleteI really want that filling too! Are you saying that you have found that the sugar replacement won't produce that lovely crunchy gooeyness? *sadface* I would handle a bit of gluten better than I would the sugar so unfortunately for me, the sugar replacement isn't optional.
I haven't tried it with monkfruit, etc- worth a go! Half the sugar definitely doesn't give crunchy (not surprising).
DeleteI think you could probably replicate some of the crunch by turning them out of the pan, sprinkling on a couple tablespoons brown sugar, and broiling briefly. and then you could get away with a replacement in the filling.
Potato quiche! That sounds excellent.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a recommended recipe?
Recipes, what are those? I cut up a turkey sausage into little dice and fried it in a pan, then added some onion and, eventually, some riced cauliflower from the freezer. Meanwhile I sprayed a cake pan, sliced an unpeeled potato thinly, and boiled it in the microwave until tender-ish but only partway done. Drained it, put it on the bottom and around the sides of the cake pan as a crust. Blendered 6 (?) eggs, some milky thing (I use coconut milk but real dairy is delicious), salt, pepper, spices. Put the sausage stuff in on the potatoes, poured the eggs on, stuck the whole thing on a baking sheet for overflow insurance and baked at 350 for an hour? Enjoy!
DeleteThat sounds tasty. It's going on my list.
DeleteI have a good recipe for salmon pie, which is surprisingly good (from the old fashioned cookbook). I wonder why the fish quiche didn't work out.
ReplyDeleteI looked up that recipe and it looks tasty! The lack of both wheat and dairy didn't help. It was kind of bland and a little too salty. Pollock is maybe not best suited to fish pie at the best of times, and it needed more spices too.
DeleteAh yes, I believe the salmon pie has a LOT of butter/cream (also onion) in addition to the egg and a nice flaky pie crust.
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