Banana Bread

Bear and I finally got around to testing our flour recipe. It was wonderful. We made pizza and banana bread. The banana bread had the texture of moist corn bread and was absolutely delicious. It did not have the slightly metallic taste of other gluten free breads. This is defiantly a repeat. The pizza was a pleasant surprise. The crust has a slightly crumbly feel but held together like brick oven pizza crust. It even had a slight brick oven taste. It was not 'bready', to thin, or even soggy like other gluten free pizzas. Bear and I can't wait to make more flour. We even found a stone flour mill for $27. More on that when we get one. I'm only listing our Banana bread recipe but I posted a picture of the pizza so you could see it's crust (the peperoni is 98% fat free turkey, I think it makes up for the over abundance of cheese). Enjoy!

Mom's Banana Bread Recipe:
3/4 cup of butter
1 1/2 cup of sugar
4 eggs
3 cups of flour
4 Bananas
1 1/2 Tsp of salt (we use sea salt)
1 1/2 Tsp Baking soda
1 1/2 Tsp Vanilla extract

In this order:
Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add flour, salt and soda. Add Banana's and vanilla. Bake 325-350 for 60-70 minutes

Gluten Free Flour

In the past we have mixed different pre-made GF flours; but this is our first attempt at grinding our own flour from the raw materials. Our recipe is 3 cups brown rice, 2 teaspoons Xanthagum, 2 cups Tapioca starch, and 1/4 cup of Flax seeds. We used a Hamilton Beach coffee grinder that can also grind herbs. It has different settings for different levels of fineness. Using the espresso setting the flour still had the texture of beach sand. I've been grinding it by hand using a motor and pestle. There are flour mills available but they can cost $300 or more. The motor and pestle work nicely even if it takes some time. It's stored in the fridge in an air tight jar to make it last longer. So far we have not had the time to make any bread with it. I will post again when we have, but the texture and smell of the flour are wonderful. We have been hard at work expanding our garden and spring cleaning. During the cleaning I broke our camera. How do you like the pictures taken with our new camera?

Homemade Coco & Marshmallows

This past weekend we tried our hand at homemade marshmallows. They turned out alright, but I think they needed to set more. Our next batch will be better. I am looking forward to making smores with them over our outdoor fireplace; although ironically I don't like marshmallows in my coco because it makes it to sweet. We used one of the many recipes online for homemade marshmallows and substituted Tapioca starch in place of Corn starch. The coco is our own recipe and it can compare and surpass any gourmet coco on the market. Compare our 48 calories, 11 carbs, and 5.3 grams of sugar to the store bought average of 182 calories, 32.4 carbs, and a whopping 21.3 grams of sugar per serving and you can see why we choose to make our own coco. It's smooth and still sweet. Our secret is Truvia. I will never use Splenda, but have found a new friend in Truvia. You can add powdered coffee flavors but it jumps those numbers right back up there with the store bought varieties. Enjoy!
Our simple coco Recipe:
4 cups powdered Milk (still looking for powdered almond milk)
28 packs of Truvia
1 1/2 cups Baking Coco powder

Gluten Free Crackers

These Gluten Free Crackers are an excellent alternative to Ritz crackers. They are slightly more crunchy; but I think that makes them taste better than Ritz. They are made with corn starch and white rice flour. Hmmm I wonder if they have one with brown rice flour ;) Enjoy!
I've been meaning to blog about them since January but I've been so busy and a tad upset. It looks like Bear and I will have to wait another year (or two) for a child. It turns out that I am Hypoglycemic. That coupled with my Gluten Intolerance coupled with my Ehlers-danlos has made a recipe that my doctors don't want to mess with. At least I'm FINALLY getting answers after 17 years of tests and dead ends. I feel validated to know that my Gluten Intolerance is not imagined and that the missing link was the Hypoglycemia. I guess this blog will now become a gluten Intolerant/Hypoglycemic blog. Oh well, women are having children at older ages these days. Till I can hold my baby in my arms Bear and I are looking to adopt a puppy. Wish us luck.