Flourless Gluten-free Pizza

A couple of weeks ago, I saw this recipe on Blogilates for a flourless vegetarian pizza! I was intrigued and wanted to try it out immediately; plus I love Cassey & her video made it look so delicious. ^_^

The finished pizzas

Not bad huh? I made 2 little personal pizzas. So, if you watched the video or read the recipe, you'll see that a food processor is necessary. We didn't have a food processor and tried using a blender instead. Ummmm yeah, it didn't work out too well. I ended up cutting/mashing up the cauliflower with a knife and fork. In the end, the pizzas turned out pretty tasty, but the "crust" didn't turn out so great, texture-wise (kind of thick and mushy). I need to make this recipe again with a food processor! Oh yeah, and our pizzas weren't vegetarian--I added chicken to them ;)

In other happenings...

I held a parakeet! I used to have parakeets as a child, but now I'm just scared of all animals. Look at the fear on my face hahaha

We match color-wise! :D

I also did the Run For Your Lives zombie 5k. This is probably my favorite run so far!! The boy and I were transformed into zombies, and we got to snatch life flags off of people. We also had registered to participate as runners afterwards. ^__^

Zombiefied

Muddy, bloody, and sweaty. SO AWESOME.

Gluten-free Tiramisu Cupcakes

    Earlier this week my clinical nutrition class had to plan and make a gluten-free meal for our food service management class. The food theme we chose was Italian, and I was in charge of the dessert. I decided to make tiramisu-->in the form of a delicious cupcake! I tweaked around with some recipes and came up with a basic vanilla almond cupcake, a coffee-soaked layer, and a mascarpone filling/topping. Did had a couple of trial runs and in the end, a successful cupcake was born! These are fairly easy to make, and they taste delicious (FOR GLUTEN-FREE. lol) :)

Mmmm

Gluten-free Tiramisu Cupcakes

I recommend using this brand of gluten-free flour!

Cupcakes (makes about 32)

Ingredients

·        4 cups gluten free all-purpose flour blend

·        4 tsp baking powder

·        2 tsp baking soda

·        1 tsp salt

·        2 sticks of unsalted butter

·        1 cup granulated sugar

·        1 cup brown sugar

·        4 eggs

·        4 tsp vanilla

·        2 tsp almond extract

·        1 cup almond milk

·        4 tsp apple cider vinegar

Directions

1.  In a small bowl, mix the almond milk with the apple cider vinegar and set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2.  In another bowl, mix together the gluten-free flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in the eggs, vanilla, and almond extract. Stir in half of the dry ingredients to the mixture, then the almond milk, then the rest of the dry ingredients (stirring well after each addition). Mix until smooth.

4.  Line cupcake tins with aluminum baking cups. Bake in preheated 350 F oven for about 20 minutes.

Liquid Coffee Layer

Ingredients

·        1 ½ cups water, boiling

·        ½ cup brown sugar

·        2 Tbsp instant coffee (or 2 Tbsp coffee liqueur)

Directions: Mix boiling water, brown sugar, and instant coffee all together. Use fork to poke holes in baked cupcakes; spoon 1 tbsp of syrup evenly into each cupcake.

After the coffee layer is added (yes, it looks kind of ugly haha)

Filling/topping

Ingredients

·        1 (8 ounce) container mascarpone cheese

·        8 oz. cream cheese

·        1/2 cup softened butter

·        3 cups confectioners' sugar

·        1 Tbsp vanilla

Directions: In a small bowl, using an electric mixer set on low speed, cream the mascarpone, cream cheese, and butter. Gradually add in the confectioners' sugar and vanilla; whip on high until thoroughly mixed. Pipe into cupcakes and/or frost on top.

Frosting ingredients (it made too much the first time, so I halved it for this recipe)

Note on the filling/topping: It was really soft when I made it, so I put it in the fridge for about an hour to firm up. Still soft, so don't expect it to whip up super fluffy. You can try cutting down on the cream cheese or mascarpone and increasing the powdered sugar if you want something more whipped and fluffy.

Tada! Finished cupcakes dusted w/cocoa powder

AWESOME dessert team!!! <3

Lighter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hello, world! I have transitioned from my old blog (which is now private) to this brand new one. :)

I decided to bake “healthier” chocolate chip cookies for my first official baking post. I made a number of changes to a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe: I reduced the butter by more than half(!), reduced the sugar by 1/3, reduced the amount of chocolate chips, and subbed in some almond flour for the all-purpose flour. I also added some almond milk at the end because I thought the batter looked a bit dry.

Don't they look good?

Izzy’s Lighter Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Ingredients:

·         1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour (I used unbleached)

·         ½ cup almond flour

·         1 tsp baking soda

·         1 tsp salt

·         1 tsp instant coffee powder (optional)

·         6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

·         1 cup dark brown sugar

·         1 large egg

·         2 tsp vanilla

·         1 Tbsp water

·         ¼ cup unsweetened almond milk

·         ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1.       Preheat oven to 350°F and cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2.       In a small bowl, sift (or whisk) together the dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking soda, salt, and instant coffee powder.

3.       In another bowl, blend together the softened butter with the brown sugar. Add in the egg, vanilla extract, water, and almond milk and mix until smooth. Mix in the dry ingredients and stir in chocolate chips.

4.       Drop by tablespoons on prepared baking sheet and bake for 13-15 minutes.  Makes 24 cookies.

Dry ingredients + butter & brown sugar; ready to be popped into the oven!

I even calculated the nutrition facts with this really helpful website: www.nutritiondata.com

Each cookie has about 138 calories. As you can see, it’s not necessarily healthy, but definitely lighter in calories, fat, and sugar than a traditional chocolate chip cookie! (Next time I’d probably incorporate whole wheat flour as well).