Yum! Roasted goose is delicious and GAPS legal! Goose can be tough and dry, but baking it with salt and at a low temperature helps hold the moisture in.
Almond Flour Cookies with Cacao Nibs
GAPS Legal Almond Cookies
Adapted from The Paleo Plan Makes 24 Cookies GAPS Legal on Stage 4
Ingredients for gaps legal chocolate chip cookies
2 cups Almond Flour
¼ cup Whey
2 large eggs
1/3 cup Room Temperature Coconut Oil
1 tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Vanilla
⅛ tsp Salt
¼ cup Honey (or ⅓ cup date syrup)
⅛-¼ cup Raw Cacao Nibs
Directions for chocolate chip cookies on the gaps diet
24 Hours in Advance
Add whey to almond flour. Stir to moisten.
Leave covered on counter for 24 hours to ferment.
The Next Day
Preheat oven to 350. Add your baking sheet to the oven to preheat. These cookies bake better on a hot dish.To fermented flour, add eggs and stir.
Add coconut oil to mixture. The coconut oil should be room temperature. If it is melted, you won’t have the right consistency.
Add the baking soda, vanilla, salt and honey (or date paste) to the mixture. Mix well.
Add cacao nibs to dough mixture.
Remove baking sheet from oven. Line with parchment paper.
Spoon approx. 1 tbsp size rounds of dough onto parchment paper.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes until edges are golden brown and cookies seem firm. Watch them closely after 8 minutes. They will go from raw to burnt quickly!
Almond Flour Cookies with Cacao Nibs
prep time: cook time: total time:
ingredients:
- 2 cups Almond Flour
- ¼ cup Whey
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup Room Temperature Coconut Oil
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- ½ tsp Vanilla
- ⅛ tsp Salt
- ¼ cup Honey (or ⅓ cup date syrup)
- ⅛-¼ cup Raw Cacao Nibs
instructions:
How to cook Almond Flour Cookies with Cacao Nibs
24 Hours in Advance
- Add whey to almond flour. Stir to moisten.
- Leave covered on counter for 24 hours to ferment.
The Next Day
- Preheat oven to 350. Add your baking sheet to the oven to preheat. These cookies bake better on a hot dish.To fermented flour, add eggs and stir.
- Add coconut oil to mixture. The coconut oil should be room temperature. If it is melted, you won’t have the right consistency.
- Add the baking soda, vanilla, salt and honey (or date paste) to the mixture. Mix well.
- Add cacao nibs to dough mixture.
- Remove baking sheet from oven. Line with parchment paper.
- Spoon approx. 1 tbsp size rounds of dough onto parchment paper.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes until edges are golden brown and cookies seem firm. Watch them closely after 8 minutes. They will go from raw to burnt quickly!
GAPS Friendly Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Recipe
Strawberry rhubarb pie has always been one of my favorites! In the past I have modified recipes to make a strawberry rhubarb dessert, but this year I decided I wanted to use my growing knowledge and skill in the kitchen and make a delicious GAPS-legal pie. My added challenges? I wanted to make it with a fermented almond crust, and use a different sweetener than honey. Finally, I wanted to have a modification that made not only GAPS legal, but dairy-free, nut-free and egg-free.
Overall, I would call the experiment a success. But to get that success I had to make more multiples of this recipe than I ever have for any previous recipe I've posted. Because of the crust. Not that my "tester" friends and family complained.
Turns out almond flour crust doesn't play nice with a wetter pie filling. Actually, the problem is that it plays too nice! It wants to combine with the filling; get up close and personal. Not what a pie crust is supposed to do. I did not fully overcome the pie-crust conundrum, but every recipe I made turned out delicious. So instead of chocking it up as a "failed recipe," I decided to share with you what I made... a good pie that happens to have a crust with boundary issues! And, of course, I will share the modified recipe for egg-free, nut-free, dairy-free strawberry rhubarb dessert. Keep reading!
Ingredients FOr Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
For the Pie Crust:
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1/4 cup whey (enough to moisten)
1/2 cup room-temperature butter (or lard)
1/2 tsp sea salt
For the Filling:
3 1/2 cups rhubarb pieces
2 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup date syrup (I use this one)
2 TBS gelatin dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water
Optional: zest from 1/2 lemon
Directions for Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Mix almond flour and whey together. Cover and leave on the counter for 24 hours to ferment.
After 24 hours, this mixture keeps in the fridge for up to 1 week.
To the fermented flour mixture, add butter or lard and sea salt. Mix well, getting all clumps out.
Then butter a pie pan well. Press the crust mixture into the pan and form a crust using your fingers.
Bake at 400° for 5-8 minutes until a little dry and just turning brown.
Combine all ingredients for the filling. Let sit for 5-10 minutes until the juices increase.
Add the filling to your pre-baked crust.
Bake at 400° for 30-35 minutes until light brown.
Directions for Strawberry Rhubarb Dessert
A delicious nut free alternative served hot or at room temperature!
Mix the filling the same, except add 2 additional TBS of gelatin and dissolve in 1/2 cup of hot water.
Let the filling sit for 5-10 minutes to let the flavors mix.
Line muffin tins.
Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes until the tops are just browning.
Serve warm or room temperature. These gooey treats are a bit messy, so eat with a spoon. They are delicious!
Enjoy!
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
prep time: cook time: total time:
ingredients:
For the Pie Crust:
- 2 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1/4 cup whey (enough to moisten)
- 1/2 cup room-temperature butter (or lard)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
For the Filling:
- 3 1/2 cups rhubarb pieces
- 2 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup date syrup (I use this one)
- 2 TBS gelatin dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water
- Optional: zest from 1/2 lemon
instructions:
How to cook Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
24 Hours Before
- Mix almond flour and whey together. Cover and leave on the counter for 24 hours to ferment.
- After 24 hours, this mixture keeps in the fridge for up to 1 week.
The Next Day
- To the fermented flour mixture, add butter or lard and sea salt. Mix well, getting all clumps out.
- Then butter a pie pan well. Press the crust mixture into the pan and form a crust using your fingers.
- Bake at 400° for 5-8 minutes until a little dry and just turning brown.
- Combine all ingredients for the filling. Let sit for 5-10 minutes until the juices increase.
- Add the filling to your pre-baked crust.
- Bake at 400° for 30-35 minutes until light brown.
Strawberry Rhubarb Dessert
prep time: cook time: total time:
ingredients:
- 3 1/2 cups rhubarb pieces
- 2 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup date syrup (I use this one)
- 2 TBS gelatin dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water
- Optional: zest from 1/2 lemon
instructions:
How to cook Strawberry Rhubarb Dessert
- Mix the filling the same, except add 2 additional TBS of gelatin and dissolve in 1/2 cup of hot water.
- Let the filling sit for 5-10 minutes to let the flavors mix.
- Line muffin tins.
- Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes until the tops are just browning.
- Serve warm or room temperature. These gooey treats are a bit messy, so eat with a spoon. They are delicious!
Fruit Chutney for your Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving!
One of the best things about November is the focus on being grateful and thankful. Everywhere you look there are posts and tweets showing gratitude. And we sure have a lot to be thankful for! Some things are so obvious we often forget to be thankful for. These are things like safe drinking water, warm houses, smart phones and electricity are so everyday for us that we forget how much we have.
Sometime this week, I encourage you to write a list of all the things you have to be thankful for. Don't feel silly including things like water, or your favorite pair of jeans. See how long you can make the list! Even if you don't feel like being thankful, I encourage you to do this exercise—gratitude changes our perception and experience of life, even if nothing is circumstantially different.
This is not to say that you don't have hard things in your life, or that you should pretend they aren't difficult. They are. Hard things are part of life and are very, very real. Remembering that there are good things in your life as well will help YOU through difficult situations.
As you know, most of my posts (so far, at least) aren't recipes. But it's Thanksgiving! The start of holidays and delicious, rich, made-with-love food. Well this recipe is definitely delicious, rich and made-with-love!
I took the recipe out of Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Cambell-McBride. If you are following the GAPS diet this is legal on stage 5 or 6, when you are tolerating dried spices and peppercorns.
This recipe is very simple—chop and combine ingredients, simmer for a while, then store in jars. It would be a great recipe to make in a crockpot... you really could fix it and forget it! But simple doesn't mean plain. It's delicious and adds flavor to any meat you are eating. And I'm told, quite excellent with turkey!
*This dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free, sugar-free recipe would be great for gifts as well—ladle into pint jars and add a bow!
Fruit Chutney
Makes 3-4 quarts
Ingredients
2 lbs dried dates (without stones, cut in half)
2 lbs cooking apples (about 7 cups of pieces)
1 lb plumbs (I used packaged prunes)
3 medium onions (about 3 cups, finely diced)
3 peppers (about 2 cups, finely diced)
2 cups raw apple cider vinegar
1-2 tsp whole peppercorns (freshly crushed)
1-2 tsp aromatic seeds (I used cumin and dill)
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1-2 tsp natural salt
Directions:
Cut dates in half (and remove stones (seeds) if needed)
Slowly boil the dates in about 1 cup of water in a large pot until soft (about 10 minutes)
If you live in Colorado like me, and don't use a lid (also like me), you may need to add extra water during this process.
When the dates are soft, turn off heat and mash them with a potato masher—they don't have to be perfectly smooth, just mashed.
While you were softening the dates, I hope you were furiously chopping! I completely underestimated the time it was going to take to chop everything I needed for this recipe. If you want the process to go smoother, I would recommend chopping everything at the beginning. Then as soon as the dates are soft you can add the rest, stir occasionally, and walk away!
The directions from Dr. Natasha are:
Add everything else to the dates and simmer 1-1/2 hours on very low heat, stirring occasionally.
If you are like me and work better with a little note of panic, then by all means, chop furiously and add things as you chop. For all you step-by-steppers like me, below are pictures to show what I added.
Sterilize the jars.
Dr. Natasha recommends doing this in an oven. I had never done this but it seemed to work great! Place cold jars in a cold oven. Heat the oven to 250°F, then leave it at that temperature for 40 minutes to sterilize the jars. Pull the jars out of the oven one-by-one as you are ready to fill them so they stay hot. Use oven mitts!
Ladle the hot chutney into the jars.
A jar funnel is a lifesaver here!
I left just a little room for air, much less than my fermenting self wanted, but no jars exploded so it must be okay!
Wipe off any chutney on the rim of the jar. Then immediately seal the jar, tightening the lid.
Again, use an oven mitt—the jars are hot!
Place the jar on the counter, some distance between them.
It's better to not move the jars until they are cool, so place them where you will not need to move them for many hours, overnight is better.
When cool, place the jars into the refrigerator.
This is not a fermented food, so it does require refrigeration.
Serve with meats and fish. Good cold or warm.
It's delicious! I made this for our Thanksgiving feast in a few days, but tried it out with some chicken today. I enjoyed it thoroughly! I hope you enjoy it as well!
Onward!
Fruit Chutney
prep time: cook time: total time:
ingredients:
- 2 lbs dried dates (without stones, cut in half)
- 2 lbs cooking apples (about 7 cups of pieces)
- 1 lb plumbs (I used packaged prunes)
- 3 medium onions (about 3 cups, finely diced)
- 3 peppers (about 2 cups, finely diced)
- 2 cups raw apple cider vinegar
- 1-2 tsp whole peppercorns (freshly crushed)
- 1-2 tsp aromatic seeds (I used cumin and dill)
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1-2 tsp natural salt
instructions:
How to cook Fruit Chutney
- Cut dates in half (and remove stones (seeds) if needed)
- Slowly boil the dates in about 1 cup of water in a large pot until soft (about 10 minutes)
- If you live in Colorado like me, and don't use a lid (also like me), you may need to add extra water during this process.
- When the dates are soft, turn off heat and mash them with a potato masher—they don't have to be perfectly smooth, just mashed.
- While you were softening the dates, I hope you were furiously chopping! I completely underestimated the time it was going to take to chop everything I needed for this recipe. If you want the process to go smoother, I would recommend chopping everything at the beginning. Then as soon as the dates are soft you can add the rest, stir occasionally, and walk away!
- The directions from Dr. Natasha are:
- Add everything else to the dates and simmer 1-1/2 hours on very low heat, stirring occasionally.
- If you are like me and work better with a little note of panic, then by all means, chop furiously and add things as you chop. For all you step-by-steppers like me, below are pictures to show what I added.
- Sterilize the jars.
- Dr. Natasha recommends doing this in an oven. I had never done this but it seemed to work great! Place cold jars in a cold oven. Heat the oven to 250°F, then leave it at that temperature for 40 minutes to sterilize the jars. Pull the jars out of the oven one-by-one as you are ready to fill them so they stay hot. Use oven mitts!
- Ladle the hot chutney into the jars.
- A jar funnel is a lifesaver here!
- I left just a little room for air, much less than my fermenting self wanted, but no jars exploded so it must be okay!
- Wipe off any chutney on the rim of the jar. Then immediately seal the jar, tightening the lid.
- Again, use an oven mitt—the jars are hot!
- Place the jar on the counter, some distance between them.
- It's better to not move the jars until they are cool, so place them where you will not need to move them for many hours, overnight is better.
- When cool, place the jars into the refrigerator.
- This is not a fermented food, so it does require refrigeration.
- Serve with meats and fish. Good cold or warm.