Category Archives: Dessert

May8

5,844 Days Old

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Food n Thought Peddler

5,844 days old, and I remember every one of them!

My baby boy turned 16 today, not a baby anymore, on a brink of turning into a man yet still very much a child especially to his mother. A strong and willful spirit, a true Taurus born in a year of a Bull (double horns anyone? ), an independent thinker who marches to his own drum, a sensitive boy (deep inside visible only to those who love and know him well), my one and only, my everything!

As a whole life awaits you up ahead, I know you’ll have some turns and twists, some set backs and disappointments and hopefully many many joyous days, just as life is in general. For a mother, all those hard moments are a real gut ripping experience but as our children grow up and go through their own trials, you know that they are dealt their cards and have to win or lose sometimes to gain a perspective what it is they want in life and who they are in their true self.

Happy big 16th, baby!

And many many more happy and healthy ones up ahead for you!

What’s Cooking This Week

As my usual food-tester, the kid has tried his share of many tasty dishes (and some that did not turned out as planned). So today I’m making something that he actually requested. I was almost sure that he’d ask for chocolate (my true child), but I guess not, he asked for a pie. A pie, kid, for a 16th birthday?! Yep! The recipe below is a combo of his requested food and mom’s quest to make it a bit more festive.

Mini Fruit Pies with Almond Whipped Cream

For the crust (makes about 18 mini pies):

2 cups of flour (I used Cup4Cup gluten free mix)

2 sticks of cold butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup of iced cold water

1/2 tspoon of salt

Filling:

1 cup of any cut up fruit (I used strawberries)

6 Tbspoons of sugar

1/2 tspoon of lemon juice

1 Tbspoon of flour

variation: fruit jam

1 container of Healthy Top Mimic Cream (or 2 cups of dairy whipped cream)

In a bowl combine the flour and salt and mix well, add cut up butter and start mixing in with your fingers untill it resembles a coarse meal with pea-like small crumbs. Pour cold water over and let it soak in, mix well, make a rough dough ball, place it on a floured surface and let ir rest for 10 minutes.

Start kneading it on a floured surface, then make a couple of folds, cover the dough with parchment paper and roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Use any large cookie cutter (I used a star) to cut out the mini pies.

Carefully lift each cut out and place it inside a muffin or mini pie pan (I used mini tart pan) and mold each pie inside. Prick small holes with a fork.

Place the pan into a fridge for about 30 minutes. In a mean while mix in cut strawberries with lemon juice, 1 Tbspoon of flour and sugar, let them sit. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Take the pan out of the fridge and bake for about 10-15 minutes or untill the edges become slightly golden. Fill each pie with the strawberry mixture or jam.

Bake for another 15 minutes, let them cool before removing from the pan. Whip Healthy Top or dairy cream according to the directions. Place about 1 Tbspoon each on top of mini pies or decorate with sugar and fresh fruit.

Happy Birthday Baby! Hope you enjoy them!

Mar29

Party Like a Professional

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Food n Thought Peddler

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“It’s my party, and I cry if I want to”…

Well, not really. But it does feel like I’ve shed a lot of tears in the past several months, many job-related in a post-Sandy reality.

March is a professional social work month, so, yes, we partied like it’s our job.

With some good news at least, the first clinics have finally started moving back to our hospital in the city, the inpatient medicine will hopefully be moving back sometime between May and July, and though plans may change as the process goes along, at least there is an end to this seemingly long tunnel. We are all moving to a different floor when back in the hospital, but our offices have nice bay windows with a gorgeous view overlooking the East River. We will have to share office space with another coworker, but there is some glimpse that maybe sometime in the future we will all have separate offices like we’re used to. As long as there is a glimpse of hope, I’ll surely take it.

But for now it’s party time!

And, yes, I’ll cry if I really want to!

What’s Cooking This Week

It’s party, so you definitely need some sugar overload. Something that makes you forget you’re supposed to eat healthy and only nibble on dessert. Forget that! Have five of these at once! (One of my coworkers actually did )

Nutella and Strawberries Cupcakes

For cupcakes, I used my chocolate cake recipe found here Every Day Should Be A Birthday, substitute water for Amaretto (or not) in this recipe. It’s gluten free of course using Cup4Cup flour mix.

Also have extra Nutella and cut up strawberries, makes 24 cupcakes.

For two types of frosting, Nutella and strawberry:

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup of shortening (I used organic Spectrum shortening)

1 cup + 1/4 cup of powdered sugar

3/4 cup of Nutella

1/4 cup of seedless strawberry jam

Prepare the cake batter according to the directions in the post above. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the cupcake pans with liners and fill them about 3/4 full. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or untill the cake tester comes out clean, let the cupcakes cool off before removing from pans. Using a knife or a cupcake corer, remove the inside of each cupcake, stuff them with cut up strawberries.

Place about 1 tspoon of Nutella on top of strawberry and cover it again with the removed cupcake core.

Make two types of frosting. First cream together butter and shortening, then divide the mix in half. To make Nutella frosting, add Nutella and cream together with butter and shortening, then gradually add 1/4 cup of powdered sugar (more or less depending on your taste).

To make the strawberry frosting, add jam to the butter and shortening mixture and then gradually add powdered sugar. Add a couple of drops of red food coloring if you want a deeper pink color.

Decorate with both frostings as desired. All packed and ready to be transported to the party.

Enjoy! Definitely have more than one!

Mar8

Happy Birthday, Peddler!

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Food n Thought Peddler

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Today is Peddler’s birthday! Food n Thought Peddler that is. My blog has turned 1 year old today! And it is my 100th post, so big double celebration!

What a year it has been indeed! I laughed, and cried, and whined, and celebrated… Oh, and cooked and baked of course!

My enormous “Thank You” to all the readers, those who’ve joined to follow my blog and those who just happened to pass by! Your “likes”, comments or simply knowing that you’ve stopped by and read my posts is a huge motivation to continue on paving a road of delicious healthy and gluten free eating heavily sprinkled with sweet indulgences, but what life is if not to allow yourself some detours and rest stops?!

To recap what happened in the past year, 81 recipes have been written plus several restaurant reviews and tips on traveling while eating gluten free. I had 2 series posted, one was the Italian series and the other were Pink recipes to spread the awareness of breast cancer screening and treatment options. My blog was visited and “liked” by Chef Lena Kwak, who along with Chef Thomas Keller, developed Cup4Cup gluten free flour blend that I often use in my recipes. She also featured two of my recipes using the blend on their website.

I have several families who contacted me via the blog and now often order gluten free cupcakes or other baked desserts for their parties or family gatherings. It was the greatest acknowledgement of my hard efforts in the kitchen!

And most important, this past year, I had FUN FUN FUN cooking and baking and (flopping sometimes) and creating!

So, let’s send the Peddler off, away from its babyhood and onto a new exciting journey in the 2nd year!

What’s Cooking This Week

Since this is the 100th post and a big 1 year celebration, I was thinking of making something special. Dessert of course comes to mind, any time you think of a celebration, but I also had some of my specifications. It had to be gluten free of course, and at least not too over-loaded with fat and sugar, then it just had to be chocolate, and it just had to be pink. The possibilities were endless of course. And I think this recipe perfectly combines all the specifications in one light yet indulgent little treat.

Chocolate Tartlets with Strawberry Almond Whipped Cream and Berries

Chocolate tartlets (makes 18)

1 1/4 cups of flour (I used Cup4Cup gluten free blend)

1/4 cup of powdered sugar

1 large egg yolk

3/4 tspoon of vanilla

a pinch of sea salt

Mix together flour, salt and cocoa powder. In a food processor, pulse together butter and powdered sugar, then add vanilla and egg yolk, pulse again. Combine wet and dry ingredients and roll the dough into a ball.

Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest in the fridge for about an hour. After that, let it warm up again, flatten it and start rolling between the two sheets of parchment paper (as the dough is sticky and resembles play dough). Cut small pieces and roll them out to fit the size of mini tartlet pans. You can make them thin or thicker, I rolled mine pretty thin, it also made fitting them inside the tart holes much easier. Shape the tartlet and cut off the extra dough, you can re-roll and use it for the next tartlet.

Bake the tartlets in a pre-heated oven at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes or until they are firm to the touch and the sides are slightly puffed. Let them cool off completely before removing from the pan as they are pretty fragile.

In a mean while, make strawberry whipped cream.

2 cups of made Healthy Top (cashews and almonds cream), or regular whipped cream

1/4 cup of pureed fresh strawberries

1/4 cup of powdered sugar (or more if you want the cream sweeter)

berries and pink sugar for garnish

(optional) 3-4 drops of red food coloring

Prepare Healthy Top according to directions: chill the carton along with mixer beaters and metal bowl in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Then whip the cream for 3-4 minutes. Add pureed strawberries, whip again, then add powdered sugar and whip until all is well combined. Add food coloring if you want the cream of a deeper pink color.

Fill each tartlet shell with about 1 Tbspoon of cream, garnish with different berries and sprinkle pink sugar on top.

The combination of semi-sweet chocolate tarts and light strawberry cream hits all the right spots in a healthy yet indulgent union. They taste like little pieces of chocolate and berry heaven.

Enjoy!

Feb14

Sweet Valentine

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Food n Thought Peddler

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Happy Valentine’s Day! No matter if you are attached or single, savor the air full of love and joyous feelings and appreciate the relationships (be it love related or not) you have in your life. Every human connection is a gift that’s brought into your life by the Divine Order, however, long or short that may be, to enjoy each other, possibly learn from each other and continue on your own path of growth and self-development.

If you are in a relationship, take a moment to let your partner know how much they mean to you, even if not every day is all “kisses and roses”. As a matter of fact, reach out to every person in your life who is important and do the same. Love is never just intimate relationship related, love is Love, it just is!

And if you’re single this Valentine’s Day, be gentle on yourself and take it lightly, just go out and celebrate, have fun with your un-attached status. Make sure to have a princess dress and a tiara at hand and get in touch with your “inner child”. Sing it like Sophia Grace and make moves like Rosie .

What’s Cooking This Week

Valentine’s Day is inevitably associated with sweets and chocolate in particular. If you ask me though, chocolate is pretty much a daily necessity in my menu, it’s my BFF, Valium and an alcohol-chaser, it’s just one of those things that makes life much more tolerable. So it was a no-brainer what to make this Valentine’s Day. Yet I felt it didn’t have to be necessarily rich and void of nutrients. This recipe is a great “bridge” without compromising the sweet cravings for something decadent, or spending a lot of time in the kitchen. Use that time to be with your Valentine!

Chocolate Almond Torte with Strawberry Rum Sauce

(makes 3 mini heart cakes):

3 eggs

1/2 cup of plain yogurt (I used coconut yogurt by So Delicious)

1/3 cup of almond flour

2 Tbspoons of coconut flour

2 Tbspoons of cocoa

2 Tbspoons of sugar

1/4 tspoon of cinnamon

Sauce:

1 cup of chopped strawberries

2 Tbspoons of rum

2 Tbspoons of sugar

1 tspoon of lemon juice

Beat together eggs, sugar and yogurt. In a separate bowl, combine together both flours and cinnamon, add into wet ingredients and incorporate well. Oil 3 mini heart cake pans and fill each about 3/4 full.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Let the cakes cool off a bit before removing from pans.

While they are baking, make the sauce. Blend together strawberries and lemon juice in a blender. Transfer the mixture into a small pan, add sugar and cook on a slow heat for a few minutes until sugar is dissolved, then add rum and cook until alcohol is evaporated and all the liquids are reduced. Let the sauce to stand for a couple of minutes before serving.

Serve the cakes and sauce slightly warm to fully enjoy their soft texture and rich flavors.

Enjoy! Share with your Valentine!

Jan23

Lemony Snicket

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Food n Thought Peddler

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I can find at least ten things every day to be pouting about, the value of their “upsetting” scale is debatable as it is always a subjective matter, and some days are just worse than others regardless how bad or how many of those lemony snickets made an appearance in your daily routine.

My hospital’s post-Sandy relocation to Brooklyn due to the building damage has been a BIG lemony upset for me for the past few months, the good thing, we should be back there around July. It’s still about six months away, but at least there is some foreseeable end to this, so I’ll take it.

Another huge lemony snicket is the fact that we are being moved to a different floor once we are back, so that means I’m losing my big beautiful office complete with a private bathroom, sink and even a kitchen counter. I’m talking having a HUGE meltdown about it!

Last week I went to the hospital to pack and clear my office (still pouting here!). It was a sad picture indeed. The hallways are empty, dim and dusty (with the most of the lighting and ventilation systems still not working), my office was littered with papers blown all over, I guess from the window cracks, and looked very uninhibited. Plants were dead, packaged gluten free snacks and breakfast items, though not technically spoiled, still had to be thrown out as I was afraid they got mold spores that the whole hospital was affected with. I was so happy that my office had a kitchen counter as I didn’t have to worry that some of my dishes or appliances would get contaminated with bread crumbs in the department kitchen, I would have to get adjusted to some different routine once back in a new office. (Still pouting!).

I checked the new wing where we’d be moving in, and though nice and with gorgeous view overlooking the East River, there are not enough of space for everybody to have a private office anymore, so that means I’d have to share. (Another BIG meltdown here!). I’ve never had to share an office in my life, and since now being in Brooklyn, I have to share it with two other people, I’m so not looking forward to doing it on a permanent basis. I’m definitely not getting an office with a kitchen counter, but I will fight to have one with a sink at least. For somebody who works in inpatient medicine, hand hygiene is important, for a person like me with a chemo-weakened immune system, it’s mandatory.

So, the Ritz Carlton girl is being downgraded to Holiday Inn (or at least it feels like it). And even though I still continue pouting about some lemony snickets that always seem to make an appearance in my life, I am also very grateful to a TON of things that are going great!

What’s Cooking This Week

Not all lemony things are actually unfortunate. Some are quite pleasant with a nice tart undertone. And yet others are just pure luxury. Ritz Carlton happen to make one of the best (in my opinion) lemon pound cake. If there is anything that speaks of indulgence, that is surely the Ritz. And I can personally attest to it as I’ve been to many of them (though some were better than others). If you ever have a chance, go to one of their afternoon tea offerings, you will be able to sample their wonderful cakes and scones (what I remember back from gluten eating days). I feel my recipe, tweaked a bit to be gluten/milk free and with added blueberries, is a wonderful rendition of the days long gone. If your life seems to be full of some lemony snickets, indulge in this Ritzy cake at least.

Ritz Carlton Lemon Pound Cake

3 cups of flour (I used Authentic Foods classic gluten free mix and 1 1/2 tspoon of xantan gum)

1 cup of milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)

1 cup of blueberries

5 eggs, room temperature

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup of shortening, room temperature (I used organic Spectrum shortening)

1 Tbspoon of baking powder

6 Tbspoons of lemon juice

3 cups of sugar

zest from 1 lemon

3/4 tspoon of salt

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour cake pans, I had enough batter for a bundt cake and 3 mini cakes. Start by beating together butter, shortening and sugar, then add eggs, one by one, beating in between.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour (xanthan gum), salt and baking powder. Then gradually start adding the mix to the wet ingredients alternating with adding the milk. Add lemon juice and lemon zest and mix well.

Carefully fold in the blueberries into the batter.

Fill cake pans 3/4 full and bake for about an hour if using a bundt pan (adjust the time for smaller cake pans). Let the cakes cool off before removing from the pans and cool off completely before frosting.

Limoncello Glaze:

1 cup of powdered sugar

1 Tbspoon of coconut oil, melted

2 Tbspoons of Limoncello

1 Tbspoon of lemon juice

Sift the powdered sugar and mix in Limoncello, lemon juice and coconut oil. Pour the glaze over cakes right away before coconut oil starts solidifying. Let it dry completely before cutting.