Aloha Kakahiaka,

 

Well this week I have been working with wheat flour and making my favorite

morning buns and croissants.

 

I was lucky the recipes turned out great for me.

 

No I didn't eat them all up.  I actually scaled down the recipes as much as I could to make 1 tray making 8-9 medium sized ones.

 

I was glad how they turned out and were delicious.

 

I did use C and H Stevia light sugar it has 2 grams sugar and it works perfectly and no difference in the taste.  Because I grow my own lemon verbena I dried the leaves and I made Lemon Verbena Stevia sugar.

 

Bon appetit. 

 

 

Flan Cake

I've been tinkering on a small scale, what desserts I will be making for Christmas with

the ohana.

 

I found a recipe online Zoe bakes for deconstructed S'mores which I am dying to make.

 

I love flan but not too much on the filipino version.  I really like a brazilian type flan that I had in San Diego. I make mine more on the spaniard style.

 

So I toyed around with this Flan Cake.  It came out quite good.  I downscaled the recipe

and it came out good. I made some adjustments to the recipe to be a bit more diabetic friendly.
ie., I used C and H Stevia for baking.  This sugar I have blended with Lemon Verbena from
my garden this  year and adds a nice little hint of lemon.

This is made with wheat pastry flour so the cake is a little more dense but the textures combined

are quite beautiful, silkiness in the flan then into the cake.

I will post the recipe after I have fine tuned the cake part as it's not quite where I want it.

 

Bon Appetit. 

Energy Bars

 

 

This recipe was adapted from:

I used a conversion chart accordingly.

Lovely flavor, I cut back some of the honey for me. For the most part

I happened to have all the ingredients handy, which was odd meant to be.

I used my nut choice as I had almonds from our tree and have hazelnuts as I made Better then Nutella the other day.

Lastly, I added a quarter cup of mini semi sweet morsels.

 

 

http://www.flagrantedelicia.com/en/

 

 

Energy bars

Serves 8:

115 g butter, softened
150 g honey
1 egg
85 g powdered almonds (Almond flour)
90 g dried apricots, sliced ( I used dried cherries and cranberries)
50 g Goji berries
50 g cashew, chopped  (for the nuts I used, almonds and hazelnuts)
15 g sesame seeds
15 g sunflower seeds
10 g inflated quinoa ( I happened to have honey roasted quinoa puffs I got at Whole Foods)
85 g oat meal  (I used oatmeal that I processed)

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC.
Grease a rectangular pan (18 x 27 cm).
Whisk the butter with the honey until creamy.
Add the egg and the powdered almonds and combine until smooth.
Add the remaining ingredients.
Pour the dough into the pan taking care to make an even surface.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm and golden.
Let it cool down completely before unmoulding and cutting the bars.



 

Whole Wheat Pain

 

 

I have been expirementing with Wheat Flour baking lately.

So I do love a good croissant so here we have it.

 

I used no eggs, and used Stevia for Baking by C and H which I infused my dried lemon verbena

from my garden.

 

The chocolate ones have Valrhona Dark Chocolate bars in them.

 

Bon Appetit. 

 

 



 

 

 

Homemade Nutella

 

 

I woke up too dang early 5:30, so since I can't fall back asleep

back in the kitchen.

 

This wasn't as hard as I thought, but now that I know what is going into my own Nutella and tastes

really really yummy I will make my own.

 

This is adapted from Bon Appetit Better than Nutella

I did cut this in half and made 2 cups this will last a while for me.

 

Better Than Nutella

 (Chocolate-Hazelnut Spread)

We're big fans of Nutella, but this luxurious homemade gianduja tastes even better

Read More http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2012/12/better-than-nutella#ixzz2ErNU5JkC

Ingredients

• 2 cup2 (heaping) hazelnuts, preferably skinned (about 10 ounces)
• 1/4cup sugar
• 1 pound semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/2cup(1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces, room temperature
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350°. Spread out nuts on a rimmed baking sheet or in an ovenproof skillet. Roast, shaking sheet once for even toasting, until deep brown, 13-15 minutes. Let cool completely. (If nuts have skins, rub them in a kitchen towel to remove.)
• Grind hazelnuts and sugar in a food processor until a fairly smooth, buttery paste forms, about 1 minute.
• Place chocolate in a medium metal bowl. Set bowl over a large saucepan of simmering water; stir often until chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove bowl from over saucepan; add butter and whisk until completely incorporated. Whisk in cream and salt, then hazelnut paste.
• Pour gianduja into jars, dividing equally. Let cool. (Gianduja will thicken and become soft and peanut butter-like as it cools.) Screw on lids. DO AHEAD Gianduja can be made up to 4 weeks ahead; keep chilled. Let stand at room temperature for 4 hours to soften. Can stand at room temperature up to 4 days.

Hungry for More? If you have a question about this recipe, contact our Test Kitchen at askba@bonappetit.com. To see more recipes like this one, check out our Gifts from the Kitchen Slideshow.

·         Nutritional Information

32 servings, 1 serving contains: Calories (kcal) 170 Fat (g) 15 Saturated Fat (g) 6
Cholesterol (mg) 20 Carbohydrates (g) 11 Dietary Fiber (g) 2 Total Sugars (g) 9
Protein (g) 3 Sodium (mg) 55

Read More http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2012/12/better-than-nutella#ixzz2Emjo6FZE

 

 

 Whole Wheat Buns

 

Not too sure really what do name these but simply whole wheat buns.

 

I am trying to make things as diabetic friendly as I do love sweets.

 

Since I have my type II under control with no meds it is very important that

I try to make as friendly as possible.

 

This year I was able to buy a lemon verbena plant, it still small but I trim it all the time and

it bares some beautiful leaves which I have taken and dried myself. Thus taking the C and H

Stevia light for baking and making my lemon verbena sugar.  I have been able to make 3 fulls cups of this sugar and I only use a teaspoon or 2 for baking.  I don't use agave as I read that can be bad for diabetics.  I will use some regular sugar now and then depending on the recipes.

 

One of my goals was to be able to make a 1 pan of items like and this success today.

Here goes my way of course.  Bon Appetit.

 

6 piece Whole Wheat Buns

 

1 1/4 teaspoon yeast bloomed with 1 teaspoon stevia sugar and a tad of honey

in 1/3 cup of warm water.  Yup 1/3 cup

 1/3 cup milk set aside

 1 egg mix like to scramble

 1 and 2/3 cups bleached organic wheat and "00" combination

(have 2/3 -1 cup on side to knead by hand)

 1/8 teaspoon salt (I use hawaiian or himalayan salt it's what I have on hand)

 2 teaspoon lemon verbena sugar ( now I dry my own lemon verbena and made my own  lemon verbena sugar with C and H Stevia for baking)

1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

 

2 Tablespoons melted butter

 

For the top, egg wash and 2T each of lemon verbena sugar and vanilla sugar for the top ( save for when about to bake)

 

After yeast is bloomed, mix in milk and add all other ingredients mix well then start to knead it will be tacky for a bit until all the remaining flour is incorporated.

 I knead for 7 minutes until all the glutens have done their job and feels smooth supple.

Place in bowl with a little canola on the bottom and put a little on top, cover in non draft area and let it rise for 1 to 1.5 hours.

 

Punch down, and roll into rectangle.

 I use simply a mix of lemon verbena sugar and a little vanilla sugar.  If you want to make it cinnamon roll type you can do that too.

Sprinkle all over and then tuck and roll, cut into six  equal parts place on silpat let them rise for the 2nd time for 1 hour.

 Egg wash and bake at 350 preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.  I have a medium convection oven so I put straight in and I turn the pan around halftime into baking.

 

Once done golden brown pull out and enjoy. Voila!!!

 

You can make glaze sugar icing of course if  your heart desires.

 

 



 

 

 

Organic Wheat Flour Cinnamon Rolls

 

Well, I'm thinking I was craving sweets really bad.  But I tried to make them

as friendly as possible.

 

Organic wheat flour, stevia with lemon verbena.

All the sugar will be in the cream cheese icing where I did use 1 cup of icing sugar.

 

 

 

 

 

Last month we had dinner at 5A5 in San Francisco with our son.

That had this fantastic Bacon bread.

Well today a little bored thought I'd try it. So I did this with part

"00" flour and Organic Wheat flour.

 

It came out tasty.

 

I found some Maeda den Culinary Grade Matcha Green Tea.

 

Since I already make a New York style crumb cake, I thought why not.

Well, it was very tasty just enough flavor of the Matcha Green Tea.

 

 

 

 

 

I had my 2nd zen moment and made some Matcha Green Tea Panna Cotta with Lemon Verbana.

 

 

 

Happy Holidays 2012 everyone.

 

The past few days have been stormy here.  Yesterday we had a Holiday Hula event with

our Sister Halau and journeyed over to Redd for Dinner.

 

 

The above main entree was my Petrale Sole with Jasmine Coconut Rice with Chorizo and

a Saffron Curry Nage with manila clams. This was excellent.

 

Hubby and I of course shared the Pork Belly Appetizer that I had posted previously.

 

For dessert I had the above like a Struedel but Chef Reddington had a specific name to the dessert that I forgot the name of it.  It also had an apple sorbet hubby and I shared the dessert which was yummy.

 

 

Chef's Cabernet Sauvignon '09 is a beautifully bodied wine.