I tried a recipe for overnight oats that can be eaten either cold or hot. On Sunday evening, I mixed together ¼ cup Greek yogurt, ¼ cup milk, ½ tsp. honey (reduced from ¾ in recipe). I stirred in ¼ cup old-fashioned oats, then let it rest overnight in the refrigerator. (I deleted flax seed, 1 tsp. chia seed and ¼ tsp. vanilla.) The next morning, I topped it with ¼ cup fresh blueberries and about 2 Tbs. coarsely broken walnuts. I enjoyed eating it Monday morning. I can see other fruit and nut combinations. If I used dried fruit, I would add it the night before, but I would still wait to add nuts or pumpkin seeds until right before I would eat it.
For dinner on Monday, I made Crispy Oven Fish and Chips, which we had with microwaved fresh green beans from our garden. My husband is harvesting the green beans and reports that the plants are full of mosquitoes, a new occurrence for us.
I made a batch of (5) buns this afternoon. I held out enough dough to make a pizza. I have an open package of cheese that I want to use up.
Joan--the recipe was called Oatmeal Scotchies
2 1/4 cups flour (I added the 1/4 cup for a firmer cookie.)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbs. water (I omitted for crunchier cookies)
1/2 tsp. orange extract
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
12 oz. package butterscotch chips
I often added 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
Interestingly enough, the fathead dough pizza I made, using mostly almond flour, tastes less almondy when it has been reheated.
I have a bag of the King Arthur Keto Wheat Flour Blend but haven't used it for anything yet. I may try it on the fathead pizza dough, 1 cup is 56 carbs (16 net carbs) compared to 95 carbs (92 net) for AP flour. The almond meal/VWG mix I used in the fathead dough the other day works out to 46 carbs (34 net). My wife counts total carbs, she thinks that works better for computing insulin doses, I look at net carbs.
I made a fathead dough pizza tonight, looks good, will report on taste later.
Update: Fathead dough is a combination of cheese (often both mozzarella and cream cheese), almond flour and egg. I subbed some of the almond flour for a tablespoon of vital wheat gluten.
Toppings were tomato sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, artichoke hearts and salami.
I thought the almond taste was still a bit too forward, but the texture was very pizza-like. Fiddling with the flours further might improve it, so this is a qualified win, worth at least one more tweak. We ate 2/3 of it, I'll probably have the rest for lunch tomorrow. 6 slices, 10 carbs (6.4 net) per slice, including toppings.
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Just got an email from ThermoWorks pre-announcing the release of a wireless meat probe that they say can withstand temperatures up to 1000 degrees (F), go in the deep fat fryer and in the dishwasher. It has a much larger range than a bluetooth sensor does.
The pre-release price is $159, so I'm not in a hurry to buy one to test it.
The bottom of the latest batch of peanut butter cookies are overbaked and the centers are underbaked. I think it has to do with the browning temperature of allulose, which appears to be a lot lower than that of sucrose. Glucose and fructose have the same chemical formula as allulose C6H12O6, sucrose is C12H22O11.
Here are the browning (caramelization) temperatures usually given for various sugars:
Fructose: 221F
Glucose: 302F
Galactose: 320F
Sucrose: 338F
Maltose: 360F
I've only found one source for the browning temperature of allulose, but it say it is 300F, which would mean using allulose is going to require changes in oven temperature and baking time, among other things. (Not using a dark baking surface is probably another requirement, I might have to use an airbake pan instead of a silpat.)
For the time being, I'm going to go back to the original recipe, they're under 10 carbs each and if I make them a little smaller they'd be even lower.
I made a frittata for lunch on Saturday (and the next three days). I used zucchini, orange bell pepper, green onions, mushrooms, kale, and a leftover potato wedge from last night. I used five eggs and a partial egg (held back when I coated the fish last night) and ¼ cup milk. I used 2 oz. grated mozzarella and ½ tsp. Penzey's Mural of Flavor.
Dinner tonight will be leftover pork on freshly baked buns.
I made a batch of peanut butter cookies using vital wheat gluten instead of flour and allulose instead of sugar, adding a tablespoon of molasses to give it a 'brown sugar' taste.
They got brown faster than the original recipe, I don't know if that's due to the allulose or the VWG, possibly both. I'll update this note when they're cool enough to test.
They're overbaked on the bottom, I should have taken them out sooner, but the bigger problem is that you can't taste the peanut butter--at all! This one was a failure, I don't know if increasing the peanut butter would improve them, but I'm not likely to try it again very soon. Might need something lighter than VWG, like maybe some bamboo fiber. I don't know if some whey isolate would help by adding lightness. Another possibility is that it may need the sweetness of sugar to bring out the peanut butter taste, and allulose is only 75% as sweet as sugar. (I used 1-1 in the recipe.)
Last year, I tried a Rye Blueberry Bar recipe from King Arthur. The filling was horrible, as it seemed to be lacking enough liquid, and the cornstarch formed horrible clumps, which did not make for great taste. I gave it a 3 out of 5 stars because I thought the recipe had possibilities but was not ready for prime time. My review was one of the first, so it can be found near the end of the reviews. I noted that another person also had problems with the cornstarch forming clumps. Many other people raved about it. My husband thought that they were not bad. I liked the crumb topping and bottom but vowed never to make that filling again.
On Thursday, I decided to try the recipe again, but this time using the blueberry chia seed jam that I made on Saturday. I made the same changes to the crust as last time in that I used white whole wheat flour in place of the AP flour, replaced the ½ tsp. cardamom with ¼ tsp. allspice, which is my usual spice for a blueberry pie. I replaced 10 Tbs. butter with 1/3 cup avocado oil plus 2 Tbs. water. This time I used old-fashioned rather than quick oats, as I am hoping it will keep the crust and topping firmer for longer. I deleted the 2 tsp. of vanilla, although last time I used 1 tsp. in the crust. (Indeed, one sign that the recipe needed work was the 2 tsp. of vanilla in the crust and the 1 tsp. in the filling. When all else fails, cover it up with vanilla!) I baked it in an 8 x 8-inch glass baking dish.
We had some for dessert this evening, and we really like my version. It is just sweet enough but not overly sweet. I will definitely bake them again. They would likely work with a chia seed jam made from another kind of fruit, such as peaches or even with regular jam.
I made yogurt on Thursday. I also made my usual coleslaw but this time with red cabbag I found at last Saturday's farmers market. The flavor is slightly different but still delicious.
We had pork sandwiches on the last two buns from the freezer (time to bake more) and coleslaw for dinner.
The two primary causes are something on the rim and improper head space (too much or too little can both cause a failure to seal.) I've had one that was caused by a defective lid, so now I do look at the lids before using them.
I had pasta (rotini) with meat sauce and a crispy salad. There is something satisfying about pasta with a salad.
After the first batch of banana muffins was in the oven, I realized I had only used a half cup of sugar instead of the whole cup. (This batch was not made using keto-friendly ingredients at my wife's request.) I added some sugar to the rest of the batter and got another 2+ trays of mini-muffins, 80 in all. The less-sweet ones are pretty good, I might just cut back on the sugar next time around, though that makes only 1 carb difference per muffin (7 carbs vs 8), the bananas and the flour contribute more carbs than the sugar.
Supper tonight was tuna salad, mine on lettuce with a small tomato from the garden, and a small bowl of the keto-friendly vanilla ice cream (1 carb per scoop) I made, which was very good but needs to harden off a bit more, and topped with some home-made 'hot fudge' sauce that was more like a chocolate sauce but still under 5 carbs. (The candymaker in me suspects you can't make hot fudge without heating at least part of the mixture to about 235 degrees, and this was done on a double boiler and never got over 150.)
