Custard

At our Wellington Xmas GAPS group meeting, I asked what foods people would miss at Xmas, and someone said that being dairy free, she missed custard. So here are three different custard recipes.

The first one is RUSSIAN custard, from the GAPS book. The Healthy Home Economist has the recipe HERE. This is a raw dish, made from just egg yolks and honey. It is usually used as a cream substitute on GAPS. But if you added a little vanilla, it would taste more like the custard we're used to. 

The second is a MILK custard, but using honey instead of sugar. This is only GAPS friendly in the very last stages when you can have a little unfermented dairy, as long as it is raw.

• 1 cup raw milk
• 1 cup raw cream
• 3 egg yolks
• pinch Celtic sea salt
• 1 Tbs honey
• ¾ tsp vanilla essence (or one vanilla bean)

This makes a hot, runny custard. Heat up the milk & cream to just short of boiling. Meanwhile, if you have a double boiler, beat the egg yolks and salt together in the top part. Otherwise, find a bowl that will sit on top of a pan of boiling water, and use that. Pour the hot milk & cream slowly into the egg yolks, whisking most of the time. Set on top of a pan of simmering water, and whisk till it thickens (about 10 mins). Take off the heat, whisk in the honey and vanilla essence and serve immediately with fruit crumble, pie, ice cream or fruit.

Variation 1: 

If you are using a vanilla bean, scrape out the seeds and add them to the milk and cream in step 1.

Variation 2: If you want a thick custard for something like a trifle topping:

Instead of putting the cream in with the milk, put into a small bowl and let it come to room temperature before starting the custard. Sprinkle 1 Tbs gelatin over the top of it, and carry on with the custard. After it has thickened, stir in the cream & gelatin and stir till the gelatin has dissolved. Let cool a little, pour onto the sponge & jelly layer of your trifle and refrigerate.

Variation 3: Thick custard with banana (the version pictured)

After taking off the heat and adding honey & vanilla, add one or two sliced banana, and stir. Cool a little, then refrigerate.

The third version is COCONUT custard.

This is the same as the milk custard, except that you use 1 1/2 cups of coconut cream. Look for a brand with no preservatives & other additives.

Fruit Jelly and Fruit Mousse

Another gelatin recipe we've been having quite a bit lately is real fruit jelly. To get a consistency more like commercial jelly, you can use fruit juice, but we've been using the whole fruit.

• 2 cups blueberries
• 1 cup black currants
• 1 1/2 cups room temp water
• 3 Tbs gelatin
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• small amount of natural sweetener of your choice

If your berries are frozen, get them out a couple of hours beforehand to defrost. 

Put the water in a medium sized pan and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. While it softens, zizz everything else together in a blender or food processor.

Gently heat the water and gelatin until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Add about half to the blender and zizz. Then add the rest and zizz well.

Pour into 4 or 5 dishes and put in the fridge to set. You can put it all in one bowl, but it;s then very tempting to just have another mouthful and another and so on!

Mousse

To convert the recipe to a mousse, replace the water with 1 cup raw milk or cream and 1/2 cup yoghurt or yoghurt cream. Sprinkle the gelatin on the milk or cream and add the yoghurt to the blender separately.

You can make all sorts of different flavours of mousse or jelly just by changing the fruit around. Strawberry & banana is also nice.

The version in the photo is Berry Mousse with another layer on top of Yoghurt mixed with fermented cream and raspberries. And a little gelatin in that layer too.

Gummy Stars

This is a Mommypotamus recipe, which I found  posted on the Auckland Mums: Super Nutrition for Babies and Beyond facebook page.

I'm in the mode of thinking of Xmas recipes at the moment, and these would be a great recipe for GAPS kids who are ok on honey.

• 1/3 cup lemon (or lime) juice (about 3 large lemons)
• 3 Tbs gelatin
• 3 Tbs honey
• Mummypotamus added some natural food colouring, but I didn't and they still came out a nice colour.

Put the lemon juice in a small pan and sprinkle the gelatin on top. When it's softened add the honey, and stir all together over a low heat till the gelatin is dissolved.

The first time, I just poured it into a glass dish, put in the fridge till set, then cut it up into squares. The second time I used some chocolate moulds. They went into the freezer for a while, then into the fridge. I used the pointy end of a sharp knife to prise a corner out, and then peeled each one out. This amount made about 24 gummies.

Now go and visit Mummypotamus and see all her other great recipes, including her guide to the Ultimate GAPS Xmas recipes. 

She also has a fabulous looking book full of DIY organic beauty recipes. Just what every GAPS household needs.

Cod liver oil jellies

Recently, I've been trying a few different ways to use gelatin. First up was making cod liver oil jellies. The original recipe came to me from Nadine. Her kids used to love the Green Pastures gummy fish, so when they were discontinued, Nadine started making her own. I've tried a few different variations and most of them have worked fine. So first here's the method, then a few different combinations. 

Put the water in a medium sized pan, then sprinkle the gelatin over the top. When it has softened, heat the water gently, stirring till the gelatin has dissolved. Take off the heat and add the honey and coconut oil, stirring till dissolved. If you are adding an extra flavourings, add them at this stage. When the mix has cooled down to body temperature, whisk in the cod liver oil. Pour into a tray lined with baking paper, and put into the fridge. When it's set, cut into 24 pieces. Each is equivalent to about 1 tsp cod liver oil, a std adult dose. Cut smaller for kids.

Nadine's original - Jaffa

• 1 cup water
• 4 Tbs gelatin
• 12 Tbs honey
• 4 tsp coconut oil
• 4 Tbs orange fermented Cod liver oil
• 4 Tbs chocolate Royal

Chocolate cinnamon

Replace the orange with cinnamon, and can also add an extra tsp of raw cacao powder. As there is stevia in the cinnamon, the honey can be reduced a little too.

Skate Jaffa

• 1 cup water
• 4 Tbs gelatin
• 12 Tbs honey (or replace some with stevia)
• 4 tsp coconut oil
• 4 heaped Tbs cacao
• 8 Tbs spicy orange fermented Skate liver oil

Choc Orange Cinnamon (makes 30 pieces)

• 1 cup water
• 4 Tbs gelatin
• 12 Tbs honey (or replace some with stevia)
• 4 Tbs coconut oil
• 4 heaped Tbs cacao
• 6 Tbs cinnamon fermented Cod liver oil
• 4 Tbs spicy orange fermented Skate liver oil

Anyway, you get the picture. You can mix things around a bit and they all pretty much work. You get the goodness of the gelatin and an easier way to take your cod liver oil. Skate liver oil has a lot of the same properties as the butter oil, so using either Royal or skate will complement the Cod nicely.

There was one combination that DIDN'T work as it separated into two layers:

• 1/3 cup lemon juice and 2/3 cup water
• 4 Tbs gelatin
• 4 Tbs coconut ghee or maybe oil would have worked better
• 100ml honey
• 30 drops stevia
• 5 Tbs orange fermented Cod liver oil
• 5 Tbs spicy orange fermented Skate liver oil

But I put it all in the mini food processor and zizzed it up and now we have a jar of citrus cod/skate gel. So that's all good too.