Carrot Pulp Bread

We've been juicing a bit recently and thinking about whether we could use the pulp for other recipes. One thing we've been doing is soaking ground chia and flax seeds, mixing them with the pulp, along with some Himalayan or celtic sea salt, then drying them in the dehydrator to make crispy crackers. Note that these are only suitable in later stages of GAPS.
 

Then I went looking for GAPS friendly bread recipes and found this recipe. I was looking for a more savoury recipe, so made a few tweaks. I also made a bigger version. Here's how it ended up.

• 6 largish eggs
• 1 tsp celtic sea salt
• 3oz / 85gm melted butter (or mix of butter & coconut oil)
• 12oz / 350gm / 2 tight packed cups carrot pulp left over from juicing (usually a little beetroot too)
• 1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 9oz / 255gm / just under 3 cups ground almonds (or ground cashews, hazels or sunflower seeds or coconut flour)
• 1.5 Tbs cider vinegar

Turn on the oven to 175C and line a loaf tin with baking paper. Then just throw it all in the food processor, starting with the eggs and salt. Once they’re well beaten, add the other things in the order of the list, beating well after each addition. Once the baking soda and cider vinegar are in there, get it in the oven as quickly as possible as they will be working their rising magic. Bake for 50 to 60 mins on 175C. 

The first 2-3 times, I used ground almonds. Then last time I used raw cashews instead and that was quite different. The photo is the cashew version. Both versions were delicious.

Notes: I started off putting the tray of water in the bottom, but last time I didn't and I couldn’t tell the difference. I haven’t needed to let it sit in the tin for 10 mins either.

Coconut almond bread

A few of you that came to my GAPS workshop last week wanted the recipe for the pumpkin bread, and I discovered I hadn't put it on the blog yet. So here it is!


The basic almond bread recipe in "Gut and Psychology Syndrome" contains just ground almonds, eggs and fat of some kind (eg butter, ghee, duck fat or coconut oil). In "Breaking The Vicious Cycle" Lois Lang's Luscious Bread also contains dry curd cottage cheese, salt and baking soda.


I developed this combination of Lois Lang's bread with the basic coconut flour bread recipe. It contains baking soda, but to be 100% GAPS just leave that out. The variation I made last week used coconut oil for the fat and pumpkin for moisture to make it dairy free. It stays moist in the fridge for a few days.

• 5 eggs
• 4 oz melted butter (or ghee, coconut oil, duck fat, palm oil)
• 1 cup cottage cheese, yoghurt, yoghurt “cheese”, kefir, kefir cheese OR 1 cup mashed pumpkin 
• 1 heaped teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 ½ cups ground almonds (or other nut flour)
• ½ cup coconut flour, sifted

Preheat oven to 175C (350F). Line a loaf tin with baking paper. Beat the first 5 ingredients together. Mix the flours together and beat into the wet ingredients. Spoon into tin and smooth the top. Bake till golden, about 45 minutes.


Variation: Zucchini bread


Replace the cottage cheese or pumpkin with 1.5 cups grated zucchini. Stir this in when you mix the wet and dry together.

Cheese muffins (no starch)

We're going away on holiday for a few days, and my mind has been mulling over what food to take with us - especially for the 9 hour drive north. We usually travel with a chilly bin full of chilled food, another full of frozens (depending on how long we're away for), and a cooler bag with food for the trip.

For snacks, we'll probably have nuts, fruit (fresh blueberries would travel well), maybe a coconut oil or cocoa butter based "slice". For lunch, I'll roast or bake some duck or chicken legs which we can eat cold with some carrot sticks and maybe some pre-cooked baby beetroot. I've also decided on cheese muffins. With pesto, ghee or another spread, carried in another container, these are filling and tasty.

I've used the standard coconut flour cheese muffin recipe before, which is nice. And I've also got an almond flour cheese scone recipe which I used to use a lot. But I usually prefer the two flours mixed. So here's my first attempt at a hybrid recipe. This amount made 6 standard sized muffins and about 10 mini muffins, so I think would make 9 std.

Please note, this isn't suitable for early stages of the GAPS Intro, only once you're back on full dairy.

Mix together:

• 1 cup ground almonds
• 4 tablespoons coconut flour
• a sprinkling of herbs of your choice (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (leave this out if you're full GAPS, they'll just be a little heavier)

Beat together:

• 3 eggs
• 50gm (2 oz) melted butter or ghee
• 1/2 cup yoghurt or kefir
• 1/2 teaspoon sea or Himalayan salt

Grate:

• 1 1/2 cups tasty cheddar cheese (or substitute up to half with diced feta)

Mix all 3 together, and leave to thicken slightly while you prepare your muffin trays. I use a combination of coconut oil and lecithin for this, as recommended by Bruce Fife in his book on coconut flour cooking. Three quarter fill the muffin pans. Bake at about 175C for about 20 mins (a bit less for bite sized).

You can add other savoury goodies like bacon, salami, mushrooms, etc, depending on what your particular diet restrictions are. 

These came put a pretty good consistency, and I haven't even got any notes for how to improve them next time!

Crackers

I've been investigating a few GAPS friendly cracker recipes based on nuts. This recipe from Elana's pantry is particularly good, though I used coconut oil instead of grapeseed.

It seems you can make them using eggs, egg whites or even egg free. Different combinations of nuts and seeds also work. So here's a "mix and match" type recipe you can adjust to your own specific needs.

This amount will make two trayfuls of crackers.

• 4 cups of nuts of your choice, eg: 1/3 each almonds, pecans and walnuts OR all the same nut OR all ground almonds OR 3/4 ground almonds & 1/4 sesame seeds (my favourite)
• 1 tsp sea salt or Himalayan salt ( a bit less for a sweet biscuit)
• 1-2 tsp herbs & spices of your choice, eg: I like basil or oregano with paprika OR cinnamon for a sweet cracker OR ginger and spices to make gingerbread. You can also add cheese or peanut butter for different flavours
• 2 Tbs melted coconut oil, butter, ghee or duck fat
• 2 eggs, beaten till frothy OR 4 egg whites OR an extra 2 Tbs fat
• Water to bind if needed

Preheat the oven to 325F or 165C.

If you're using whole nuts, grind them up in your food processor till they're pea sized or smaller. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse till well mixed. If you're using ground almonds and maybe sesame seeds, you don't need a food processor, you can mix it all up in a bowl. Mix the dry ingredients first, then the wet. If it's too dry to hold together, add a little water drop by drop, till it all binds into a ball of dough.

Divide the dough into two halves. Cut three pieces of baking paper that are the same size as your baking tray. Put one piece of dough on one of the sheets of paper, with a second piece on top. Roll the dough out to as thin as you can get it. Carefully peel the top layer of paper off and place it on your baking tray, with the greasy side up.

If you've got spare time and cookie cutters, you can cut your crackers into nice shapes. But if you're in a hurry like I usually am, just cut them into squares. (And even my squares aren't as beautiful as Elana's, but they still taste great).

Lay them on the tray and bake for 10-15 minutes till they are golden but not brown. Set a timer for 10 minutes, because it really is important not to let them cook too long. If some are ready before others, take them out, and put the rest back in. Meanwhile, prepare the second batch.

Cool on a wire rack, and once cold, store in an airtight container.

Cashew Bread

I first came across Cashew Bread in Eat Well Feel Well, a book of SCD recipes by Kendall Conrad. While it was delicious, it wasn’t quite what we were looking for at the time. It was a couple of years before I came back to the idea, when I wanted to develop a GAPS friendly bread for those who were having problems with almond flour.

This version has a few changes from the original:

1. I found a version of it at hellokitchen.blogspot.com/2007/11/cashew-coconut-bread.html which substituted 1 cup of coconut flour for some of the cashews. This seems to make the bread a bit more stable. If you don’t or can’t have coconut flour, use all cashews.

2. For those who can’t have dairy, I substituted mashed pumpkin for the SCD yoghurt in the original recipe.

3. The original recipe had 1 cup apple juice. To reduce the sugar content, I replaced that with water plus a little extra apple cider vinegar. The pumpkin gives it enough sweetness.

These three changes make the mix a little drier, so you may need to add a little extra water.

OK, so I have to confess, it does have baking soda which isn’t GAPS friendly. I haven’t tested it without baking soda yet but will let you know when I do. (If you try it before me, post a comment letting me know how it goes.) It is a dense loaf anyway, so I think it will come out pretty much the same.

Pumpkin cashew bread

Makes 2 loaves

• 6 large eggs, separated
• 1 tsp sea or Himalayan salt
• 5 cups raw unsalted cashews
• 1 cup coconut flour (or an extra cup cashews)
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups cooked, mashed pumpkin (or SCD yoghurt)
• 2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
• Extra water if needed

Preheat oven to 300F / 150C. Line loaf pans with baking paper - either two approx 14cm x 23cm or three smaller ones.
Separate the eggs, putting the whites into a large bowl and the yolks into a smaller one. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs whites with the salt until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
Using a food processor, grind the cashews till they are in small pieces. Add the coconut flour and baking soda and process till the cashews are as fine as you can get them. If a paste starts to form on the sides, stop now.
With a whisk or fork blend the egg yolks, pumpkin, water, and vinegar. Add to the ingredients in the food processor and mix thoroughly. If necessary, add a little extra water to blend it all together to a thick paste.
Take out the blade, and add a little of the egg white mix to the food processor. Mix it in with a fork. Add the mixture to the egg white bowl and fold into the egg whites using a metal spoon. Mix just until you no longer see clumps of egg white, trying not to overmix.
Spoon into prepared pans and bake for 1hr-1hr 20min, or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in pans on a rack for about 15 mins, then slide the loaves onto the racks to complete cooling. Keeps in the fridge for a few days, or can be frozen.