Orange Chocolate Chia Donuts (Grain Free, Gluten Free, Sweetened with Honey)

These little heavenly morsels were created for two reasons. The first being that I was ever so kindly given a bag of Salba Chocolate Chia Seeds a while back to see if I could come up with a recipe to incorporate them into (thanks Deb!) They have been sitting staring at me for way too long, awaiting a burst of inspiration for a new recipe. 

On to reason number two… We have been house hunting as of late, and our wonderful agent-who-is-also-my-sister-in-law has been driving us around kingdom-come for a number of weeks. We were embarking on another road trip and I wanted to surprise her with some tasty treats for the drive. (She is celiac, so cooking for her, with all of my own dietary issues, is a proverbial piece of cake!) So on went my thinking cap. My brain jumped to donuts pretty quick, and these lovely little chocolate coated chia seeds were screaming at me to use them. I also had some beautiful organic cara-cara oranges, for further inspiration. Chocolate and orange is such a classic combination that is so well represented in these lovely little morsels, I was absolutely thrilled with the results! The texture is not unlike a poppyseed muffin or loaf, with a delightful bit of crunch, and the mix of flavours conjures

 a little happy dance in your mouth!  So, to Deb and Jo, a labour of love, and a brand new recipe!

This is also my first post using pictures taken with my son Mac's amazing camera..I am totally enamored with it..(so much that he had to buy me my own memory card so I quit filling up his...)

Orange Chocolate Chia Donuts

½ cup tapioca starch

½ cup coconut flour

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

3 eggs

Zest from 1 orange (make sure its organic!)

Juice from one orange (3-4 tbsp approx)

¼ cup melted coconut oil (***see end of post for handy tips to melt your oil!)

¼ cup honey

¼ cup kefir, yogurt or non dairy alternative

______

¼ cup chocolate chia seeds (Salba brand)

Preheat oven to 350F

Grease the donut pan with coconut oil or butter and set aside.

I love my silicone baster for greasing pans!!

Measure all ingredients except chia seeds into a large mixing bowl and mix with an immersion blender until well blended. If you measure your coconut oil first, and then use the same scoop for your honey, it will slide right out of the cup, no scraping required!! 

Handy dandy kitchen rasp is awesome for zesting citrus fruits!
be sure to zest first, and then cut and juice your orange !

 Ensure no lumps are left.

Stir in the chocolate chia seeds and let stand for 5 minutes to thicken up.

Scoop batter into a zip top bag, squeeze out the air, zip, and cut off one bottom corner of the bag (alternatively use a piping bag with no tip), 

fold the edge of your zip bag down when filling to keep it clean!

and squeeze evenly into pre-greased donut pan.

 

Bake in preheated oven for approx 10-12 minutes or until cooked thru.

Tip out onto wire cooling rack to cool completely before enjoying!

Store at room temp in an airtight container for 2-3 days. 

Alternatively freeze for later enjoyment!

 

***How to melt your coconut oil with ease!!

I keep my coconut oil in a mason jar, and melt it one of two ways: 

1. in-front of the vent on my
gas stove-top

2. immerse jar in your hottest tap water until
melted enough to pour out your measurement!

Grain Free Pizza Crust

We topped this one with my tomato confit, fresh
grape tomatoes, black olives, fresh basil, and
a sprinkle of Black River old cheddar/brick
shredded cheese. 

A while back, on my Facebook food page, I posted a link to these delicious little cheese balls. Pretty easy to make and darn tasty to boot! They were the closest thing to real bread that I have had in years! The recipe got my brain to working though, as I thought of all the things that this type of dough would be great for.  Naan bread was the first creation, and although I still want to tweak the recipe a bit before I share, it is exactly what my curry dishes have been missing since going grain free. Pizza was the next experiment, and it was a beautiful success. It goes on the parchment paper as a sticky gooey mess of muck, and comes out as a wonderfully crisp thin yet chewy pizza crust. Add some toppings, bake again on a hot pizza stone, and you have an amazing grain free pizza, no yeast, no grain and no belly ache to be found!

I played around with the technique from the cheese ball recipe, as I found mixing the hot milk into the dry ingredients in the mixer was much easier, and I changed up the ingredient list a wee bit to get a better texture for what I was aiming for.  The results are amazing, and I am so excited to share!

 If you don't have a pizza stone, I am sure this would work fine on a baking sheet, just be sure to use the parchment

 paper in the first step, as i think it may stick to the pan without it. The stand mixer is necessary, as getting everything mixed would be impossible without it!

Grain Free Pizza Crust

1 cup milk

1/3 cup avocado oil

1 ½ cup tapioca starch

1/3 cup arrowroot starch

¼ cup coconut flour

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

Put a pizza stone on the middle rack of your oven. Preheat oven to 450F

Heat milk and avocado oil in a small pan over med low heat until you just see bubbles forming on the sides, not boiling, but nice and warm.

Meanwhile, measure the dry ingredients into a stand mixer and mix on low until blended.

With the mixer still running, slowly pour the warm milk/oil mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until blended. It should come together in a nice, somewhat sticky dough.

Mix on medium for 3-4 minutes until the “dough” cools down enough that you can touch it with your hand (with the mixer turned off of course!!) . If it is too hot the eggs will cook instead of blending in. 

When the dough is cool enough, add the eggs one at a time and continue to mix on low until everything is well combined. It will take a bit to come together into a nice smooth but sticky dough.  When the dough starts coming together well, turn to medium and mix for a full 2 minutes until thoroughly combined.

Using a rubber spatula, turn dough onto a large piece of parchment paper. 

Wet your hands (you may need to wet them a few times during this process, it is sticky!) and spread dough out on parchment paper with hands into whatever pizza shape you desire, making it nice and even and about 1 cm thick.

Using a pizza peel or the bottom of a cookie sheet, slide the dough (still on the parchment paper) onto the preheated pizza stone and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven, using a pizza peel or the back of a large cookie sheet.

 top with desired ingredients, and bake again until toppings are hot thru 

and cheese is bubbly (if using), usually 6-8 minutes ish. 

Slice and serve hot!

This one was topped with a smokey bbq sauce, bacon, pepperoni,
mushrooms, jalapenos, and an old cheddar/brick cheese blend
 from  Black River Cheese, that was perfect!

Grain Free Sandwich Bread

I will warn you now, this is a long post! But, it is so worth it! This is Grain Free Bread folks! It slices! It lasts at room temperature!(and it actually gets better the next day!) And...it tastes pretty darn good! So bear with the wordiness, and the plethora of pictures. (and the number of exclamation points I may have just used!) I think you can tell, I am really excited to share this recipe!

After embarking on this gluten- free, almost- grain- free journey, bread has all but disappeared from our diets. We were not big sandwich eaters to start with, so lunch packing was never a big issue. Soups, salads and leftovers are our go-to lunches, and this made the transition pretty easy. Our boys were content to have the occasional store bought loaf for when they had a craving for toast.  So it was never anything I put much thought into when creating new recipes. (Actually I did attempt one loaf, from a recipe I found (and promptly lost!) that used only coconut flour, and the resulting brick just “cemented” my decision that life without bread was not such a bad thing!)  But, being as it is probably THE #1 recipe I get requests for above all others, I decided to conquer it, once and for all. It seems to be the one thing most people cannot fathom giving up, and that seems to make or break their decision to stick with this type of diet. So I needed to come up with a tasty, slice-able loaf that would last, preferably without freezing. For those versed in grain free baking, it was a bit of a tall order!

Not one to shy away from a challenge (and this one was a challenge!) I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. I ended up using tapioca starch, an ingredient that I have not played with a lot. It gives this grain free bread the elasticity that is missing using just coconut flour. It is a starch, however, and does contain a fairly high amount of carbs (approx 26g/carbs in ¼ cup) so for those watching carbs and calories, this bread should still be considered a treat, and not a diet staple.  (I roughly worked out the carbs and it rolls in at approx 8-9 g/carbs per slice if you slice the loaf into 14, so not crazy, but again, not a diet staple if you are watching those kind of things) (It does slice thinly very well, you can probably squeeze many more slices out of your loaf…this was just for an example!)

No crumbs!

Enough with the scientific data! If you are OK with using Tapioca starch/flour, you will be very, very, VERY happy with this recipe. (at least I think you will be!) The loaf it makes is not typical bread sized. It is definitely a bit on the shorter side. But what it lacks in size it makes up for in flavour! On the first day, it has a nice crisp crust and a soft, albeit somewhat spongy interior. Day two, after being stored on the counter in a sealed container, the crust becomes slightly chewy, losing its crunch, but not in a soggy bad way at all. It is content to stay on the counter, in a sealed container for 3-4 days, and is almost better on day 3 than day 1, which is pretty cool. (It does seem to mold by day 5 though, just to warn you!) It slices like a dream, hardly a crumb in sight! It makes a lovely sandwich (my friend Robin is curing her own bacon…a BLT party is in the plans!)  and even better French toast. I can’t wait to play around a bit, maybe a cinnamon raisin version? I have used it very successfully for morning toast, croutons, sandwiches, and a very tasty dairy free bread pudding  that I will be posting soon as well(Posted! click on the link). Challenge well met, if I do say so myself :) ***if you scroll to the bottom, I added some pics to show how I use this recipe for Grain Free English Muffins, that are heavenly!!

Grain Free Sandwich Bread

6 eggs, separated

1/3 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup arrowroot flour

½ cup tapioca starch

1/3 cup water, at room temp

1 Tbsp raw apple cider vinegar

1 tsp sea salt

¾ tsp baking soda

1/3 cup coconut oil, melted

Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a loaf pan with parchement (mine measures 9.25 x 5.25 x 2.75 inches, for the cooking time to be the same you will need a similar size) Set lined pan aside for now. (see pictures at the bottom of the post for a tip on lining your pan easier! If you decide to grease your pan instead, grease really really well!)

Place egg whites in stand mixer and whip with whisk attachment until stiff, approx 8 minutes. You don’t want any liquid left in the bottom, or it will make the loaf heavier on the bottom.  (Don’t skip this step, it is very important to the texture of the bread!) (Alternatively use a hand mixer or whisk, but not an immersion blender, it doesn't whip in enough air, the end result will not be the same)

While the egg whites are beating,  measure the rest of your ingredients into an 8 cup mixing bowl and blend well with an immersion blender or a whisk and some elbow grease.

Fold about ¼ of the whipped egg whites carefully into this batter, mixing carefully to combine, but not deflate the volume. Mix in the rest of the egg whites in 3 batches, again being careful not to deflate the egg whites, but combining just enough.

Carefully scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan, and bake in preheated oven for approx 40 minutes.  

You want to see a nice golden crust. A toothpick inserted in the centre should come out clean.  (bread baking tip from my former baking –with –wheat days, if  you have an instant read thermometer, you want the internal temperature of your loaf to be right around 160F.)

Remove from oven, and lift loaf from pan using parchment. Let cool on wire rack completely before slicing.

Lasts on the counter in an airtight container for 3-4 days. (If it lasts that long without being devoured!) It will have a crisp crust for the first day, and a softer chewy crust after it sits.  I slice any leftovers and freeze, with a piece of parchment or waxed paper between each slice for easy removal one slice at a time)

toasted, served with a tomato and
kale omelet :)

To line a pan with parchment, flip
your pan over, and crease your parchment
paper following the bottom edges of the pan.
Fold them around the ends, kind of like
wrapping a parcel.

Flip your pan back over and your
liner should drop right in your pan! You
may need to re-crease the corners a wee bit to
make the fit nice and snug!

This recipe is a perfect amount to make 8 english
muffins with these awesome little english muffin rings.  

Grease rings well, set on parchement, and bake at 400F
for 16-18 minutes or until they are firm and starting to brown. 

Carefully run a sharp knife around the inside of the rings
to release them, and let cool on a wire rack. They freeze beautifully!
Toasted with a bit of butter and jam...pure grain free heaven!