Healthy Cookie

Gluten-free and Sugar-free Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup xylitol or splenda (I use xylitol (xyla), it's better and safer than splenda)
  1/4 vegetable oil (this serves as an egg substitute for toddlers allergic to eggs. I actually did mine with flaxseed + 3 tbsp water though my son has no problem with eggs, it just happened that I didn't have eggs left in the pantry.) 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free pancake mix
• Add-ons: (optionall) chocolate chips, walnuts or almonds, about 1/2 cup each for the whole batter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream butter and xylitol.
3. Add oil and vanilla, then beat together.
   Add pancake mix and mix thoroughly.
4. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts (I actually cut 1/4 of batter to add chocolate chips and nuts for me, but for my son I made it plain for him)
5. Scoop 1/2 tbsp of dough for the little ones or 1 tbsp of dough for the bigger ones on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
   Flatten with a spatula.
   Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until edges begin to brown.
   Let cookies cool slightly and eat or you can transfer it in a sealed container once cooled.

Hope you like this recipe and please do let me know if you ever tried this one. Thanks and enjoy!

Gluten-free Applesauce/Apple Pancake

http://instagram.com/p/byTxCsy2IM/#

I love everything organic especially for my little man, so I bought an organic whole wheat pancake mix last month in which I also used for baking cupcakes/muffins for him. I'm so happy about it seeing my boy happy eating I prepared out of the mix. However, one mid afternoon, as I went along with my studies in baking I focused on studying about the flour; All kinds of flour and what they're made of and everything I need to know about it. I've learned that most of the flour we know are made out of wheat. Flours that made out of wheat, barley and rye are flours that are rich in gluten or has gluten in it. Gluten is essential in baking as it is the protein of the flour that would keep the dough or the cake to rise. Gluten though isn't good for babies and children below 2 yrs of age and this worries me knowing the pancake mix (even all the breads) I bought for the little man is not as good as i thought it is for him.

 
Gluten can cause some behavioral or physical problems to children below 2 years of age. It could be a Leaky Gut Syndrome that is linked to inflammation, allergies and autism, or Celiac Disease the scarring of small intestines, or ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder). As a mother I would want to avoid these problems since I'm not sure if my child has sensitivity to gluten.

So I came up with a Gluten-Free Pancake, a safe to eat pancake for my little man. It tastes good it can also be eaten by adults. My sweetened mascarpone cheese is a substitute for my whipped cream topping because I didn't have any whipping cream available at this time on my pantry. It is also a sugar-free recipe which is good for those who has diabetes; Instead of sugar I used xylitol as a substitute. I don't want to add sugar on my son's diet because I don't want his body to get used to sugar, as well as I don't want to add more reasons for his hyperactivity in his toddler stage.

Enjoy being a mother (if you are one) and enjoy cooking!

Gluten-Free Applesauce Pancake

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pancake Mix
• 3/4 cup Soy Milk (or any milk you like)
• 1/2 cup Applesauce
• 1 egg (can be omitted if you're a vegan, the applesauce can do its purpose)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 Apple, sliced or chunked (for filling and/or garnish; optional)

Directions:

1. Lightly beat the egg (if using) and stir in the oil and milk until combined..
2. Sift pancake mix in a medium bowl and make a hole in the center and pour in the egg mixture (or just the milk). Mix the ingredients but be careful not to over-mix it.
3. Fold in the applesauce.
4. Preheat any size of non-stick griddle on medium heat.
5. Using oil or butter, lightly coat the griddle before pouring the batter on it. Once the griddle is hot, pour a little bit of the batter onto the griddle. (You can always pour more depending on how large you like your pancakes; I used 1/8 cup or 2 tablespoons of batter to uniform the size of my pancakes.)  
6. Press in a little of sliced or chunked apples lightly in each pancake and cook until you see bubbles at the top. Flip and cook until the pancake turns golden brown. 

Sweetened Mascarpone Cheese or Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Mascarpone Cheese or Whipped/WhippingCream
• 1/8 Xylitol (for toddlers and diabetics) or Powdered/Confectioners Sugar

Direction:

1. Whisk the ingredients together until combined. It's ok if you see grains of xylitol just make sure they are distributed well. We don't want to over mix them together because it would turn to liquid.
2. If using whipping cream, it's ok to whip the cream with xylitol until stiff peaks form but if with powdered sugar whipping cream must be whipped first then you can add in the powdered sugar.

Quiche 2 Ways

Yesterday, I took a break from baking cakes and other sweets. I decided to bake 2 kinds of quiche:

'Bacon and Cheese Quiche', which is the easier one

and

'Spinach and Mushroom Quiche'

Quiche is one of my favorite snacks or meal (yes. it can be considered as meal). I order them from Delifrance (now called Cafe France.) This food was introduced to me by my friend when we were working together in Bulacan. I love the creamy texture and the soft crust. I really love the mushroom and spinach and also chicken curry flavor so I thought to myself why not try making them.

I Tried 2 recipes. I did the easy recipe first to see how it would turn out. It's really easy as 1-2-3 and the recipe had good reviews too. I copied ---- Ham and Cheese Quiche Recipe and just changed ham to bacon instead because it's what I had in the fridge. The difference is with bacon you have to cook it first while with ham you just have to toss it straight to the pan. For the Bacon and Cheese Recipe click HERE.

For Mushroom Spinach, what made doing this recipe difficult for me is the dough. The kneading and rolling of the dough take some muscles especially for an amateur like me and add to that the baking time. Click HERE for the recipe.

Easter 2013

Made this Easter Cake Pops.

Baked this 9" butter cake and just added cream cheese filling (cream cheese with butter and confectioner's sugar) and formed some egg-shaped balls. Froze it and coated it with chocolates.

Character Cupcake: Draft of Oscar the Grouch Cupcake

I was so desperate to have Sesame Street Themed Cupcakes for my son's 1st birthday that's made of buttercream (for cheaper costs) so the characters' faces are not just simple toppers or flat fondant (costly na kasi kapag 3D fondant pa). I found lots of suppliers but I still needed to cut down my costs so I decided to bake cupcakes since I used to bake cookies and brownies before. I started exploring and trying out different cupcake recipes. My sister and I are trying to come up with a cupcake, that is not only moist and soft but delicious as well, and the perfect frosting to top it with. Fortunately, our mom has experience in baking cakes and making frostings for our birthday when we were young so she's helping us out right now, teaching us her techniques and sharing her experience.

The other day, I baked this moist chocolate cupcake and I was thinking of what frosting would match it. I thought of marshmallow frosting but my sister didn't like the idea until I decided to try and make vanilla buttercream. The first buttercream I made was too sweet, redid it and added unsweetened milk chocolate syrup that I previously made. My siblings and in-laws liked the chocolate frosting in my moist chocolate cupcake. Nabawasan naman ang sweetness but it's sill too sweet for me. Then I researched for a new recipe for vanilla buttercream; read some tips/ideas and explored variations and voila! I'm able to come up with my own tasty vanilla buttercream! Next was finding the best tip to frost (I'm such an amateur I know! Buti na lang andiyan si mother) until I found this weird tip which I couldn't fathomed what it is used for. I asked my mom about it and when she showed me how to use it I eventually thought of Oscar the Grouch; na-excite ako so I looked for the green food color and added banana flavor and made Oscar the Grouch frosting for moist chocolate cupcake. Coming up with this cupcake was unexpected, I didn't have anything to make his eyes, mouth and the scary eyebrow. I just utilized what I have around. I'll definitely make this again and the other Sesame Street characters for Jabin's 1st Birthday. Will make Cookie Monster, Big Bird, and more importantly, Elmo!

Chewy Choco Mallow Cookie

I made a chewy chocolate cookie dough and added mallows on top. It's the chewiest cookie that I made. I was scared to try it at first because it might turn out too-sweet-you'll-going-to-have-sore-throat. Thankfully it went well: the chewiness and yumminess, I love it!

This what my brother had said (as the first critic) "tama lang hindi siya masyadong matamis" and ate more cookies. Then came in my 6 year old niece and said "It's good thing that Tita Lec is baking cookies again!" Aww... Isn't that sweeeet?! It really touched my heart. I love her so much!

Cupcakes: Gigi Coffee and Cupcakes

I'm in love with Gigi's cupcakes.

Top-Bottom (L-R): Red Velvet, Peppermint, Cookies and Cream, Chocolate, Buttercream, Sea Salt

As soon as I got a bite with one of these cupcakes I knew this is the one. Every bit of it is so heavenly. The red velvet is the best! The best among all the red velvets I've had so far. Umm.. No! Not just the red velvet actually, but all their cupcakes are the best cupcakes among all the cupcakes I've had so far.

Buttercream

With the buttercream, I never expected it could be this goooood.

Gigi Coffee and Cupcakes Box

So if you haven't tried Gigi Cupcakes you better visit them now at Eastwood City near Epixtar and visit their facebook page here as well.

Enjoy!