Friday, November 23, 2012

A Happy PBC Friendly Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday for as long as I can remember. The food. The family. The food :)

The problem this year is that it's my first with PBC and living gluten free- grain free.  I've been thinking about how to make actual good replacements for thanksgiving. Not just good enough, but really good. 

Problem 1- stuffing. I have been working on my bread recipe anyway, but stuffing makes a whole new challenge. The bread has to taste good AND be strong enough to not just turn to mush when mixed with seasonings and broth. I made the perfect recipe! The loaf is my own creation sort of mixing a few recipes. It has coconut/garbanzo/cashew/almond flours and it is really great. 

Problem 2- gravy. I searched and searched and really didn't like any of the suggestions. So I ended up just going with reduce-reduce-reduce and adding about a 1/2 tsp of guar gum. It was fantastic. 

Problem 3- candied yams. One of my turkey day favorites. I ended up making them from scratch and they were BETTER than the traditional! Even my sister who hates sweet potatoes actually loved these! Yay! Total win!

Problem 4- fruit / ambrosia salad. This is normally drained canned fruit, marshmallows, cool whip- all of which have corn in them. And nuts and coconut.  I ended up making homemade marshmallows for this and the yams (which everyone loved so much the whole batch is gone already!). And homemade whipped cream (another hit everyone liked better than the premade stuff). And we found the canned fruits not in corn syrup. 

My favorite foods at thanksgiving were saved! It was so good, I honestly can't tell I even had to eat differently. Even Zoe ate a really good sized plate of everything. So that says a lot. 

And honestly the homemade stuff tastes better and is really so easy it doesn't make sense to have purchased it premade in the first place. 

I hope everyone had a great day!


Recipes

Marshmallows

1/2 cup cold water
2 packets gelatin

1/2 cup water
2 cups sugar
2 tbl honey
1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar 

1 tsp vanilla

Blend 1/2 cup sugar into powdered sugar in a blender/bullet/food processor until a fine powder. 

Coat a glass pan with oil very lightly, Then sprinkle a small amount of powdered sugar and coat bottom and sides. Put rest of powdered sugar in a sealed bowl. 

Whisk together 1/2 cup water and gelatin set aside. 

Put 1/2 cup water, 2 cups sugar, salt and honey in a sauce pan. Clip a candy thermometer onto the pan. Put on high. Mix thoroughly. Mix often until mixture is dissolved then stop mixing and don't mix again. Take a wet pastry brush and brush down the inside walls of the pan to wash down any sugar crystals (or a very wet paper towel will also work). 
Once a temp of 238 degrees is reached take off the heat. 

Turn the mixer on in the gelatin slowly start pouring hot mixture in on medium. 

Increase to high. Mix until mixture is just warm.  Add in vanilla just before done. 

Pour into coated pan. 

Cover or place in a cool oven to prevent fuzz from sticking to the top. 

Let cool for 4 or more hours or overnight. 

After cool and firm, dust top with powdered sugar  use a knife coated in powdered sugar and slice into desired size squares. 

Roll squares in powdered sugar. Place in sealed bowl. Will keep for 2 plus weeks. 


Whipped cream

3/4 cup whipping cream
1 tbl sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla

Run sugar through the blender to turn into powdered sugar. 
Whip cream on high with hand mixer. When it is about halfway firm. Add vanilla and sugar. Continue whipping till firm. 


Candied sweet potatoes 

4 sweet potatoes
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup butter
Generous sprinkle cinnamon
Sprinkle nutmeg
Small Sprinkle Salt
Homemade marshmallows

Peel and dice to bite size, sweet potatoes
Boil till slightly soft

Sauté other ingredients except marshmallow 

Drain potatoes 
mix with sauce bake covered at 400 for about 15-20 minutes. 
Stir slightly mashing some to thicken the sauce.
Add marshmallows bake uncovered for a couple of minutes. 



All purpose bread

1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup garbanzo flour
3/4 cup almond flour
3/4 cup cashew flour 
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

6 eggs
1/2 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
1 cup of yogurt
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup honey

Preheat convection oven to 300. 
Lightly oil loaf pan. 

Sift together dry ingredients. 

Whip eggs with hand mixer then mix in all other wet ingredients. 

Using a hand mixer, Mix together thoroughly until completely smooth. Pour into pan. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. 

Let cool for ten minutes then turn out of pan and let finish cooling. Slice when cool.