Paleo Pear Tart

Pear tart or pie is one of my favorites. My mom has this one she always makes, and I can't wait for her to make it again, but for now I found this other really good recipe. It is 100 % gluten free and also considered paleo and has lots of good nutrients from the pears, lemon, nuts etc. 

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

3/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup raw cashews, finely ground
2 tbsp coconut palm sugar (or other sugar substitute)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup coconut oil (solid state)
1/4 cup coconut cream, top part of canned coconut milk
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the Filling:

1.5-2lbs pears (about 2-3 big ones)
juice from one lemon
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp tapioca starch
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup honey 

Directions:

1. Blend the cashews until they are finely ground. Mix with the coconut flour and sugar and salt.
2. With a fork mix in coconut oil, coconut cream, eggs, and vanilla. Mix until it shapes a dough and set aside.
3. Grease a pie pan, and press the dough into the bottom and the sides as evenly as possible and place in refrigerator while your making the filling. About an hour.
4. Cut pears into slices. 
5. Combine lemon juice, salt, ginger, vanilla, cinnamon, honey, and tapioca starch.
6. Gently fold in the pear slices and put in the fridge with the crust until it's ready.
7. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
8. When crust is ready, pour in filling and bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees.
9. Reduce temperature to 350 and bake for another 20 minutes. 
10. Let it cool and serve with a vanilla yogurt or whipped coconut cream.

Cinnamon Rolls w. Creme Cheese Frosting

So this weekend is "Conference Weekend" for all LDS members, and since my host family is LDS, we're watching conference this weekend. As we do this, we kind of wanted to have some conference treat, so I asked if I should make cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon rolls can be kind of tricky to make I think, because the kind I've had in Denmark has always been really hard and just kind of dry, and just not really good. But I found out that the problem is that they need to be baked in a pan close together and not separately. This makes them so soft and fluffy and just delicious.

Ingredients:

Rolls
2 1/2 cup all purpose flour (345g)
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup water (120 ml)
1/4 cup milk (60 ml)
2 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter (40g)
1 large egg

Filling
3 tbsp butter (45g)
1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon 
1/4 cup sugar (50g)

Creme Cheese Frosting
1 pkg (8oz) creme cheese


Directions:

1. Make the dough: Set aside 1/2 cup of flour. In a large bowl, toss the 2 and 1/4 cups flour, the sugar, salt, and yeast together until evenly dispersed. Set aside.
2. Heat the water, milk, and butter together in the microwave until the butter is melted and the mixture is hot to touch. Stir the butter mixture into the flour mixture. Add the egg and only enough of the reserved flour to make a soft dough. 
3. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for about 3-4 minutes. Place in a lightly greased bowl and let rest for about 10 minutes.

1. Make the filling: After 10 minutes, roll the dough out in a 14x8 inch rectangle. Spread the softened butter on top. Mix together the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle it all over the dough. Add more cinnamon/sugar if desired. Roll up the dough tightly. Cut into 11 even pieces and place in a lightly greased 9-inch round pan. I used a pie dish, lightly sprayed with nonstick spray.
2. Loosely cover the rolls with aluminum foil and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free place for 60-90 minutes. Here is what I do: heat the oven to 200F degrees. Turn oven off. Place rolls inside oven and allow to rise.
3. After the rolls have doubled in size, preheat the oven to 375F. Bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned. I covered the rolls with aluminum foil after 15 minutes to avoid heavy browning.

Enjoy!

Pie Day

So today was 3.14, pi-day. Get it?? Haha, so me and a friend spend literally 5 hours yesterday making pies for our foods class. We made 7 big and 12 small ones. There was apple pie, cherry pie, strawberry rhubarb, s'mores, banana cream, and a single cheese cake. 

So today in foods, we all got to eat pie, and it was really good, except that I got really sick later that day, and ended up throwing up all night, so I probably won't have pie for a while... 



Ingredients:

Pie crust:
2.5 cup flour
1 t vanilla
1 t baking powder
3/4 cup softened butter
1 egg

Filling:
Canned pie filling. Go ahead and make your own, if you want to (homemade is always better if you ask me)

Happy Pie Day!

Homemade Poptarts

Poptarts are really good. I think we all agree on that. But how on earth is it possible to stuff 200 calories in one piece?! And seriously, I don't think I could pronounce half of the ingredients. I mean, yes they might be good, but let's see if it's possible to make some that are at least as good, but homemade. Yes please.

Ingredients:

For Homemade Poptarts:
1½ cups strawberries, chopped
4 cup sugar
1-2 Tablespoons of honey
Homemade or store bought pie dough
1 egg white (from pasteurized eggs)
1¼ cups sifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp water

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Combine strawberries, sugar and honey with a splash of water into a saucepan. Heat over medium heat while stirring and mashing until filling has thickened (for 20 to 30 minutes). Allow your filling to cool completely.
3. Roll your pie dough on a lightly floured surface until desired thickness is achieved.
4. Cut rectangles 3″ by 4″ out to make poptarts. Roll excess dough and re-cut if necessary. You will need two rectangles to make one poptart.
5. Place one row of rectanges down on baking sheet.
6. Spoon approximately 1 TB of strawberry filling onto the center each rectangle, making sure to spread only slightly.
7. Carefully, with a pastry brush or your finger, brush milk onto edges of dough. Lay the second rectangle over the top and press down with your fingers along the edge to close the poptarts.
8. Using a fork press the back of a fork along all the edges to completely seal poptarts.
9. Cut a few tiny slits in the top of each poptart.
10. Bake until golden brown, for 25 to 30 minutes.
11. Place poptarts on wire racks and allow to cool completely.
12. To make icing, simply just combine powdered sugar and water, and you have a perfect icing.
13. Frost your Homemade poptarts and top with sprinkles if desired and enjoy!