Posted on

Polenta Quiche

After reading about the benefits of getting more calories from good oils and protein and eating less carbs I came up with this recipe for polenta quiche, which has about 300 calories per serve, half from fat, and with 20g of carbs. I’m making up large batches and freezing slices so I have healthy tasty breakfasts on hand for the morning rush. It’s interesting to see how it comes out of the oven – the recipe is easy to make because you really just mix and bake and the heavier polenta settles to the bottom forming a crust on its own. Like any quiche recipe you can vary the fillings a lot – I like using some corn kernels and a rasher of bacon diced and fried up with the onion. Add some butter for a richer quiche.

Ingredients

  • 6 Eggs
  • 1 Tbsp Rice flour (or wheat flour if not making gluten free)
  • 1/2 onion, diced fine
  • 1 Spring onion, sliced
  • 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
  • 1 Tbsp diced tasty cheese
  • 1 Sprig parsley, sliced
  • 1/2 Cup Polenta
  • 2/3 Cup milk
  • 1/2 Tsp baking powder (use gluten free if required)
  • Other fresh herbs if liked
  • 1 Clove garlic, chopped fine
  • Pinch each salt & pepper

polenta quiche (1 of 4)

Saute the onion in 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat until clear.

Mix all ingredients together and stir very well.

Tip into a greased pan – I use a loaf tin but a round quiche/pie dish could also work.

Bake in a medium oven – (I used 180C/350F fan forced) until brown and no longer wobbling.

polenta quiche (2 of 4)

polenta quiche (3 of 4)

polenta quiche (4 of 4)
Here you see the polenta has settled somewhat, making the bottom more like a crust while the top half is light and fluffy!

More Reading

More Low Carb recipes

Another delicious looking GF quiche

A cheap kindle book with lots of quiche & pie recipes

Posted on

Cheesy Polenta Fritters

This recipe is another that I was eager to try from Artusi’s cookbook. I don’t know if I’ve got it exactly as described in the book yet but it’s a delicious late night munchie as much as a great idea for an appetiser. The recipe is as simple as a slice of cheese between 2 discs of polenta, dipped in crumbs and fried. This is a good appetiser to have up your sleeve as it is very easy to make gluten free – instead of using bread crumbs, either use dry polenta or a gluten free bread crumb,  I use one called corn crispy crumbs that I actually prefer to regular bread crumbs. Or you can leave it un-crumbed and just fry the polenta directly which also works well.

  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup polenta
  • 1 tbsp grated parmesan
  • about 100g gruyere or other tasty swiss cheese, sliced
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup bread crumbs

To make the polenta mix milk, water, polenta and parmesan in a large microwave save container – I use a ceramic casserole dish. The parmesan is optional but the polenta may be a littlebland without it. Stir well and set aside for a few minutes to start soaking up the water. Microwave the bowl of polenta for 4 minutes, remove and stir well. Wear oven mitts as the bowl and steam are very hot. Return to the microwave for another 2 minutes, remove and stir, then a final 2 minutes. Spoon out a little bit, blow on it and taste to make sure it is creamy. If still at all gritty it can be microwaved a little longer.

Pour out the polenta onto a large oiled chopping board or baking tray. Use a wet knife or the back of a spoon to flatten the surface as much as possible – Artusi says to “spread it out to the thickness of barely half a finger”. Mines a little too thick here. Allow to cool and set – it’s a little faster in the fridge.

polenta fritters (2 of 7)

polenta fritters (3 of 7)

When set, use a cookie cutter to cut out circles of polenta.

polenta fritters (4 of 7)

Lay a slice of gruyere or other cheese between 2 discs to make little sandwiches.

polenta fritters (5 of 7)

Crack an egg into a bowl, beat lightly and pour crumbs into another bowl. Dip each sandwich into egg, then crumbs. Fry in a good glug of olive oil. I find anything crumbed is always best fried over fairly moderate heat so that it can cook through without the crumbs burning.

polenta fritters (6 of 7)

So far we’ve just wolfed these down out of the pan but I think they’d be good with a sauce too – maybe some kind of chutney?

polenta fritters (7 of 7)

Posted on

Buckwheat Torte

I served this as a birthday cake last week. The recipe is another that I have stolen from FXCuisine. I hope he doesn’t mind but it’s such a delicious gluten free dessert that I think everyone should know about it! I don’t normally love buckwheat but in this dish it adds a very interesting counterpoint to the almond flavour. One of the guests described it as like eating a giant friand, and I agree. I took the liberty of replacing some of the butter in this recipe with olive oil but you can replace the olive oil in my recipe with 50g more butter if you aren’t so paranoid about your waistline.

buckwheat torte (1 of 1)

Ingredients

  • 250g Almond meal
  • 200g Buckwheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 6 eggs
  • 200g butter
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 250g caster sugar
  • Icing sugar
  • 1 jar of good jam – your choice but I liked strawberry

Method

  1. Separate the egg yolks and whites
  2. Use a fork to mash together the butter and sugar. Mix in the flours and baking powder. Add the egg yolks and mix very well – a hand mixer helps get the batter smooth.
  3. Clean up the hand mixer and use it (or a whisk if you’re a glutton for whisking) to whip the egg whites until they make stiff peaks when you lift the mixer out. If using an electric mixer, don’t lift it out unless it is turned off or the egg whites will make stiff peaks all over your wall.
  4. Add 1/3 of the egg whites to the batter and stir until they are mixed in. Now add the rest of the egg whites and fold them in more gently until evenly mixed. Adding a little of the egg white first makes it easier to fold in the rest more gently.
  5. Pour the batter into a greased springform pan, or a round cake pan with greased baking paper cut to fit in the bottom. Bake at 180C/350F for about 40 minutes or until the top is golden. You can poke a skewer in to see if it is cooked, but be careful where the hole is, this cake doesn’t spring back as much as usual so the hole will be visible afterwards.
  6. When cooked, let it sit in the pan to pull itself together for 5-10 minutes before you carefully remove it to a cake rack to finish cooling.
  7. When cool, very carefully cut horizontally down the middle and use an egg flip to lift the top off. Spread jam liberally over the cake and put the top back on. Put some icing sugar in a sieve or flour sifter and dust over the top.

I served slices with whipped cream and vincotto… yum!

 More

You can separate eggs quite well by just cracking eggs into your hands and letting the whites fall through your fingers. If you don’t like getting your hands dirty you can get some cool egg separators – I have one along these lines but you have to see this one too. Words can’t describe the awesome.

Posted on

New Gluten Free Pizza Dough Recipe

This is a new version of a gluten free pizza base that I have been working on and I think it’s finally ready to share! I’m quite excited about this base – you would be hard pressed to pick it as gluten free and it tastes delicious. The key is to give the shaped base time to rise before topping and baking.

Full credit to the talented Dan Lepard who wrote a recipe for gluten free bread using psyllium husks. I had never used these before and they work amazingly well in gluten free doughs, helping the dough to rise naturally and giving a nice chew to the cooked base. I use both yeast and baking powder in this recipe to get as much lightness in the dough as possible without overloading on the taste of either ingredient. Another interesting addition can be to add some herbs and spices to the dough as in this gluten free pizza recipe. Maybe not for the purists but worth considering.

I have included links to some of the more unusual ingredients on Amazon, but you should be able to find them in your local health food store.

Ingredients – makes 2 bases

Ingredient Weight Measure Bakers Percentage
Rice flour 140g 1 Cup 100%
Tapioca starch 70g ½ Cup 50%
Cornflour 70g ½ Cup 50%
Soy flour 20g 2 Tbsp 14.3%
Psyllium husks 12g 2 Tbsp 8.6%
Guar gum (you could use Xanthan gum if preferred) 6g 2 Small Tsp 4.3%
Instant Dried Yeast 12g 4 Level Tsp 8.6%
Baking Powder 8g 2 Level Tsp 5.7%
Salt 8g 2 Level Tsp 5.7%
Olive oil, plus more for shaping 20g 2 Tbsp 14.3%
Sugar 20g 14.29%
Gluten free Vinegar 3g 2.1%
Warm water 110g 1/2  of a cup 78%

Method

  1. Mix together all of the dry ingredients
  2. Add the oil, vinegar and water and stir well for about 30 seconds. The dough should be a stiff, sticky paste.
  3. Lay out 2 squares of oiled baking paper. Oil your hands to prevent sticking, and separate the dough into equal sized lumps.
  4. Following the shaping technique from my previous gluten free dough recipe, press the dough into a disc shape. Drizzle with as much olive oil as needed to make the dough workable. Aim for a base about 4mm thick with a slightly raised edge.
  5. Lay a piece of plastic wrap or baking paper over each base to stop it drying out and leave to rise for about 1 hour. You should also start preheating your pizza stone at this point.
  6. Once the bases have risen for an hour and the oven is properly hot, add cheese, sauce and ingredients according to your recipe and slide the pizza along with its sheet of baking paper into the oven. Cook until the crust is starting to brown, rotating in the oven halfway through cooking if necessary. You can also finish it off under the grill for a minute to really get the top browned well.

NOTES: If you don’t have all of these ingredients, you could substitute the rice flour, corn flour & tapioca for a commercial gluten free flour mix. The soy flour could be replaced by millet flour, fine polenta or maize flour as it is used to add flavour and colour. If reducing the sugar at all, add a pinch more baking powder as the sugar helps the yeast leaven the bread. Salt can be reduced or eliminated completely; it is mostly for flavour.

Posted on

Gluten free pizza dough

Having a few friends and family members on gluten free diets, a good gluten free pizza recipe has been a bit of a holy grail for me over the last few years. This recipe is the closest that I have come – and it is quite delicious!

Recipe

  • 150g White rice flour
  • 80g Tapioca starch
  • 30g Fine polenta
  • 6g Guar or xanthan gum
  • 6g Sea salt
  • 10g Sugar
  • 10g Baking powder
  • 25ml Olive oil
  • 1 Egg (this can be omitted to make a vegan base, add a little more water instead)

Method

  1. In a large mixing bowl, stir all of the dry ingredients together.
  2. Add the oil, egg and water and stir until the mixture is smooth. The consistency should be a thick, sticky paste.
Gluten free pizza dough
Gluten free pizza dough

Shaping the bases

    1. Place 2 squares of baking paper on a bench or peel and give them a light coat of oil.
    2. Before handling the mixture drizzle some olive oil into the bowl, and rub a little into your hands. This makes the bases much easier to shape and handle.
    3. Separate the mixture into 2 equal size lumps and place one on each square of paper. Drizzle a little more oil over the lump of dough.
      Gluten-free4
    4. Using the palms of your hands, start to press the dough into a pizza shape. Try to get an even thickness of about 4 millimeters.
      Gluten-free5
    5. Smooth any cracks around the edge and create a slightly raised rim.
      Gluten-free6
    6. The base is now ready for your toppings! Once topped, use a peel to lift the pizza and greaseproof paper and slide onto a preheated pizza stone to bake.

Gluten-free7

See the article on toppings to see how this pizza looked fresh out of the oven!