gluten-free Archives - Page 2 of 3

Foodie Find | Heavenly Organics Honey Patties

I have a confession to make. I. Am. In. Love. Yes, with my handsome husband. But I have a newfound love, and my husband doesn’t mind one bit.

On a recent visit to my dearest and best in Brooklyn, she hooked me up with what has fast become my favourite sweet fix. A guilt-free hit of chocolate that is better than a York Peppermint Patty in EVERY way.

As someone who is allergic to sugar, I have to search pretty far and wide to find chocolate that I can actually eat. If I want it to taste good, I have to search even further. The great news: my search is over.

{Cue Survivor’s hit 80’s love song}

With that epic soundtrack buzzing in your heads {and the horrors of their 80’s mullets burning in your minds if you actually watched the video}, meet the answer to my sweet-toothed prayers: Heavenly Organics’ Honey Patties.

Not only do they taste incredible, they are totally organic and consist of just 3 amazing and totally natural ingredients: 100% organic slow-roasted Italian unsweetened dark chocolate, 100% organic raw Himalayan honey and pure peppermint oil. C’est tout! They are sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, organic, raw, natural and totally DELICIOUS! Everyone I’ve share them with {even the pickiest eaters} agree that they are even better than those “not-just-three-ingredient-and-definitely-not-good-for-you” other Peppermint Patties.

The raw Himilayan honey and the unsweetened dark chocolate both have amazing health benefits, making this about as guilt-free as it gets. But that’s not even the best part. The best part is their process for harvesting the honey.

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RAW + ORGANIC
This is unlike any raw honey I have ever encountered. Rather than being gathered from a traditional apiary, this honey is hand harvested from wild-crafted and naturally occurring beehives found in the trees of the Himalayas, making it as truly organic as it gets. One large tree may contain as many as 20 hives.

FAIR TRADE PHILANTHROPY
As a means of philanthropic commerce, Heavenly Organics chooses to employ displaced people in this conflict-ridden area, ensuring them a better-than-fair-trade, reliable income. Without this work, these traditional small farmers would have no way to make a consistent living. With this work, they are rewarded with a salary per harvest that is greater than what they could otherwise ever hope to make in an entire year. Today, Heavenly Organics benefits a collective that supports more than 250 families in troubled areas in Northern India, Central India and Kashmir.

ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE
By introducing their farmers to sustainable approaches to traditional honey gathering, the process is truly environmentally conscious as they cut the hive in a way that leaves the queen and the hive intact. The hive then regenerates for additional harvests. Their carefully crafted approach is helping to protect the delicate biodiversity of India’s forests.

Amazing, right?

I literally got head-to-toe chills when I spoke with Cynthia at Heavenly Organics and learned their story for the first time. This isn’t just a guilt-free treat. This is a “good-for-you-and-the-environment-and-humankind” treat. I couldn’t be happier to have found them.

I’m guessing by now you’re itching to get some, right? Be sure to pick up some of the honey on it’s own as well. The raw Himalayan white honey is creamy, delicious and truly the best I’ve ever tasted. Heavenly Organics‘ products are sold in over 800 stores in the US including specialty grocers like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. For those of us north of the border, we can order them online and request them at our local Whole Foods Market until they give in to the mass requests!

From the health benefits to the amazing quality to the incredible redemptive story, I love this company and their products! I hope their story has inspired you as much as it has inspired me.

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|January 9th, 2013|3 Comments

Redeeming a Sweet Tradition | Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

As many of you know, I’ve chosen to go gluten-free as a part of a more anti-inflammatory way of life. What I haven’t share with you before now is why. I’m doing this because I’m recovery from a couple of serious car accidents and I want to give my body all the tools it needs to heal. What I’m learning along the way is that everyone’s journey to going gluten-free is different. I have friends with Celiac disease who are gluten-free because they have to avoid all gluten in order to stay alive. I have friends who are gluten-free for the sake of their figure and find it an amazing tool for staying slim. And I have friends like me whose bodies “tolerate” gluten but aren’t the happiest when they eat it. For all of us, we get to learn together.

I feel like saying that I haven’t made this choice to jump in on a trend. I’ve chosen to go gluten-free {on the recommendation of my very lovely naturopath} for the sake of greater health, and I’ve decided that this will NOT be a process of denial and punishment. Rather than thinking of it as a list of “no no’s,” I have chosen to think of it as an adventure in recreating recipes and finding new foodie loves.

Holiday baking being a classic tradition, I decided to reinvent a simple, classic Sugar Cookie recipe to create a holiday treat that is “safe” for me and all of my gluten-free friends. And what better way to make those sweet treats than with friends!

PHOTO BY GABRIELA HANSEN

The star player in our gluten-free baking adventures so far has definitely been Cup4Cup flour. The dough this product creates {from pie crust dough to cookie dough} is insanely beautiful to work with. In fact, I prefer it over regular flour! Seriously. The result with these sugar cookies not only tastes great, but the edges are so clean that my baking queen of a friend Natalie asked if I’d cut them twice {once before and once after baking}! I seriously think you’ll love working with it.

PHOTO BY GABRIELA HANSEN

My other secret weapon? Coconut sugar. OK, so I guess this makes these sugar-free Sugar Cookies! A rather lovely twist in the plot if you ask me! So why do I use coconut sugar instead of regular cane sugar? A) It is anti-inflammatory and super low on the glycemic index, and B) I actually have an anaphylactic allergy to cane sugar, so it’s kind of a non-negotiable for me. {Please celebrate this one with me as it is actually the BEST anti-aging allergy I could possibly have. I seriously feel blessed with this one.} Coconut sugar has quickly become my favourite cane-sugar-substitute, and the great news is that you can now get coconut sugar in bulk at Costco!! It makes me so happy to see healthy living becoming increasingly accessible for everyone.

The amazing thing about the way the coconut sugar performs in this recipe is that it seems to caramelize as it bakes, giving the cookies a maple shortbread kind of flavour without a drop of maple syrup or maple sugar involved. SUPER yummy! And the cookies are actually soft. That’s right. Gluten-free cookies that are not as dry as the Sahara. Even my non-gluten-free family and friends love these little lovelies! Now that is a triumph. Here’s how we made them:

THE RECIPE

1 1/2 c softened organic butter

2 c coconut sugar

4 eggs or egg substitute equivalent {I used egg substitute as this is another allergy for me}

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 c. Cup4Cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

THE METHOD

In a stand mixer, cream together the butter, coconut sugar, egg substitute and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients and then slowly add them to the wet ingredients until fully combined. Wrap the dough and chill for an hour {or overnight}. You can even freeze it in balls to bake one batch at a time if you’d like!

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface until it’s about 1/4″ thick. Use your favourite cookie cutters to cut out shapes and place the cut cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 6-8 minutes and cool completely before icing.

PHOTO BY GABRIELA HANSEN

Oh yes, I nearly forgot! What does a sugar-free girl do about icing, you might ask? Well, my friend Jenn was the problem solver on this one. She gave me the idea to create a cream-cheese-based icing and pipe that on instead of Royal Icing. That’s just what I did and it worked like a charm! I just mixed one tub of spreadable light cream cheese with about 20 drops of Stevia and 2 TBSP of honey {I didn’t use coconut sugar here because I wanted the icing to stay white}. As you can see, no one would ever know it wasn’t Royal Icing just to look at the finished product. Yes, the icing has a cream-cheesy flavour, but I actually like that a lot. For my next batch I might experiment with a bit of lemon juice or lemon zest added to the icing for a refreshing twist, though I think I’ll have to go with a full-fat cream cheese to keep it from getting too runny if I do that.

See? There are most definitely creative ways to reinvent the old classics! No need for total self-denial or missing out on holiday traditions! What are your favourite holiday treats? Any gluten-free baking tips from all you veterans out there? I’d love to continue learning together!

Wishing you all a wonderful {gluten-free} Wednesday.

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|December 19th, 2012|6 Comments

Thanksgiving Menu | GF Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Maple Butter Icing

PHOTO BY GABRIELA HANSEN

I love the simple joy of having so many friends gather together around our table for our annual Harvest Gathering. Each person represents a unique perspective, diverse creativity and offers amazing gifts to the world.

As it turns out, my circle of friends makes me feel somewhat more “normal” when it comes to having food allergies and sensitivities. I have a lot of them, but try not to let them take centre stage in my life or in entertaining. I truly believe that being and eating healthy shouldn’t have to be a neurotic chore. So this year – in favour of my new gluten-free adventure as well as others around the table who cannot eat gluten – I reached out to the lovely people at Cup 4 Cup to see if they would allow me to experiment with their amazing gluten-free flour in my little kitchen. They most graciously obliged, and today’s recipe is the result of that loveliness.

The flour is just as it sounds: a true cup-for-cup substitute for regular flour. All I can say is, we were amazed. Truly, gratefully amazed. This flour works and tastes just like regular flour, and the end result was very satisfying. I’ve already gone to Williams Sonoma to restock and am delighted to have such an amazing alternative now in my culinary arsenal.

Here’s my take on a Harvest dessert that will please any of the friends and family gathered around your table, even the non-gluten-free variety.

I CHOSE BABY FOOD FOR THE APRICOT PUR´EE – INEXPENSIVE + JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT!

OK, it’s Tuesday Confession Time {TCT}. My maple butter icing was a bit of a fail. The flavours were bang on, and it was the perfect match for the Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake. That wasn’t the fail. It’s just that it was my first time making Maple Butter, and as it turns out it’s a bit of a finicky little number. It’s so truly Canadian that I had to try it {not to mention that I felt giddy at the thought of large quantities of the gorgeous, creamy confection in my fridge}, but my first batch was not my best batch. The truth is I’m not terrible bothered, as these kinds of culinary mishaps simply invite the opportunity to try again!

The secret {as I learned from the sweet maple farmer who sells his maple butter at The St. Lawrence Market on Saturdays} is to freeze the maple syrup overnight after you’ve boiled it before you whip it into the final butter. I merely cooled mine, so it was lacking the structure I expected from it and as such totally absorbed into the cake. Make no mistake, it tasted amazing! But it was not the look I was after.

PHOTO BY GABRIELA HANSEN

Needless to say, I am not a maple-butter-making expert quite yet, but I plan to attempt another batch very soon and will offer you my perfected recipe as soon as I have one! In the meantime, I suggest buying a tub of maple butter from the lovely farmer who has it on offer Saturday mornings at The St. Lawrence Market, OR you can join me in my quest and use this recipe as your jumping off point in search of maple butter perfection! Be sure to share all your tips and tricks in the comments below so we can all enjoy the glorious goodness of this truly Canadian treat!