Low Carb (No-Knead) Crusty Artisan Bread

I've been looking for a recipe to convert to low carb, and thanks to my friend, Judy Bennett, on Facebook, the search is over! The fact that this bread doesn't require kneading, immediately got my attention. I have tried making baked goods that required kneading, but never had any luck with them. I guess I just don't know how to be kneady, LOL!

The original recipe can be found here at Simply So Good. If you scroll down her page you will see other varieties of ingredients you can add to the dough. Also, read her FAQ section, very helpful!

PLEASE NOTE - The loaf I made is 1/2 the recipe, however, I am listing the ingredients for a Full loaf of bread!

Also, the flour I used can be found here at Low Carb Foods. The next time I make this I will use their white bread flour.

INGREDIENTS

3 cups Pizza/Bagel flour (from Low Carb Foods)

1 teaspoon Fine Sea Salt

1/2 teaspoon instant or rapid rise yeast

1 1/2 cups water

4 Tablespoons olive oil

DIRECTIONS

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and yeast. Add water and olive oil, and mix until a shaggy mixture forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 18 hours. DO NOT REFRIGERATE. I made mine at 3 P.M. and it was ready the next morning at 9 A.M. to get it into the oven.

Heat oven to 450° F, but first add your cast iron pot with lid on it, into the cold oven. When the oven reaches temperature, start timing for 30 minutes.

While it's heating, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball. You can cover it with the same plastic wrap that was on your bowl. Let it sit there undisturbed until the oven is ready.

Remove HOT pot from the oven and drop in the dough. Cover and return to the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes. Remove pot from the oven and place the bread on a cooling rack. Once it's cooled down, you can slice it with a serrated edged knife.

NOTES

My calculations in carb count is for the 1/2 recipe. Total carbs is 12g. I got 8 slices, including the 2 heel ends. The 6 bigger slices should be approximately 1.75g.

Basically, it all depends on how many slices you can get out of the full recipe. The full recipe would be 24g carbs for the entire loaf. I would imagine that you could get 12 slices out of that.

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Maple Walnut Biscotti

Tomorrow is my Birthday, and I needed to whip up some snacks, so I don't get tempted to indulge in the carby desserts.

Okay, so I think I've come up with my new favorite flavor for biscotti. I passed on making a glaze for this, just in case I want to dip this into my coffee!

Ingredients

2 cups Almond Flour

1/2 cup Swerve Sweetener (or granulated erythritol)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (add more if you like it nutty)

1/4 cup melted butter

1 egg, lightly beaten 

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp maple extract

2 Tbsp Sugar Free Maple Syrup (I use Walden Farms Pancake Syrup)

Directions

Preheat oven to 325°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, Swerve, baking powder, and xanthan gum.

Stir in the chopped walnuts, melted butter, egg, vanilla extract, maple extract, and Sugar Free Maple syrup, until the dough blends together.

Place dough onto parchment lined baking sheet and form into a flat log 3 inches wide by 11 inches in length. Pat the ends of the length so that the slices will be consistent, sort of making it rectangular instead of rounded ends.

Bake 25 minutes, or until lightly browned and firm to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 250°F.

When cooled, cut into 14 even slices. Put slices back onto baking sheet cut-side down and bake for 15 minutes, then flip each slice and bake for another 15 minutes. Turn oven off and let biscotti sit inside until cool. I leave my oven door slightly open to cool it down quicker.

Notes

14 Servings. Total net carbs for full recipe is 20g. Figuring 14 servings, each serving would be 1.4g net carbs. These amounts are based on the ingredients that I used.

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Low Carb Fudgsicles (REVISED)

Super easy recipe for low carb fudgsicles in ice pop molds!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups of canned coconut milk (unsweetened)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/8 tsp salt

4 1/2 Tbsp Swerve or other granular sweetener
6 drops Liquid Sucralose (EZ-Sweet)

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 square ChocoPerfection European Dark bar shaved (Optional)

Directions:

In a medium bowl add all of the ingredients. Mix with an electric hand mixer on low until well combined. Switch to a high speed for 2 minutes to make it light and airy.

Pour mixture into ice pop molds.

Notes:

Yield - 6 servings

Net carbs based on what I used is 2.4g per fudgsicle

Each mold holds slightly less than 1/2 cup

Optional: Add some chopped hazelnuts, walnuts, or any other chopped nut. First, add some of the chocolate mixture into the molds, then add  a small amount of chopped nuts. Finish with more chocolate mixture in the molds. The fudgsicle will release easier from the mold if the nuts are hidden within the mix.

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Shrimp Saute over Low Carb Pasta

Geez it's been awhile since my last post (say 2 Hail Mary's, just kidding)! I've been trying out new recipes, and old recipes that have been tweaked, just haven't gotten around to posting.
I don't know if you are aware, but I'm a crafter, mostly paper crafts. I had my first craft fair of the season early in September, but it was disappointing in sales. My next one is November, so I've been busy crafting to build up my inventory.

I was looking through my recipe folder, and found a Shrimp Saute dish that I came up with a couple of years ago. I used to be able to have it over rice or some other carb, but nowadays I just can't handle certain carbs with regard to my Type 2 Diabetes.

Well, my niece Gina had mentioned this pasta that is supposed to be low carb from a company called Dreamfield's. I found it hard to believe, and just absorbed the info and put it somewhere in my brain for safekeeping. Then DJ Foodie had mentioned something on Facebook about this pasta that some people had good results with it, and others didn't. Again, I put this somewhere in my brain for a later time.

Over this past weekend, I was in Shop-Rite and ventured into looking for this pasta. There it was, in the regular pasta aisle, on the bottom shelf. It was priced at around $2.49 a box, which is okay with me. I bought a box of elbows, angel hair, and lasagna. Now my only hope was that it would work for me. I followed the directions on the box EXACTLY! My pre-dinner glucose was 127 (a great number for me), so I took my diabetic pill before my dinner meal. The best news is that 2 hours after eating a serving of elbows, my glucose was now 117. WHAT??? It actually dropped, which has NEVER happened before, even with taking my meds. Needless to say I am a happy camper with being able to enjoy pasta again.

The meal that I made tonight (in the photo) is my Shrimp Saute over Dreamfield's elbow pasta. I had measured out less than a serving, which a serving is 1/2 cup dry pasta. Tonight I used 1/3 cup. A typical serving for this says on the box that it is 5g of Digestible Carbs. It's a long explanation, so I would suggest going to their website for more info.

Now, you could also put this over Roasted Cauliflower or even Grilled Zucchini, it doesn't have to be pasta. But hey, if it's only 5g then I would say go for it. As long as you can eat wheat, since it has wheat in it.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 TBSP Butter
• 1/8 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp Lemon juice
• 1 Shallot chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp Tomato Paste
• 1/8 tsp Black pepper
• 6 or 7 Extra Large cleaned shrimp (31 to 40 count per pound)

DIRECTIONS

Melt the butter in a saute or frying pan. Add the minced garlic over low heat. Next, add the chopped shallot and saute until opaque, over low to medium heat. Add the lemon juice, tomato paste, and black pepper. Stir well and saute for 30 seconds. Move shallots to the side of the pan and add the shrimp. When the shrimp turn pink, approximately 2 minutes, turn to cook the other side. Move the shallots back in the shrimp and mix together while cooking. Serve immediately over whatever you prefer.

Variation: If you'd like a creamy style sauce, omit the lemon juice. When the shrimp are done, remove them from the pan, turn off the stove and remove pan from burner. Add 2 tablespoons (or more for more of the sauce) of heavy cream and whisk well. Add the shrimp back in to coat them. This was so good. I think I might try scallops with this sauce!

Notes: This is for one serving. Adjust your amounts for more servings. Since my husband doesn't eat seafood, this was created for 1 person. Also, I use tomato paste from a squeeze tube.
Shrimp Saute is 6g carbs. If you add the Dreamfield's pasta of 5g per serving, total carbs for this meal is 11g.

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Lemon Cream Cheese Cups - Low Carb (UPDATED)

I liked my Cannoli Cups recipe a lot, so I decided to make the crust again from that recipe, but using a different filling. This filling is another easy one with only 4 ingredients. Although the crust makes 24 mini muffin cups, half of them were filled with the Cannoli cream, and the other half were filled with the Lemon Cream Cheese mixture. The amounts for the mixture here are based on 12 mini muffin cups crust.

Ingredients (updated)

• 4 oz cream cheese (full fat) room temperature (8 oz for pie filling)
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice (2 Tbsp for pie filling)
• 3 Tbsps Swerve or granular erythritol (6 Tbsp for pie filling)
• 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp heavy whipping cream (1/2 cup for pie filling)

Directions (updated)

1. In a bowl, beat all ingredients with a hand mixer until smooth.
2. Pipe or spoon into the 12 mini crust cups. There might be some mixture remaining, refrigerate and save it for later, or dive right on in (that's what I did!).

Notes

Each Lemon Cream Cheese Cup has 1.4g net carbs.
My original directions called for whipping the heavy cream in a separate bowl and then folding into the rest of the ingredients. Today I made this as a pie and forgot to do that step. Instead, everything was mixed in one bowl, and I'm happy to say that the filling tastes even better and much lighter than my original!

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Creamy Fruit Pops with optional Chocolate Hard Shell

I don't know about you, but I am really enjoying my time experimenting with recipes. Today I've got another frozen concoction that's low carb, but not dairy free. I like whipping cream, so if I can incorporate it into a recipe I will. I have no issues with dairy, nor do I have issues with some gluten. Mine is strictly with carbs, the lower the better for me with regards to keeping this Type 2 Diabetes in better control. Now if I can only get my butt moving to go for a walk or something, my readings would be so much better. Hmm, that almost sounds like I'm a psychic doing readings. Although I think I am intuitive I am talking about my glucose readings. Ah, that nasty little finger stick sometimes once a day, sometimes more if I feel a little off.

My favorite fruit is strawberries (really bananas but too many carbs) and quite often my breakfast will be strawberries with whipped cream and chopped walnuts, especially if I don't feel like cooking, or just need to finish what's in the crisper. So, this pop is made with strawberries.

The chocolate that you see is from The Coconut Mama's Magic Shell recipe, however I didn't use honey but subbed with confectioner's Swerve and it worked just fine. I also added a little bit of Walden Farms Pancake Syrup. The syrup was around 1/4 cup, and the confectioner's Swerve was around 3 tablespoons. You have to taste it to see if more sweetener is needed. I'm thinking that the next time I make these, I will just add the chocolate shell after the pop has frozen. The way it is here is quite thick and I didn't enjoy that part as much as I thought. A thinner shell on the outside would have been just enough!

Ingredients:

1/2 of a 12oz. bag Frozen Fruit

7oz. Coconut Milk (unsweetened)

7oz. Heavy Whipping Cream

1 to 2 Tbsp Confectioners Swerve

1 to 2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract

Pinch of Salt

Directions:

Add fruit, coconut milk, salt, and whipping cream to a blender and mix on high until combined.

Add sweetener and vanilla and blend briefly.

Taste the mixture and add more sweetener if needed.

Pour into popsicle molds and freeze for a minimum of 4 hours. Overnight is best!

Notes:

I used frozen strawberries, which my carb count is based on.

6 servings approximately 1/2 cup each mold. Net carbs per serving is 2.8g (not counting the chocolate shell)

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Another Cannoli Cream Creation!

Yep, that's right, it's only 3 slices of pie! I forgot to take a pic of it before taking it to my get-together with my sister Pattie, niece Stephanie, Cassidy (great-niece), and Gavin (great-nephew). The kids split a slice, and the adults all had one. It went over big, and I am so thrilled that my husband, Frank, loved it too!

Use the same crust recipe and for the filling add an additional 1/3 recipe ingredients, or you could double it and save any extra filling. Hmm, maybe putting it inside a cupcake, oh yes!

My husband liked it so much that he asked what else I could make. So, I'm making another pie crust right now, and will fill it with the Lemon Cream Cheese filling, but I'll double it since that amount is only for 12 mini-muffin cups.

Notes

Yield - 8 slices
Per slice 4.5g net carb.  Slice it smaller and you can cut the carbs more!