Guava Swirl Cheesecake

Hey everyone, I'm still alive! I've just been letting work and life take precedence these days. But that also means that I've build up a good pile of recipes to share with you.

This dessert popped into my head one day when I was thinking about a way to combine the flavors of guava and cream cheese. My husband loves these super sweet Cuban pastries filled with guava and cream cheese, but trying to make a starch free version of the real pastry just wouldn't come close enough to the real thing. I had to get a little more creative with the flavor combination. And so the guava swirl cheesecake was born! (And depending on your flavor preferences, you can change the guava to any type of jam or jelly and this cheesecake would still be delicious. I think strawberry, blueberry and blackberry would all be amazing.)

The crust is the same recipe that we used in our Key Lime Mousse Pie and makes a good starch free substitute for any pie or dessert recipe requiring a crust.

Guava Swirl Cheesecake
makes one 10-inch cheesecake
for the crust:
3 cups almond meal/flour
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
(scant) 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
(scant) 1/8 cup water
for the cheesecake:
two 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temp.
2/3 cup sugar (you can use a little less depending on how much jelly your adding in)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, at room temp.
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/4-1/2 cup guava jelly, depending on your taste - I used Goya, in the international food section

for the crust:
--> Combine the almond meal with the baking soda, salt and sugar. Add the butter and some water, but don't add too much water! You just need enough to moisten the dough so that you can mix it. Knead to combine, and don't worry if some of the butter still shows through the dough. Form the dough into a flat disk, cover completely with saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

--> Preheat oven to 300 degrees F and lightly butter or spray a 9 inch or 10 inch springform pan. Remove the dough  from the fridge and place between 2 sheets of parchment paper. Roll the dough out to a round disk a little larger than the springform pan. Remove the top sheet and invert the shell onto the pie dish. (Sometimes, if the dough feels a little bit on the sticky side, I just put the dough directly on my pan and press it in piece by piece with my fingers instead of rolling it out. When it's too sticky, it can just stick to the paper.) With your hands, mold the dough to fit your springform pan, making the edges a little thicker than the bottom.

--> Put into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the crust has very lightly browned and is firm. Remove from the oven and cool completely while you make your filling.
 
for the cheesecake:
--> Increase the oven temperature to 325 degrees F. With a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese at medium speed until very soft and smooth, about 4 minutes. Add sugar and salt, and continue to beat at medium speed for another 4 minutes or so, until cream cheese is light. Beat in vanilla. Add eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition so that your batter will be well aerated. Reduce to low speed and mix in heavy cream.

--> Stir bowl with rubber spatula, scraping the sides, and pour into your cooled crust. In a small bowl, stir your guava jelly until softened and uniform in texture. Pour jelly onto cheesecake mixture by the spoonful and marble gently into the cheesecake with a knife. 

--> Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until slightly browned and puffed a little. A thermometer should read 150 degrees F when inserted into the center of the cheesecake. Let cool, then place into the fridge. If you'd like, serve with whipped cream on top. But it's amazingly delicious either way.

Cheddar Onion Rolls

These savory rolls aren't too much to look at, but when you can't eat wheat or grains, they can really hit the spot. They go really well with a salad or broken apart into your soup. These rolls also make an excellent substitute for hamburger buns, and if you're making them to use for a sandwich, make sure to make them rounded, because they'll flatten as they bake, and you want them to be taller if you're planning on slicing them in half.

This recipe is based on one from the Healing Foods Cookbook.

{pre-baking}

Cheddar Onion Rolls
makes 6
3 cups almond flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 cup cheddar, grated
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1/3 cup onions, finely chopped
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
olive oil

1.) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Combine the almond flour with the baking soda, cheddar, salt, pepper, and onions. In another bowl, whisk the butter with the eggs (and honey if you're using it) until frothy.

2.) Add the almond flour mixture to the egg mixture and knead together. With slightly moist hands, form the dough into 6 buns and place onto a parchment lined baking tray. Trace a cross across the top of the rolls with a sharp knife and brush with oil.

3.) Bake for about 15 minutes, then turn oven down to 300 degrees F and bake for another 15 minutes. The rolls should feel firm and nicely browned. Extras can be refrigerated in an airtight container.

{Closed} Giveaway / Win a Handmade Necklace from Cortalito

So, I know this isn't related to starch, but I'm sharing anyway. This morning I'm excited to be doing my first giveaway from my online jewelry shop, Cortalito. For this giveaway, I'm offering one winner the Snow & Ice Necklace in the photos above. I'm also offering a 20% off coupon for A Starch Free Cookbook readers when you use the code STARCHFREE at checkout.

Here's how you can enter to win: (This giveaway is open to international readers, too!)
Mandatory Entry:

Visit my Etsy Shop and have a look around. Come back here and leave a comment telling me your favorite item in the shop. Please leave your email address so I can contact you if you win. If there's no way to contact you, your entry will not count.

Bonus Entries: (Leave a separate comment for each entry.)

- Tweet this giveaway! Use the following sentence, "Enter to win a handmade necklace from Cortalito on @Cortalito_K blog, A Starch Free Cookbook! http://astarchfreecookbook.blogspot.com/2013/01/giveaway-win-handmade-necklace-from.html"

- Like Cortalito on Facebook.
- Share the link to this giveaway on Facebook.
- Share this giveaway on your blog or tumblr. Please include the link to your post in the comments.

So, there are a total of four ways to enter this giveaway. Don't forget to include your email address in the comments! This giveaway will end on January 12 and I'll announce the winner on Sunday.
 

***

Congrats to Katharyn (comment #8), our giveaway winner! And thanks to everyone who participated! I'm sure I'll be doing more giveaways like these down the line.

Kale Chips

I know I've said this before, but I have a hard time finding vegetable dishes that are a.) starch free and b.) that the Mister is willing to eat. That being said, he will eat kale chips every single day. AND he'll be happy about it. Doing the starch free thing, he often laments the lack of crunchy and snack-y types of foods. So kale chips make a good alternative to potato chips, even if you can eat starch. And don't tell anyone, but we like to dip ours in ketchup. They only take 10 minutes, start to finish. So you really can have them any day of the week.

{pre-baking}

Kale Chips
serves 2-3
3-4 cups of (loosely packed) kale, washed and trimmed of the thick stalk and torn into pieces
olive oil
seasoning salt and pepper

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and line your baking sheet with a sheet of parchment paper. Spread out kale evenly across sheet. (I usually mound up the kale a little, or you won't have very many kale chips once it bakes down.)
2. Drizzle olive oil over the kale and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put sheet in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, until kale chips are *starting to brown.
3. Serve immediately. With ketchup.

*You'll have to keep a close eye on the chips in the last part of cooking, because they'll go from perfect to burnt pretty quickly. I like mine on the chewier side (which looks more green, like the picture above) and the husband likes them crispy, which will be browner. Test it out and see what you prefer.

{a little glimpse into my tiny kitchen}

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

I love soup, have you noticed yet? In cold weather, there's nothing better. And this soup is a delicious way to consume a lot of vegetables and not mind one bit. This soup will freeze well, so you can make a big batch and save some for later. And the cheddar crackers from my last post make an excellent topping instead of starchy saltines.

{pureed using an immersion blender, before adding in the cheese}

{stirring in the cheeses}

Broccoli Cheddar Soup - adapted just slightly from Cook's Illustrated

serves 6-8

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 pounds broccoli, florets roughly chopped into 1-inch pieces, stems trimmed, peeled, and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1 medium onion, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
2 (medium) cloves garlic, minced, or pressed through garlic press (about 2 tsps)

1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 teaspoons brown mustard
Table salt
3 cups water
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth, (but if you're a veggie who can eat starch, vegetable broth will work just fine) - I actually used turkey broth that I made from our thanksgiving turkey carcass and it was perfect
2 ounces baby spinach (2 loosely packed cups)
3 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded (3/4 cup)
1 1/2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated fine (about 3/4 cup), plus extra for serving
Ground black pepper

optional: 1/4 cup heavy cream

 1. Heat butter in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. When foaming subsides, add broccoli, onion, garlic, mustard, and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 6 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup white wine and baking soda. Bring to simmer, cover, and cook until broccoli is very soft, about 20 minutes, stirring once during cooking.

2. Add broth and 2 cups water and increase heat to medium-high. When mixture begins to simmer, stir in spinach and cook until wilted, about 1 minute. Remove pot from heat. 

3. If you have an immersion blender, blend the soup right in the pot. If not, transfer soup to a blender (do this in parts, all of the soup won't fit in the blender at once) and process until smooth. Pour the soup back into the dutch oven and add Cheddar and Parmesan, and stir with a wooden spoon until melted and smooth about 1 minute.  

4. Put dutch oven back on medium heat and bring to simmer. Adjust consistency of soup with up to 1 cup water. If you'd like it a little creamier (like me), add in heavy cream and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve, passing extra Parmesan separately.

 

Starch-less Cheddar Crackers

Okay, I know what you're thinking. What the hell is this? Well, I promised you that I'd post the recipe for cheddar crackers and then promptly realized that I never got any good pictures of them before they were all gone. And I haven't had a chance to make them since. But as they go excellently with my last post (hot spinach dip), I figure I should just get to it. As well as going well with dip, they're also tasty broken up into little pieces as a topping for soup.

When you make these, err on the side of more thin. Mine were a little too thick because I didn't want to make them too thin, and of course I had the opposite problem. If they're not thin enough, they won't crisp up correctly. These would also make a good foundation for nachos. A later post!

And I promise when I get better pictures I'll redo this post.

Cheddar Crackers - adapted from Healing Foods
makes about 35
1 1/4 cups cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup almond flour
1/4 cup sour cream
course salt
optional seasonings:
1/2 teaspoon dried sage and/or thyme
1/2 teaspoon onion powder - I used this...
1/2 paprika - ...and this

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Combine the cheddar with the almond flour, sour cream, and seasonings (except for course salt) and knead until all ingredients are combined.
3. Place the dough onto the lined baking sheet. Put another layer of parchment on top of the dough, then roll the dough between the two layers out until about 1/16 inch or 2mm thick.
4. Remove the top layer of parchment and press the course salt sparingly into the dough. Then with the edge of a knife, cut the dough into cracker-sized pieces.
5. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until slightly browned. Let cool and store in an air tight container.

Thanksgiving & Some Hot Spinach Dip

Hello all! If you're wondering where I've been all November, I was planning Thanksgiving. This was my first year hosting, so I planned the hell out of it, making sure I left no stone unturned. And it was a success! I wasn't even that stressed out, thanks to all the hard work I put in. Now I have some great recipes to share with you, after all that research.

And just because I'm proud of my hard work, I have to share a few photos of the hors d'oeuvres spread and the table setting. But since I don't want you to leave empty-handed, I'm also including the recipe for the {starch free} hot spinach dip that I made. It's excellent with some starch free cheddar crackers, a recipe I'll be sharing in a couple of days. So don't forget to check back later this week. This spinach dip would make an excellent appetizer for any kind of family gathering.

Hot Spinach Dip a la Martha Stewart  
Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons olive oil, plus more for baking dish
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 pounds spinach, cleaned, trimmed, and coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup milk
• 6 ounces bar cream cheese
• 3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
• 3 dashes Tabasco sauce
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• Starch free crackers, for serving
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a Dutch oven or large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook until lightly browned, 5 to 8 minutes.
2. Add spinach in two additions, letting the first batch wilt before adding the next; cook until completely wilted, 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a colander; drain, pressing to release all excess liquid.
3. In the same pot, warm milk over high heat. Whisk in cream cheese until melted, about 3 minutes. Add spinach, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and 1/4 cup mozzarella; stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into a lightly oiled 1 1/2-quart shallow baking dish; sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella.
4. Bake until bubbly and golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve hot with accompaniments, as desired.