Drop Shortbread

In my house, as a kid, I remember my grandmother always making drop shortbread cookies at Christmastime.  It was never the hard, dry Scottish shortbread.  It was a powdery white cookie, dropped by the spoonful onto the pan with half of a maraschino cherry stuck into the middle of each one, some red, some green, little Christmas coloured shiny blobs in a mound of white.  I hated those cherries at first, and forever hated them in anything BUT these cookies.  But over the years I came to appreciate about how these buttery and simple shortbread cookies came to life with the addition of those little cherry bits in them.

And then I had kids.  And they loved the drop shortbread cookies, and hated the cherries.  I tried to bake them with everything and anything else that I could--red and green coloured sugar crystals, Hersheys Kisses, jujubes--and just eventually started making the drop shortbread PLAIN.  Gasp!  I know, I know, eh? I didn't know then what I know now about candied fruit and food colouring and all the other other awful crap they put in those marachino "cherries".

But you know what?  We all loved those cookies plain.  They were simple and light and just sort-of crumbled apart in the mouth.  They were only lightly sweet and smooth and buttery and it was too, too easy to gobble up 12 of them.  They went down easy.

Well, shortbread cookies are really just flour, powdered sugar, and butter.  No eggs.  No vanilla.  No anything fancy or weird or difficult to find.  Creating a shortbread-flavoured cookie without flour and powdered sugar was not an easy thing to do since those were the only flavours in them.  It took a few tries.  And the end result??  Sure, they don't look like the real deal.  Not when you grind your own almonds into flour like I do.  (If you can afford the super-fine ground almond meal, I'm sure they'll look pretty authentic.  But I can't.)

And while the ground almonds in these cookies have a bit more chewiness than traditional shortbread, these cookies still crumble gently in the mouth like drop shortbread should, and the buttery simple sweetness comes pretty damn close to what I remember it should be.  So try them.  They're oh-so-simple to make.  Have them with a spot of Earl Grey tea.  You're welcome.

Drop Shortbread

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 c slivered almonds, blended/processed into almond meal
• 1/2 c coconut sugar
• 1/3 c coconut flour
• 1 cup cold butter
• pinch of salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Blend almonds in food processor as finely as you can.  You can use almond meal if you already have that, same measurement.  Add your coconut sugar and blend a bit more.  You're trying to finely grind the sugar, too, if you can.  If you can't, don't sweat it.  Add coconut flour.  Add butter in cubes, pulsing, until all blended and a dough forms.

Drop by spoonful onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (or use an insulated cookie sheet without parchment).  Bake 25 minutes.  Let cool 5-7 minutes before trying to move from pan to cooling rack.  Cookies are delicate.

Nutrition Facts (per cookie)

81 calories

6g fat (3g saturated)

5g carbohydrate

2g fiber

2g protein

Gourmet Thin-Crust Pizza

Yes, I said thin crust, and you can eat it with your hands.

This is the best pizza crust I've made so far.  I've been searching for a pizza crust that feels like real crust, and most recipes for almond-flour crust DO feel right, but they all have a cup of cheese in the crust, then even more on top of the pizza, and while I do eat cheese, my lactose-intolerance means I can only eat small amounts of it.  So it there's going to be cheese on a pizza, I want it ONTOP of it.

The inspiration for this one came from "Everyday Grain-Free Gourmet" by Jodi Bager and Jenny Lass.  I can't take all the credit on this one.  It took only some minor changes.  Here's what I did:

Feeds about 3-4

Crust:

2 c almond meal
2 eggs
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Line baking sheet or pizza tray with parchment paper.  Mix all ingredients for pizza crust--it will have the consistency of cookie dough.  Gently press flat onto parchment.  This should make about a 14 inch round.  You could easily increase the almond meal, egg and oil to make this a monster pizza crust.

Bake for about 10 minutes, until set firm and edges have begun to brown.  Remove, and proceed as below.

Sausage-Topped Pizza:

Sauce:

1 5-oz can tomato paste
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp oregano
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
pinch salt
pinch hot pepper flakes

Combine all ingredients and set aside.

Topping:

1 lb italian sausage
1/2 onion
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp basil
salt and pepper to taste
1 c cheddar
2 tbs parmesan cheese

Brown meat, onions and spices in skillet until meat is cooked through.  Move oven rack to highest setting and turn on broiler.  Top pizza crust with sauce, parmesan, meat mixture, then cheddar, then place whole under broiler just until it begins to bubble and brown slightly.  Remove from oven.  It should slide right off the parchment for easier slicing.  Cut into 1/8ths and serve. 


The pizza dough is firm enough that you could actually top the whole thing before cooking the crust and the toppings will slightly cook into the base, making it a bit softer.  If you choose to do this, the oven needs to be set to 500 degrees, with the rack at it's lowest position, for about 10 minutes.  If you were using a cake pan for this and wanted a more deep-dish effect, this is the route to go, but you'll have to experiment alittle as I haven't tried it this way yet.

Grain-Free Pancakes

Alright, I cannot take any credit for these.  I found this awesome cookbook last time I was in Chapters called "Everyday Grain-Free Gourmet", by Jodi Bager and Jenny Lass.  The pictures were spectacular, so I had to take a really good look at some of the recipes.  Though the book does not tout itself as being paleo, the fact that it is not just gluten-free but instead is grain-free pretty much sold me on it.

This is their recipe for waffles and pancakes.  The recipe warns to cook these at a bit lower of a heat setting than you would cook typical batter pancakes-so I cooked mine over medium heat.  And it also warns to make the pancakes small because they are hard to flip.  I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop the batter, and they were perfect.  I did put the lid on the pan to help them cook through.  These were a total hit--everyone loved them!  The batter was quite yellow at first, but as soon as they hit the heat of the pan, they solidified and cooked up looking exactly like traditional pancakes.  We will definately be eating these ones again.  Sure, I love my Big-Ass pancake recipe, too, and when you want the protein hit, stick with the Big-Ass pancake recipe.  But if you really crave a treat to remind you of those old days...  This is the way to go.  In fact, once you add some kind of syrup, you wouldn't know they weren't the real deal.  Perfect for sneaking grain-free food into your non-grain-free family!!

If you try these and love them, I highly recommend buying the cookbook.  The cookbook also has a recipe for crepes, for pound cake and a sturdy base for a tuna melt that I want to try soon.  Everything I saw in the cookbook was either already paleo-approved, or easy to tweak to make it primal/paleo.  No weird ingredients to be seen.

So here it is...

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond meal/flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbs honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs

Method:

Mix all ingredients in mixing bowl.  Cook over medium heat with lid on pan, turning once.

Serve these immediately.  Serve with berries and a drop of honey, maple syrup, or sugar-free syrup.

These re-heat well in the microwave, but will burn if you try to toast them.