Pure2 Tribute and Raw Hazelnut Cheese

Thank the spinning earth it's Friday? Well, it's a gorgeous, sunny day, but if you're self-employed and a student, the work doesn't stop with Friday. I've been slammed this week! It's also been an intensely social week, with Phil back home. We've had people for dinner, or been to dinner at people's houses, every night this week, and that's set to continue through next Thursday if not beyond, and we're supposed to be house-and dog-sitting for our neighbors starting next week too. Ayayay! At least it gives me reason to make goodies...

In fact, I managed to create tributes to two blogs I particularly enjoy as part of a single meal this week.

Part of the week's shakedown has been to finish the kitchen!

 Yes, there are some miscellaneous construction items that need to be moved or organized, and yes, there's isn't a sink yet. But I can now fix all the food in one place, rather than constantly running back and forth between the two tiny rooms.

On to my first "blogger tribute"--I'm going to share one today, one tomorrow. I created this elegant appetizer of Raw Hazelnut Cheese (recipe to follow), carrot sticks (because I love them so), and pumpkin socca!

This is my tribute to Lori and Michelle of Pure 2 Raw--I so admire their allergy-friendly baking talents, their sincerity, humor, thoughtfulness and imagination, and their adventures in fitness are always an inspiration.

"Socca" is a Mediterranean flatbread made with chickpea flour (and thus gluten free and high protein) that Lori and Michelle have popularized in myriad forms on their blog. The pumpkin version was perfect for the season, was deliciously ambiguous between sweet and savory (especially with some cinnamon in there) and between crunchiness around the edges and moist/doughy inside.

 And I didn't even need to advertise that it was gluten free, but was able to enjoy it along with everyone else. Usually, if I make something gluten free, it's not the preferred item--but there weren't many leftovers from this.
 It was also a perfect vehicle for the Raw Hazelnut Cheese I made.

Phil, my "Philbert," came home with lots of fresh filberts (aka hazelnuts) from Oregon, so I decided to make a nut cheese rather than a hummus. I know that Lori and Michelle love their cultured foods, so this is for you, with fondness:

Raw Hazelnut Cheese
2 cups hazelnuts, soaked
1/2-1 cup water
2 probiotics capsules
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar, or a mixture of the two)

Blend the soaked hazelnuts and the powder from the probiotic capsules on high with a small amount of water until completely pureed (if you don't have a Vitamix or high-speed blender, you will need more water).
Scrape everything out onto a sieve lined with a nut milk bag or some cheesecloth, and leave in a dark place for 24 hours.
After it's sat and cultured, stir in the remaining ingredients.
Garnish with paprika.

This is a very basic cheese: I think it would be lovely with some minced basil, or go spicy with jalapeno pieces, or mince in some chives... Hazelnuts are high in fiber, so this isn't as smooth as a cashew-based cheese, but the texture is really good nonetheless--all the dairy cheese aficionados really enjoyed it!

Thanks for the inspiration, Lori and Michelle!
Stay tuned for the second 'blogger tribute'--I'll try to get it up over the weekend.
Much love.

FFF-Inspired Pumpkin-Carrot-Cake-Bread

Again, thank you so much for the great comments and advice on my dealing with failure post, and also for the shares about 'home-alone' time.

I didn't grow up with pumpkin. Halloween wasn't much of a holiday where I grew up, although I do remember reading a picture book about it at a friend's house, but I only remember that because the text was all rhymed and so stuck in my head ("sister's a witch all dressed in black/brother wears bones, front and back/I'm a ghost with no face/in an old pillowcase").

They didn't even have winter squash at the stores in England when I was a kid, let alone jack o'lanterns, but they do now. In Israel, there was pumpkin in the fall and my grandmother would make it as a side dish, steamed, gloopy, unseasoned, never very appealing (I wonder about that: she is an incredible cook and that's the only thing of hers I never liked--must have been some sort of traditional dish).

Over the past decade, I've come to appreciate pumpkin (and squash in general) for its versatility, working well both as a main course and a dessert vehicle; for its heartiness and nutrient-density while being very low in calories; for its usefulness in vegan and gluten free baking; for its distinctive flavor that still manages to carry other flavors beautifully.

I last wrote about pumpkin as the key ingredient in chocolate mousse (in place of tofu, avocado, etc) in my review of Peggy Kotsopoulos' Must Have Been Something I Ate. I haven't used it since then--I probably prefer sweet potatoes overall, even though they're more caloric. But having pretty much yammed myself out (here, for example), and with the season upon us, it felt like time.

And then I saw Tina's Pumpkin Carrot Cake Bread and was thoroughly intrigued that something could be both pumpkin and carrot, both cake and bread--two delightful pairings delightfully conjoined--and I knew that I had to make a gluten free and vegan version.

 So, I proceeded to do so! At the same time (but at the opposite end of the cabin) I made a regular version for Phil. He gladly ate a big slice and took the rest for journey food.

I also made this version low-sugar.
Here it is--Pumpkin Carrot Cake Bread with thanks to Tina; vegan gluten free, low sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix together dry ingredients:
3/4 cup quinoa flour (I ground quinoa grain freshly)
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup potato starch
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients:
1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon flax mixed with 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup xylitol
1/4 cup molasses

Combine dry and wet ingredients and stir in:
1 cup shredded carrot
1/4 cup goji berries (or whatever you prefer--for Phil's, I omitted the gojis and added pumpkin seeds)

Bake for 25 minutes.

Baking is tricky here, since all I have is a toaster oven. At that time and temperature, the breads were just starting to burn on the top and were still doughy in the middle. Luckily, doughy in the middle is exactly how Phil prefers them and in a regular oven, I think this would have been perfect.

Oh, and I thought it was delicious, too. It's very moist and toothsome and spicy, but holds together well. I love how the pieces of carrot have retained some crunch and texture, not mushed completely. Carrots are definitely one of my favorite foods and were a huge selling point in this recipe. Minus the baking soda, I think this would be a great dehydrator bar recipe also.

Do you tweak recipes from cake into bread into bar, from smoothie into mousse into pie?