NEW ADVENTURES IN WHEAT-FREE HAPPINESS!

Open for Business!!! New, improved, and wheat-free …

The Sugarplum Fairy … a little off kilter this year …

Happy January, everyone!! Oh yes, folks … Sugar Nomad lives.  Why such a dreadfully long silence from the trail?  Good question.  Well, first of all, the Nomad household moved.  Not by choice.  Unanticipated eviction from the comfortable campsite right before the holidays.  Followed by the development of a lake at the new house, fed by a waterfall from the skylight into the middle of the living room.  Followed by several snowstorms, a frantic search for dwellings, and a second move.  Yes, we moved twice in ten days.  Even for a Nomad this is not recommended.  Then somehow the heating system in new house #2 was set on both the heat and air-conditioning modes at the same time.  Causing not only a freezing house but the death of the entire system.

Glorious Maine … over the river and through the woods … to a brand new, wheat-free year …

Totally awesome.  All of this was punctuated by my trip to the Northlands for Christmas.  I enjoyed the usual festive 12+ hour flying saga to the East Coast, followed by a drive from Boston to Maine in a cherry red, rented Camry, during the worst ice storm in 15 years.  Naturally, I had not purchased the extra insurance on the vehicle.  Creeping along the turnpike at 20 mph, I begged God to please not let me survive the impending wreck and be forced to pay thousands of dollars for that crappy piece of junk.  I walked the last frigid, wet mile to my brother’s house after the car slid straight backwards down their hill.  Picture driving on a skating rink tilted at 80 degrees.

Yes.  Well … I’ll skip the story of the rest of the holidays, which were largely depressing.  I did get in some cookie baking with my beautiful niece, Tessa, which brings me to the next reason for the long absence of posts:  I no longer eat wheat.  This is highly unexpected but, I think, a positive development both for me and for the Nomad kitchen.

Baking with Tess — Love my girl xxx

I had decided to do a little research into the whole gluten-free phenomenon.  It didn’t make sense to me that all of a sudden after thousands of years of wheat as the staple of so many cuisines, suddenly everyone is allergic to it.  What I didn’t know is that wheat has been aggressively genetically modified over the past 50 years as part of the “green revolution,” which had the noble goal of feeding the world, but in reality disrupted a lot of ancient indigenous agricultural practices.  This all may or may not have been a good idea, but what is definitely not a good idea is changing plants so dramatically that our bodies can’t adapt to them.  The new Frankenstein wheat that we all eat today is not the same wheat our grandparents ate – it has much more gluten, more carbohydrate and less protein.  The bottom line is that some people — perhaps more than we currently know — do not tolerate it well.

The beautiful Adrienne … feeling the fresh vibe in the brand new Nomad kitchen …

After reading the book, Wheat Belly, by cardiologist William Davis, I stopped eating wheat.  Literally, I finished the last page of the book and that was it.  Interestingly, the few times I’ve had little bits of it in the last few months, I’ve woken up the next day with stomachaches.  Something is going on … I’d rather not be a guinea pig.  I can feel that my baseline blood sugar is lower now.  I get hungry – as in, really hungry – more often.  I still eat plenty of sweets, believe me, but I lost five pounds in the first two weeks without wheat.  It just happened.

… In mad pursuit of sweets without wheat …

I don’t plan on becoming dogmatic.  Occasional recipes using wheat may appear here.  I just got an amazing new cookbook on the history of Arabic sweets, and I have yet to find a wheat-free phyllo dough … But for the most part, Sugar Nomad will be sans wheat.  It makes me sad that we’ve done this to our old friend, the staff of life.  Ancient strains of wheat are still available, and I’ll probably order some flours at some point for recipes that simply demand it.  In the meantime, it’s been really fun experimenting with all kinds of different flours.  I was a vegetarian for thirteen years, and the current baking process reminds me of the early days without meat – suddenly, everything became so much more creative in the kitchen, and I learned about ingredients I never knew existed.  Well – here we go again … hop aboard!

Today’s recipes are two old favorites that needed to make an appearance for the holidays.  I make them both at Valentine’s Day too, which I am eagerly anticipating here in the January doldrums.  Tess and I made both of these.  One has been made by our Swedish foremothers for generations, and I really hope she carries on the tradition.  This will give her a healthier way to keep it alive.  She also was fixed on making a cookie with peanut butter and honey.  I created this variation on a childhood favorite.  I have to say both versions are even better than the original white flour/sugar versions.  And the almond butter kiss cookies are altogether grain-free.  Try them, and see what you think!

Oh, paleo bliss!

Almond Butter Kiss Cookies

(These are grain-free and paleo too!  This is my version of the cookie I first fell in love with at school bake sales, growing up in Maine.  That one was made with peanut butter and milk chocolate Hershey’s kisses.  My best friend, Amy’s mom made the very best ones.  These are still the real deal but high in protein and a little more sophisticated … I think!)

You can’t eat just one! And it’s okay if you don’t. These are nutrient-packed!

¼ cup butter

½ cup almond butter (or peanut butter)

½ cup coconut sugar

½ cup honey

2 eggs

½ teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups almond flour

1 bag dark chocolate Hershey’s Kisses (These have purple foil wrappers.  There are so many kinds of kisses now that it gets confusing!)

Cream softened butter, honey, coconut sugar, almond extract, and almond butter.  Add eggs, then almond flour and salt.

Roll into walnut sized balls – dough will be very sticky – don’t worry.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet and top with a dark chocolate Hershey’s kiss. Press the kiss down a bit into the center or you will end up with lopsided cookies!  Bake at 325 degrees until set and slightly brown on the edges.  Let these sit a bit before removing from tray, and then do so very carefully.  Cookies will firm up nicely as they cool but stay chewy!

The stuff of legend … but with no white flour.

Rosenmunnar for a New Age:

(These are the Swedish thumbprints we made by the millions when I was growing up.  I’ve adjusted my Grandmother’s recipe …)

Bake with your kiddos! Those measuring cups are good for learning fractions!

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1 cup millet flour

1 cup sorghum flour

½ cup brown rice flour

1 egg yolk

½ cup confectioner’s sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or 1 teaspoon lemon or almond extract)

¼ teaspoon cardamom

Remember, don’t overfill …

I like to throw all ingredients into the food processor.  If you do this, make sure the butter is cold, and cut it into chunks first.  Alternatively, soften butter, and cream with sugar.  Add egg yolk and extract, then flours.  Roll into walnut sized balls, and create a well in the center with your thumb.  Fill with jam – I like raspberry, cherry or apricot.  Do not overfill.  About a teaspoon is right.  You’ll learn to eyeball it – too much jam, and they overflow.  Bake until just light brown on the edges.  These cookies need to be completely cooled to be at their firmest.  When they first come out of the oven, they’re very fragile.  As they cool, they pull themselves together into relatively sturdy little creatures.

For a super decadent and outrageously delicious cookie, top each blob of jam before baking with a dark chocolate disc.  I get mine at Whole Foods.  They are just flat chocolate circles about the size of a nickel.  You could use a few chocolate chips if you can’t find the chips.  The chocolate melts over the jam … need I say more?

So, All — I hope you’ll enjoy these new adventures in the sweet kitchen as much as I am.  This is an experiment, and we’ll see what develops and how it evolves.  As a lover of traditional foods and all the history, meaning, and love that comes with them, I’m not about to give up sweets.  But the challenge of maintaining all the things I adore and crave about them, while creating versions that don’t make our bodies sick is pretty exciting — especially for a family doc, who wants very much for you all to remain healthy, vibrant, full of energy — and OUT of the doctor’s office.

LOVE, SWEETNESS, HAPPINESS & HEALTH IN 2014 xoxoxo!!!

Oh, gluten-free YUM!!!