Crust for a Savory Dish

I use this crust for savory dishes, like this galette recipe that I will post soon

It is versatile and can easily accommodate for whatever ingredients you have or prefer to use.

Suzy Tip: I often add spices to my crust dough. This is another dimension of flavor not often thought about, and the addition makes the whole dish a little bit more special :)

Savory Crust

1 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup almond meal
pinch salt
3 T cold water
3 T coconut oil
any spices you like, I often add a pinch of paprika and/or rosemary depending on what I feel like.

Combine all ingredients. Being sure to keep the dough cool (so the coconut oil remains solid), roll it out.

Suzy Tip for rolling out dough: place the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, parchment or wax paper and, place another piece of plastic wrap/parchment/wax paper on top (you can even spray so it doesn't stick if your dough is really sticky).

Roll out the dough using a rolling pin or another cylindrical object (between the two papers). Remove the top paper, and place the dough in the pie dish or on the baking sheet
Top or fill with other tasty and wholesome ingredients.
Bake on prepared baking sheet with parchment or cooking spray, at 30 degrees for about 20 minutes, depending on filling (the galette cooks for 25-35 minutes)

Crust!

Other flours I would consider using  in place of buckwheat: (sweet white) sorghum flour, teff flour, corn flour, millet flour, quinoa flour, oatmeal flour (making your own is easy!)
The dough should be pliable, but not too sticky...depending on your flour substitution and humidity you may need to add more water, one teaspoon at a time!

What would you fill this crust with?

Clearly from the photos I made a galette with it, using garden fresh ingredients that I had on hand. It turned out really well, and will definitely be something I'll be making in the future! Be sure to check back, I'll have the recipe up for that soon!!

Cheers,
     Suzy

Fluffiest Frosting

This frosting is reminiscent of clouds. It's SO LIGHT AND FLUFFY! And bakers beware, if you are only making a single layer cake, like in a 9x9 inch pan...and you make an WHOLE batch of this frosting, one of two things are going to happen: 1) you have a good bit of frosting hanging out in your fridge when you are finished frosting your cake or 2) you will have a cake heaping with fluffy frosting.
Guess which outcome I choose. My cake was half of this frosting by volume. I figured, why not? Saying it was a bit much is an understatement, but it was good for a few laughs when cutting into it and seeing the surprise on people's faces when they realized half of their slice was frosting.

I really liked this frosting, it has a really mild flavor and isn't too sweet; making it a perfect base for so many flavor opportunities! You can add spices and extracts to match any flavor profile you are working with, and adjust the sweetness to suit your taste.

The heavy cream is what makes this frosting so light and airy, it is whipped (along with the other ingredients) much like you would do to make your own whipped cream. The ingredients don't seem like they will make so much frosting at first, but after all the air is incorporated, the mixture will double in size.

This is definitely one of the more interesting frostings I have made, even though this version's flavor was plain, the texture was unique. Could you imagine adding some cocoa powder? Chocolate-y clouds of frosting. Yum!
Oh, and I bet you could use full fat coconut milk instead of the whipping cream and maybe even Cashew Cream Cheese for a vegan version. Ohhh.. cocoa and coconut!... pure decadence. Okay, I have to stop now before I bake another cake. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

8 oz plain cream cheese

1/2 cup granulated sugar (more or less depending on tastes)

2 t vanilla extract

2 cups heavy whipping cream

Combine the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
Add the cream (I slowly added it in three batches), using a mixer, start mixing at a lower speed and work your way up until the frosting resembles whipped cream and stiff peaks form.

Recipe adapted from here.

What's your favorite cake-frosting flavor combo?

I have always LOVED banana cake with cream cheese frosting. In fact, a banana cake is what this recipe was tested out on, and that recipe will be up on this blog soon, so report back for that update!

Cheers,
     Suzy