Cooking with Chef Jo: Christmas Goodies #1

The Christmas Parties!!!

Yes, it's that time of year again. Many will be going to parties and get-togethers, and will have to take food along with you. It's this time of year most diabetics hate because of all those sweet temptations available to them. So my Christmas goodies are sweet and/or savory selections keeping them in mind. Until 2012, I was an insulin dependent diabetic too and I haven't forgotten. My youngest daughter being a pastry chef hasn't forgotten either. She goes out of her way to make healthy goodies too.

Yes, some of my recipes will be death by sugar sweet, but I'll include some alternatives that are lower on the glycemic index, and healthy to boot. Ugh! Who wants to think healthy at holidays! It's the time to overindulge in everything, right? Uh, no, not when we're talking about dying. I'm talking about really dying from what you eat as in 6' underground. I've spent decades altering recipes to take everyone's health issues into consideration. Bad hearts, high blood pressures, gall bladder issues, kidney disease, strokes, cancer, diabetes, and about every medical problem you can name runs in my kin. But with a gene pool of 652 folks, it was bound to happen, right? I'd rather keep them around to live, laugh, and enjoy their company for as long as possible. Honestly only about 75 heads will attend the Christmas festivities at my father's and sister's.

But let's get started. For the next couple of weeks, I'll post a decadent sweet and a savory alternative recipe for each week so you'll get a twofer. You've already gotten two sweets under your belt with my fruitcake and my SF/GF/NF Mexican Wedding cookies recipes. So this week I'll add three more to your repertoire collection of my recipes.

Snacking Platter

Everyone knows how to put together a vegetable platter, right? Just add  add some uncured turkey pepperoni, some whole wheat crackers or use my GF flour to make your own crackers (my recipe to follow), some low fat cheese chunks and my dipping sauce (recipe to follow) to complete the platter. Notice I said low-fat cheese. The nonfat cheeses tastes yucky!

I'll include a best use date for optimum yumminess so you can make it ahead of time and know how long it keeps for. Everyone is so busy this time of year, so getting a jump start is helpful.

GF Crackers
Approx 48 crackers

What you'll need

2 egg, beaten
2 cups my GF flour, sifted
1/2 cup roasted & unsalted sunflower seeds, ground to coarse meal like corn meal
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/8 teaspoon ground rosemary powder
1/8 tsp ground sage or rubbed sage 
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 black pepper
1 tablespoon my bagel seasoning 

Recipe for my yummy sprinkles-

1 TBS  of each dehydrated peppers-red and green for Christmas (blended coarse), dehydrated onions (blended coarse), garlic granules, coarse sea salt, coarse black pepper, white and black toasted sesame seeds, flax seeds, toasted nori/seaweed (blended coarse), dry grated Parmesan cheese, and poppy seeds. Mix well and store in air tight container. You'll only need 1 TBS for this recipe. Can be used in salad dressing, topping for breads, rolls, or bagels, or in any recipe for an extra punch of flavor. In the refrigerator, it can be stored for a month! But on the shelf, I wouldn't push it more than two weeks.

Putting it together

•  For the dry ingredients- In a large bowl whisk the GF flour, ground sunflower seeds, rosemary, sage, salt, pepper together.
• For the wet ingredients- add the olive oil to a small bowl with the eggs, mix well and add that to the dry ingredients. Mix well until the dough comes together, this will take a few minutes.
• Add a few drops of oil to your hands and spread the dough onto a piece of parchment paper. Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough into a large rectangle. Sprinkle the seasoning mix on top and continue to roll out the dough. The thinner the better to about 1/8" or 1/16".
•  Use a pizza cutter or a knife to cut the dough into 2x2 inch cracker shapes. Carefully dock the top of the cracker with a fork.
• Move squares to a sheet pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until the crackers are slightly golden, making sure not to burn them.
•  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes and enjoy! Store at room temperature in an air tight container for up to 5 days.

Savory Heart Smart Ranch Horseradish Dipping Sauce
About 1 1/2 cups

What you'll need

1/2 to 3/4 cup fat-free buttermilk, depending how thick you want your sauce to be*
1/4 cup Duke's Mayonnaise
1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese, blended smooth
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp prepared horseradish
Juice of 1/2 a large lemon freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 TBS fresh dill, minced or 1 tsp dried
                                                             1TBS fresh parsley, minced or 1 tsp dried
                                                             1 TBS fresh chives, minced or 1 tsp dried
                                                             1 TBS fresh dill weed or 1 tsp dried
                                                             1/4 tsp garlic granules
                                                             1/4 tsp onion granules


*Notes- Start with the lowest amount of buttermilk. Let rest in the refrigerator to let rhe flavors blend. Of the dipping sauce is too thick, add more buttermilk in 1 TBS increments until the finished dipping sauce is the way you like it. It should coat the vegetables or cracker and not scooped onto them.  It can be stored covered in your refrigerator for a week. Stir it well before pouring it into your dip bowl.


Now for the sweet recipe. It's fitting that the sweet comes last, isn't it? Unless you are like my father in law who always ate dessert first so he'd have room for it. I really miss that old coot. On platters, nothing should be sized more than a bite or two. So I shrank my tiramisu recipe down to that. Although I wasn't the first one to do it and won't be the last. This sweet is labor and time intensive, but well worth it.

Tiramisu Bites

Circa 1980

with semi diabetic alternatives

Servings 36 

 

What you'll need

12 lady fingers cut into thirds

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 teaspoons instant coffee granules

1 1/2 teaspoons amaretto, divided into 1 tsp and 1/2 tsp
1 container (8 oz )mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar(1/4 cup Splenda & 1 tsp cornstarch blended until fine) 

3/4 cup whipping cream

1/2 oz semisweet baking chocolate, shaved or grated

1-2 bags Dark chocolate Candy Melts, melt one bag at a time as needed

Putting it all together

• Heat chocolate candy melts according to the instruction.
• Lightly spray each mini muffin compartment with vegetable oil spray.
• Brush the candy melts to each mini muffin compartment about 1/8" to 1/4" thick around the bottoms and sides. Put in the refrigerator to chill. While combining the rest of the tiramisu.
• In small bowl, mix water, coffee granules and 1/2 teaspoon of the amaretto. Dip each lady finger into the coffee-amaretto mixture.  Set on a plate to until all liquid is absorbed (about 10 minutes).
• Loosen each chocolate cup. If they break, respray after removing broken cup, remold a new one and return to refrigerator for 10 minutes. You want pretty bites.
• Place each dipped lady finger into a muffin compartment gently pressing down lightly. The lady finger should fill about half the tin.
• In medium bowl, beat cheese, powdered sugar and remaining 1 teaspoon amaretto with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. 
• In another medium bowl, beat whipping cream on high speed until soft peaks form. 
• Fold cheese mixture into whipped cream. 
• Spoon or pipe (with a #18 star tip) a rounded tablespoon whipped cream mixture into each cup, covering each lady finger.  
• Grate semisweet chocolate over each cup. 
• Place cups into a covered container.
• Refrigerate at least 4 hours to blend flavors. Overnight is better
• Store covered in refrigerator for up to two days

(Pictured) I decorated these with mini swirled chocolate straws, but you don't have to get that fancy with them. I

found them in a specialty catalog only available to restaurant purchasers. I also used a round tip #2A to fill them, but to me the star tip makes for a prettier presentation. I've made them both ways.

So now you have three more recipes to wow your guests with during this holiday season. It's still 14 days until the big day and a lot of partying preps to do. So stay tuned for next Wednesday's party recipe selection. Need a hint? It involves a little bird we'll be raising on our homestead next year. You ponder on that. Aren't I wicked? Wearing my best wicked evil grin. The Grinch has nothing on me.

 

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo