Breads

Flat Bread  aip & paleo style 

Posted on by Tamika

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FLATBREAD! and AiP you say?! Yes. Yes.  (If you are not familiar with the AIP diet please read about it here).

Well, truth is, it’s basically my Lefse recipe with several twists (see that here).

I bought myself a bag of Cassava flour from Otto’s Naturals and have been playing around with it. I started with cookies (I need to play with that more), moved on to crackers (good!) and then used it in fried chicken (coming soon!). So far (and this is not a paid-to-endorse message) I like it, quite a lot, in small amounts (hence my remake of cookies). Cassava flour is not tapioca starch, which is highly processed from the cassava plant, but it does have the naturally occuring starch in it along with all the fibre from the whole, peeled, cassava root. So it is a root flour, widely cultivated throughout South America, Africa (yuca, manioc), Polynesia and Mexico. Otto’s is from Brazil, which has been cultivating it for about 10 thousand years. So,  they know their cassava. Having never had cassava before I will have to take Otto’s Naturals word that most varieties of the flour are gritty and have a kind of “sour or musty smell and taste”, except theirs, which was pretty gritless, but does have a faint nutty-fermented smell to it, not unpleasant at all.

As I said,  I like it in small amounts. I found for me personally that it contains too much fibre, carbohydtrates and starch when used alone (as in cookies, I’m so dissappointed!) It’s terrific for basic gluten free and grain free/paleo baking, I am limiting starches on the AIP diet, and not consuming tapioca starch at all, too much is not good FOR ME. You, however, are not me.

This recipe uses aip approved arrowroot, along with white sweet potato and cassava flour. I differed it from the lefse recipe in technique as well. Like the lefse, it makes a thin ‘bread’ that is slightly sweet and chewy. I did bake a few to be super crunchy, cracker-like.  I also made several large ones and used them as a ‘pizza’. 

 

Flat Bread Aip, Paleo, Grain Free

2 cups COOKED, mashed white sweet potato (or white yam)

3 tbsp coconut oil

1/2 cup arrowroot flour plus more for rolling

3/4 cup Cassava Flour (I used Otto’s Naturals)

1 tsp salt (or more to taste)

Salt and pepper to sprinkle on before baking, if desired (try other toppings, drizzle with oilive oil and add za’atar, herbs, curry, cinnamon…)

*The white sweet potato (or yam) needs to be mashed and cooled completely before continuing.

Pre-heat oven to 400*

Place sweet potato mash in a food processor fitted with blade, add coconut oil, flours and salt, pulse until a dough ball has begun form, then stop, before it becomes over pureed (this can be made by hand, make sure the sweet potato is mashed until pureed with no lumps). Turn it out on to an arrowroot (or cassava) floured surface. Roll the ball in to a log and cut in to 6-8 even pieces, depending on how large you want your flat breads. Roll each section in to a ball.

Lightly oil 2 baking sheets. Place 2 dough balls evenly apart on sheets, then press one ball into a flat round disc, pressing dough lightly out to sides and evening out the disc. Do this with each dough ball, flouring your hands as needed.

Bake in oven 10 minutes then rotate pans. Bake another 10-15 minutes, checking for browning on edges.

If you wish for crunchy , flip the breads over after 15 minutes of baking and bake until nicely browned on both sides edges, another 15 minutes.

For thin Pizza crust use the dough to make 4 large flat breads, bake 20 minutes, until egdes brown, then remove, flip over and place ‘dry’ toppings on it. Again, since I eat AiP I do not use tomato sauce or cheese, so I’m not sure how well the breads hold up under wet toppings, but baking until it’s crsipy should help.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plantain Tortillas (AIP Paleo)

Posted on by Tamika

Plantains are a beautiful and versatile starch full of fiber and potassium, often overlooked by cultures where they are not grown. They are considered a ‘cooking’ banana, not intended for raw eating, which is just fine because they cook up wonderfully wether yellow-ripe or green.

While in Tulum last winter we ate at Hartwood  where, among many incredible dishes (the Pulpo Platter, holy smokes!) we had plantains roasted in a wood fired oven, drizzled with honey and cinnamon, proving plantains can be incredibly luscious. My love for plantains was complete. ( If you are vegatarian and ever go there, order two).

In my quest to create bread-like foods on the AIP/Paleo diet I did a quick internet search and discovered quite a few recipes for plantain tortillas. I picked one that made the most sense to me,  I made them but was not wholly pleased. Being hopeful and full of perseverance,  I tried again, altering until it worked. With good green plantains these are foolproof.

We eat these every week, sometimes for breakfast.

Plantain Tortillas 

3 green plantains (make sure they are not turning yellow)

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup coconut oil (no need to soften)

1/4 cup arrowroot flour

1 tsp salt

Optional: try substituting 2 tbls of water with fresh lime juice. Add 1/2 tsp spices such as smoked paprika, cayenne or chipotle.

Heat oven to 400*. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Peel green plantains (you may need to cut some of the fibrous inner peel off the plantain) and slice them in to 1 inch rounds. Place them in your blender or food processor. I have found the Vita-Mix to work the most efficiently, try pureeing half the plantains and water at a time in a less powerful machine.

Add the remaining ingredients and puree until you’ve achieved a smooth applesauce-like consistency. If your plantains were tough to peel they may be dry, add additional water 1 tbsp at a time, too thin and the tortillas won’t come together properly.

Scoop a spoonful of batter on to your parchment lined baking sheet spreading  it around until a thin 1/8-1/4 inch thick circle is formed (or any wonky shape will do) about 4 inches around. I use a soup sized spoon, you can make them bigger if you like. They do not spread during baking, so go ahead and put 5 or 6 on each sheet.

Spreading tortillas

Place your baking sheets in the pre-heated oven set a timer for 10 minutes, at that point you need to check for loosened edges and dry centers, it may take up to 14 minutes a side. Carefully flip the tortilla and bake another 8 minutes or so. Baking time depends on what your goal is, you can have soft foldable tortillas or crisp tostadas. So versatile!

Store in a bag in the fridge or freeze if desired. Reheat in the oven, microwave or, my preference, quickly on a low open flame.

A final note: if you do this recipe with ripe yellow plantains (when the skins are close to black that means ripe) you can make them thicker and eat as sweet pancakes 🙂

 

 

Sweet Potato Lefse (AIP Paleo Breads)

Posted on by Tamika

 

Even on a good day, even if you have crazy good cooking skills and creative juices flowing, wake up with ‘seize the day’ gumption, restrictive diets can really bring you crashing down. The AIP diet is one such challenge, with a CAPITAL C, seemingly designed to not only alter your immune system, but your whole arsenal of coping skills (If you’re not familiar with it read here and here for starters, no need for me to go into what has already been so eloquently and thoroughly described). To prove my point, here is one of my first FAILS

lovely zip banana waffles

aip banana waffle mess.

I was not swayed. I’m always behind the trends, may not seem so to my loving family and kind worded friends, but it’s truth. So naturally I took to the internet in search of those who have been here before me. I’ve baked gluten free for years, some pretty memorable goods (Sourdough Breads, Chocolate Marble Bundt Cake, OOH and Hand Pies!). Now I’m AIP Paleo. Big shift. Even so, I can only talk myself out of wanting something for so long..

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

My search for bread like things took me to a great Sweet Potato Lefse recipe from Sweet Treats Baking, my inspiration! It’s like a combination of flat bread and this sweet potato pancake I make (gf, with tapioca or millet) from Food 52. Since tapioca flour is now considered a Gluten Cross Reactor it’s not recommended on AIP ( bonus: arrowroot is the easiest starch to digest AND it can be used as an egg replacer, I adore who ever came up with that!)  I added proper .oz measurements for those of you without kitchen scales, I left the out sweetener (I find sweet potatoes sweet enough) I second Laura’s notes on doubling the recipe (the batter doesn’t keep well, neither does the sweet potato pancake recipe if you’re going to try it) but I did double the sweet potato and held off adding the dry ingredients until I was ready to cook the Lefse, having extra in the fridge made breakfasts easy for three days straight.

Sweet Potato Lefse  (adapted from Sweet Treats Baking)

2 cups cooked cubed WHITE sweet potato, from one large

1 cup arrowroot flour * plus more for rolling

2 tbsp coconut flour

3 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp salt

Boil sweet potato cubes until soft, drain in a sieve and let cool there so all moisture evaporates. Place sweet potatoes into a medium bowl and mash with a potato masher or fork until smooth. Add 3/4 cup arrowroot starch, 2 tbsp coconut flour, 3 tbsp oil, 1 tsp salt and stir until all ingredients are incorporated. Let this batter sit for 10 minutes, this allows the arrowroot and coconut to absorb moisture (but not longer because the batter will break down and be more difficult to work with).

When you are ready to roll out breads add 1/4 more arrowroot flour to batter and flour your work surface. Scoop out a large tablespoon of batter roll it into a ball then pat it flat on your floured surface and roll it out to a 1/4 inch thick  round with your rolling pin (sorry folks, I have no photos of process other the top one) making sure the lefse doesn’t stick to the rolling pin or work surface (I carefully use a bench scraper to lift it from my marble to the skillet). Heat a cast iron skillet or a non-stick pan over medium heat, add a little coconut oil, once hot add the lefse and cook a couple minutes per side, flipping when the bread seems to loosen around the edges (like a pancake, these really are a kind of crepe). While this is cooking you can quickly roll out another, remembering to flour your work surface and rolling pin. Take the cooked lefse off the skillet, set aside and start again. This is time consuming but pretty easy, and more fun if someone is helping you (*especially if you want to double this! wait until the whole first batch is finished cooking before mixing dry ingredients into second batch of sweet potato).

rolling out in beautiful sun light always helps

rolling out in beautiful sun light always helps

Some serving suggestions:

My husband says “shove in mouth, chew” right off the skillet.

Drizzle with an AIP amount of honey, sprinkle with cinnamon and roll up sliced banana in them.

Paleo, nut butter with a little dried fruit or cocoa nibs or toasted coconut flakes.

Use as a sandwich wrap for your lunch ‘salads’.