Strawberry Heaven

As strawberry season rolls through California lets give it up to this amazing fruit.  It is high in fiber, second only to the blueberry in antioxidants, a great source of vitamin C, and that sweet juicy flavor is an unforgettable staple of fresh goodness.

Lets talk strawberry pie.  There are a lot of variations out there so this is a recipe you can go buck wild with.  I’m sticking with a low fat, low sugar but substituting back to the real deal is easy breezy.

Basic must haves include strawberries, cornstarch, sugar and pie shell.

Pie shells include gram cracker, a regular flour and butter piecrust, or my new find crescent roll crust. For both the regular and the crescent roll crust precook it.  I used a crescent roll crust.  Unroll, press it into the pan, bake according to the directions on the package, and let cool.  The crescent roll crust is a wonderful flaky light crust that works well with fruit pies and the reduced fat kind can be used.

For the filling throw strawberries, cornstarch, sugar, and water into a pan and boil until thick.  This doesn’t take a lot of heat or very long. 

Start with a bunch (1-2 cups) of strawberries fresh, frozen, puréed or solid

1-4 tbsp cornstarch

¼- ¾ cup sugar

1 cup water

For the sugar I used 1 ½ tbsp Sun Crystals that is a sugar/stevia blend. I also mixed in 1 tbsp sugar free strawberry jello and some recipes call for vanilla cook and serve pudding.

My extra was a cream cheese base.  So before you pour the mixture into the pie curst mix up cream cheese, sugar, and a little milk. Spread on bottom of crust and put some fresh strawberries down for a little extra fresh kick.  To lower the fat in recipes don’t use the fat free cream cheese, it just doesn’t work out, but the 1/3 reduced fat is amazing for cooking and baking.

Cream Cheese mixture-

4 oz cream cheese

1-2 tbsp sugar

1-2 tbsp milk

Blend together and you’ve got a cream cheese base for any fruit pie and it makes for a good fruit dip. 

Choco Cookies

Sugar Subsitute

What ever your reason for low sugar cooking it's a challenge.  From forgetting to check the measurements on the Splenda brown sugar mix, which I've done and it's inedible, to the way foods settle when substituting Splenda for sugar.

The easiest way to lower the sugar is to just put less in.

The Splenda baking blends also work good but are not sugar free.

If using just Splenda keep in mind that you need to lower the amounts by at least a 1/3 other wise fluff baked goods will settle heavy on the bottom leading to a bad consistency.  

I once tried to use Splenda when mixing up a glass of absinthe.  The Splenda turned into a jelly like goo and it never did mix up into the water.  Conclusion here is that if you are drinking absinthe use real sugar.  With other alcoholic beverages don't mix Splenda directly with the liquor.  Mix it with the other ingredients first.

Crisco. The good and the bad.

Never bake cupcakes with Crisco.  They taste bad and don't bake to the right consistency or texture for cupcakes. 

As for cookies Crisco can be a wonderful alternative to butter.  It makes for really soft cookies but you have to used a half Crisco/ half yogurt mix to get the texture right.

The First Trial - Chololate Chip Cookies

Following the rules, measuring things out, staying in the lines isn’t everyone’s style.  This is why baking and cooking has such a bad rap with some people.  I’m here today to show you that you can throw out the traditional recipes and live on the experimental side.

Step one to the new side of baking or cooking – Pick the dish you want to make

Step two – How do you want it made?  Are there health concerns?  I choose to bake on the low fat and health side but this guide is for everyone.

Step three – Find the recipes.  For our example today we will be making Chocolate chip cookies

Step four – read the ingredients.  Which ones are necessary, which can be substitute, and which are optional. 

Example –

Required – flower, baking soda, eggs

Substituted - sugar both brown and white (or sugar substitute), shortening (butter, yogurt, applesauce, or Crisco), The flavor of extract and chips that you want to put into your recipe

Optional – nuts, package of pudding, salt (which really does add to the taste but it can be left out if you have high blood pressure.

Step 5 – figuring out the right amounts for everything.  Here is where you get to learn through trial and error.  Some things should not be fucked with.  If you are worried about this I’m happy to answer any questions about this on my blog.

Flour – The average is about 2 cups.  More can always be added later if needed and some recipes call for more but that’s for bigger batches.  When all things are even it’s still about 2 cups.

Eggs – Average is 2 so lets stick with that.

Sugar – How much sugar do you want?  The average is ¾ cup each.  Do you like white sugar more? Brown sugar more?  Do you like less sugar?  I’m a low sugar girl so I’m going with about ½ cup each brown and white sugar.  If you substitute for splenda lower the amount of sugar because it causes things to settle heavy on the bottom and the measurements may not be equal so keep that in mind and read the packages.

Baking soda - This is the king of the household and should never be fucked with.  Average is 1 teaspoon.  Keep it that way.

Shortening – This has all kinds of different options, when using apple sauce or yogurt make sure to reduce by just a little.  It’s always easier to put more in then take some out.  You can reduce the amount of butter or Crisco and substitute with yogurt. This is the best combination that I have found – half the amount of butter but use Crisco and make up for the other half with yogurt.  Here we will use half a cup Crisco and half a cup vanilla yogurt.  It adds the least amount of flavor.  If you want to add other flavors of yogurt to spice it up.  Go for it – experiment. 

Chips – I know we are talking about chocolate chip cookies but live a little.  Try white chocolate, cherry, dark chocolate, or butterscotch. Average is 2 cups but these are your cookies.  Do you want more or less? Have fun these are for you.

Extract – Vanilla is the classic for cookies, but try almond for something new or cherry if you are using cherry chips.  What flavors do you like? Average is 1 teaspoon.  Never use too much extract.  It taste bad in large doses.

Optional – Do you like nuts?  Then add nuts.  Do add salt if you can it helps the flavors come out.  I’m going to throw in a package of white chocolate pudding.  It sounds like it will go good in chocolate chip cookies. 

Now for cooking – Do you want bars or cookies?  I want cookies and the average bake temp it 350.  Make them as big or as small as you like.

Mixing -  Same as with the other recipes - flour, baking soda, salt in a bowl and put aside.  Then mix shorting, extract, sugars, eggs, (this is where the pudding mix) would be addedand when that's all mixed up add the flour mixture.  Last stir in nuts and chips.

Secret tip – Crisco makes for wonderful consistency but it does go through a life cycle.  Never eat Crisco cookies fresh from the pan.  Let them sit overnight for the best results.

Now be off with you and enjoy the experience of experimental cooking.

What is Rebel Cooking?

Rebel cooking is for anyone who want to do their own thing, to step out of the box, and to make things the way they want them made.  Don't know where to start?  Want to find out substitutions that really work? Want to know what could go wrong if you try that idea out? 

You want things your way, to your taste, and you don't like to be told what to do.  If this sounds like you then you've found the right place.  I want you to learn to mash up recipes so they are your own creation, not mine and definitely not another boring recipe from the Internet. 

Choose to do things your way!