Chocolate Chevre Crazy Cake

Sometimes in the winter, the cheese I make from my goats' milk comes out very soft. It is thicker than yogurt, but still softer than cream cheese. I think its the cooler temperatures and that the goats are thinking about their spring babies. I leave the cheese unsalted, and add it to recipes in place of milk or yogurt. This Crazy Cake recipe is from the depression era, when eggs and butter were scarce, and was called crazy because vinegar is added. It is simple and allows for lots of variation, including this gluten free version.

Chocolate Chevre Crazy Cake

1 1/2 cups rice flour
1 cup sugar
3 tbsps cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 cup yogurt or very soft chevre
6 tbsps olive oil
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare large well cupcake or muffin pans with olive oil or cooking spray. In a large bowl, place all ingredients adding dry then wet ingredients and mix until well blended. Place in pan filling each well half full. Bake 10 to 15 minutes until center is set. Remove to cooling rack and cool completely before frosting. Makes 6 large cupcakes.
Chevre Frosting
2 pounds powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup very soft chevre, approximately

Place in a medium bowl and mix with hand mixer until smooth frosting consistency.

Trail Mix Cinnamon Rolls

It's a bit of a torture to walk into those large grocery stores that have in-house bakeries on the days they make cinnamon rolls. The seem like they will taste so yummy, but then, well, they don't, and an hour later there is the carb crash, so yuck all around. While I haven't been able to make an exact replacement for cinnamon rolls using rice flour, I have found that with the extra protein of seeds in trail mix I feel full until lunch. This recipe has water and olive oil, which can also be replaced with my favorite fresh goat milk and goat butter. The trail mix I used had dried papaya, raisins, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, sunflower kernels, almonds, and dried apples. The moisture from the fresh cut apple in the filling steams all the dried fruit and softens the nuts.

3 cups whole wheat flour, plus about 1 cup additional for work surfaces
1 package quick-rise yeast
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/4 cup warm water (120 degrees)

Filling
1 cup trail mix
1 finely chopped fresh apple
1/4 cup brown sugar

Granola Topping
1 cup whole oats (not quick cooking)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup olive oil

In a large bowl add flour, yeast, salt, cinnamon, warm water, olive oil. Mix with a spoon to form a sticky dough, add one to two handfuls of flour and lightly knead for one to two minutes until soft dough forms. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm locaion for an hour where dough should roughly double in size. Prepare an 8x8 inch baking pan with olive oil. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix filling ingredients together in a small bowl, set aside. Mix granola ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.


Once risen, turn out on to a floured surface. Knead for five minutes adding flour as necessary. Roll out to about 12 inches by 18 inches. Spread trail mix, chopped apple, and brown sugar evenly on top of dough, leaving a half inch border around all edges. Carefully roll and press gently together to form a uniformly thick log. Slice in 2 inch rolls and place cross sections facing up in prepared pan. Top with granola topping and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes,until center is set, and granola topping is browned and crispy. Allow to cool slightly before serving. Makes nine large rolls.

Dark Chocolate Chevre Truffles

Super simple and super rich these are fast to make ahead of time. They can also be made sugar free or savory by using unsweetened chocolate.

1 cup of soft goat cheese
10 ounces dark chocolate pieces or unsweetened chocolate
2 teaspoons olive oil.
1-2 cups items to roll truffles in, like sprinkles, crushed nuts, instant coffee, candy bits, or if adventurous  ground chili pepper

Line a cookie sheet with foil and set aside. Place chocolate pieces in a medium bowl and microwave on high until melted, about 2 minutes, stirring after each minute. Stir in the olive oil to temper the chocolate and set aside. Place the goat cheese in a small bowl and microwave on high until very soft, about a minute, checking after 30 seconds. Stir cheese into chocolate, mixing until smooth. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto the foil lined cookie sheet and refrigerate 20 minutes until more firm, but not completely solidified. Place sprinkles in a saucer, and roll each chocolate into a ball or other shapes, then roll to coat in the sprinkles. Set in mini-muffin papers or candy cups, then refrigerate until serving. Truffles will keep up to a week in the fridge. Makes 18

Chevre Oatmeal Cookies

Before I had a cream separator and could make goat butter, I made lots of recipes with chevre, the soft goat cheese I make in place of butter. This recipe for oatmeal cookies came out really yummy, and since the cheese adds more protein and has less fat than butter, they are secretly healthier. I call them goat-meal cookies, and yes, the goats like them too!

3/4 cup fresh goats chevre soft cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup brown sugar
3 cups uncooked quick oats
3/4 cup brown rice flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup fresh goats milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl combine cheese, oil and sugar. Beat with a hand mixer until smooth, then add the remaining ingredients and mix well.  Roll dough into 1-inch balls, and place 2 inches apart on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown at the bottom edge. This recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies. For best results, double the recipe because these cookies will go fast!

Cranberry Sauce Vinaigrette

I love fresh cranberry sauce. It's fun to cook because the berries pop like popcorn, and the color is beautiful. I like to make a large batch and preserve it in canning jars so it's handy to add to recipes all through the winter. I was making a really nice salad dressing with my blackberry jelly this summer, and found that cranberry sauce tastes great in the recipe too. It is sweet, smokey, with just a small vinaigrette bite.

I've been making a crisp fall salad with apple, crumbled cooked bacon, and spinach. Turkey and pecans are good in there too. If you have trouble convincing kids to eat salad, this vinaigrette with either cranberry sauce or blackberry jelly will sneak up on them, especially if there are loads of apple pieces! It was the deal-maker for me!

1/2 cup jellied cranberry sauce
1/2 tsp liquid smoke flavoring
1 tsp onion salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp xanthan gum

Place sugar and vinegar in a small pot. Heat to a low boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly. Place vinegar mixture and remaining ingredients except xanthan gum in a blender. Blend to mix, then add xanthan gum and continue to mix until dressing has thickened, about 1 minute. Makes approximately 2 cups of salad dressing. Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Note:  I use xanthan gum for gluten-free baking, and find it also thickens and holds oil and vinegar together. If you want to leave it out, the dressing will taste the same, just shake before use.

Pumpkin Custard

It's definitely Fall when the pumpkins begin arriving at the grocery store. I love to get a big pumpkin and wedge it in the branches of the huckleberry bush for my goats to pick at and carve. They will nibble holes in the shell and reach in for the seeds. In past years, they would pick at the pumpkin until it fell out of the branches, and that would be the end, as goats don't usually eat things on the ground. Now that the ducks are sharing their pasture, once the pumpkins fall, the ducks are all over it. The ducks love it more, because once they're done with the pumpkin and the bugs come along, they come back for the second course of bugs.

Fall is also when the goats give the richest milk and we have the most butter and cream. The younger ducks that hatched in March are now producing eggs, and they are up to 10 per day. That's more than we can use, so I donate some to the food bank now the farmers market has closed for the year.
I've been making lots of this quick pumpkin custard with pecans to enjoy the eggs and cream.

For The Custard:
2 fresh duck eggs
1 cup goat's milk cream
1 15oz can pumpkin
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

For The Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup melted goat's milk butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl mix together all the custard ingredients until smooth. Pour into a 2-quart baking dish and bake for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, mix together the topping ingredients. After the custard has baked for the 30 minutes carefully place the topping on top of the custard, dropping it by little bits as the surface of the custard will still be runny. Let the custard bake for another 30 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Let cool for 30 minutes before serving. Make 8 to 10 servings.

Duck Egg Mayonnaise

Duck eggs are not chicken eggs! Well, yeah. I had been substituting duck eggs for chicken eggs in recipes, which worked out great except for mayonnaise. It always seamed to break before I was done adding all the oil. Of course you know this means research!
I found a chart that compares lots of bird eggs. I found that duck eggs have more protein but also more fat that chicken eggs, because ducks are all about oil for life in water. Mayonnaise is the egg protein holding the added oil in what is called an emulsion. The duck eggs have more fat to start, so they can take in less oil. Mystery solved! 
So here is my recipe of mayonnaise adjusted for duck eggs. Mayonnaise usually calls for mustard, but since I am allergic to mustard and duck eggs are so flavorful, I left it out.

Duck Egg Mayonnaise

4 duck egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice or about the juice of half a lemon
2 teaspoons onion salt
3/4 cup light olive oil

Place egg yolks in a blender cup with lemon juice and onion salt. Begin blending on medium speed for one minute to break up proteins. Remove the center of the blender cap if possible and dribble the olive oil drip by tiny drip until the mixture lightens and thickens. Increase adding olive oil to a very thin stream until it is completely added. The mixture will be thick and smooth. Adding more oil to thin or mayonnaise may cause the emulsion to break, becoming runny.
This mayonnaise is really great with sweet pickled peppers in duck egg salad!
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Goats Milk Corn Chowder with Chevre

This week there was a bit of a chill in the air, so that got me started thinking of all the wonderful foods I like in the Fall. One favorite lunch is to start with my favorite chowder recipe and add new ingredients. This time I added corn and some of my chevre goat cheese, then used corn chips as a spoon. This recipe can be made with all fresh ingredients, but it's great to have all the ingredients prepared and tucked in the freezer, and just add fresh milk and chevre.

Corn Chowder
2 quarts fresh goats milk
4 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons onion salt, or to taste
1/2 cup fresh chevre
1 package frozen O'brien Potatoes
1 pound package frozen cut corn,
or several ears fresh corn, cooked and cut from the cob
1 tablespoon dried parsley
In a 5 quart stockpot, bring goats milk and cornstarch to a low boil so the mixture thickens, then reduce heat to medium. Add chevre and stir until it melts in. Add all other ingredients and heat, stirring occasionally, until potatoes and corn are thawed and tender. Makes 8 yummy servings.

Picking Blackberries For Jelly

The blackberries this year held out turning ripe until the last bit of summer. Then it's a race to pick them and preserve them. I'm on the second round of picking blackberries, and I may get one more round in before the misty mornings make them moldy.  Each time, my mom and I pick about 8 quarts of blackberries, which makes 7 cups of juice. I smash those in a wire strainer to take out the seeds. It seems like there is a lot of seed and pulp left over, but it doesn't go to waste. The goats fall over themselves to clean out the bowl. They look like zombies when they are done.

To make the jelly, I start by heating the water in the canner, so it will be ready when the jelly jars are. I put the juice in a medium stockpot, add the juice of two lemons, which is about a half cup of lemon juice, and two boxes of pectin. Once this comes to a boil and the pectin is all dissolved, I add 9 cups of sugar. That sounds like a lot of sugar, but it helps create an acid environment to preserve the fruit.

Once all the sugar dissolves and the jelly returns to a boil, I turn off the heat for a few minutes for the foam to come to the top. I skim off the foam and put the hot jelly into hot clean canning jars with a small ladle. I wipe off the top of each jar to clean of  any drips, otherwise the lid won't completely seal. I dip each metal lid in the boiling hot water in the canner for a few seconds and place on top of the jars, followed by the bands. I put each jar on the rack in the canner which is 2/3 full of boiling hot water. I let the jars boil for 15 minutes, and then lift them out with special tongs made for canning jars.

This recipe makes 6 pint jars of jelly, so after three rounds of picking blackberries, I'll have 18 pint jars of jelly to either sell at the farmers market, or give as gifts. I think this is a pretty good yield starting from six canes this year.

Gluten Free Buttermilk Biscuits

I dropped my smartphone in the duckies' pond and so it's been a little harder to sit and write posts at the computer, instead of writing them on my phone. I will be trying to write updates on the projects I started earlier in the year.

The little ducks I got way back in March have finally started laying eggs! The eggs are smaller, chicken-sized eggs than the mature layers I got in January, but they still taste pretty yummy. I've been calling them mini-monster eggs, instead of the monster eggs I sell at the farmers market.

Since we have extra eggs for breakfast now, I can make fried eggs from the smaller eggs and have been putting eggs on top of things like tortillas, fry bread, and these biscuits. I added a country gravy style white sauce made from olive oil, rice flour, and goatie milk, then added bacon bits and fresh spinach.

Gluten Free Buttermilk Biscuits
Since this recipe uses butter and buttermilk, we've been joking we should just use cream and save a step!  The key to light biscuits is cool butter and working the dough as little as possible.

2 cups brown rice flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons goats butter, barely softened
1 cup goats buttermilk, chilled

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add butter and buttermilk, and stir until mixture just forms a sticky dough. Working quickly, turn the dough onto floured surface, and dust top with flour. Gently press into a 1-inch thick round and cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter. Place biscuits on baking sheet. Use as little extra flour as possible to reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible so the biscuits from the second pass will be as possible.

Bake until biscuits are light gold on top, 10 to 15 minutes.

Gluten-Free Fry Bread

I was watching a TV show about Native American cooking and it reminded me of visiting the hot springs at Kah-Ne-Tah and friends nearby from the Chinook Nation who make fry bread at Sunday Market. I've been trying to cook with brown rice flour instead of wheat, so I thought I would try it in the fry bread recipe, since it was simple. It comes out crispy and golden on the outside, and soft in the middle. When topped with blackberry jelly, it tastes pretty awesome!



Gluten-Free Fry Bread

3 cups brown rice flour
½ cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 ¼ cup fresh goat milk
¼ cup warm water
olive oil for frying

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add milk and water, then mix first with a spoon, and then with hands until reaching a soft dough consistency.
Separate the dough into 1/4 cup sized pieces. Roll each into a ball, and then flatten to a half inch thick circle, like a thicker tortilla. Fry each round in olive oil over medium high temperature, turning after 1-2 minutes so that the outside is golden and crispy, and the inside is soft, yet cooked through. Makes about 10 of the 4 inch diameter breads.

These are great served warm topped with blackberry jelly, and are even ok the next day topped with tomato sauce and goats milk mozzarella.

Lavender Jelly

Every so often at the Market, the vendors are shuffled from their usual spaces. Last week a lavender farm showed up in the place where the Young Entrepreneurs tables usually are. While she had some very nice soap with lavender bits in it, she also had big bunches of fresh cut flowers.

I looked all over the internet for what to do with the flowers. Since they were culinary instead of ornamental, I though I should cook something with them. I found a recipe for jelly that used dry flowers, but since I didn't want to wait for them to dry, I used a bit more of the fresh flowers.

I think it turned out very nice! I doubled this recipe to get 24 of the cute 4 ounce jars.


Lavender Jelly

3 1/2 cups water
2 cups fresh lavender flowers
juice of 1 lemon (1/4 cup)
1 (1 3/4-ounces) box powdered pectin or 1 pouch (3-ounces) liquid pectin
4 cups sugar

Prepare a waterbath canner, and 5 half pint jars and lids, as directed in the pectin instructions.
In a large saucepan over high heat bring water just to a boil. Remove from heat, stir in lavender flowers, and let steep for 20 minutes. Strain mixture through a wire mesh strainer into a deep pot. Discard the flowers. Stir in lemon juice and pectin, and continue stirring until the pectin is dissolved.
On high heat, bring the mixture to a boil, and add sugar. When the mixture returns to a hard rolling boil, continue boiling for 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and transfer the jelly into hot sterilized jars. Filling them to within 1/4 inch of the top, wiping any spills off the top. Put on lids and rings. Process in the waterbath canner for 10-15 minutes.
Makes five 1/2 pints.

Chicken Pot Pie

We had some leftover chicken, so my mom taught me how to make a chicken pot pie. We used bread dough as the crust. It takes a little effort, but the result is awesome!


Bread Crust
3 cups flour
1 package quick-rise yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups hot water (about 120 degrees)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons honey

Filling
2 cups cooked chicken, cut in half-inch cubes
2 cups frozen peas and carrots mix
2 cup frozen potatoes O'Brien

Gravy
2 cups cold water
2 chicken-flavored bouillon cubes
2 tablespoons corn starch
1/2 tablespoon onion salt

Method
Prepare crust by mixing all ingredients together in a big bowl. Once well mixed, kneed with your hands 5 minutes, adding flour as necessary until you have a smooth ball of dough. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel and let it rise 45 minutes in a warm place.

Meanwhile, assemble filling ingredients and set aside. Prepare the gravy by placing all the gravy ingredients in a small pot. Heat on medium high stirring briskly with a whisk until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Once gravy has thickened, remove from heat and pour over filling ingredients. Stir to mix well and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.Once the crust has roughly doubled in size turn out on a well-floured bread board or counter. Divide into two parts, one about 2/3 of the dough and the other 1/3. set the smaller piece aside. Using a rolling pin, roll the larger piece out to a 12 inch circle and place in an un-greased, 10-inch glass pie dish. One inch of excess dough will hang over the edge. Add the filling. Roll out the smaller piece of dough to an approximate 10 inch circle and place over filling. Roll the excess dough back over the edge, twisting slightly to form a decorative edge. If desired, brush the top with a mixture of 1 tablespoon honey and 1 tablespoon hot water for a crisp brown top and bake for 30 minutes, until heated through. Allow to sit 15 minutes before serving. Serves 4 to 8 people.

Milk and Honey Cake

This is my new favorite cake to make. It's easy to make and I can use the milk from my goats. I even made this for my mom on Mothers' Day!

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup fresh goat milk
6 tbsp light olive oil
1 tbsp vinegar

4 tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. prepare a small bundt pan with cooking spray and flour. Combine flour, sugar, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Separately, combine milk, oil, vinegar, and honey, then add to the flour mixture, stirring to mix well. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until center is firm. Cool well before removing from pan. Serves 8-10.

I put a lemon glaze over the top:

1 cup powdwered sugar

1 teaspoon lemon extract

3 teaspoons water

Place powdered sugar in a small bowl and add the lemon extract. Add the water one teaspoon at a time, stirring in between spoonfuls, until the mixture is smooth and forms a thick but pourable glaze to pour over the warm cake.

I also made this cake for a cooking competition in 4-H. We were to make a recipe using foods from the Northwest. My goat milk is of course produced in the Northwest, and I used some local honey. I won a blue ribbon! Here's a picture of me talking to the judge.