Our latest dessert successes

Frozen mocha pies; one LPLD friendly, one not

Spring rolls are always LPLD friendly!

 My non-LPLD daughter loves to cook and bake and has been crushing it with her masterpieces lately.  All with at least a version that is LPLD-safe.  Check them out!

Candy corn cake!  A layer of vanilla, pumpkin, and lemon; whipped cream frosting

Layers!

Birthday Cake Success!

Birthdays are such a struggle for me. Do I make both a fat free cake and a fat full cake? Do I buy one or the other? Do we all eat the fat free cake? 

 This year for my birthday I decided to make both myself. We are Great British Baking Show junkies, so I chose this, GIUSEPPE’S AMARENA CHERRY CAKE, and OH MAN! It was SUCH a success! 

 I don't think I've ever made a yeasted cake before, and I love it. It tastes more like a coffee cake to me, but then when you load it with pudding or custard and a frosting like glaze (and I put some kirsch liqueor on mine, too), it was just excellent. Light, moist, sweet but not too sweet, with big chunks of DELICIOUS cherries. 

 That's one of the keys to the recipe, I think, using the expensive cherries in jars that are just so delicious. And don't worry, you don't waste any of that delicious syrup, either! You soak the baked cakes in it! So yum! 

 I admit this post is mostly for future reference for me to find the recipe in the future. I soaked the dried cherries in the amarena cherry juice/syrup instead of rum for the kids, even though it would get cooked off, I wasn't sure they would enjoy the flavor of rum. 

 So, the changes I made for the fat free version: 

 -I used the flaked almonds but the kids didn't like them, so there's an easy way to cut back the fat next time 

 -I used skim milk instead of whole 

 -I did 3 eggs plus 2 egg whites instead of yolks (leftover from the fatty version I made) 

 -instead of any butter or MCT oil or coconut oil at ALL, I used all fat free yogurt, strained to make it a big thicker, like a yogurt cheese. I can't BELIEVE how beautifully it turned out with this big change!! 

 -I used instant vanilla pudding mix instead of the custard at all, and they really really loved it. I piped it on to make it more fancy, but there was plenty left over that they piped onto their individual pieces. I did add a bit of extra vanilla extract to it for extra flavor, and of course used skim milk. 

 -I just excluded the butter from the honey syrup and added all the leftover amarena juice/syrup I had 

 -and of course skim milk for the almond glaze. 

 I forgot to do any altitude adjustments, and made it in the bundt pans I have and it turned out so good.

Just out of the oven, praying they look this good all the way through

They do!  They look so good!  Low fat version on the left

Can you tell it's low fat?  So yum

The best possible birthday gift - two beautiful cakes that turned out and my kids loved. Oh! And Thomas update - pretty soon after that last post, Thomas stopped appreciating the skimmed breastmilk I was making. He turned 1, so we stopped sweating it - I backed down to pumping once a day, and freezing it just to donate to the local milk bank and keep my supply up. During the day, my husband mixes the Monogen formula samples we got with skim cow's milk for extra calories, and Thomas is just fine with that. Score! Extra calories and non fat and I don't have to go through the process of skimming breastmilk anymore! Hurray! Thomas still loves to nurse, and will sometimes sadly make the sign for nursing when taking a bottle, to show that this is NOT what he really wants. But he is growing (slowly)!

Adventures in Formula!

We had another baby! Welcome, Thomas Theophilus! We were even good about getting his blood checked right when he turned 6 months old - triglycerides of >1575. Man. Our 3rd baby with LPLD! So we started collecting my breastmilk that I pumped at work in large mouth jars and using a ladle to scoop off the fat after a day in the refrigerator and saving that fat in bags to donate to the local milk bank. But it wasn't perfect, there was still plenty of fat in the milk. So then I tried firing up the old Ukrainian milk separator and running hot water through it and... it spilled water eeeeevveeeerryyywheeeere. No bueno. I'm not putting my breastmilk in that! We trouble shooted and trouble shot some more, and figured it wasn't spinning fast enough and so the motor was probably shot. I mean, it was 7 years old and had made a few moves, 2 international, so it's appropriate to retire it finally. We ordered a new motor alone, to try to save some money... and 3 months later we're still trying to get it installed. The bolts are hard to reach! Then it turns out the are metric sized bolts instead of imperial! So after lots of purchases and returns from the hardware store, we finally have it set up and running!!!

And now that he's got fat free milk to drink, Thomas is TEARING THROUGH what I pump AND what I have frozen. Drat. I have 3 months to go with feeding him this way, and I'm not sure we'll make it on breastmilk alone. He loves his solids, don't get me wrong, but we can't fill him on on solids sufficiently to slow down his milk intake. Hmm. So it's time for me to learn about fat free formulas! There are two that I'm aware of - Nutricia Monogen and Enfaport. They are designed for Long-Chain Fatty Acid Oxidation Disorders (LCFAOD) or LCHAD or chylothorax, which means they have lots of medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) (and less fat in general). It turns out you can request samples: Monogen sample Enfaport sample So, onward to another LPLD adventure!

And I was sobbing last night and snapping at my kids in frustration over the milk separator being a pain to use and my milk supply getting low. So, sorry to be so upbeat in this post - I promise I'm not always!

Better fruit tart

Monica declared this her favorite dessert ever!

I pounded up 3 graham crackers, added 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, and pressed it rather haphazardly in a tart pan. I baked it at 325 F for maybe 10-15 min to give it a bit of crunch, but it still crumbled all over when I served it. But for once, it was tastey! I made a package of lemon Jello Pudding mix with skim milk and poured it on top of the cooled crust. Topped with berries (Monica did that part, actually), and I recommended warming up some jelly (apricot is a classic to use), and brushing it on top of the fruit to help it maintain its juiciness and shine. Everyone loved it, LPL or not! I couldn't cut a clean, nice looking piece, but it didn't matter, it was still delicious.

Rustic Apple Tarts

I've been at a loss for a long time about the best option for a pie crust. They often stuck horribly to the pie pan and were dense and chewy. Yuck. Which is a shame, as a fruit-based dessert is such an obvious answer for LPLD. So maybe the answer is to free the pie from the pan? I made these rustic apple tarts and instead of butter I used half coconut oil, and half MCT oil. Not perfect for LPL, but they were certainly delicious! Lighter crust, one actually worth eating. I skipped the butter entirely in the filling, and used just egg white for making the pastry extra golden - turned out great. Don't forget the dusting of flour before you put the apples in, it really made a difference - the ones I forgot to dust ended up leaking apple juice and burning on the edges from it. Still tasty, but not quite as pretty.

Basic tomato sauce

Tomato sauce is a staple in our house.  It is a reliable tastey 'dip' for toddlers, as well as a perfect fast meal with a bit of pasta.  We also use it as pizza sauce, and as a base to add things to and make barbecue sauce or even a mild salsa.  We like to make big batches and store a lot of it in jars in the freezer, then whenever our jar in the refrigerator gets low, we bring out a new one to defrost.

The key to making a sauce that is so versatile, though, is to keep it simple.  No adding oregano or basil or other spices, which would be great as a pasta sauce, but if you use it on beans and eggs with cilantro might not taste entirely right.

Simple pasta sauce recipe:

Six 28 oz cans of whole tomatoes
teaspoon of salt
splash of olive oil
5-6 garlic cloves, diced

Open your cans of tomatoes and add them (two at a time for us) to a food processor or blender to puree them, and add the salt.  (or we just recently bought an immersion blender, so now we put them in a big pot and puree them there!).  Take the biggest pot you've got, heat it up on medium heat, then add the olive oil, maybe a tablespoon for the whole batch.  After it's hot and sizzling a little, add the diced garlic cloves.  Sautee the garlic for maybe a minute, then add all your pureed tomato and stir it around.  Then keep heating the sauce until it's as thick as you want it.  For instance, we like our pizza sauce pretty thick, but our pasta sauce more thin.  So we will make it more on the thin side, knowing we might have to add some tomato paste to it on pizza night.  The higher you turn the heat, the faster it will thicken up, but the more often you need to stir it to keep it from burning.  A lower heat requires less stirring, and is fine for a long day that you'll be hanging out at home, anyway!

The face of a pasta lover

Fancy desserts part two

My husband requested a fruit tart for Father's day - a buttery crust, creme pat/ custard filling, with fruit on top.  So I made an additional one for my LPLD girls!

I mixed graham crackers crumbs with an egg white for the crust (baked it at 350 for 10-20 min), filled it with instant vanilla pudding (with skim milk), and beautiful fruit on top, and even microwaved some strawberry jelly to brush on top to make it shiny and fantastic.  I dare you to try to tell which is which!  My eldest requests a lemon pudding next time, for some contrasting flavors.

I continue to struggle with the pie crust, though.  It stuck to the pie plate so horribly that most wasn't eaten, sigh, and it made a mess of serving it.  The leftovers the next day came out quite easily, as the pudding had softened the crust a bit - so not as crunchy, but prettier?  Maybe I'll add some crushed almonds for a bit of crunch (and fat, sigh), and plan to serve it the next day?  I've also tried graham cracker crumbs combined with apple sauce and had the same issue.  I will find a good fatless crust solution one day!

Can you tell which is fat free?