Black Pepper Cheddar Herb Biscuits (Rolled Style)

This week has been a fairly stressful week, so tonight I decided I needed some comfort food for dinner.  I had 2 leftover cooked breaded chicken breast cutlets from last night's meal that I was planning to make Chicken Parmesan with...but I decided that I really NEEDED comfort food tonight instead and for whatever reason, biscuits just seemed to be calling my name!  I decided to give wheat/grain free biscuit making another stab so I could have a "chicken biscuit" sandwich for dinner.  I tried making biscuits once before and they tasted good, but were more "cookie like" than biscuit like.  So, this evening I am giving it another stab -- I made 6 "Black Pepper Cheddar Herb Biscuits" with the hopes of getting a more biscuit like feel and texture.  Well...I would like to share with you that it was a huge success!!!  These had a VERY "biscuity" texture.  I wasn't sure if or how much they would rise, so I rolled mine between 2 sheets of parchment paper to about 1/2-inch thickness and spaced them about 1 inch apart hoping they might swell as they baked and touch each other to stay moister.  These definitely expanded and touched, but not so much in height.  Next time I will roll them out to 3/4 inch thick to give them just a little more thickness.  Even though they didn't get taller/thicker -- I was still able to slice them in half with a sharp knife after they cooled a bit by laying them flat on a cutting board and keeping my hand on top with slight firmness, using a very sharp serrated knife, cut them in half so I could make the "chicken biscuit" sandwich that I was craving.  I was SO happy and excited...LOL.  They always say "it's the little things" that make us happy....and these biscuits did just that!  These were soft, moist and tender and just the texture I had hoped for.  I was a little concerned that by slicing them in half and making them thinner that they might become too fragile and break apart while we ate our sandwiches.  That was not the case -- these stayed and held together perfectly from the first bite to the last for both hubby and I.  Tomorrow I look forward to making myself an egg sandwich for lunch with one of the biscuits.  Also, if you do not own a biscuit cutter or don't like to waste the scraps you get when cutting round biscuits, simply cut them into a square shape with a knife and bake -- I promise you that the biscuit police won't show up at your door and make a "non-round biscuit arrest".  ;-)  My overall review for these biscuits was "very good" and VERY close to traditional tender "southern style" biscuits.  I would consider and rate my previous attempt as "good"....so these were definitely an improvement.  I think if I made them 3/4" thick next time, they might just be rated as "perfect".  I served our Chicken & Biscuit sandwiches with green beans and almonds and some Cheddar Cauliflower Mash.  I snapped a few photos below for you to see as well as my new and improved biscuit recipe.  Enjoy!

Voila!

Ready to pop in the oven

Fresh out of the oven

BOOM!

Black Pepper Cheddar Herb Biscuits (Improved)

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups almond flour
3 tablespoons "cold" butter, diced
1 egg (or 1/4 cup Egg Beaters)
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/2 - 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
Dash of cayenne, optional
2 teaspoons baking powder (aluminum free)
1/4 cup cream or half and half

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly grease a baking pan or line with non-stick foil or parchment paper.  

In a medium bowl, add all the ingredients except the cream; cut in with a pastry cutter until crumbly and all flour is moistened and cheese is pulverized into the mixture. Stir in cream and mix in lightly.  Press dough together in a ball and place on a sheet of parchment paper and flatten out lightly into a circular shape; cover with another piece of parchment paper and roll out to about 1/2 - 3/4 inch thickness (these do not rise much).  Cut with a biscuit cutter and place on a lightly greased baking pan (I used non-stick foil) about 1 to 2 inches apart, being careful not to handle the dough too much with your hands (you don't want to heat up or melt the butter in the dough, you want it to remain firm).  Bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 20 minutes or until golden brown; be careful not to overcook.   Remove from oven; brush tops with melted butter, if desired.

***Note:  If you don't have a biscuit cutter, you can simply cut the dough into squares with a knife and bake them (there is no law I have seen that requires biscuits to be round).  

    

Quick & Easy Chicken Cutlets and Julienned Vegetable Medley

This evening I had a number of projects that I needed to work on...so dinner was simple, quick and easy.  I lightly breaded some chicken cutlets in a mixture of 1 cup almond flour mixed with 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, sea salt, black pepper, cayenne and paprika.  I dipped the cutlets in an egg that I beat with a little water, salt and pepper and then rolled them in the flour/cheese mixture and quickly browned them in a non-stick saute pan with a little extra virgin coconut oil.  For our veggie, I julienne cut 1 carrot, 2 yellow squash and 2 zucchinis into thin strips with my julienne vegetable peeler and lightly sauteed them in a little olive oil with sea salt and black pepper and topped them with some shredded Parmigiano Reggiano.  It was quick, easy and delicious.  I snapped a quick photo to share below.  Enjoy!

BOOM!

"Zucchini Pasta" Layered w/ Spicy Beef, Sweet Peppers & Mushrooms, Topped with Creamy Vodka Marinara

This evening I made a simple and quick dinner.  Using my julienne vegetable peeler, I made thin zucchini pasta strands that I lightly sauteed in a little olive oil.  I browned a pound of ground beef very well adding sea salt, lots of freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, sage and a pinch or two of red pepper flakes to make a quick spicy beef sausage mixture to layer on my zucchini pasta.  I purposely did not put the spicy beef mixture into the sauce to keep the flavors from simmering out into the sauce.  I wanted to keep all the flavors separate and enjoy them layered in my bowl.  I diced and sauteed sweet red, yellow and orange bell peppers and set them aside while I quickly sauteed some fresh sliced mushrooms.  This evening I decided to try Mezzetta Napa Valley Bistro "Creamy Vodka Style Marinara" (it's made with all natural ingredients and no added sugar).  I heated the sauce until hot and then began layering my pasta bowl.  I placed the zucchini pasta in the bottom and then topped it with the spicy beef mixture, then the diced sweet peppers and mushrooms, and topped it all with the creamy vodka marinara sauce and sprinkled with Parmigiano Reggiano.  It was delicious and full of different flavors and textures -- different than if I had simmered those very same ingredients in the sauce where the flavors would have combined and melded together.  This dish retained the distinct flavors of the different ingredients and turned out delicious!  I snapped a quick photo below.  Enjoy!

BOOM!

      

Turkey Pot Pie w/ Cheddar Herb Almond Crust

Happy Sunday!  Well, today we are officially saying goodbye to our Thanksgiving turkey leftovers with the grand finale..."Turkey Pot Pie w/ Cheddar Herb Almond Crust".  This is it...the end...it's over...sayonara (well, until next Thanksgiving anyway).  I decided to make my chicken pot pie recipe substituting the leftover turkey instead of chicken as well as a few other changes. 

Since youngest son was coming for dinner to help bid farewell to our Thanksgiving turkey too, I decided to double the "filling part only" of my chicken pot pie recipe and keep the crust recipe the same.  I used a bigger casserole dish and rolled the crust out a bit thinner to cover the extra surface area.  Also, since I fiddled around and worked with the dough longer than I probably should have while trying to get it into "just the perfect shape" for my casserole dish (please, don't be like me)...it was a tiny bit trickier to move over this time because the dough got a little warmer and gave me some trouble separating it from the parchment paper fast enough to transfer it without a little breakage.  No worries though -- even though it doesn't look as perfect as my other crust did -- it is still absolutely delicious and beautiful!  So, don't fret if your crust doesn't turn out completely seamless, it will just allow a little of the sauce to bubble out which happens most of the time with pot pies anyway.  I had even considered making a lattice top crust instead this time, but wanted to get it into the oven quickly.  I will try that another time and make a rectangular shaped pot pie.  On another note; when I doubled the filling, I did not double the xanthum gum amount (I still only added the 1 teaspoon) because I wanted plenty of gravy for all the meat and veggies to swim around in.  To give it a little bit more viscosity or thickening, I instead added slightly over 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and melted it into the sauce and then tasted it for seasoning.  It turned out really good.  If you don't have or don't want to use xanthum gum, you can substitute it by adding some cream cheese and melt it into the sauce mixture to obtain your desired thickness.  Below, I am posting the Turkey Pot Pie w/ Cheddar Herb Almond Crust recipe (that I doubled and modified for a larger version of my chicken pot pie recipe) along with the modifications I made and a few photos.  Enjoy!

Voila!

A snapshot of the filling before adding the crust to the top

The crust has been added (you can see where it cracked in a few places while transferring)

Here is a picture fresh out of the oven -- you can see where the sauce bubbled out a bit

BOOM!

Turkey Pot Pie w/ Cheddar Herb Almond Crust

Ingredients: 

Filling
4 cups diced cooked turkey breast
4 cups chicken or turkey broth (plus extra to use as necessary to adjust sauce 
   thickness)
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1/2 small onion, diced (about 1/2 cup)
3 - 4 carrots, sliced thinly
2 cup fresh green beans cut into 1-inch pieces
4 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup half-n-half
1 - 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
Salt & Pepper, to taste  
1 teaspoon xanthum gum (to be added gradually, 1/2 teaspoon at a time)
1/2 - 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Crust
2 cups almond flour
3 tablespoons "cold" butter, diced
1 egg (or 1/4 cup Egg Beaters)
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 to 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 - 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/2 - 1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Lightly spray/grease a 3 quart casserole dish and set aside.  In a medium saucepan, melt butter and saute celery and onion until tender; add chicken or turkey broth, carrots, green beans; cover and simmer until carrots and green beans are tender.  Add parsley, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste.  Bring broth and veggie mixture to a light boil/simmer while stirring in the xanthum gum 1/2 teaspoon at a time, whisking vigorously until well blended.  Sprinkle the next 1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum a little bit at a time, whisking briskly until the broth begins to thicken.  Once it has reached the thickness you like, add the half-n-half and stir well.  If you accidentally thicken it a bit more than you wanted, thin the sauce with additional broth.  Check seasoning (salt and pepper) and make any necessary adjustments.  Stir in 1/2-3/4 cup cheddar cheese until melted.  Add chicken to the sauce and mix well.  Simmer on low for a few minutes to just to keep hot.  

In a medium bowl, add all crust ingredients and cut in with a pastry cutter until crumbly and all flour is moistened and cheese is pulverized into the mixture. Press dough together in a ball and place on a sheet of parchment paper and flatten out lightly into a circle shape (or the shape of the top of your casserole); cover with another piece of parchment paper and roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness to the size of your casserole dish.  Handle the dough minimally with your hands (you don't want to heat up or melt the butter in the dough, you want it to remain stiff).  Once dough is rolled out evenly and the size of your casserole dish, pour hot filling mixture into casserole dish.  Gently and carefully lift the dough and move it on top of the filling in the casserole (it is important to choose the right size casserole so your filling will be within an inch or so of the top when filled and the crust will fit and lay nicely on top).  If it cracks a little, gently press it back together.  You can use any leftover scraps of dough that you have left to build a crust around the edge of your casserole dish.  Put chicken pot pie in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes; lower oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake an additional 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown and done (you can tell by touching the top of the crust).  

If you want to see additional photos as well as the original recipe, here is the link:   Chicken Pot Pie w/ Cheddar Herb Almond Crust 
 

             

Happy Saturday!

We awoke to a chilly morning this morning -- it was 37 degrees when we woke up, but it's bright, sunny and gorgeous out.  This is a drastic change for us since yesterday was a warm 72 degrees here.  The weather forecast for tonight is a frosty 28 degrees.  Guess it's time to put away the shorts and flip flops!  I decided to make us a good breakfast to start this chilly morning with.  We had fried organic cage free eggs, oven baked crisp nitrite free bacon along with a piece of plain "bagel toast" to go with our eggs and bacon.  We enjoyed big mugs of smoky dark Italian roast coffee to go with our breakfast.  Now we have the energy to seize this gorgeous day!  :-)

BOOM!

Chocolate Almond-Coconut Macaroons

Today I experimented with making a macaroon cookie using the beautiful shredded unsweetened coconut I purchased recently from Tropical Traditions (they call them "coconut flakes").  It looks more like the longer shreds of coconut that I am used to using (minus the sugar) instead of the short, very dry pulverized "shredded" unsweetened coconut that I've found and purchased at my local grocery stores.  I snapped a photo of both kinds that I have so you can see the difference I am talking about.  One of my favorite combination of flavors is chocolate, coconut and roasted almonds (much like the flavors in Almond Joy candy bars).  So, I decided to make chocolate macaroons with coarsely chopped roasted almonds.  I made a small batch of 12 to test them out, and really don't want a lot more of them hanging around since my taste for "sweets" (even without sugar and wheat) is drastically reduced.  After the first couple of months of eliminating wheat, grains and sugar, I found that I just didn't crave them any more.  I enjoy them as more of an occasional indulgence rather than a daily or regular one.

In this recipe, I measured 1/4 cup of whole almonds (that I roasted on low heat in the oven for about 20 minutes to bring out their roasty/toasty flavor).  I coarsely chopped them by pulsing them slightly in my little Magic Bullet, but you could also chop them coarsely by hand too.  I used Ghirardelli's 100% cacao unsweetened "premium baking bar" as well as their "premium unsweetened cocoa" for the chocolate in this recipe.  To compensate for using unsweetened chocolate instead of semi-sweet or bittersweet, I added some alcohol free liquid stevia drops.  For me personally, it is the only liquid stevia that I really like because it has used to have no bitterness (they changed their formula in 2013).  I learned about it from another low carb site and blogger several years ago and began using it because they highly recommended it, and after trying it for myself, agreed.  I have also tried the "stevia glycerite" that's recommended and used regularly on another site and I just don't care for the taste or texture of it at all whatsoever.  You may have a particular brand or type that you prefer, so just substitute that in this recipe.  I like to state what kind of products I actually use in my recipes if I think that they actually make a difference in the way the final product will taste or turn out.  As most of us that use sugar substitutes already know too well, they are vastly different in taste (or aftertaste).  There are some you really like and some you really don't.  For granular sweeteners, I have successfully used Truvia, Zsweet, and Swerve and also have a bag of NuNaturals erythritol and a bottle of their pure stevia powder that I have not yet tried.  There is also a small bag of xylitol on the shelf that I haven't tried yet -- partly because of the stomach issues it causes in some people as well as the danger to pets.

These macaroons contain no added sugar, wheat or grains.  I intentionally reduced the Swerve by about 1 tablespoon in my batch since my "sweet tooth" is so drastically reduced now.  I've included the full amount in the recipe below.  Both hubby and I really liked these Chocolate Almond-Coconut Macaroons.  We found them slightly crispy on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside.  Besides getting the chewy/crunchy texture of the coconut, you also get the additional nutty crunch and toasty flavor of the roasted almonds all coated with the flavor of rich dark chocolate.  Even though my hubby is not wheat, grain and sugar free, he commented that "these are some of the best things you've ever made and they don't taste any different than you'd expect from ordinary macaroons".  Coming from him (someone that still consumes/enjoys wheat and sugar) speaks even more loudly to me because he still found these absolutely delicious too.  I've snapped a few photos below as well as the recipe.  Enjoy!

Voila!

This is the coconut I used in these macaroons

This is the liquid stevia I prefer I don't like any more (they changed the formula in 2013) -- Notice the coconut comparison (on the left is what I find in my grocery store and the coconut on the right is what I purchased from Tropical Traditions)

Shredded coconut, melted chocolate, cocoa powder and Swerve

Close-up pic of the batter

"Uncooked macaroons" ready to be popped in the oven

Out of the oven and cooled

BOOM!

Chocolate Almond-Coconut Macaroons

INGREDIENTS:

1 oz. Ghirardelli 100% Cacao Unsweetened Chocolate Baking Bar (total 2 squares)

1/8 cup (which is 2 tablespoons) unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted (I use Ghirardelli)

1/4 cup PLUS 1/8 cup egg whites (or Egg Beater type substitute)

1/4 cup PLUS 2 tablespoons Swerve sweetener (total of 6 tablespoons Swerve   

      sweetener or equivalent to 6 tablespoons of sugar)

14-21 drops liquid stevia (or sweetener equivalent to 2-3 teaspoons sugar)

Pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup roasted whole unsalted almonds, coarsely chopped

1-1/4 cups shredded unsweetened coconut (longer shreds if you can find them)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  In a small glass custard cup or bowl, melt chocolate in the microwave for about 1 to 1-1/2 minutes (do this in 30 second intervals), stirring just until melted and smooth.  Be careful not to overheat and burn or scorch the chocolate.  This can also be done in a double boiler over hot water on the stove, if preferred.

In a medium bowl, add egg whites (or Egg Beaters/substitute), sifted cocoa powder, Swerve sweetener (or sweetener of choice), pinch of salt and vanilla extract; whisk well to combine thoroughly.   Add approximately 14 to 21 drops of liquid stevia (or liquid sweetener equivalent to 2 to 3 teaspoons of sugar) and whisk in well. 

Stir in shredded coconut, coarsely ground roasted almonds, and cooled melted chocolate, folding in quickly with a rubber spatula until everything is well coated and blended (blend quickly so the melted chocolate does not begin hardening when hitting the cooler mixture). 

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto a cookie sheet lined with non-stick foil or parchment paper, spaced approximately 1 inch apart.  Bake at 325 F for approximately 15-17 minutes or just until set when touched.  Let cool completely on cookie sheet.  Makes 1 dozen macaroons.

***Note:  If you don't have liquid egg whites or substitute, you can use the egg white of 2 eggs. Also, if you like your macaroons softer, reduce baking time by a minute or 2.  If you like them sweeter or less sweet you can add or reduce the amount of sweetener used. 

My Wheatless Thanksgiving...

Happy Thanksgiving!  Just wanted to share a couple of pictures of my plate with you this evening -- with no wheat or grains on it -- and more importantly, I didn't feel deprived whatsoever.  I prepared a regular Thanksgiving dinner for the rest of my family -- with many different dishes and it was not difficult for me at all to avoid those since I had my own delicious items available just for me, too.  On my plate below, I have roasted turkey breast, green beans w/ almonds, Herbed Grain Free Stuffing, Cheddar Cauliflower Mash & Yellow Cheddar Squash Casserole and it was absolutely delicious.  I am having my crustless pumpkin pie for dessert along with a cup of pumpkin spice coffee.  I must say, my first wheatless Thanksgiving was awesome!  :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I would like to wish everyone...family, friends and all my readers a very Happy Thanksgiving today!  I wish you and your families good health, happiness and joy.  I would also like to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing my love of cooking with all of you this past year.  Happy Thanksgiving...from my home to yours!

Here's a photo of last year's Thanksgiving table...I'm still working on this year's  :-)

It's Pizza Night!

I am still in the midst of Thanksgiving preparation but decided to stop and take a break and make tonight's dinner.  I wanted it to be something fairly quick too.  I decided to make pizza using my Almond-Flax-Parmesan Herb Pizza Crust.  For whatever reason, I was also in the mood for spicy sausage on it -- which is really weird because I usually don't care for meat on my pizza (never really have).  Since I didn't have any bulk type sausage in the house, but did have a pound of ground beef in the fridge, I decided to make my own "mock spicy beef sausage" with it.  I have to tell you...it turned out awesome.  I browned the meat very well and crumbled it into small pieces as it cooked.  I added sea salt, lots of freshly ground black pepper, several good shakes of cayenne pepper, dry rubbed sage, garlic powder and a few pinches of red pepper flakes as well.  I just kept tasting it for seasoning and making adjustments as I went.

Thankfully, hubby likes my Almond-Flax-Parmesan Herb Pizza Crust, so I made a large rectangular pizza for us to share with "his & hers" topping halves.  After the crust was done baking, I spread it with the sauce and shredded cheese and covered the entire pizza with the "spicy beef sausage" for both of us and then added his favorite turkey pepperoni, Kalamata olives and artichoke hearts to his side and the sauteed onion, red bell pepper and sliced mushrooms to mine.  It turned out really good and I will definitely make the spicy ground beef sausage again to put on pizza!  I always have to keep a swath between our pizza halves (sort of a buffer or safety zone) because if one of my mushrooms or onions touches his side, he acts like it's been contaminated by the bubonic plague...LOL.  So, just in case anything moves as it cooks, I try to always keep a safe distance from his side.  Well...my dinner break is over now...so it is back to the kitchen for me!  I snapped a photo for you to see but couldn't get it to upload to my blog tonight for some reason.  You can check out the pic on my Facebook page if you are interested, but I've posted a link to the crust recipe here: Almond-Flax-Parmesan Herb Pizza Crust Recipe.  Enjoy!

Link to picture of the pizza on my Facebook page

Breakfast...just me, my eggs, sausage...and Bagel Toast!

Today I will be hard at work all day long in the kitchen preparing Thanksgiving dishes, so I decided to start this morning with a good breakfast.  I was so excited to have my pick of different flavors of either Bagel/Squagels with cream cheese or Bagel Toast to go with eggs and sausage this morning.  I had Asiago cheese, toasted onion, poppy seed and sesame seed as well as "plain" to choose from.  I decided on eggs, sausage, and sesame seed bagel toast -- it was delicious along with a cup of "Eight o'Clock" hazelnut coffee, served at 9:00!  :-)  I will be on my feet all day long so thought I'd power up with a good breakfast first.  I snapped a few photos of my beautiful breakfast so you could see how easy it could be for you to have a choice of bagels or toast for your breakfast too!

Oh, on a personal note -- as of yesterday I have lost 44 pounds in 4 months following the Wheat Belly plan eating like this.  I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and am excited to get my lab results back to show the continued and dramatic improvement that I have already seen in my previous labs.  This plan has been nothing short of remarkable for me.  For those of you that follow WB, I wish you the same success -- it really does work!  :-)  Enjoy!

Bagels/Squagels...Bagel Toast...Bagel Sticks

Today, besides beginning my Thanksgiving baking and prep work, I also continued work on perfecting my Bagel/Squagel recipe.  When one of my readers commented that her husband's face "lit up like a Christmas tree" when she told him I was working on my Bagel/Squagels...I was determined to test them out again today so I could go ahead and post the recipe so they could try them out ASAP (these may not be NY style bagels...but they are definitely WB style bagels).  ;-)

I modified my dough recipe a bit this afternoon, as well as tested out baking them with a variety of different toppings to make sure the toppings didn't burn during the baking process.  For the last few days, I have been eating the first test batch that I made last week (without any toppings), and love them lightly toasted and spread with cream cheese.  I have also enjoyed them as "bagel toast" (without the holes) along with my eggs in the morning.  Because this recipe has herbs and seasonings added to the dough, they have a nice subtle flavor just as they are, without any toppings.  This recipe makes savory (not sweet) bagel squagels/bagel toast.  If you wanted them to be more on the sweeter side instead, simply omit the Italian seasoning, garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper and replace it with the amount and sweetener of your choice, cinnamon or raisins (if you eat them)...you could even mix in some dark chocolate chips or nuts and could also top them with nuts or coconut, etc...whatever you like.

Besides not having to buy a special pan to make "round bagels", the part I like best is that BOTH the top and bottom half of these Bagel/Squagels have the topping on them (since you don't cut them in half to toast and eat them) -- each "square" equals 1/2 of a bagel which makes it like eating 2 top halves (the best part in my opinion).  I always hated choosing a particular flavor of bagel that I really liked and then only getting to enjoy the flavor when eating the top half while the bottom just sat there being "plain and boring" -- not any more!  Whether you cut holes in them or not, I think they are delicious lightly toasted and spread with cream cheese.  They also make delicious "bagel toast" (if you don't cut holes in them) so you can enjoy eating them for breakfast or with eggs in the morning (which is what I probably miss the most).  I don't really miss eating sandwiches any more, but sometimes you just want a bagel or some "toast like bread" to spread cream cheese on, or to go along with your scrambled eggs in the morning.  So far, from my limited experience trying to make a "loaf" of wheat/grain free bread, I have not yet been impressed enough with them to go through the laborious task of making them again any time soon.  I may revisit that again in the future -- but for now, I'll just enjoy my Bagel/Squagels or Bagel Toast...both with and without the holes!!!

Besides making the Bagel/Squagels and Bagel Toast...I also made a few Bagel Sticks which would easily make nice softer, slightly crisp bread sticks, especially when topped and baked with cheese.  With this one batch of dough, spread out in a large 17" x 12" baking/cookie sheet, I was able to test 4 different flavors of toppings.  I made poppy seed, toasted onion, sesame seed and my hubby's favorite...Asiago & Parmigiano Reggiano cheese bagels.  I cut the bagel bread in this pan into a total of 12 medium 3"x3" Bagel/Squagels & Bagel Toast squares...and 2 jumbo 4-1/2" x 4-1/2" cheese Bagel/Squagels squares for hubby as well as 4 smaller 1" x 4" Bagel Sticks (or bread stick) pieces.  They are about 1/2" thick and filling (not heavy).  Even though 2 pieces would equal a whole bagel...each time I have put 2 pieces on my plate to eat them, I was full after eating just one piece along with my coffee...so don't spread the cream cheese on your 2nd piece until you've finished your first, just in case you end up doing the same.  :-)  If you decide you'd like to try making them a little thicker, then use a smaller baking pan so the dough is spread out thicker -- you may have to adjust the baking time though.  Below I've included the recipe along with some pictures.  I really hope these help satisfy your "bagel tooth"!  Enjoy!

Poppy seed, onion, and sesame seed Bagel/Squagels in front & Bagel Toast in back

Asiago/Parmesan Bagel/Squagel and Bagel Toast

Asiago/Parmesan Bagel Sticks

Dough spread out in the 17 x 12" pan

Dough sprinkled with Asiago/Parmesan, sesame seeds, onion and poppy seeds

Bagel bread fresh out of the oven

BOOM!

From this batch of dough, I made 4 pieces/squares each of poppy seed, 4 onion and 4 sesame seed, 2 large pieces/squares of the Asiago/Parmesan and 4 bagel sticks!

Bagels/Squagels or Bagel Toast or Bagel Sticks

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup PLUS 2 tablespoons coconut flour, sifted
1 cup almond flour
1-1/2 cups golden flax meal
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Few grinds of freshly ground black pepper
6 large eggs
3/4 cup water
4 tablespoons olive oil 
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Toppings, optional (poppy seeds, sesame seeds, shredded Asiago cheese, minced  
                  onion or garlic, etc.)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a heavy 17" x 12" baking pan or cookie sheet with non-stick foil or parchment paper sprayed or brushed with oil (I prefer using non-stick foil). 

In a medium sized bowl, mix all dry ingredients together with a whisk to help break up any lumps; add eggs, water, oil and apple cider vinegar; mix well.  Dough will be thick and somewhat sticky.   Using a rubber spatula sprayed lightly with oil, place the dough in the center of the baking pan and begin working your way out toward the edges, spreading the dough out over the entire surface of the pan as evenly as you can (the dough will be about 1/4" - 1/2" thick when spread out).  

If desired, sprinkle with your favorite toppings on top (poppy seeds, minced onion or garlic, sesame seeds, Asiago cheese, etc.).  Bake for 30 minutes or until the bagel bread feels done when pressed near the center.  This makes a thinner 1/2 to 3/4-inch thick "bagel bread".  When the bread is done, remove from oven and let cool.  Slide the entire loaf, along with the foil, out onto a cutting board.  Using a sharp knife, cut into "bagel/squagel or toast squares", in the size of your choice (if making bagel/squagels, cut small square holes in the center of each using a sharp knife).  Each "square" is the equivalent of half of a bagel.  Toast and spread with cream cheese or butter, if desired.

***Note:  Don't worry about tasting the apple cider vinegar; you won't taste it at all. It's in there to help leaven the dough a bit.