Was it because our ancestors for many previous generations gathered round fires to share companionship and food? Or maybe because collecting ingredients and making food used to occupy so much of our lives.
Whatever it is, I think many of us like baking, or at least consuming freshly baked food.
Or maybe it's just me. Because of nasal problems I really have no sense of smell, but I still love to bake. And this evening I used a really old recipe from my teenager days to make rough puff pastry as an essential part of sausage rolls.
The sausage meat is from some imported Irish sausages, so these are almost like the sausage rolls that I grew up with.
Mix the ingredients together. A quick knead. Five rollings to get the flakiness up, with some resting of the pastry in the fridge, 20 minutes in the oven and yum.
Unfortunately they're for a Thanksgiving party tomorrow. But that's OK. I get to relax while I'm focused almost solely on these. And then I don't have to worry about how much insulin I need to take if I want to eat one.
It's kind of the best of both worlds.
Almost.
It would be better if I didn't have diabetes and I could eat them without thinking.
Looking on the bright side, that wouldn't be all that good for me. So here's where having diabetes saves me from myself! That's something to be thankful about.
I finally broke down today and made more pastry. We've had some gorgeous apple varieties in the house (including Northern Spy) and I couldn't stand another weekend without a pie in the house.
For pastry I use a modified version of a recipe from Cooks Illustrated. The original recipe is just gorgeous but absolutely loaded with fat. So I've cut it back. And what I ended up with is this recipe
Pie Crust Recipe (for two crusts)
3/4 cups white flour
1-3/4 cups whole wheat white flour
6 tablespoons stick margarine
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 tablespoons sugar
6-8 tablespoons chilled water
Mix the flours, sugar and salt together in a large bowl. Cut in the margarine and butter until the pieces are the size of peas. Add the water, it should be chilled and from the fridge. Mix with a spatula until it starts to stick together. Then finish mixing by hand.
Divide into two halves, each is enough for a single pie crust. Wrap tightly in cling wrap and store in fridge until ready for use. Let it warm up for at least 15 minutes before use.
Nutrition Analysis The two flours that I use are very different from each other. I thought you might be interested in seeing a quick analysis of the carb difference based on using the mix that I have, versus just plain white flour. Here are the nutrition labels for each type of flour. (Note I'm using King Arthur flours, which are just great for baking.)
The recipe contains ten 1/4 cups of flour.
If I use white flour the carb count would be ten times 21 effective grams for a total of 210 grams for all the pastry. I'm allowing for a full gram of fiber in each serving.
By using the proportion that I do I have three times 21 grams of carbohydrate from the white flour (total 63 grams) and seven times 15 grams for the whole wheat white (total of 105 grams). This gives me a total of 168 grams of carbohydrates or a 20% reduction in the overall carbs.
Each pie crust with my recipe is 84 grams of carbs. Using white flour each one would normally be 105 grams of carbs. Plus with my recipe you also get 21 grams of fiber per pie crust. And I think it tastes better with the whole wheat white flour.
Note that I've started using a single pie crust rolled very thin for an apple pie. There's enough pastry to fold over the apples and make a rustic type of pie. If each pie yields 8 slices then the carbs from the pastry add about 11 grams, instead of nearly 22 grams when I'm using a double pie crust for the pie.
In writing this post, I noticed an error in the nutrition label from King Arthur. The calorie count appears to be wrong for whole wheat white. The table below shows my calculations. Whole wheat white flour has only about 81 calories per serving, not the 100 calories per serving that's shown on the label. I'll contact King Arthur Flour during the week to let them know.
The Diabetes365 project is really growing fast. We now have over 100 photos and more are being added every day.
One of the photographers is Dae and thanks to her blog I came across what may be the best blog for those of us who still like to eat pastry. (Because unfortunately my love of good food didn't disappear when I got diabetes.)
I've taken several baking classes over the years and I really love to make pies, cookies and bread. Generally I let the children eat most of it because there's too many carbs there.
But maybe, thanks to the Diabetic Pastry Chef, I can finally bake some things that are okay for me to eat.
The Diabetes Technology Blog is focused on using technology to life better with diabetes. I review: blood glucose monitors; continuous glucose monitor; blood sugar meters; diabetes software and living with diabetes.
About Me
Name: Bernard Farrell
Location: Massachusetts, United States
I was born in Ireland and now live in the US.
I have had Type 1 diabetes for over 36 years. I struggle with my blood sugar, the same as most people with diabetes.
I wear a Cozmo 1800 insulin pump and a Dexcom SEVEN CGM to track my blood glucose levels.
I'm blessed by God, and every day brings the possibility of a cure.
