Tag: sassafras

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Cheerful Chocolate Cookies

Having chocolate cookies is likely going to be more cheerful than not having chocolate cookies, however these cookies may contain an extra helping of cheerfulness. I made another batch of the Gumbo File/Choctaw Spice/Sassafras Leaf powder Spicy Molasses Cookies https://transcendingsquare.com/2018/03/29/spicy-molasses-cookies-revisited/ with cocoa powder as the main flavoring in place of the Blackstrap Molasses. This time however I wrote out a recipe based on the latest experiment and my latest version of Chocolate Cookies. The calculations revealed that inadvertantly in doubling the batch I had forgotten to double the Baking Soda which is the actual leavening- agent in the recipe, as well as not doubling the emulsifier- the egg replacer, which was the Gumbo File Powder in the experiment and Golden Flaxmeal in my typical egg free versions.

For allergy or digestive intolerant patients it can be nice to have a few substitutions available in case they can’t have one they might still be able to have a different one. The Gumbo File seems to be a more potent emulsifier than the Golden Flaxmeal. The recipe worked with double the amount but still didn’t rise much even with the correct amount of leavening-. The lack of oil or butter and substitution of liquid instead makes the cookies more Brownie or Fudge like, very moist and dense- Energy Bites.

The pomegranate extract and pomegranate juice are likely giving the cookies their increased helping of cheerfulness mood boosting power, beyond the normal yum, it’s chocolate effects. If you want to try the recipe and don’t have Pomegranate Extract on hand then just substitute Pomegranate Juice; 100 percent, unsweetened organic, is what I used and it isn’t low cost – $12/32 ounces. The recipe as I made it this time used 2 1/2 cups juice – 20 ounces, and 1 1/2 cups Pomegranate Extract – 12 ounces; so the double batch, 92 cookies contain 32 ounces of juice/pomegranate peel extract. *Sweetened pomegranate juice would be fine to use, this is a reduced sugar recipe compared to typical cookie recipes. Cherry juice would probably also taste good in this recipe and also has medicinal/functional food benefits. 100 percent juice also means no water is added which could make a tart cherry juice too strong, I typically dilute 100 percent tart cherry juice with some water when I drink it as a beverage, and sometimes the 100percent pomegranate juice but it isn’t quite as tart as the cherry, consider either as somewhat of a concentated juice compared to the milder blends that are available which frequently are based on apple. white grape, or pear juice. Pure fructose can be more difficult for people with digestive sensitivities than a blend of fructose and glucose/table sugar, as the fructose can promote more gassiness occasionally. Smaller portions also can help, a fruit or fruit juice serving is typically four to six ounces and yet bottles sold as individual portions are frequently twelve to twenty ounces-recap it and save some for later.

The Baking Cocoa I used is the  “Dutched” type that is pre-treated with an alkali, similar to the Native American method of treating corn with alkali wood ash (Nixtamil flour) which increases the B vitamin content and helps protect against deficiency of Niacin and pellagra, Niacin deficiency. The process also may help preserve B1, Thiamin content and B2, Riboflavin content (Thiamin content of three sources of corn and arepas…. )(Beriberi- is caused by thiamin/thiamine – B1 deficiency,, the processing of brown rice into a polished low fiber white rice led to large numbers of people developing BeriBeri in early history of Asian food processing.  Thiamin). The “Dutched” cocoa powder is smoother in flavor and a little darker in color then cocoa powder that is not pte-treated with alkali. I don’t know if the B vitamin content is modified in the same way as with Nixtamil  corn flour — but somehow the combination of ingredients made a very dark chocolate cookie:

Cheerful Chocolate Cookies, baked and raw dough – no they are not overbaked.
The raw Cheerful Chocolate Cookie dough.
The baked Cheerful Chocolate Cookies are not overbaked but you have to flip one over in the oven to check the crust in order to tell if is is close to being baked enough – is it crisp with some increased darkness of color.

Dry ingredients, stir together in a large bowl:

  • 1 1/4 cup Brown Rice Flour
  • 3/4 cup Cocoa Powder (Regular or “Dutched” would work similarly)
  • 2 cups Coconut Flour
  • 1 cup Almond Meal
  • 1/2 cup Tapioca Flour/Starch
  • 1 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 teaspoon Cardamom Powder
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

Emulsifier step- gently heat Pomegranate Extract or Juice to a simmer in a saucepan then remove from heat and stir in the Gumbo File Powder.

  • 1 1/2 cups Pomegranate Extract
  • 6 Tablespoons Gumbo File Powder

Wet ingredients – in a another large bowl combine the thickened warm emulsifier liquid with the Brown Sugar and then stir in half of the remaining juice. Reserve part of the juice to add to the dry ingredients after first mixing in the emulsifier/sugar mixture. (This method is more like making a cake than a cookie, you combine small amounts of the liquid at a time for a smooth cake batter that is not over-stirred.)

  • 2 cups Brown Sugar
  • 2 teaspoons Vanilla
  • 2 1/2 cups Pomegranate Juice, (100 percent, unsweetened organic is what I used – with the goal of a functional/healing food in mind)

The dough should be moist and able to be rolled or spoonef into a sticky round shape that doesn’t crumble – a soft playdough-like consistency.

The Baking time is longer than for a cookie dough made with butter or coconut oil – 20-25 minutes for those became 30-35 minutes for these Brownie or Fudge like Energy Bites. I bake two pans of 24 cookies at a time and rotate the pans from top shelf to bottom shelf and turned around front to back at 20 minutes to get a more even baking. These low fat juice containing cookies then take an additional 10-15 minutes. My typical coconut oil/ butter cookies are rotated at 15 minutes and then left for another 10-15 minutes. If baking only one tray use the top shelf and rotating the pan is less important as the oven heat is directed at the top and bottom of the pan more evenly.

Most of the ingredients in this recipe may be providing beneficial phytonutrients that might help promote our own production of NRF2 which then helps promote our own anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer abilities. Health may never have tasted so good – enjoy!

Disclosure: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use. While I am a Registered Dietitian it is not intended to provide individualized health care guidance. Please seek an individual health care professional for the purpose of individualized health care guidance.

 

 

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Gumbo File – anti-inflammatory and possibly anti-cancer

This information about the health benefits and history of the spice currently known as Gumbo File was added/expanded at the end of a recipe  that I was typing up because the notes were hard to read:

 but the Gumbo File information became part of the NRF2 promoting diet story (NRF2 links) that I’ve been writing about occasionally since last December.  It may not be clear what my goals are but foremost is my own health and if it helps me than as someone wiht public health experience I know that many others are suffering chronic illness or are trying to help family members. So my sharing my notes helps me keep the information more organized than having it in the original messy handwritten note-book, and online the information may be able to help others with individual health or with health research. Good luck, and DYOR – do your own research or fine a health professional to check on the safety of using the information for your own needs.

The Sassafras Tree is part of the cinnamon/camphor plant family and research has progressed to a patent request for making an anti-cancer extract from the camphor family plants. The preliminary research obtained a little over 8% of the Sassafras Leaves contained the beneficial cinnamon phytonutrient extract they hope to make anti-cancer treatments with.  (including cinnamon, Cinnamomum Kennedy, hairy leaves camphor, linalyl burmannii, sassafras) “” [0056] sassafras aboveground 5kg, pulverized and extracted…to obtain cinnamon plant extracts 412g, a yield of 8.24%” –  https://patents.google.com/patent/CN103520279B/en)

In the diet and menu plan world the whole food is used in larger quantities or more frequently as a preventative support of everyday health – aka baking larger amounts into cookies than might be typically used in a batch gumbo soup. For years I rarely wrote down my recipes but people would ask about my ‘recipe’ and I usually didn’t have one. Once you learn the basic ratios of a type of food or baked good it is easy to create with whatever is available. I started taking notes though while creating so that I could write a recipe that might be able to be repeated by myself or someone else. The create from scratch occasionally isn’t as good as the familiar standard.  My notes are easier to read once typed.

That recipe is typed on a different website on a page about recipe modification, see G84.2: Spicy Molasses Cookies:  https://effectivecare.info/g8-cookies-%26-bean-soup

~~from the recipe post about the Gumbo File and Pomegranate extract variation of the Spicy Molasses Cookies – turns out Sassafras Leaves were a Native American innovation and had been the second most important export from the colonies during the 17th century (tobacco was the largest export crop) – so maybe it is time to harvest more Sassafras Leaves again:

Gumbo File is the Acadian name for a powdered preparation of dried Sassafras Leaves that was used by Native Americans and was commonly known as the Choctaw Spice. It was widely used for a portion of the U.S. history and became the second largest export with tobacco being the largest export crop in the 17th century. It became less popular in the 20th century when it was discovered that a chemical, safrole in the essential oil of the tree bark and sassafras root was cancerogenic. Gumbo File is still healthy though because it does not contain as much of the chemical. Beneficial nutrients include the terpenes, myrcene and linalool, which both have anti-inflammatory benefits and sedative (sleep inducing) effects and myracene may also help reduce pain (analgesic). It has been traditionally thought to be helpful to prevent kidney stones from forming, and it may be due to a diuretic effect. It also is thought to help reduce high blood pressure and relieve arthritis pain. [link]

The amount typically used in a soup or stew is far less than the amount I used in this cookie recipe as an egg replacer. Only a half teaspoon to a teaspoon tends to be added to a batch of soup, best added at the end of the cooking time, it thickens the broth slightly to a creamier texture but can become more gelatinous (slimy/shiny/sticky) if overcooked. The three tablespoons dissolved in a cup and a half of liquid made a gelatinous thickened mixture that was more of a thick gravy texture with a shiny, thicker in places texture. It mixed into the cookie dough easily though.

Tapioca starch also produces a shiny gelatinous effect in gravy or fruit sauces compared to corn starch. Once chilled it makes a ‘resistant starch’ [resistant starch, definitive guide] that is turned into other beneficial nutrients in our digestive system by some types of beneficial bacteria. I’m not sure if the Gumbo File starch is similar to tapioca starch in ‘resistant starch’ content.

Root beer is named after the sassafras root which was the traditional way the beverage was made. Now Root Beer that is still made with actual Sassafras Root uses root that has the safrole oil extracted. Sassafras root tea tastes like Root Beer. The ground dried leaves are described as tasting like the herbs thyme or savory, or slightly like Root Beer or eucalyptus. [link] I can confirm that the root makes a Root Beer flavor as I’ve tried a tea made with actual dug up in the forest Sassafras root. It was a tree commonly found in my backyard and surrounding woods as a child. The tree leaves are interesting as they have different shapes – a right and left mitten shape and a mitten with two thumbs and as a plain oval shape (Sassafras Leaves, images).

So cookies with an anti-inflammatory benefit – I did feel sleepy this afternoon after making them however and only added this interesting section on the health benefits of Gumbo File after waking up. –

They may also have anti-cancer benefits due to the Sassafras plant being part of the cinnamomum/camphor plant family. Cinnamon phytonutrients include aldehydes which in addition to terpenes an other types of phytonutrients can promote the production of the NRF2 gene and protein which has many roles in the immune system including anti-cancer benefits. (“Cinnamomum – camphor plants (including cinnamon, Cinnamomum Kennedy, hairy leaves camphor, linalyl burmannii, sassafras) “” [0056] sassafras aboveground 5kg, pulverized and extracted…to obtain cinnamon plant extracts 412g, a yield of 8.24%” –  https://patents.google.com/patent/CN103520279B/en)

Disclosure: This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health care guidance. Please see an individual  health care professional for individualized health care guidance.

Additional references/resources:

What are the Uses and Health Benefits of Sassafras albidum (Sassafras)? – medicinal properties include antiseptic, carminative (reduce gassiness), analgesic, anti-inflammatory, aromatic, diaphoretic (inducing sweating), diuretic, stimulant, pain-killer.  *the root and the leaves have different medicinal effects.

What are the Uses and Health Benefits of Sassafras albidum (Sassafras)?

Herbs at a Glance, Christa Sinadinos, The Northwest School For Botanical Studies http://www.herbaleducation.net/herbs-glance