Daily Indulgence

While I love baking & attempting to make something sugar-free & Candida friendly, there's only so far that I can personally go & sometimes I need some time-out from my sweet tooth, even if sugar isn't actually included in my cooking. One reason is that I tend to eat everything I make; I'm the one with the sweet tooth in the household. If it's sitting in the fridge staring at me, you can bet I'll have a taste. With my health ultimately in mind, I've decided to keep my baking escapades to the weekend or more sporadically than that for a while. While coconut flour agrees with my system, I'm still very wary about having too much at once.

So I thought before heading off into the savoury wilderness, that I would share with you one sweet indulgence that I do allow myself as often as I desire it. Sugar-free marshmallow. Made simply with egg whites & whatever flavouring I desire, it's a low calorie protein snack that is surprisingly filling & satisfies those sweet urges.

The beauty of this is the versatility too; I've made myself blueberry flavoured, strawberry flavoured & lemon flavoured marshmallow. I simply stew some berries & take the juices from the stew & add it to the egg whites. It's also very quick to make. An instant delight!

Here I'm sharing with you my hazelnut & coconut covered chocolate marshmallow

Hazelnut Coconut covered Chocolate Marshmallow

(serves one)

Ingredients:

1-2 egg whites

20 drops liquid sweetener or 1-2mls white stevia (add more or less depending on desired sweetness)

1 teaspoon raw cacao, plus more to cover

½ teaspoon cinnamon, plus more to cover

hazelnut meal

ground shredded coconut

Method:

1. Place egg whites in a bowl, with the stevia/liquid sweetener, & beat until stiff peaks form.

2. Add cacao & cinnamon & continue to beat till the egg whites are stiff (you can add more sweetener if desired)

3. Transfer to a bowl, sprinkle with cacao, cinnamon, hazelnut & coconut.

4. Enjoy!

So quick & easy. I like to make this before H & I sit down to a movie. I never feel like I'm missing out or indulging in something I shouldn't when I have this.

The Ultimate in Flavours

I'm going to share with you now something that I discovered the other day, then ventured to make for myself.

Chocolate cookie goodness, with something surprising in the mix

What are they? Well, obviously something with glorious chocolate involved. Chocolate is something I haven't been able to have for almost a year. After I cut sugar & carbs out of my diet, I was still indulging in cocoa mixed with milk & sweetener. I was still getting over my lack of sugary delights in my diet, & it was something that I was making to compensate. But as I learnt more about Candida, & better understood the reactions I was getting, I realised that cocoa was causing issues. After I would have my mousse creation, I would still incur cramps, gas & bloating. It wasn't long till I realised that I had to give up cocoa too, adding to the growing list of things under the simple heading of 'No'.

Forward about 10 months later, & after tiring of closing so many recipe pages down when I saw the listing of 'cocoa' or 'cacao', in the ingredients list, I decided to give raw cacao a go. Realising that the fermentation process may have been upsetting my stomach, & after being on the anti-candida diet for so long, I decided to give the mighty cocoa bean one more chance. I bought a small amount of raw cacao from a local health food store, & tried a tiny amount mixed with coconut flour, vanilla, sweetener & milk (a little pudding mix I make for myself when I want something sweet but don't feel like baking). No reactions. So I kept trying here & there, & finding that I was ok with cacao, finally. The raw kind, at least.

So when I came across the concept of bacon chocolate cookies, I felt an internal explosion of sorts. Bacon, with chocolate!? It seems this phenomenon has existed for a while, but it was something I was completely out of the loop about.

Bacon. Chocolate. Cookies! Could there be a better combination of foods & flavours?!!? Ok, depending on your deposition, the answer could be different. But for me... I love bacon. I love chocolate. I was a vegetarian for two stints lasting 10 years in total, & when I had bacon again after relinquishing my vegetarian ways (for good as well, but I have my own personal reasons for that), I couldn't believe that I had gone so long without it. Now, after having a long time without chocolate, it's nice to savour the taste of that again too.

Look at those little hints of bacon, melded amongst the

crumbly, moist goodness of the chocolate cookie.

Oh, such a sight!

I couldn't stop thinking of making these when I found them. I devised the recipe in my mind, writing down my ideas for how to make my version of them, while referencing some recipes on the net. Then I gave them a go. & oh, how I love them!

They're wonderfully moist, salty & sweet, meaty bits of bacon sitting in the soft, chocolate casing. I am in love!

Bacon Chocolate Cookies

(Sugar-free, wheat-free)

Ingredients:

65mls (½dl + 1 tablespoon) coconut flour

1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted

1 tablespoon butter, plus 1 teapsoon for cooking the bacon

1 egg

50mls milk

20mls (1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon) raw cacao

1ml white stevia

4 strips of bacon

½ teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon bicarb soda

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees

2. Cook bacon in a pan with 1 teaspoon of butter. Allow to cool & dice. (Save the fat left over from cooking the bacon into a bowl)

3. In the same pan, melt the coconut & butter, collecting the cooked flavours of the bacon into the butter & coconut mix. Pour into the bowl containing the residue bacon fat.

4. Mix the cacao into the melted coconut, butter & bacon fat.

5. In another bowl, sift the flour, white stevia, vanilla & bicarb soda.

6. Whisk egg in a separate bowl. Making a well with the flour, add the egg, milk, butter/coconut/bacon fat mix, bacon & mix together. The batter should be rather wet.

7. Place some baking paper on a tray & using a spoon, drop the batter onto the tray. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Yields about 10 cookies

I also made bacon gingerbread pancakes that morning, based on a recipe from Gluten Free Girl & The Chef's Pork & Spoon site. I was having a definite bacon fest that day!

I've also added this recipe to Brittany's Seasonal Sundays session & Amy's Slightly Indulgent Tuesday