Merry Christmas

It's been a while between posts here. I haven't been baking much the past few months. With studies, a new job, plus ensuing health issues, I've been keeping my diet simple, & quite natural & unprocessed. Lots of vegetables & a little bit of meat. All dairy has once again been struck from my diet, since the reactions I was getting from cheese was becoming almost violent. With the cold setting in, this has consisted of a diet of lots of steamed vegetables.

But, since Christmas is approaching, I figure this is the time of year to create something indulgent. My stomach hasn't agreed the last few days; it's chosen this time of year to react heavily. But what's one day, right?

This year I've made myself gingerbread, cinnamon rolls & chocolate truffles. The truffles were just a mix of coconut flour, cocoa, psyllium husk, erythirol, stevia, shredded coconut, ground almonds & hazelnuts, coconut oil, tahini & soy milk. Plus whatever spices tickled my fancy. I'd post a recipe for those, but there was really no measuring done. It was just a taste-as-you-go fest!



I made two batches of cinnamon rolls; one with grated zucchini & one without. The batter comes up quite moist with zucchini added. You can omit this if you choose. It will, however, yield a much smaller batch. Naturally these don't rise since there's no yeast, so they do come out quite small. I've used shredded coconut in place of pearl sugar. If you do not want this, simply omit.

I've also begun using erythritol, a sweetner derived from sugar alcohol which has no calories, can add bulk to baked goods, & goes well with stevia. It's a natural sweetner & doesn't raise blood sugar, & I've found no gastrointestinal distress while using it, though I do keep usage to a minimum & only use it as a partner to stevia. For more information, please read more here. If you don't feel comfortable using this product, simply omit. You could substitute with palm or coconut sugar, but as I've not used either of these sugar, I cannot say how they would affect the taste.

The batches below are really intended for one person. For a higher yield, double the amounts listed.

Please find below my recipes for Paleo-friendly, gluten-free, sugar-free, grain-free, dairy-free Gingerbread soft cookies & Cinnamon Rolls!

Soft Gingerbread Cookies
(paleo, gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, grain-free)

Ingredients:
1dl & 1 tablespoon / 30g / 1/4 cup coconut flour
1 tablespoon psyllium husk
3 egg whites
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon ghee, melted
2 tablespoons almond flour
2 mls powdered stevia (add more if you want it sweeter
2 tablespoons erythritol
1dl/100mls soy milk
½dl/50mls water
1 tablespoon apple-cider vinegar
1 ml bicarb soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1ml vanilla
pinch of salt

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
2. Add egg whites to a bowl & beat with an electric mixer till white peaks form.
3. Add egg yolk to whites & beat with mixer, blending in.
4. Add milk, vinegar & water, mixing to a good consistency.
5. Sift all dry ingredients together & add to the bowl. Add the melted ghee & mix together with a wooden spoon.
6. Once mixed together, all the mixture to sit for a few minutes. This allows the ingredients to hold together better.
7. Roll out onto baking paper & cut into shapes with cookie cutters or roll into small round cookie shapes.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes.




Cinnamon Rolls
(paleo, gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, grain-free)

Ingredients:
1dl & 1 tablespoon / 30g / 1/4 cup coconut flour
1 tablespoon psyllium husk
3 egg whites
1 egg yolk
½dl - 1dl / 50-100mls grated zucchini
2 mls powdered stevia (add more if you want it sweeter
2 tablespoons erythritol
1 tablespoon apple-cider vinegar
50mls soy milk
50 mls water
1 ml bicarb soda
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
pinch of salt
shredded coconut
extra egg yolk, for glazing

Butter mixture
2 tablespoons melted ghee
1-2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
up to 1 tablespoon erythirol
1-2mls stevia

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
2. Add egg whites to a bowl & beat with an electric mixer till white peaks form.
3. Add egg yolk to whites & beat with mixer, blending in.
4. Add milk, vinegar & water, mixing to a good consistency.
5. Sift all dry ingredients together & add to the bowl. Add the melted ghee & mix together with a wooden spoon.
6. Once mixed together, all the mixture to sit for a few minutes. This allows the ingredients to hold together better.
8. Roll out onto baking paper & shape batter into a rectangle. Prebake in oven for 5 minutes.
9. Remove from oven. Spread butter mixture over batter, adding more cinnamon & sweetners once it's spread over. Roll up into a log & cut into slices. Glaze with egg yolk.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes, removing halfway to turn & glaze with more egg yolk & sprinkle with shredded coconut.
Yields about 8-10 small rolls.




*Note: I will start listing 'dl' measurements, as I live in Sweden, & measuring cups come in millilitre or decilitre measurements, not by cup. I will also list the millilitre as a guide to how much is required, & will list weights when this is taken.

This has been submitted to Amy's Slightly Indulgent Tuesday

Swedish Delights

'Semlor' simply means 'buns' in Swedish. A treat that's enjoyed every February, H tells me that it started as something the Swedes would enjoy for one day of the year, which then extended to one week. Now, Semlor (or 'semla', in singular) are available from Christmas to Easter (according to Wikipedia).

Since arriving in Sweden, H has been telling me that I must try these, as they're a huge tradition. They're simple sweet buns, filled with marzipan & cream, topped with some more cream then capped off with the top of the bun that is cut off. Not being able to eat wheat, I decided to take the challenge of making my own allergy-friendly version for Christmas this year. The first batch was a success, which I was able to enjoy with my new family while they ate their traditional Semlor. With this month's SOS challenge being stevia, I decided to create them again, this time making vegan-friendly alterations.


While these don't look the same as the traditional ones (I use hazelnut butter in place of the almonds, as I'm intolerant to almonds), they're still delicious, filling & nutritious.

It's a little bit of work in crafting these yummy buns, but it's also part of the fun. Once baked, the middle of the bun is dug out, with the filling placed in a bowl. Mixed in with the nut paste & cream, this mixture is placed back into the bun, then topped with cream. The traditional buns have a cap placed on top, but I found this too fiddly as they are quite small, & the bun can crumble. So I skip that step, but still have a delicious end result.

Semlor
Ingredients
Buns:
½ Cup (120ml) coconut flour
100mls coconut milk
25mls coconut oil, melted
1 egg (vegan substitute: 1 tablespoon (15mls) psyllium husk with 3 tablespoons of water)
1 teaspoon (5mls) vanilla
1ml white stevia
pinch of salt
1/8 teaspoon of bicarb soda
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Filling:
175g roasted hazelnuts (or whatever roasted nuts you prefer - almonds are traditionally used.)
stevia to taste
Coconut cream, whipped

Topping:
Coconut cream, whipped

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Sift the coconut flour, vanilla, salt, bicarb & baking soda into a bowl (if using psyllium husk, add this to the bowl as well. If using an egg, whisk in a separate bowl).
3. Melt the coconut in a saucepan on low heat. Once melted, add the coconut milk & warm. Remove from heat & add to the dry mix. Add remaining wet ingredients (either the 3 tablespoons of water or the whisked egg) & stir together. (If the batter is too wet, add more flour)
4. Roll small handfuls of the batter & place into either a greased muffin tray or muffin cups. Glaze with a little coconut milk.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven & cool (yeilds about 6 semlor)


For the filling:
1. In a food processor, grind the nuts into a paste. This may take about 10 minutes. You may need to drizzle some water (I added a tiny bit of coconut milk) to get it smooth enough for a paste.
2. Add stevia to taste as it's blending (choose whatever level of sweetness you'd prefer). Once ready, transfer to a bowl.
3. Whip the coconut cream (I just gather the coconut cream from an unshaken can of coconut milk)
4. Spoon the middle of a semla into a bowl. Add nut paste & coconut cream (about equal amounts of each compared to what's been spooned out of the bun) & mix together. Spoon back into the bun.
5. Top with whipped coconut cream.
6. Enjoy! They're delicious!


H watches me curiously as I make these, & is very happy that I can enjoy some Swedish sweets. I'm going to attempt more allergy-friendly recreations. I look forward to sharing them with you!

This has been submitted to Ricki & Kim's SOS challenge & Amy's Slightly Indulgent Tuesday

With Love

I'm not one who usually celebrates Valentine's Day. The cheesy cards, overpriced flowers, & saving one day to celebrate your love? No thanks, I prefer to give that sentiment on a daily basis.

However, this time around, I thought I'd break my own tradition & do something different. But still in a corny yet fun fashion. Since I don't have a job at the moment, but gather much pleasure from playing in the kitchen, I decided to treat H to some special home-made foods that I don't make so often.


& all in the shape of hearts. Oh, the love!

I don't eat pizza much. I love cheese, but it doesn't love me back in a very nice way. While it's not as bad as when I started on my anti-Candida diet, it still inflates my stomach, & I can feel it make its way through my intestines a few hours later. So it's very much a now & then indulgence, generally when I don't have to do anything for the rest of the night, or no band demands for the following days.


The base for these are incredibly simple. I base them from a recipe I found here, substituting coconut flour for quinoa, & adding oregano & garlic powder to the batter. To follow for dessert, I made heart-shaped raspberry chocolate cookies. Oh, the love!

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

Strawberry Tartlets

I'm not one to step away from a challenge, & these tartlets are an example of that.

My zucchini bread was omitted from the SOS challenge because of the non-vegan ingredients & my first baking attempt with the newly purchased stevia turned out to be a bit of a disaster. So, rather than be dismayed, I decided that I would have a go at making vegan-friendly tartlets. I'd been thinking of making a pie base, as I want to make a lemon meringue pie soon. But that recipe calls for a lot of eggs & butter, not exactly vegan friendly. So, I thought I'd try my hand at making a pie crust that would be admissible for the competition, & try my hand at something that contained no animals ingredients.

I'm happy with the outcome; not too sweet, relying more on the natural sweetness of the fruit, & the pastry coming up a little bit crumbly, but oh so yummy. I used a muffin tin to create the tartlet shapes. These are a good snack-size portion, loaded with healthy fats & protein. I didn't add any stevia or sweetener of any kind to the strawberries. I find that stewing them brings out the natural sweetness in the fruit.

These would be great with some soy cream or nut creams that I've seen a few food blogs indulge in. I hope you enjoy!

I've submitted this to this month's SOS challenge & Slightly Indulgent Tuesday

Strawberry Tartlets (vegan-friendly, sugar-free, gluten-free, wheat-free)

Ingredients:

Tartlets:

100g (2dl) coconut flour

1/4 cup shredded coconut

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

2 tablespoons ground hazelnuts

1g powdered white stevia

2 teaspoons psyllium husk

60mls water

30mls soy milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

pinch salt

pinch nutmeg

Filling:

2 cups strawberries, chopped

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees

2. Melt the coconut oil in a saucepan. In a bowl, sift flour, shredded coconut, ground hazelnuts, psyllium husk, salt, stevia & nutmeg, & stir together with a spoon.

3. Using a beater, mix in the melted coconut oil, soy milk, water & vanilla until mixed well.

4. Grease muffin tin with some coconut oil, & pat the dough into the shapes. Bake for 20 mins.

5. While this is baking, place the chopped strawberries into a saucepan with a splash of water, & simmer on medium heat until most of the liquid has evaporated. Remove from heat & cool.

6. When the tartlet bases are ready, remove from the oven & allow to cool before adding the filling. Place in fridge to set.

Yields 8-10 tartlets

Blunders in the Kitchen

'You can't bake without breaking some eggs' is what H said to console me in my failed baking attempt this evening. It was one of those nights when a balance of things occurs; where one experiment succeeds & another one fails.

Earlier I'd decided that I was going to have a break from cooking today. I live with my boyfriend who works full time, & since I'm currently unemployed, I taken on the household duties as a way to even our work load. I make him lunch each day & cook us dinner, & also tackle the other chores around the house. Very much the traditional gender roles. Not something I plan to do long term, but it's fun to play it out for a while. Today I thought I would give myself a break; there's plenty of food in the fridge that's easy to gather when the hunger hits, so not having anything to eat wasn't a problem. After I got home from drum practice though, I felt the desire hit. Not so much to eat, but to create. So I decided to have another go at zucchini bread that I could this time consume.

My first & last batch contained flax seeds, an ingredient I recently tried to reintroduce into my diet, but discovered I still can't consume it. My stomach just really can't take flax. It continues to induce a massive cramping response in my stomach, & last time I baked this bread, I was on the couch in pain for hours.

So I made a new loaf, sans flax. All was going well at this point. The batter tasted fine, I'd made notes of the ingredients as I went along. It was looking pretty after I sprinkled some pumpkin seeds on top. As I placed the loaf into the oven, I considered remaking the Scandinavian thumbprint cookies for this month's SOS challenge, hosted by Ricki & Kim (the challenge ingredient being coconut oil, which I use in all my cooking, so I'm eager to put a recipe forward for the event). Even though my zucchini loaf contains coconut oil, the original recipe isn't vegan friendly (however it can be easily made so, & I've added these alterations to the recipe below), so I decided that while that was baking I would go on to my cookies. & this is where it all fell downhill.

Zucchini loaf looking pretty & ready for the oven

I had finally purchased some stevia the other day. It's white stevia, & I've never used it before. In Australia I could only find green stevia; this white stevia is 200-300 stronger than sugar, whereas green is 40-50 times stronger. So I placed 3 grams of it into my 130 gram flour mix thinking it would be enough. No, it was too much. Way too much. The taste of the stevia overwhelmed. Not wanting to waste any of my mix, I added more flour, more oil, more coconut milk. Just making a larger batch. I threw out my idea of making thumbprint cookies & just added some strawberries to the mix to give the batter more moisture & to absorb more of the flavour. This worked. I rolled the mix out & cut it up using some cookie cutters, then placed it into the oven after taking the loaf out.

I decided to turn the tray around after about 10 minutes of baking, so everything would bake evenly. I drew out the tray, & one cookie fell through the lower gap of the door. I placed the tray on the open door & grabbed some tongs, trying to retrieve the lost cookie. In a moment of thoughtlessness, I grabbed the door to close it, hoping the cookie would fall through. Forgetting I'd placed the tray of cookies on it. All but 5 fell through the gap, & down into the dirty shelf below. Oh man.

I placed the remaining cookies back into the oven, scalding myself for such a silly move, & gathered the lost cookies. What a waste. I hate waste. Hate it. It's something my mother instilled in me as a child. If you won't eat it now, save it for later. We always had leftovers in the fridge. 'Waste not, want not'. So I was a little disappointed when I had to throw away most of my batch.

To top it off, I've been experiencing die-off effects from all the coconut oil that I used in the cookie mix. As I am want to do while baking, I sample the batter as I go along to make sure that it all tastes right. In an attempt to keep them vegan, I only used coconut oil, no butter. Instead of milk, I used coconut milk. So there was a lot of coconut fat in the batter, which basically means a lot of coconut oil. Too much coconut oil. Coconut oil is used in healing Candida, as it's antibacterial & high in saturated fat, which has been proven to kill Candida overgrowth. But too much of a good thing is a bad thing. My gut isn't happy right now. But at least a lot of bacteria is getting killed off :P

So there you have it. Where one fails, one also succeeds. My bread came out great. H was happy with it. He was even satisfied with one of my failed cookies, saying that the stevia taste wasn't overpowering & it reminded him of licorice root, & that it tastes better than the liquid sweetener I've been using. So that's something. My first attempt with white stevia may not have come out as planned, but it's definitely been a lesson learned. Here's to a more successful attempt later.

But, enough wallowing. Here's my success of the evening: my version of zucchini bread. The taste came out great, it really reminded me of bread. The taste is simple, & therefore open to have any kind of topping added to it. It's moist & thick, & high in protein with good fats (yes, saturated fat is a good fat, despite what we may have been told over the years. A lot of research being conducted is finding its health benefits are much greater than the vegetable oils we've taken to consume, & is debunking former opinions of the detriments of saturated fat). I wanted to create something different from other people's versions of zucchini bread. I can't have dried fruit, & most nuts are out for me, & sometimes it's nice to have a simple bread. I've added some vegan alterations to the recipe, so everyone can give it a go. & I've decided that this will be my submission to this month's SOS challenge!

I hope you enjoy it as much as we are!

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

1dl + 1 tablespoon (115g) coconut flour, sifted

1 tablespoon (15g) psyllium husk

1 tablespoon (15g) ground hazelnuts

1/4 large zucchini, grated

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 mls liquid sweetener/ 20g sugar / ½ml white stevia

25g butter, melted

15g coconut oil, melted

2 eggs

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

45 mls water

1/4 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon bicarb soda

pinch of salt

pinch of nutmeg

pumpkin seeds

(For a vegan alternative, remove the eggs & double the amount of psyllium husk & liquids; replace milk with soy or coconut milk; replace butter with coconut oil)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.

2. Sift coconut flour. Add psyllium husk, ground hazelnuts, cinnamon, bicarb, salt & nutmeg to the same bowl & mix well together.

3. Whisk eggs in a seperate bowl. Add the liquid sweetener (if using stevia, add to the dry mix), vinegar, milk & water & stir together.

4. Add the melted butter & coconut oil to the flour mixture & stir through. Add the rest of the wet ingredients & the grated zucchini, & mix well together. The batter should be sticky but it should hold together well.

5. Line bread tin with baking paper & place the batter in the tin. Top batter with the pumpkin seeds.

6. Bake at 180 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

God Jul!

Ok, so I'm little behind in regards to this post. I meant to share this before Christmas. But as is usually the case at this time of year, things were quite hectic & busy. Plus combined with the fact that it was my first White Christmas, & first Christmas in Sweden, my thoughts weren't exactly on updating my blog.

So the day may have passed, but I still want to share with you what I had for Christmas. Being the only one in my (new) family who is heavily intolerant to a lot of foods, I decided to make myself some sweet Christmas treats, so I wouldn't feel like I was missing out on anything. Here's my spread:

I do wish I had taken more photos, I apologise for that not being the best shot. But you get the idea. I made myself choc-hazelnut truffles, Scandinavian thumbprint cookies, gingerbread cookies, & blueberry raspberry blondies. The gingerbread was my own recipe concoction I've been playing around with for a while (since so many of the spices in gingerbread are so very good in helping to combat Candida). The truffles I made where another bit of guesswork, based on Elana's various truffle recipes; the Scandinavian thumbprint cookies were my alteration of Kelly's recipe, & the blondies were another alteration of a recipe, this time courtesy of Amy

I'll post my altered recipes for each soon, as well as my yummy gingerbread. H was very impressed with my spread (even helping me eat my blondies & thumbprint cookies!). His mum tried my gingerbread & said that it tasted just like pepparkakor, just without the crunchiness the original ones contain (mine are rather soft, as there is no syrup in them to harden them).

Sugar-Free/Gluten-Free/Flour-Free Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients:

½dl (50g) coconut flour

½dl (50g) soy flour (can alternate with other bean flours if soy is not tolerated)

1 tablespoon (15g) psyllium husk

½dl (50 mls) water

½dl (50 mls) milk (for dairy free, use soy/oat/rice/almond/coconut milk)

1 egg

2 teaspoons liquid sweetener (equals 100g sugar)

1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1/4 teaspoon bicarb soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1½ teaspoons dried ground ginger

1 teaspoon cardemom

1 teaspoon ground cloves

2 mls vanilla essence

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of salt

Method:

- Sift the flours into a bowl. Add the rest of the dry ingredients & mix well.

- Melt coconut oil & butter. Whisk egg in another bowl, & add the rest of the wet ingredients. Stir together.

- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients & stir together. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or place the dough into an airtight container & leave it in the fridge overnight.

- Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.

- Roll dough flat with a rolling pin, then cut into cookies using cutters. Place the cookies on a tray covered with baking paper & bake for 15 minutes.

Enjoy! Writing about this now makes me want to go & bake another batch...

Strawberry Mookies

I'm making my first recipe submission! A little exciting & nerve-wracking. I don't know if what I make is really for other people's tastes besides my own, but I'm never gonna know if I don't throw myself out there & take a chance, now am I? I'm going to submit it to Amy's great site Simply Sugar & Gluten Free. I've been following her site for a few months now, & have tried a variety of her recipes, so I'm a little nervous & excited about doing this.

I made these after some experimenting with coconut flour. As I've stated before, coconut flour has opened many doors for me food-wise. Most flours I cannot tolerate, as with most nuts. & I'm not too keen on nut flour only mix in my baked goods. I can't enjoy an indulgence in them, as the fat content lays heavy on my mind (even if they are good fats. I still like to keep this to a healthy limit. & I like to have the 'freedom' to indulge when those whims hit without the mental guilt barrage I put myself through - silly, I know).

I call these 'mookies', as they're about cookie size but oh-so soft & fluffy like muffins, therefore mookies. The light & fluffy consistency is thanks to the coconut flour. & because of this ingredient, these are also high in fibre & oh-so nutritious. Sweet, healthy, tasty food is fun :)

Again, this is a small serving recipe, as I tend to bake for myself. H doesn't have a sweet tooth like I do, & I figure having a small amount to indulge in is better than too much. Feel free to double the ingredient amounts as needed. As for sweetners, I use liquid sweetener. Stevia in Sweden is hard to come by, where I am located, anyway. I'm still on the lookout, & will use it once I find it (I was using it in Australia). But until then, I use a liquid sweetener that I buy at the supermarket here.

Strawberry 'Mookies'

65g coconut flour

15g psyllium husk

1 egg

15 mls water

50 mls milk

50 mls coconut milk

30g coconut oil, melted

5-6 strawberries, chopped

2t cinnamon

2mls vanilla essence

70mls liquid sweetner or 70g sugar/sweetner

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of salt

Method:

Preheat oven at 180 degrees celcius.

In one bowl, sift the coconut flour & mix together the psyllium husk. Add the rest of the dry ingredients, & stir well together.

In another bowl, whisk the egg. Add milk, water, coconut milk & oil, sweetener & vanilla essence & mix well. Add this to the dry ingredients, & stir to get a moist, sticky batter. Add more milk or water if needed. Add the chopped strawberries & stir into the mix.

Spoon into mini muffin tins, or roll into small cookies. Bake for 25-30 mins.

Cool & serve. Can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Yields about 10 'mookies'.

Enjoy! Feel free to tweak the recipe as needed. You could use different berries instead of strawberries, & you could replace the coconut oil with butter (& add more to your liking). These came out soft & moist for me. I ate some with a dollop of creme fraiche on top. Yums!

Coconut Flour, You Are My Hero

My new food hero is coconut flour. So much so that I renamed this blog in honour of this miraculous food (to me, anyway).

I recently ordered some off a Swedish website, as I haven't found it in any of the stores here in the city where I live (I live in the mid-north region of Sweden. If I was in Stockholm, I'm sure I wouldn't have had any issues finding it. Alas, was not the case here where I live).

I'd had coconut flour previously in Australia, but it still stirred a reaction in me. My stomach would bloat a little, & so I would only use it very sparingly. But I've had nothing but luck so far with the 1kg bag I've bought now, so I suspect that the flour I bought in Australia was sweetened, as this is not.

Oh boy, a whole new world of food adventures has now opened for me. I had pancakes for dinner the other night with the boy. I can't remember the last time I had pancakes! They fluffed up nicely, even The Boy said that he found them good. I was very pleased by this!

The following night, I decided to do a test batch of some cookies I was thinking of making. I'd been reading up a lot on coconut flour, trying to find conversions or liquid to flour ratio recommendations. Most reliable information said to just experiment. Coconut flour absorbs a lot of fluid due to its high fibre content, so I saw that a lot of eggs are commonly used in baking with coconut flour.

So I attempted a small batch using the flour, an egg, some psyllium husk, coconut oil, sweetener plus some spices (always throwing cinnamon into the mix - love that spice!), salt & a bit of milk to test consistency & baking times. A friend of The Boy's came over during my baking session, & tasted some of my trials. He wanted more! I couldn't be more than happy with that. If people who can eat wheat & sugar try my baked goods & enjoy it, that's definitely a good sign!

So much experimentation is in order with this flour. I can now try to make things that have been a memory of the past for so long now: cake, pizza, bread, crackers. Let's see how this goes