Coconut flour yellow cake - great for birthday cakes! Gluten and grain free.

My husband's birthday was several weeks ago and one dessert item he's had a hankering for is good old fashion yellow birthday cake. The only problem is our son can't have wheat, so that nixes the majority of recipes out there. I know that I could have used a gluten-free flour to make a close substitute, but to be honest I'm not a huge fan of the GF flours on the market. They are often filled with ingredients that I'd prefer to avoid in our diet. So, instead I made a very delicious version using coconut flour.

I've messed with this recipe over the last year on and off again, playing around with different ingredients. This time because I wanted to provide something more similar to a traditional birthday cake I went with more traditional ingredients, like organic white sugar instead of honey and butter instead of coconut oil. I have shared a coconut flour chocolate cake recipe we use all the time. You can get away with a different variety of ingredients with chocolate cake, because the chocolate masks some of the flavors, but with a white cake a flavor like honey or coconut oil will be much more pronounced.

Real Food Christmas Basket: Chocolate Almond Butter Popcorn w/ Coconut Flakes (soy free) & How to Make an Origami Box to Put it in for a Gift

I originally found the idea for this recipe on Browned Eyed Baker last winter. The first time I made it I did it just as the original recipe called and it was great, it's essentially puppy chow with popcorn. However, in the end I wanted to make my version a little more real food friendly. This turned out easier to do than I thought and what's great is you don't need pre-made chocolate, which almost always has soy lecithin in it, an ingredient that's best to be avoided if possible.

This isn't overly sweet, but instead just sweet enough and perfect for satisfying a desire for a desert or a fun snack. The kiddos love it too! My son told me today as he was eating a handful of the popcorn, "Mom, this is delicious!"  That's what this momma likes to hear in the kitchen! Of course, can you really go too wrong with chocolate, almond and coconut with a bit of crunch? Umm, I think not. :-)

 Chocolate Almond Butter Popcorn w/ Coconut Flakes

What You'll Need

~ 10 cups 

1/2 cup organic, unsalted butter

7 tbsp. rapadura or other sugar

2 tbsp. organic, whole milk

5 tbsp. organic cocoa powder

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup organic almond butter

8 cups plain, organic popcorn

2 cups non-sweetened coconut flakes

Creamy Turkey Wild Rice Soup - Gluten Free

Sunday afternoon I prepared our 15lb turkey I had just bought the day before from a local farmer at the farmers market. I buy a turkey every year, no matter if we are celebrating Thanksgiving at home or not. That's because this is the only time of year I can buy my free-range, organic, heirloom turkey from the farmer who provides us with the majority of our meat. I have been buying our meat from Farm On Wheels for probably 5 years now, and continue to love what they have to offer. Their beef is from grass-fed cows, their chickens really do run outside and get to eat worms and other grub and are never fed soy, plus they have pork, goose and duck to choose from too. If you live in the Twin Cities area you can check out Farm On Wheels at the year-round St. Paul Farmers market.

We are heading to four families' home this year, so I won't need our turkey. Normally I'd freeze the beautiful bird, but it looked like it was going to taste so good that we decided to go ahead and make it and freeze the cooked meat instead of the whole uncooked bird. I used an adaption of an Alton Brown recipe on Food Network,  which turned out excellent. I did change the brine just a bit and lowered my cooking temperature for the second part to 325°F, taking into consideration that this heirloom bread of turkey was going to be leaner than the standard turkeys at the grocery store.

It only made natural sense to go ahead and make my family's favorite soup on Monday night. With snow on the ground and the 50 degree days gone for the moment, a warm bowl of soup was perfect for a healthy, filling dinner. I have about 12 more pounds of cooked turkey now in my deep freeze and I think I can safely say that this soup will be gracing our evening table quite a bit this winter.

 Note on the lemon juice and arrowroot in this recipe.

In this soup I add, when I have it, the juice of one lemon. This makes the soup a little brighter which can be a nice contrast to the cream. Normally lemon will make milk curdle, but I haven't had a problem with that in this soup. I also use arrowroot for the thickener, instead of flour. If you wanted to add flour instead you can, but you would want to do it differently. How I'd add flour is by making a roux. First melt 4 tbsp. of butter in a small frying pan. Add 1/4 cup flour (or up to 1/2 cup if you want a very thick soup, although you may want to add more butter) and cook the flour and butter for a couple of minutes over medium heat stirring constantly. You don't want the butter/flour to brown at all. You want to be getting rid of the raw flour taste. Then thin the roux with a couple tablespoons of broth from your soup. Add it to the soup at the same time you'd add the arrowroot. Arrowroot has a very different nature than flour. You want to be careful to not overcook it or it will actually lose its thickening capability. It adds very little flavor and no color, even though it's white. I don't make this soup extremely thick and creamy. If you like a really creamy soup, double the arrowroot and water.

Sweet Potato Roulade - perfect for brunch or as a special treat with dinner (grain free)

 

Once in awhile you need something special and elegant to accompany your dinner and a roulade is an easy way to accomplish this. They aren't overly difficult to make, yet looked nice and taste great. They can easily be made ahead of time and can also travel well.

This roulade recipe comes from the cookbook The Best-Ever Vegetarian Cookbook by Nicola Graimes. It's slightly sweet from the sweet potato and the allspice berries add a wonderful extra flavor. We enjoyed this so much with dinner last night we practically ate the whole thing. Even my 12 month old daughter and 3 year old son each had two slices.

Ricciarelli or Almond Macaroons - Grain Free

I don't know about you, but I have numerous cookbooks where I tried several recipes from them and either wasn't impressed or completed disappointed. This summer I decided to do away with those less than satisfactory cookbooks and into the trash they went. Now I have my favorites left and at the top of that list is my cookbooks from Nigella Lawson. I've made dozens of her recipes and have had great success with almost all of them. There has been one or two recipes along the way that I didn't love quite as much as others, but that was more personal preference than it was the fault of a poor written or simply bad recipe.  I know I can pick up one of her cookbooks find a recipe that sounds/looks good and it will turn out, which equals a good cookbook to me. Well, these little superb Ricciarelli or Almond Macaroons from Nigella's How To Be a Domestic Goddess, didn't let me down!

Chocolate Coconut Flour Cake Sweetened w/ Honey

I was in a bit of a whimsical mood on this cake making day and Valentines day was on my mind. Out came the heart shaped cookie cutter and I had fun making some bite size pieces of cake.

This is one of those cakes I've been trying to master for a while. Frankly, I've been trying to figure out the best ways to use coconut flour in general. There has been a whole lot of trial and error and a whole lot more failure than successes, but that's how it goes sometimes. I happen to like challenges and I've been determined to come up with a chocolate coconut flour cake that can hold it's own next to one of those typical white flour cakes. Method is key to making this cake as it will make a drastic difference in how light the cake will turn out.


If you've never used coconut flour, I'd highly recommend trying it out. I purchase mine,  from Tropical Traditions. Actually I'm not sure who else even sells it.

When I originally started making this cake I was working with enough ingredients for only one layer. However, in this last attempt I split the batter in half between two pans and was very pleased with how it turned out. I haven't tried to put all the batter in one pan as of yet. It would likely work fine, I just question whether the cake might loose some of it's volume. The cake layers are not overly tall, so if you want a more typical cake with some height I'd recommend doubling this recipe and making 4 layers.

This is a dark and rich cake, but not overly sweet (that tends to be my style for baked goods), if you really prefer a sweet cake you could increase the honey by an additional 1/4 cup. For an icing, forgo the classic butter and powdered sugar frosting for a deliciously thick, homemade vanilla whip cream. It's the perfect companion.  For the pictures in this post, I baked the cake in two 8"x8" square pans. An 8" round would work too, but if you do a 9" round you'll probably want to check the cake after it has baked for about 20 minutes.

Coconut Flour Pancakes

 I told myself I would share more coconut flour recipes this coming year. One reason is because so many people are suffering from gluten issues (coconut flour is gluten and grain free) and I also feel that it's good to have diversity in the diet, so not always relying on wheat or wheat related grains for all baking purposes. There's also the fact that I have a ton of coconut flour on hand and want to find some excellent uses for it.  My family has some gluten sensitivities. We are blessed that they aren't extreme, but I do like finding ways to cut down our gluten intake whenever I can. 

For my first coconut flour recipe, I'm actually sharing a recipe from one of my favorite blogs Nourishing Days. If you aren't familiar with Shannon's site, please check it out. You'll love everything she has to share, from wonderful recipes (which are often gluten free friendly) and fabulous nutrition info., to great giveaways.

By the way, have no hesitancy about trying these pancakes, thinking there's no way they could be as good as those fluffy white flour ones. You would be missing out. These coconut flour pancakes are wonderful. They're nice and fluffy, just like regular ones, plus they have a higher protein content, so they tend to stick to the ribs a bit more. 

What You'll Need

serves ~4

4 eggs, room temperature

1 cup milk - cows milk or coconut milk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon honey or a pinch of stevia

1/2 cup coconut flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt

coconut oil or butter for frying

How You'll Do It

1. Beat your eggs for about two minutes, until they are light and frothy. Then mix in milk, vanilla and honey or stevia. 

2. In a second bowl combine coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Don't be surprised by the thinness of the batter at first. The coconut flour will thicken tremendously within a minute or two. 

3. Melt coconut oil or butter in skillet over medium-low heat. Use a couple tablespoon of batter for each pancake. Pancakes should be no larger than 2"-3" in diameter. Cook on first side until the top begins to firm and the bottom has browned and then flip. I think these pancakes cook a little slower than regular ones, so don't rush them.

Serve hot with butter and pure maple syrup! 

Enjoy!

Coconut Flour Pizza Crust

With my last post I mentioned that I tried two new gluten and grain free pizza recipes. Here's number two. This one takes advantage of coconut flour. Are you familiar with this great flour? It's much higher in fiber than traditional flour with gluten and it "contains over 19% non-gluten protein." If you have grain issues this may be a great alternative flour for you. I use Tropical Traditions coconut flour. I also usually buy my organic coconut oil from them too. Their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil has wonderful flavor and is excellent for cooking and baking with.

This gluten free pizza crust cooks up very similarly to a regular wheat/white flour crust, which is surprising when you look at the list of ingredients and see only 2 tbsp. of flour in it. The main difference in my opinion is it doesn't get quite as crispy as a traditional pizza crust and it will absorb some of  the pizza sauce you put on it.  It reheats very well or in our house we've been eating leftovers cold because of it being so hot out. Either way it tastes great! This recipe is from Tropical Traditions, they also have a video demonstration of how to make it, you can check it out here: http://www.freecoconutrecipes.com/recipe_Gluten-Free_Pizza_Crust.htm


What You'll Need: for 1 small to medium pizza, serves 2-3
For the crust

• 2 cups organic, whole milk mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 2 large organic eggs
• 2 tablespoons flax meal
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder 

For the pizza sauce  - This is the same sauce I used for the recipe I posted Tuesday.

• 15 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 small onion diced
• Olive oil
• Oregano - around a 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. 
• 3 cloves garlic smashed and chopped
• 1+ tbsp. sugar - optional
• Sea salt

For the topping 

• 3/4 - 1lb shredded, whole milk mozzarella
• ~1lb sweet Italian sausage
• Dried oregano to sprinkle on top of the pizza

Getting Started:
For the crust
1.  First preheat your oven to 350º, then put all of your crust ingredients into a medium size bowl and mix until you have a sticky dough. It works well to start by mixing with a spoon and then your hands. A small note, I didn't have flax meal on hand when I made this recipe, so instead I used an extra 2 tbsp. of coconut flour and it worked great.

2. Spread or roll the dough out on a parchment lined cookie sheet to about 1/4" thick. 

3. Bake in your preheated 350º oven for 15 minutes, then pull the crust from the oven and flip it to it's other side. You can either use a spatula to do this or pick-up the parchment paper and flip the crust onto another piece of parchment.

4. Put crust back into the oven and bake for another 15 minutes. 

5. Pull the crust from the oven and allow to cool before putting your toppings on it. This only takes about 15 min. or so. 

For the Sauce:
1. To make your pizza sauce, first cook your onion until softened in a little bit of olive oil in a medium pot.

2. Add your crushed tomatoes, chopped garlic, oregano (start with 1/4 tsp. and add more later if it needs it, sorry I never measure and just go my taste) and a pinch of sea salt. Simmer for 15+ minutes, occasionally stirring.

3. Blend your sauce with a submersion blender until smooth, then do a taste test. Add more oregano, salt and/or a bit of sugar if it needs it.  I use sugar if my tomatoes don't have any sweetness. I think it adds a nice bit of extra flavor to a pizza sauce, but by no means do you need it. After adding extra seasoning, allow to simmer for an additional 5 - 10 minutes, then set aside

For the toppings
1.  Slice, or form into small chunks, your Italian sausage and cook it in a medium size pan. The pizza will only be placed under a broiler for a couple of minutes once assembled and not baked, so cook your sausage a step further then just simply browning it. Once it's done, drain any extra fat off of it by placing the sausage on some paper towel.

2. Spread your pizza sauce on your crust and then top with your toppings. I always like to sprinkle a little dried oregano on the pizza once it's assembled, makes the pizza just that much more tasty! 

3. Place pizza (on a cookie sheet of course) under your oven's broiler until cheese has melted. This won't take long so don't get distracted and forget it's in there. I"m terrible about forgetting things under the broiler, it's one of those mistakes that happens when I try to multitask in the kitchen! :-)

Serve the pizza immediately. Enjoy!!!