Paleo Pound Cake

Let me start this by saying it does taste quite a bit like coconut so if you don't like it, you're probably not going to like this. I, however, LOVE coconut so I got to eat it all because Gary doesn't. :D

You're going to need:
6 eggs
1 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup honey
2 tsp vanilla extract (use the real stuff people!)
1 tsp. orange extract *
1 cup coconut flour  **
1/4 tsp baking SODA (not POWDER)
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp sea salt
coconut oil for the pan

Start by preheating your oven to 350F (176C).

Grease your loaf pan very thoroughly. The recipe also says lightly flour, which I didn't do and didn't have any problems but I use the Pampered Chef stoneware loaf pan so I really don't need to. Just use a little coconut flour and you'll be good.

IF you have a food processor I'd recommend using it for this recipe. I use it for all my Paleo breads because it just gets the batter nice and smooth and you don't have to worry about lumps of anything in your bread.

Beat the eggs until they are smooth. Add in the remaining liquid ingredients (coconut milk, honey, vanilla extract and orange extract) and mix it up.

Add in the dry ingredients (coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon, sea salt) and mix until smooth. The recipe says to sift the coconut flour but I didn't and never do in my recipes and it turned out just fine.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. The recipe says 45 minutes but mine took close to an hour. Start checking it about 45 minutes in using the toothpick test.

Try and wait until it's cooled down a bit before diving in, believe it or not it comes out of the oven hot and even someone who's had a skin graft and should be skittish of hot things didn't wait and burnt her tongue.. idiot right?

* I didn't use orange extract. I don't have any on hand and didn't feel like going to the store. 

** The recipe says "or flour of choice" but I wouldn't recommend swapping out flours unless you know the exact conversions. For example, if you're using almond flour you need to use LOTS LOTS LOTS more (I don't know the exact conversions and I'm not going to pretend that I do). Coconut flour to almond flour does not measure equally. Just stick with the coconut flour. It's lighter, fluffier and tastes amazing. :D

Paleo (gluten free) Bread!

So, now that we can't eat your typical "buy from the grocery store" bread, I've been on the hunt for good bread recipes that I can keep on hand for my bread fiend.
I tried one 2 weeks ago, and while it was good, it was very, very dense/heavy. I had to drown it in honey and one tiny slice had me full for hours. It was HEAVY!
I was doing some hunting a last week for a new one to try and I came across this one and I feel really bad but I don't remember where I found it so I can't give credit. I also made a few changes for lack of ingredients.

You're going to need:
1 3/4 cups almond flour
2 Tbs coconut flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp baking SODA (not POWDER)
5 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 Tbs honey
1 Tbs apple cider vinegar

The best way to do this is with a food processor. The bread I made last week I hand mixed and it was kinda lumpy. The food processor got this as smooth as pancake batter and I think that made a difference.

Put the almond flour, coconut flour, salt and baking soda in the processor. Pulse it a few times to mix it all up.
Put in the eggs, oil, honey and vinegar and pulse it a few times to get it all nice and smooth.
Pour the batter into a loaf pan (about 7.5 x 3.5). You can grease it if you'd like. I use my Pampered Chef stoneware so I don't need to.
Bake at 350F  (176C) for 30 minutes. A knife should come out clean if you stick it into the bread.

I waited until the morning after to post this so I could know if it tastes as good the day after and it DOES. It doesn't harden up at all. I wouldn't hold on to it more than 2 days, but as tasty as it is, it probably won't last a whole day. ;)

Sweet Potato Brownies - Gary Approved

I'm now always on the hunt for new recipes that didn't fall out of a Paleo Cookbook. Don't get me wrong, I like my cookbooks but sometimes I want something REAL... something real live people have tried and not something come up with in some random kitchen somewhere. I found Juli at PaleOMG and I'm in love.
So far we've tried about 6 of her "dinners" and one or two veggie sides and everything has been a hit.
You know what's funny though? As much as I didn't have a sweet tooth before we started Paleo, I find myself DYING to just jump into a pool of Cadbury chocolate.. and I mean the good, straight from the UK, Cadbury chocolate. Fruit is all good for a snack here and there but when I'm wanting sweet foods I WANT SWEET FOODS...

So, I pulled out the handy dandy netbook and started surfing her site. Some of the recipes that I really want to try call for some ingredients I'd have to order online and they happen to be back ordered right now. This recipe happened to need everything that I had on hand so I said "what the heck" and started making a mess.

BUT FIRST I HAVE TO KILL THE HUGE SPIDER THAT JUST RAN ACROSS THE FLOOR AND GARY IS OUT RUNNING AND CANT KILL IT SO I'LL JUST SMOOSH IT WITH MY SHOE AND LEAVE THE BODY FOR HIM TO CLEAN UP...

I HATE spiders.

So, back to the brownies.
You're going to need:
1 sweet potato (I used a white one)
3 eggs, whisked
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup raw honey
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
3 tablespoons coconut flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder (NOT BAKING SODA!)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt

Start by baking the sweet potato. 425F (218C) for about 30 minutes. You could probably nuke it but I find that the microwave turns potatoes all rubbery and I'm not sure it does the same for sweet potatoes. Either way, I cook them in the oven because I love heating the house up when it's 105 outside. Don't you? IT TASTES BETTER!
So, your potato is done cooking. Turn the oven down to 350F (176C). Let the potato cool down a few minutes or use a hot mitt. Pull the skin off and put it in a bowl and mash it. I found it easiest to use the back of a big spoon. It kinda clumps a little and you don't want it all clumped up in your batter or you're going to have huge chunks of sweet potato in your brownies.
Start mixing up your wet ingredients: eggs, coconut oil, honey and vanilla.
Add in the dry ingredients: coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, cinnamon (which, by the way, I didn't use. I'm not a HUGE fan unless it's on specific things and Gary doesn't like it at all), salt and then fold in the chocolate chips.
Again, make sure it's all mixed up well and pour it into an 8x8 baking dish to bake for 30 to 35 minutes. She didn't say to "grease the pan" but I dropped some olive oil in it and spread it around with a napkin to soak up the extra bit. I hate when brownies stick in the pan, like I literally want to scream. I didn't have a problem getting the brownies out at all.  I also didn't waste anytime trying them and really had to TRY hard to not eat them all.

If you don't like these then you have no soul. Period.

Irish Soda Bread

You'd think, being married to an Irishman, I'd make this bread more but I really don't, and the last time I did he left half of it un-eaten. I made some today. It better be gone by Monday!!!

First off make this bread at least 5 hours before you'll actually need it. This is not a 'serve warm or hot' bread.

You're going to need:
3 cups all -purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups buttermilk ***
1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 325 F (165 C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and baking soda. Blend the egg and buttermilk together separately then add all at once to the flour mixture. Mix until just moistened. Stir in the melted butter. Pour into the greased pan.

Bake for 65 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean blah blah blah. Cool for about 5 minutes on a wire rack. Wrap the bread loaf in foil for several hours UP TO overnight for the best flavor.

*** if you do not have buttermilk you can make your own with some milk and white vinegar. 4.5 teaspoons per cup of milk.

Enjoy!!!

Key Lime Pie

I'm preemptively posting this because ours is still in the freezer but the mix tasted good and the whipped cream turned out perfect so I'm just assuming it's going to be perfect. (CROSS FINGERS!)

You're going to need:
1 cup of graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons white sugar
5 tablespoons of melted butter
(The above if is you want to make your own crust - I cheated.. nuff said)
3 eggs
1/2 Key Lime juice. (NOT regular limes, little key limes)
1 (14oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch cream of tartar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 regular lime sliced for garnishing.

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 F (165 C). Mix graham cracker crumbs with sugar and melted butter. Press into 9 inch pie plate and bank for 5 minutes. Let cool.

Separate 2 of the eggs, placing the 2 egg whites into a mixing bowl and the yolks in another mixing bowl.

To the yolks, add 1 whole egg, the lime juice and sweetened condensed milk. Whisk until smooth. In the other bowl with clean blades or whisk beat the egg whites with salt and cream of tartar until stiff but not dry. Fold the whites into the filling mixture. Pour filling into the pie crust.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 10 to 15 minutes (Just watch it get a little yellow). Let cool at room temperature and then pop it in the freezer for 4 hours (to overnight) but in our case we set the alarm to go off at exactly 4 hours so we could smother it in whipped cream and eat it.

Oh yeah, the whipped cream. Put the cup of heavy whipping cream into a bowl and just beat the crap out of it until it forms little peaks. This recipe calls for 1 cup but we're fond of whipped cream so I just used the whole container (got a small one, not a large one).

EAT!

BEWARE OF GREEN KEY LIME PIE! Key Lime pie should never, ever, ever, ever be green. It should always be a yellowy color. If it's green it means they did NOT use Key Limes or they added a crap load of food coloring. And now you know. :D

Gummie's Brownies

<----- ready to pop into the oven!


Do not misread that title. These are not "gummy brownies". Gummie is what me and my siblings called my maternal grandmother for as long as I can remember. I'm not sure if it's just something that stuck because one of us couldn't say grandma or if she named herself that. Either way, these brownies can also be referred to as "little chocolate bites of heaven".


You are going to need:
4 eggs
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of butter (TWO STICKS)
4 squares of unsweetened chocolate (this comes in bar form. Usually individually wrapped squares)
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1 cup of flour
2 cups of miniature marshmallows

Directions:
1. Beat the eggs until they are thick and lemon yellow.

2. Melt the butter and all of the chocolate. You can do this over the stove or in the microwave. I used the microwave. I did it for 5.5 minutes on 40% then I stirred it up and did it again for another 3.5 minutes on 40%.

3. While the chocolate is melting, add sugar to the eggs gradually. Continue to beat and add in the vanilla.

4. Mix the chocolate/butter mixture into the bowl with the eggs and mix together.

5. Fold in the flour and then stir in the marshmallows.

6. Bake in a greased pan (I used a 9x13) for about 30 minutes at 350. (My sister said DO NOT OVER COOK - so I'm not!)

She also said to let this sit as long as humanly possible to actually LET chocolate sit around uneaten before cutting and serving. They DO taste better then next day to be honest. which is unfortunate because they are baking right now and the smell is driving me CUHRAZY! I WANT TO EAT THEM NOW RAWR!

These brownies do have a copyright. You may NOT alter this recipe in any way and still call them Gummie's Brownies. If you do make these brownies you must pay tribute to me by making me a batch and sending them to me. Period!