Paleo Chocolate Swirl Banana Cake

My husband's grandmother just celebrated her 89th birthday, so we decided to have a special celebration at our house with the kiddos.  It's not everyday you turn 89!  So we wanted to have a little cake and sing to make it extra special.

This recipe is wonderful to make with little helpers.  Lots of opportunities for measuring, stirring and mixing.

I also added a super easy glaze which I will detail below.  Since I will not be eating this cake I used milk to make the glaze, but you could just as easily use almond or coconut milk for a dairy free glaze.

With a few candles you've got a lovely cake!

Paleo Chocolate Swirl Banana Cake
3 cups almond flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
3 bananas, mashed
2 tbs oil, whatever oil you prefer to bake with (examples would be walnut, coconut, even olive)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (ACV)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Swirl (optional)
1 tbs cocoa powder
splash vanilla extract
1 tbs maply syrup
1/2 tbs oil
splash of your preferred milk, if needed

Glaze (optional and not paleo)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
splash vanilla or maple extract
couple tablespoons milk of choice, starting with just one, and add more until reaching desired consistency

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350.  I prefer to line a 9" square pan with parchment, but grease yours if you don't like or don't have parchment.

Mash your bananas and mix in your eggs, oil, syrup, ACV, and extract.  In a separate bowl, mix your almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, and then add wet to dry and incorporate.

Pour your batter into your baking pan.  In a small bowl, mix up your chocolate swirl.  Pour it over top of the batter, and with a sharp knife or toothpick, swirl the chocolate mixture around until it's well distributed.  I had some additional leftover that I just drizzled on the top.  Bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out cleanly- start checking at 20 min.

When the cake has cooled you can pour your glaze on top, and use the back of a spoon to distribute.

While this cake is grain and dairy free, it does have almond flour so is certainly not suitable for those with nut allergies.  There are scores of coconut flour banana bread recipes available however.  I have one on this blog, but it uses sugar-free sweeteners, which I no longer use or approve of.  It would be easy enough to sub out the SF sweetener for maple syrup or whatever, but I would rather put up a new recipe than link to that one.

When it comes to baking, at this point my personal stance is that there are really no baked-goods that I should be eating, as I no longer eat artificially sweetened things, and cannot really tolerate the carbs or sugar anyways.  Whatever I bake is going to be for friends and family, and I want to be sure everything I use is natural, free of pesticides or chemicals, and as healthful as possible.

Grain-Free, Gluten-Free, Sugar Free Delectable Chocolate Cake

For anyone out there who got scared away by my crazy dark chocolate gingerbread cake this recipe is the perfect chocolatey cake recipe for you.  No funky flavors going on here, and best of all, absolutely no sugar.  This cake is sweetened with Chocolate Stevia drops only.  The particular brand I used is NOW but from what I have heard, NuNaturals Cocoa Stevia is the best by far, or SweetLeaf Chocolate drops.  This makes a small 8x8 cake and is not very thick.  Double the recipe for a layer cake or for a larger pan.  You could decorate it any way you like, I chose to glaze mine simply with 2 ounces of melted sugar free dark chocolate and about a tbsp of coconut oil.  This is very simple to make, but it does require you hang onto your leftover coffee from the morning!  Use decaf if you prefer.

Dark Chocolate Cake, Grain, Gluten, and Sugar Free
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
4 room temp eggs
1/4 butter
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
2 tbsp milk of choice
1 tsp instant coffee granules
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
50 drops chocolate stevia
3/4 cup coffee

Mix your coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together in a large mixing bowl with a fork or whisk to break up any lumps.  In a small microwaveable bowl, place your unsweetened chocolate, 1/4 cup butter, and 2 tbsp milk of choice.  Melt chocolate, in 10 second increments to prevent burning.  When chocolate is melted, dissolve your instant coffee granules.  You can totally omit this, or purchase coffee extract instead.  While the chocolate cools off a bit, mix your room temp eggs with vanilla extract, stevia drops, and coffee.  Combine with chocolate and mix well.  At this point, I suggest that if sugar does not bother you, you add in 1 1/2 tbsp of molasses, just for a deeper, richer, more decadent flavor.  It is absolutely not necessary and you won't taste it, it will simply give the cake a more round flavor.

Mix wet into dry and pour into greased and lined 8x8.  Bake at 330 for 15-20 minutes, checking at 13 minutes or so.  You want a knife or toothpick to come out NOT QUITE clean.

To glaze, melt sugar free chocolate in the microwave with some coconut oil.  Add some more coffee granules or coffee extract to really bring out the chocolatey flavors.

This is a simple cake.  Nothing crazy going on here.  Despite all the coffee going on in here, it is not a mocha cake.  The coffee is not detectable, and neither is the cinnamon.  They just all work together for a harmonious blend of flavors.  The chocolate stevia drops work very well and I suspect NuNaturals cocoa drops would be even better!!  I couldn't find any in store and really wanted to buy some asap, so went with NOW.  I was able to purchase the two other most-oft cited stevia products, SweetLeaf English Toffee and NuNaturals Alcohol Free Liquid Stevia.  I purchased both of these products because they are alcohol free, as many reviewers had said the products with alcohol tasted off.  The one product I have yet to purchase is NuNaturals Alcohol Free Vanilla Stevia.  For now, english toffee will have to do.  Does anyone have any stevia recommendations for me?  Please let me know what you are using!

I hope you enjoy this cake!  Definitely try this out at the lower temperature!

Happy holidays to all, and a happy healthy New Year to you and yours!  Much love, XoXo GFG

Grain Free, Gluten Free Spicy Dark Chocolate Gingerbread Cake

This cake is not playing around peeps.  This is some serious spicy ass cake.  If you are not into bold flavors, have a weak palate, or don't enjoy getting a little freaky with your ingredients from time to time, then move on!  This cake is cray cray.

I wanted a deep, dark chocolate cake, but I also wanted a super spicy gingerbread.  Every gingerbread recipe I've made thus far has not been nearly spicy enough.  Every recipe calls for like, a measly 2 tsp of ground ginger.  Sorry, that is not going to cut it!  Certainly not when you've also got 100% dark chocolate to contend with.  If you are an adventurous eater and enjoy teasing your palate, try this crazy cake.

Grain Free Gluten Free Spicy Dark Chocolate Gingerbread Cake
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp instant coffee
5 eggs, room temp
1/2 cup unsulphured molasses
1/4 cup butter
1 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 tbsp milk of choice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup neutral liquid sweetener of choice

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a large mixing bowl, using a fork or whisk to break up lumps.  In a separate, microwave safe bowl, microwave your unsweetened chocolate, butter, and milk of choice, until chocolate is melted.  Stir in instant coffee. Let cool and then mix with your room temp eggs, molasses, vanilla extract, and additional quarter cup of sweetener.  Add wet to dry and incorporate.  I fully encourage tasting of the batter at this point.  Add more spices if desired and stir well.  Pour into parchment lined and greased 8x8 pan and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.  Start testing at 15 minutes because you do not want to overbake.  When a toothpick comes out almost clean, remove from oven.

If you like, frost with a quick chocolate glaze.  All I did was melt a bar of 90% dark chocolate with some coconut oil, and whipped for a minute or so until thickened.

A note about the pumpkin pie spice- it's a really great spice mix to have around as it already has all the spices necessary for gingerbread- cloves, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and allspice.  It's a wonderful shortcut.  Using it in this recipe allows me to get the right flavor combo, but then bump up the ginger and cinnamon as desired, without the whole recipe getting overpoweringly clove-y or nutmeg-y or allspice-y.

Regarding the additional sweetener, a SF sweetener will work of course, as will many other liquid sweeteners.  A mild honey, coconut nectar, date syrup, brown rice syrup, probably even maple.  If you use stevia powder or drops, you'll need to add enough liquid to cover the 1/4 cup called for.

This would make a fantastic Christmas dessert, and if you don't want to make frosting, a sprinkling of powdered sugar would be great.  I have seen a  zillion recipes for sugar free powdered sugar, most just calling for pulverized xylitol or erythritol in the high powered blender or food processor.

Cashew Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt

Cashew Butter.  The best f*cking thing known to man.  I may never bake a cookie with anything else.  So delicious, such a buttery, but mild flavor, so smooth, no weird almond-skin taste going on, subtly sweet.  I could go on and on.  It's crazy good stuff.  Dangerous to have in the house if you ask me.

Every blogger out there and their mama has an almond butter cookie recipe.  Don't get me wrong, I like a good almond butter cookie.  But they just have this distinct flavor that bugs me and after a couple bites I am just totally meh about the whole thing, and then I've used up all that good almond butter that could otherwise have been used on celery sticks or GF toast for S.  But cashew butter?  YUMMMM.  I wonder if they made almond butter with blanched almonds if I'd like it better.  Probably.  Those darn skins are just so icky!  And filled with phytic acid as well I might add.

Ok, enough rambling.  Make these cookies.  The ingredients are so darn simple.  And go buy some cashew butter.  Not into cashews?  Try pecan butter.  But branch out of the standard peanut and almond variety and you'll see what you've been missing!

Paleo Cashew Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt
1 cup cashew butter
1  egg
1/3 cup liquid sweetener (I used SF sweetener but feel free to use honey, maple syrup, coconut nectar, etc)
2/3 cup chocolate chips
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
sea salt for sprinkling

Mix all your ingredients in a bowl.  Easy peasy.  Spoon onto parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt, (DO NOT SKIP THE SEA SALT PEEPS!) and bake at 350 until the bottoms are beginning to turn golden.  Don't ask me how long this takes because my oven is from Mars.  A normal oven, probably 15 minutes.  This made 16 cookies.  I wish it was twice that.  They are so good!

Happy eating GFGs!

Awesome Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I wanted to make a basic chocolate chip cookie, with some extra squash for good measure, but not necessarily the pumpkin flavors.  These turned out really good, you wouldn't even know there was pumpkin in them except for the slightly orangey color.  I will say, although this is a great recipe if you have an egg allergy or are doing AI protocol, they are quite crumbly without egg or some kind of egg replacer.  If I made these again I'd probably throw in two eggs (or maybe just the yolks) and reduce the butter to a third of a cup.  The chocolate chip recipe takes about three seconds and you can keep what you don't use in the freezer for another time!

Based on Frisky Lemon's recipe here.

Grain, Gluten, Sugar, and Egg Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup liquid sweetener
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sugar free chocolate chips, recipe below

Combine coconut flour, baking powder, and salt and mix well with a fork to get out any lumps.  In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, melted butter, sweetener, and extract.  Pour wet into dry and mix well.  Add your SF chocolate chips and spoon onto parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350 until the tops are starting to turn golden.  This made 14 very generously sized cookies.

Sugar Free Chocolate Chips
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup liquified coconut oil
3 packets stevia (i used pure via)
1 tsp instant decaf coffee

Mix everything together well and pour into a flat plastic tupperware container, and freeze.  These taste great baked in things, but I probably wouldn't eat them all by themselves (which is probably a good thing right?) because the stevia after taste is definitely noticeable.  There are many other recipes out there for SF homemade chocolate, calling for powdered erythritol, xylitol, etc, but I didn't want to mess with them.  These are just fine for what I needed them for, and are a thousand times cheaper than buying the sugar alcohol sweetened Hershey's at the grocery store.  Be advised, they do not have stabilizers in them like regular chocolate chips and will melt and spread in baked goods, rather than staying in chip form.  If that bothers you, there are other recipes using cocoa butter which will probably work much better for you.

Chocolate Almond Butter

This is a great alternative to chocolate hazelnut butter, in case you want something different, or just have lots of almonds on hand.  Also, you don't need to go through the extra step of roasting your hazelnuts and skinning them (UGH) so try this recipe out rather than buying the sugar laden junk at the store.

Chocolate Almond Butter
1 cup raw almonds
3 tbsp cocoa powder (i like it suuuuper chocolatey!)
3 packets stevia (I used pure via)
2 tbsp coconut oil
pinch of salt

In a food processor, process your almonds until it starts to become buttery, as opposed to flour-y.  This will take a few minutes, and likely you'll have to scrape down the sides periodically.  Once it starts to resemble a butter, turn off the processor and add in your cocoa, salt and sweetener, and turn it back on.  Then, drizzle in your coconut oil with the machine whirring just until everything is incorporated.  Taste and adjust according to taste.  You may want it a tad more sweet, or a bit "runnier."

This is a great condiment to have on hand, and also makes the base of some pretty delish chocolate almond cookies!  All you do is add an egg, and some granular sweetener, and you've got a cookie batter!

Enjoy!

The Gluten-Free Birthday Party Series: Gluten, Grain, and Sugar Free Fudge Brownies

More shiteous food photos.  Honestly, I am shocked with all the chaos and running around that I was able to snap anything at all.  The dark black/brown square blobs on the left are brownies.  And not just any brownies.  Delicious, insane, decadent, fudgy, perfect brownies.  That also happen to be free of grains, sugar, and gluten and nuts/nut flour.  Yes, it is possible.  But healthy, no they are not.  These are some once-in-awhile type treats for sure.  Pictured at right are some raw coconut cake bites, which I'll post later on.  For now, lets talk about brownies.  Delicious fudge brownies to be exact!

Gluten, Grain, Sugar, and Nut Free Fudge Brownies
1 stick organic pastured butter
1 1/2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup erythritol
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup cocoa powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup SF chocolate chips (optional)

In a double boiler, melt your unsweetened chocolate with your stick of butter.  When fully melted, remove from heat and add in erythritol.  Let cool a bit before adding your egg yolks and vanilla extract.  Stir well.  In a separate bowl, combine cocoa powder, baking powder, and pinch of salt.  Pour wet into dry and mix well.  Pour into greased 8x8 brownie pan and bake at 350 until the corners are starting to harden.  The batter will taste grainy as the erythritol crystals will be a bit crunchy.  Don't be scared!  I was!  It came out fine and they were not grainy in the least!  In a regular oven this would probably be done in 20 min.  In mine it was more like 25-30.  But you do not want to over bake these so I'd start checking at 15 and go from there.  The consistency of these was just between fudge, and a brownie.  For all those times I lamented too cakey brownies, too dry, too light, too whatever, this is the brownie to end all others.  What's the secret?  You need the full stick of butter, don't use oil, and you need YOLKS not whites.

This would be a slam dunk passover recipe too.  Have at it GFG peeps!  Xoxo GFG

Decadent Double Chocolate Cupcakes, Grain-Free, Sugar-Free, Nut-Free

Is it possible to have a delicious cupcake, devoid of sugar, flour, nuts, and the like?  Yes!  It totally is.  This recipe was inspired by a cupcake recipe on Elana's Pantry, and for her web site I am eternally grateful.  Before I had the chutzpah to start creating my own recipes, hers were a constant source of grain-free goodness.

These days, I feel like I understand the chemistry of baking just enough to get by on my own.  I will be trying out a few different recipes over the next few weeks in preparation for S's 2nd birthday party, which I am attempting to make 100% gluten free, if not sugar or grain-free.  We'll see how that works out!  But these cupcakes are sure to please even the most critical of chocolate cupcake fans.  This, I believe, is due in part to a few extra ingredients.

Grain-Free, Sugar-Free, Nut-Free Double Chocolate Cupcakes
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tsp ground coffee (I used decaf)
1/4 cup walnut or coconut oil
4 room temp eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup SF granular sweetener (I used Z Sweet erythritol)
1/4 cup water
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, like Bakers


In a medium mixing bowl, combine your coconut flour, cocoa powder, ground coffee, pinch of salt, and baking powder.  Mix well with a fork to get rid of any lumps.  In a separate bowl, add your granular SF sweetener, extract, and your oil.  In a microwave safe bowl, nuke your ounce of chocolate with quarter cup of water.  Microwave for 10-15 seconds at a time, stirring at each interval, until you have a soupy-like chocolate sauce.  Mix it in with your sweetener and oil and combine well.  Then add your room temp eggs.  Stir to combine, and add wet to dry.  You should have a super wet mixture that is easily pourable, almost like pancake batter.  Using a tbsp scoop, scoop into lined muffin tin and bake until cooked all the way through.  Elana recommends 15-18 minutes, but as we all know, my oven is more like 30 min.  Yes, I know I really need to get the temperature checked.

For a super easy chocolate ganache/glaze, simply melt some SF chocolate chips mixed with a bit of milk or even water and dip the cupcake in the glaze to cover.  Wait until cupcakes are cooled to do this.

Chocolate Banana (Vegan/Dairy-Free, Sugar-Free) Ice Cream

In the days of your SAD diet, did you have a frosty from Wendy's?  Ew gross me neither, haha!  Just kidding.  I did, and they were the shit.  I miss garbage like that.  Luckily, with this recipe, you don't have to.  This stuff is crack.  Frozen.  Chocolate.  Crack.  It's crazy good.  And stupid easy.  Get to it!

Vegan/Dairy-Free, Sugar-Free Chocolate Banana Ice Cream
3 frozen overripe bananas
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 can light coconut milk
2 packets of your preferred stevia sweetener (optional, and you may not need it depending on the ripeness of your bananas)

Process your frozen bananas until creamy in your food processor, then add coconut milk and cocoa powder. Pulse just until combined.  Now taste it and see if it needs additional sweetener- it may not.  If so, add in your stevia and pulse again.  Refrigerate for a few hours.  Then prepare according to your ice cream makers instructions.  Still don't have an ice cream maker?  WHY?  There is practically nothing healthy, tasty, and sugar free on the market, and certainly not a lot that is dairy free and/or paleo friendly.  Coconut Bliss Sugar Free is good, but super expensive, and full of gums (xantham, guar)

This ice cream will blow your mind.  Want to jazz it up?  Add chocolate chips at the last second, or add a few tbsp of peanut butter to the cuisi when pulsing.  Make some caramel sauce with rehydrated dates.  So good people.  You do not need to have any guilt whatsoever about giving this to your family.  Yes the bananas are full of fructose and starch, but I save my fruit for desserts and treats, so I feel ok about this.  Plus, it enables you to really cut back on the sweeteners.  No erythritol or xylitol needed in this recipe.  Don't like coconut milk?  You can't taste it- I promise.

Have fun with this recipe- and use it as a base for other ice cream flavors!  Minus the cocoa powder and with a little bit of vanilla extract- this would be a delish vanilla ice cream!

XoXoGFG

Best Grain-Free, Sugar-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies Yet!

This is a great Mothers Day recipe because it's super simple and you can make it with the kids/grandkids.  Thanks so much to Paleo Parents for posting the jumping off point for this recipe.  Here is the original- so if you can do actual sugar, give it a try.  I found that making a few adjustments worked better for me, but try whichever version you like!  Don't want to mess with the "vegan sweetened condensed milk" and would rather use the regular stuff?  Be my guest.  I think at this point it's safe to say that grain-free and gluten-free are really becoming much more mainstream, whereas sugar-free, not so much.  But, at the very least, it does seem like people are using unrefined sugars more, turbinado, date/coconut sugar, palm sugar, honey, maple syrup, etc.  So, sugar-free or not, this is a dope, easy peasy recipe.  And even better the day after!

Best SF/GF Chocolate Chip Cookies (not kidding, these are amazing)
1 1/4 cup almond flour
1 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 can light coconut milk
1/4 cup preferred liquid sweetener (i used SF vanilla syrup, but use what you like- SF or regular maple syrup, honey, date paste, coconut nectar, etc)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/4-1/2 tsp kosher salt (i like my treats a little salty!)
1/3 cup sugar free chocolate chips (these don't bother us- they contain sugar alcohols that don't bother our tummies, but if sugar isn't a problem for you, or sugar alcohols disagree with you- use whatever you like best!)

Pour your light coconut milk into a pot and add your sweetener.  Simmer until it's reduced and thickened considerably, to a consistency that you could drizzle.  This takes awhile and it will reduce down a LOT.  That's ok!  In a bowl, mix your almond flour, salt, and shredded coconut.  Mix in your condensed coconut milk and and your vanilla.  Combine to form a dough, then add in your chocolate chips.  Don't have SF choc chips?  Use dried cherries, chopped walnuts, dried pineapple, raisins, apricots, whatever!  I formed mine into little 1 inch balls and then flattened with the palm of my hand.  I got 19 small cookies out of this batch.  These will not spread at all so flatten them out so they cook evenly.  I always bake on parchment, but would love a few silpats!  They do seem pretty crumbly, but don't worry, they'll hold together great after baking, and even better after a day or so.  Have fun with these, and happy happy happy Mothers Day to all the mommies out there, step-moms, moms to be, grandmas, wannabe moms, and the wonderful dads that make it all possible.  XoXoGFG 

Grain-Free, Sugar-Free Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Glaze (Yup this is Gluten-Free!)

This recipe is so not GFG-approved tasting, I feel guilty posting it.  It tastes like a chocolate cupcake you'd get a fancy shmancy cupcake shop.  I sh*t you not.  Seriously.  Healthy?  Eh, maybe not so much.  But it won't spike your blood sugar and it's not nauseatingly sweet like store-bought cupcakes tend to be.  It's awesome.  But first....sorry I have been MIA this past week.  I've been lucky enough to be on spring break so I am having the time of my life spending oodles of QT with S.  She and I have had a wonderful week full of playdates, exploration, visits to the park, and time together at home.  It hasn't hurt that the weather has been in the 80's everyday this week either.  I can't believe how fast time flies.  I can't believe how much I love her, and how much I cherish every single second with her.  Every day she is sweeter than the day before.

So since we're on the subject of sweet, I've had this recipe in mind for at least three weeks now, but needed the right excuse to try it.  We are having friends over for dinner tonight so I figured this was as good a time as any.  I am super excited to tell you this is an intensely chocolatey, delicious, easy, and crowd-pleasing treat.


Grain-Free, Sugar-Free Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting (makes 9 cupcakes)

3/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tbsp coconut flour (make sure there are no lumps!)
1 tbsp ground coffee (decaf is fine)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 room temp eggs, beaten
2 tbsp oil (grapeseed, coconut etc)
1/4 cup preferred liquid sweetener (I used SF vanilla syrup)
1/2 cup sugar free chocolate chips (either from the store, or homemade using this recipe)
1 tbsp milk or nutmilk

Preheat your oven to 325 and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.  In a mixing bowl combine first seven ingredients and incorporate well, making sure there are no lumps.  In a separate bowl, mix your beaten eggs, oil, and sweetener together.  If you are using a non-flavored sweetener, such as agave, plain SF syrup, date syrup etc, throw in a half tsp of vanilla.  Pour wet into dry and mix for just a moment.  In another bowl, melt your chocolate chips with 1 tbsp milk (in the microwave is easiest, put it in for 10 seconds and then remove and stir.) and let melted chocolate cool for a minute, then add to batter.  Stir so everything is incorporated, then using a tbsp measure, put 2 tbsp of batter into each cupcake liner.  Drop the tin down on the counter top a few times to get out any air bubbles.  Bake for 20 minutes or until a knife comes out just barely clean.

Chocolate Frosting/Glaze
easy peezy folks.  Melt 1/4 cup of chocolate chips with 2 tbsp of butter and a splash of milk. 

This absolutely does not have a heavy or dense consistency like many almond flour baked goods can have.  I attribute that to the quarter cup of cocoa powder, and the 1/2 tsp or baking soda and powder that really lighten this thing up. 

I don't think I would change a thing about this recipe next time around, except that I would probably underbake it just by a minute. 

To go with this dessert I'm serving slow-cooker ribs (this dope-ass recipe), broccoli slaw, and salad.  Think my guests will miss the carbs? 

 
 This week we are off to sunny Scottsdale to see the MIL.  Looking forward to lots of sunshine and dry dry heat, yummmmmm I love the desert.  XoXoGFG

Happy Valentine's Day GFG's!

Vday was never really my thing.   To me, it's right up there with Secretary's Day (or worse, Bosses Day) or Groundhog Day or something.  But since having a family and a little dolly who is my Valentine 365 days of the year, I have come around a little bit.

Valentine's Day used to mean plenty of chocolates, followed by a stomach-ache.  And I loooooooooove chocolate.  There has got to be a way to still have some chocolate candy on Vday, right?

Right.  Ok now maybe these candies don't look quite as pretty as the kind that come in a red heart-shaped box (ok so they look like ass) but who cares?  They're homemade.  And I suppose if I took more than three-seconds to form they'd look halfway decent.  Whatever.  They are chocolate, and they are candy, and I'm stoked!  Here's what you do-  first, make this.  That gives you sugar free chocolate, which can be made into bars, bites, or even chocolate chips.  Rather than use agave or stevia drops, I used my trusty sugar free vanilla syrup.  Ok- got your chocolate all ready?  If it's not melted already, re-melt it.  Then, you'll another tablespoon of coconut oil, and another tablespoon of SF vanilla syrup.  Quickly, dump in some shredded coconut, chopped pecans, and cut up dried fruit- like cherries, or apricots, or whatever.  Mix everything together, then form into little shapes on a piece of wax paper.  Let cool a few hours et voila!  Chocolate candy.

Pecan Chocolate Candies
melted SF chocolate, recipe here
1 tbsp melted coconut oil
1 tbsp SF vanilla syrup
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup chopped dried fruit

If you wanted to make them really special- you could dust them in some cocoa powder, or shape them into little hearts.  Or make a chocolate ganache to drizzle over.  Super yummy, no cooking involved.  Happy Vday, XoXoGFG

Grain-Free Sugar-Free Brownies That Don't Suck And Are Actually Pretty Good

Please excuse the ridiculously long title.  But how else could I accurately describe these brownies?  If you remember, I've lamented before the sad truth that grain-free, sugar-free baking really cannot produce a yummy, fudgey, dense, chocolatey brownie.  Even if you can make a delicious flourless brownie, that doesn't solve the issue of needing sugar.  Stevia, date paste, banana mush, uh uh.  Not going to cut it.  I've seen people use honey, maple syrup, coconut/palm sugar, agave, you name it.  And maybe those work out, but I don't use those ingredients. But, I think I'm finally on to something.  I will keep tinkering with the recipe, but this is an AH-HAH moment as Oprah would say.  This is the start of a new day for the gluten/grain/sugar free brownie-starved people of the world!  Ok...........  So here's what I did.

Grain-Free Sugar-Free Brownies That Don't Suck And Are Actually Pretty Good!
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup oil or melted butter, or vegan butter
3/4 cup granulated sweetener (I used a combination of erythritol and xylitol)
2 eggs
2 tbsp cocoa powder
4 tbsp coconut flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp sugar free liquid sweetener
3-6 tbsp (nut)milk
1/4 cup chopped nuts, I used walnuts
1/4 cup sugar-free choc. chips (optional)

Preheat your oven to 320 and line an 8x8 with parchment.  Over low heat, melt your unsweetened chocolate with your oil or butter.  Stir constantly so it doesn't burn.  Then, pour in your granulated sweetener.  You might be able to use palm/coconut sugar here, so try it out.  Stir well.  The chocolate is going to look grainy, so don't be alarmed.  Remove from heat and let it cool for a few minutes.  While it cools, mix your coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together.  Make sure there are no lumps.  Mix your two eggs into the slightly cooled chocolate, and add your vanilla, and liquid sweetener.  Stir into dry ingredients and incorporate well.  You can see that I put 3-6 tbsp of milk in the ingredients.  This depends on a few things, how big your eggs were, how dry your coconut flour, etc.  Start with a couple tablespoons and go from there.  You want the batter to be pourable and wet, not spongy or dry.  So add your milk little by little until it's become a pourable consistency.  You could also bake this in cupcake form.  You'll notice if you taste it that it's no longer grainy (but if it bothers you, you can put your granulated sweetener in your vitamix, or cuisi first to make the grains finer) and it has absolutely no discernible coconut taste to it.  I baked mine for 30 minutes and removed it when it was still a teensy bit underdone, and then put it in the fridge for a few hours. 

If you don't have sugar-free choc. chips then don't use 'em, or go ahead and use what you have.  Walnuts in brownies I think are divine but you really don't need them either!  Some yummy frosting on these would be even better, but I can't help you with that, not today anyways.  After at least a half dozen attempts at some kind of SF/GF brownie, not only are these the only ones that are even remotely edible, they are seriously awesomely amazing!  No shit!  **Edit:  These get even better after a day or two.  They become much more fudge-like after a day or so.  So good!!!

Grain-Free, Sugar-Free Chocolate Mug Cake

Hmmm.  What do you get when you combine chocolate, a mug, and a microwave?  The ubiquitous chocolate mug cake that has been making the interweb rounds of course!  (CCK is probably the most popular example)

I am not the first person to try making one of these bad boys.  In fact, I've tried my hand at it a few times already, without much success.  I blame prior failures to the wrong ratio of flour : liquid. 

This time was very, very different.  My only disappointment is how puny the serving size was, well, in comparison to my enormous coffee mug I guess.    This super fast and super yummy treat is the answer to my chocolate-covered prayers.  Make this NOW! 

Grain-Free, Sugar-Free, Chocolate Mug Microwave Cake
2 tsp coconut flour (yes teaspoons)
1 tbsp, plus 2 tsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 tbsp oil
1 1/2 tbsp sugar-free vanilla liquid sweetener, or plain sugar-free liquid sweetener plus a drop of vanilla extract
2 tbsp (nut)milk
a few sugar-free chocolate chips if you have 'em, or some chopped nuts

Into a mug goes your coconut flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.  Mix very well.  Then add your oil, liquid sweetener, and 1 tbsp of your milk.  Mix well and see how wet the mixture is.  You want it pretty soupy since it's coconut flour, so add the next tbsp of milk if it looks a little spongy still.  Throw in your choc. chips or nuts and then microwave for one minute.  Mine was still pretty undercooked at one minute, but your microwave may be stronger than mine, so check after a minute.  Since there's no egg, it won't hurt if it's a little underdone!  If you wanted to try it out using vanilla creme stevia, that's a great idea as well, you'd just need to experiment with the amount of nutmilk you use.  The best part is, if you ruin a couple batches, it's no big deal, you've hardly used any ingredients!

Have fun with this one!