Peach Cobbler

This recipe is based on Danielle Walker's Against All Grain, where it can be found in her Celebrations cookbook - I've only made a couple of tweaks.  My father has specifically requested we make this a time or two for family gatherings - I think he likes it.  We do too.

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp coconut oil
• 1.5 to 2 bags frozen(*) peach slices (about 600g each, about 2 to 3 pounds total)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 cup cashew butter
• 1/4 cup arrowroot flour
• 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp coconut flour
• 1/4 cup palm sugar (coconut sugar)
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 3/4 cup canned coconut milk (shake well first)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 375F
2. Put the coconut oil in a deep baking dish or dutch oven, and place it in the oven to heat up.
3. In a saucepan, combine the frozen peaches, honey, lemon juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
4. Bring the peaches etc. to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the cashew butter, arrowroot flour, coconut flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, and coconut milk.  Mix until well-combined.
6. When the peaches and spices have simmered for 10 minutes, take the baking dish out of the oven, and CAREFULLY pour the peach mixture in.  The coconut oil will be hot, so it will make quite a lot of noise and could splash up a bit -- use care in this step.
7. Once things have calmed down in the baking dish, spoon the batter over top, trying to get an even layer covering all of the peach mixture.
8. Bake for 40 minutes or so, until the top is nice and brown.
9. Serve warm.

(*) = I'm a huge fan of Alton Brown's.  He recommends using frozen peaches for this sort of thing, because the freezing process ruptures some of the cell walls and releases more juice during cooking.  I'd have to agree.

Low-carb Mac and Cheese (not Paleo though)

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Hey, do you know about shirataki noodles?  Also known as yam noodles, these are zero-calorie, zero-carb noodles that have come on the market in the last few years.

At least one manufacturer, Miracle Noodles, has come out with ziti-style noodles.  (There might be more from other manufacturers; we buy ours from Low Carb Grocery.)

Anyway, it's been so cold lately that I got inspired to use the ziti-style noodles to make up a big batch of home-style macaroni and cheese, while keeping it as low-carb as possible.  It's not paleo because of the milk and cheese.  Here's how I did it.

Ingredients

• 3 slices thick-cut bacon (the thicker the better!) cut into "lardons"
• 4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) salted butter
• 4 Tbsp arrowroot powder
• 2 cups milk (I used 2% fat)
• 0.5 tsp white pepper
• 0.5 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp powdered mustard
• 1 egg yolk (optional)
• 6 packages ziti-style shirataki noodles
• 4 cups shredded cheese (you can use one of those packaged blends from the store, or shred a bunch yourself - mix it up with cheddar, Parmesan, mozzarella, Gruyere, Swiss, and so on), divided into two portions of two cups each

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 375F.
2. Cook the bacon lardons and reserve them.  Keep the rendered fat for something else yummy - you won't need it for this recipe.
3. Drain the ziti-style shirataki noodles in your sink and rinse with cold water.  Then boil them for two minutes, and drain well.
4. In a sauce pan, melt the butter, and add the arrowroot powder to form a roux.  Cook the roux for a few seconds to let it brown up just a bit.
5. While constantly stirring the roux, add in the milk.
6. Heat the mixture, constantly stirring, until it thickens.  Stir in the white pepper, nutmeg, and powdered mustard.  (You've just made a bechamel sauce!)
7. (Optional step!)  If you want, you can add an egg yolk to further thicken it.  Mix up the egg yolk in a bowl, and stir in a bit of the bechamel sauce to warm it, then stir the whole thing back into the sauce.  (If you just dump the egg yolk into the hot sauce, you'll end up with scrambled eggs in your sauce...)  I've made this both ways, and it turns out fine with or without the yolk.
8. Add in 2 cups shredded cheese mixture, remove the sauce pan from the heat, and stir to combine.  (You don't want to keep heating the arrowroot mixture, or it will eventually, um, "unthicken".)
9. When the cheese is melted into the sauce, combine your cheesy sauce with the noodles and cooked bacon lardons and put the whole thing into an oven-safe dish, such as a 9x13 pan.
10. Smooth it out and top evenly with the rest of the shredded cheese.
11. Put it in the oven for 20 minutes.  If you want you can broil it for the last minute or so to crisp up the cheese on top, but keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn!
12. I recommend you let it sit for a few minutes after taking it out of the oven - that cheese will be lava-hot!
13. Enjoy!

Incredibly rich chocolate buttercream frosting

I think I've come up with a frosting to accompany that orange cake recipe I published the other day.  A word of warning though - this is incredibly rich and decadent, and of course not exactly "hard core paleo" given that it's made with butter.  But the orange cake accompanies this frosting quite nicely, and I think I'll be looking for occasions to make this in the future.  The recipe is based off of this one, but I've altered the sweeteners a bit.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, salted
• 1/2 cup erythritol
• 1/2 cup "spoonable" stevia
• 2/3 cup good-quality cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup unsweetened chocolate almond milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp chocolate stevia liquid

Instructions

1. Cream the butter in a stand mixer (or use a bowl and a hand mixer).
2. Add in the erythritol, spoonable stevia, and cocoa powder, and combine well.
3. Add the almond milk slowly, making sure it's combined well with the mixture.
4. Blend in the vanilla extract and liquid stevia.
5. Ice your cake!