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.

Orange Cake - Odd, yet delicious

I ran into this recipe for Orange Cake a while ago over on Elana's Pantry, and finally tried making it the other day.  It's very good, but cries out for a decent paleo chocolate icing to accompany it.  I'm researching options there...

Ingredients

• 2 small oranges, seedless variety
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 0.75 cups honey
• 2 cups almond flour
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda

Instructions

1. Wash the oranges well, and remove the produce stickers if present.
2. Boil the oranges (yes, whole) in a pot full of water for about 90 minutes, until nice and soft, then let them cool.
3. Preheat an oven to 375F.
4. Process the oranges in a food processor until nice and smooth.
5. Gradually add all of the other ingredients, "pulsing" the food processor to combine.
6. Grease a 9 inch cake pan (okay, I used an 8 inch pan - still worked just fine).
7. Pour all the batter into the pan.
8. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until the proverbial toothpick comes out clean.
9. Allow to cool for at least a couple of hours in the pan.
10. (Still to come) Ice your cake with a nice paleo chocolate frosting...

Banana bread with chocolate chips

And our second banana-themed Christmas treat posting for the day comes courtesy of Danielle Walker over at Against All Grain again - this recipe is from her first cookbook, appropriately titled "Against All Grain - Delectable Paleo Recipes to Eat Well and Feel Great".

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 4 large eggs
• 3 Tbsp honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 0.5 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 0.5 cup coconut flour, sifted
• 0.25 cup almond flour, sifted
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 0.5 cup canned coconut milk
• 3 large ripe bananas
• 0.25 cup chocolate chips (again, Krisda brand is made with stevia)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Grease a loaf pan (8.5 x 4.5) and cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom.  Don't forget to put the parchment paper into the pan!  
3. Combine the coconut oil, eggs, honey, vanilla, and vinegar in a stand mixer and beat on high for 30 seconds.
4. Combine the coconut flour, almond flour, baking soda, and sea salt in another bowl, and then gradually add it to the liquid in the stand mixer while the beater is mixing.  Continue to mix until well-combined.
5. In yet another bowl, mash the coconut milk and bananas together until it's well-combined and sort of looks like baby food.
6. Add this coconut-banana concoction to the rest of the batter while the beater is on medium.  Continue mixing until well-combined.
7. Add in the chocolate chips and let it beat for a little longer until the chips are dispersed throughout the batter.
8. Dump the whole thing into your loaf pan and bake for around 40 to 45 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Remove from the oven, let it cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes, and then put on a wire rack to cool completely.
10. Enjoy!

Chocolate Banana Squares

Okay, only got one post out yesterday rather than the promised two...  So let's see if we can get caught up today, with a pair of banana-themed recipes.  (Because nothing says "paleo" like bananas, right?)

First up, these chocolate banana squares!

Ingredients for Squares

• 2 large REALLY ripe bananas - more brown than yellow, ideally
• 0.5 cup crunchy-type almond butter
• 3 eggs
• 0.25 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1 cup almond flour
• 3 Tbsp coconut flour
• 0.5 tsp baking soda
• 0.25 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (Krisda brand is sweetened with stevia)

Ingredients for Topping

• 1 ounce dark chocolate (as always, the darker the better! 😊)
• 0.5 Tbsp palm shortening (or butter)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Grease a 9x13 pan with coconut oil (probably not the healthiest option, but I use the spray stuff)
3. Peel the bananas, and mush 'em up real good.
4. Combine the banana mush with the rest of the square ingredients, except the chocolate chips.  Mix well until it's a consistent batter.
5. Fold in the chocolate chips, mix thoroughly.
6. Dump the whole thing into your greased-up pan, and spread evenly in the pan
7. Bake for about 18 minutes.
8. Let cool, and cut into squares.
9. Put the squares side-by-side on a piece of parchment for this next bit.
10. Melt the topping ingredients together in the top of a double boiler, and mix well until thoroughly combined.
11. Drizzle the melted topping over the squares.
12. Let stand until the topping has hardened.

Cherry Bakewell Squares

Well, it didn't take too long to blow through my "a recipe every day" statement, did it?  So we'll post two today to try to catch up.  😀

First up, Cherry Bakewell squares.  I first discovered Cherry Bakewells in tart form during a trip to the UK about 10 years ago.  They're not, in my experience, particularly common in North America, although a "British Foods" store near me (which closed this year, sadly), used to sometimes get in the "Mister Kiplings" brand at this time of year.

This recipe does a good job of combining the sweet cherry jam center, almond topping, and a decent pastry, while still managing to remain paleo - and they disappear fast around here!

Ingredients - Jam

• 1 bag frozen cherries (about 600g)
• 0.5 cup water
• 0.25 cup honey
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 tablespoon arrowroot, mixed with just enough water to form a slurry

Instructions - Jam

1. Put everything but the arrowroot in a saucepan, bring to a simmer, and allow to simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. When it's slightly thickened and somewhat syrupy, stir in the arrowroot slurry and it should thicken up even more very quickly.
3. Remove from heat and let cool.

Ingredients - Crust

• 1.5 cups almond flour
• 0.5 cup coconut flour, sifted to remove lumps
• a pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 0.25 cup coconut oil
• 2 Tbsp honey

Instructions - Crust

1. Preheat your oven to 325F.
2. Put a piece of parchment paper in an 8x8 baking pan so it comes over the top on all sides - it's how you'll lift the completed dessert from the pan.
3. Mix the first three ingredients together in a bowl.
4. Add the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.
5. Pour the dough into the parchment-lined pan and pat down evenly right into the corners.
6. Bake for 10 minutes.

Ingredients - Topping

• 1.75 cups almond flour
• 0.33 cup coconut oil, melted (but not too hot...)
• 0.33 cup honey
• 3 room-temperature eggs, lightly beaten
• sliced almonds

Instructions - Topping

1. Basically, combine everything into a bowl and stir well.

Instructions - Assembly

1. Remove that crust from the oven and make sure it's done.
2. Increase the oven temperature to 350F.
3. Pour the jam over the crust and spread it out evenly to cover the crust.
4. Pour the topping over the jam and carefully spread it out evenly to cover the jam, being careful not to stir things up too much.
5. Top with some sliced almonds.
6. Bake for 30 minutes.
7. Let it cool, lift out using the parchment paper, place it on a cutting board, and cut into squares.

Edit: A picture!

Twelve(ish) days of Treats! A short(bread) introduction...

Christmas is coming, and it can be a tough time of the year to be paleo - so many wonderful treats, all laden with refined sugar and white flour, seemingly await you around every corner!  Well, I'm going to see if I can help you get through the season with your diet (relatively) intact - over the next ten days I'll be posting recipes for various seasonal treats.  And don't forget, I've previously posted this yummy recipe for Christmas muffins too!

These are still "treats" though - some of the recipes will use a fair amount of dried fruit and/or paleo friendly sweeteners such as honey or maple syrup, so they should still be eaten in moderation...

Now that that's been said, let's get baking!  Today we'll be making paleo "shortbread" cookies, courtesy of Danielle Walker (author of three "Against All Grains" cookbooks)

Ingredients

• 2.25 cups almond flour
• 0.25 cup arrowroot flour
• 0.25 tsp salt
• 0.25 cup maple syrup
• 0.5 cup palm shortening (I usually find mine at "Whole Foods" stores in the US, but can't seem to find a reliable source in Canada)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. Combine the almond flour, arrowroot flour, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer, and affix the paddle attachment to the mixer.
4. Add in the maple syrup and mix until well-combined.
5. Drop the palm shortening in one tablespoon at a time while the mixer is running, allowing each to combine fully before you drop in the next tablespoon-full.
6. Process until the dough forms a crumbly ball.
7. Roll the dough ball out between two sheets of parchment paper to 0.5 inches (about 1 cm) thickness.
8. Cut the rolled dough into 1" by 3" rectangles and place these rectangles on the parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving a bit of space between each rectangle.  You can poke small holes in the top of each rectangle to make it look more like "real" shortbread if you want.
9. Bake for around 12 minutes, until the edges are looking nicely browned.
10. Allow to cool, and store in a sealed container in the fridge.

Pie crust

I'd previously posted this pumpkin pie recipe, but it was crustless because I wasn't happy with the crusts I'd tried, which were mostly based on almond flour and tended to be dry and not particularly pie-like.  Well that's changed - I made this crust this past weekend as part of my preparations for Canadian Thanksgiving, and it worked perfectly.  And, as a bonus, it's a "push crust", so you don't have to roll it out, just push it into the pan!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted (although butter would probably also work!)
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp honey
• 3/4 cup coconut flour

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 400F.
2. In a medium bowl, combine everything but the coconut flour, and stir well with a fork until combined.
3. Stir in the coconut flour, and stir well until the dough is combined and holds together.
4. Gather the dough into a ball and push it into a 9" pie plate.  Prick it all over with a fork.
5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until it starts to brown.  (You may want to use a pie crust shield, both now and when you fill and bake the pie, so the edges don't get overly scorched.)
6. Fill your pie with pumpkin pie filling and bake as appropriate.  (It may take somewhat longer than the original recipe, closer to 40-45 minutes rather than the 30 minutes in the original recipe.)

Pat's Christmas Cake Muffins

This recipe (including the name) is from "Lucy's Specific Carbohydrate Diet Cookbook" (www.lucyskitchenshop.com). It really tastes like Christmas fruitcake, if you're into that sort of thing (which I am). However, the honey and dried fruit that comprise much of this recipe means that it really should be a "once a year" treat.

UPDATE - Hmm, this might be a repeat. You know what, it's so good, I'm gonna let both copies stay. You really have to try these.

Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp butter, melted
• 1/3 cup honey
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup unsweetened crushed pineapple, juice drained
• 1-1/2 cups almond flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1-1/4 cups raisins
• 1/2 cup dried currants
• 3/4 cup dates or prunes, pitted and chopped
• 1-1/2 cups slivered almonds
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 275F. No, that's not a misprint - lower temperatures for this one!
2. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, stirring until it's well-mixed.
3. Line muffin cups with paper cupcake "liners", and fill each one with batter until it's almost full. NOTE - this recipe usually makes more than a dozen, probably closer to a dozen and a half!
4. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Allow to cool before removing the paper liners.

About the only thing that could make these even better would be if I could figure out how to make a paleo version of marzipan icing!

Edit - how about a picture?

Brownies. Yes, really.

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder or carob powder
• 1/2 cup pecan nut meal
• 1/4 cup arrowroot flour

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients well and pour into a greased 8 x 8 cake pan (or use parchment paper).
2. Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
3. Let cool, and enjoy!