Fruitcake!

'Tis that time of year for Christmas goodies.  And even if you don't celebrate Christmas, this is quite a yummy cake!  It's non-alcoholic; if you'd like an alcoholic fruit cake simply substitute 1/4 cup of brandy for 1/4 cup orange juice.  Also, this is not a "make weeks before you eat it" type of fruitcake.  It's best eaten the day it's made, though it would keep in the refrigerator for a day or two.

Fruitcake!

Ingredients
6 eggs
1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup melted butter

4 cups chopped fruit (see note)
1 cup orange juice
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar

1 lb almond flour (approx. 5 cups)
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt

note:  For this batch I used about 4 oz each of mission figs, calimyrna figs, and dried apricots.  Plus 8 ounces of candied cherries, 8 ounces of candied pineapple, 1/8 cup candied lemon and 1/8 cup candied orange.  Feel free and adjust fruits as you like, just try to have about 4 cup of chopped fruit.  Other good options are figs (remember, they have maltose), currants, golden and regular raisins, dried cranberries, and dried cherries.

Method
Preheat oven to 300°.

Whisk eggs in the bowl until they are light and fluffy, approx. 5 minutes in a stand mixer.  Whisk in coconut flour, let stand at least 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt butter and prep fruit. 

Roughly chop the fruit you're using.  If I were precise about the chopping it'd be about 1/4" dice, but for this recipe precision is definitely not necessary.  To the fruit, add the orange juice, molasses, and brown sugar.

In yet another bowl, combine the almond flour with the salt, spices, and baking soda.

Returning to the first bowl, the one with the eggs and coconut flour, whisk in the butter.  In two additions, add the fruit mixture and the almond flour to the egg mixture.  Mix gently, but mix well.

Pour batter into a parchement-lined pan and bake for about an hour, or until golden and firm to the touch.  Cool in pan 5-10 minutes before serving.

Make 15 servings, with less than 1 gram of starch* and approximately 45 grams of carbohydrate per serving.
*starch content varies by fruit type.  To completely eliminate starch, do not use figs or raisins.

Also Awesome

So perhaps you've seen my Slightly Addictive Black Cherry Cranberry Popsicles.

These are Also Awesome.

Orangey Orange Popsicles

Ingredients
2 small boxes sugar-free orange jello
1 packet unflavored orange koolaid
2 cups very hot water
2 cups cold water
canned mandarin oranges, drained (about 1 can)

Combine the orange jello, koolaid, and hot water.  Stir until the koolaid is completely dissolved.  Stir in the cold water.

Add about 3 mandarin orange slices to each popsicle mold.  Pour in the jello/koolaid mixture.  Freeze.

Makes about 15 popsicles, with 0 gms starch or maltose, and about 2 gms carbohydrate per popsicle.

Just slightly addictive

So I've been on a bit of a popsicle kick lately.  I've made Strawberry-Orange-Banana, Strawberry-Limeade, Triple Berry, Orangey Orange, and a few others.  They've all been good, and the Orangey Orange was Really Good, but none have been OMG Good.

well, until now.

But wait, you say... isn't this a strach free blog?  Unless they secretly add potatoes to my Flav-Or-Ice, isn't it all starch free??

Yes, but unfortunately many of the commercial popsicles have artificial-everything, and they often have maltose are part of their sweetener blends.  So I've been making popsicles for a couple of years to avoid the maltose. 

As an added twist, one of my other sons was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes about a month ago (as of this writing) and now either my popsicles need to be sugar free too*, or I need to start making special popsicles for every kid.

I chose option #1.  I'm all about the Easy, lol.

So, without further ado, here is the recipe.  I recommend just going to your local big box store and buying all the ingredients in bulk.  You'll be making them all the time!

Black Cherry Cranberry PopsiclesIngredients
2 packets unflavored gelatin**
1/3 cup sugar-free syrup (I use Torani)**
splenda or other sugar-free sweetener, to taste
2 cups hot water
2 cups cold water
1/4 cup cranberry concentrate, not juice (like This)

Method
Combine the gelatin, syrup, cranberry concentrate and 2 cups hot water.  Stir until the gelatin has dissolved, and add sweeteners as desired.  Add remaining 2 cups water, and stir well.  Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.


**You can substitute 2 small boxes of sugar-free black cherry jello for the syrup and the gelatin.  The results will be slightly different, and less tart-sweet but still pretty tasty.

**You can also use 2 packets unflavored gelatin, 1 packet black cherry koolaid, and the sugar-free sweetener equilavent of aboout 1/2 cup sugar (more or less, to taste).  This would be a slightly more complicated, but (IMO) much tastier option than sugar-free jello.


Makes about 15 popsicles, depending on size of molds.  0 gms starch or maltose, about 3 gms carbohydrate per popsicle.


*this is why you'll start to see carb counts in addition to starch and/or maltose at the bottom of every recipe.  I refer to this blog for recipes all the time, and I only want to calculate it once!

German Chocolate Cupcakes

It's my one-year blog anniversary! What better way to celebrate than with cupcakes??



Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
4 c almond flour
1 c ground flax seed
4 eggs
1 stick butter, melted and cooled
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/4 c sugar
1/2 dutch cocoa
2 t instant coffee granules
1 c milk
2 t vanilla

Method
Separate eggs, beat whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold in remaining ingredients. Place into muffin cups, and bake at 300° for 25-30 minutes or until done.

Frosting
Ingredients
1 1/2 c evaporated milk
1 1/2 c sugar
3/4 butter
6 egg yolks
1 c coconut (to taste- I always add lots extra)
1 c pecans (to taste)
1 1/2 t vanilla

Method
Cook first 4 ingredients until very thick. Stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla. Cool before frosting cupcakes.

Brownies

There are a million gluten free brownie recipes out there. Here is mine, and happily brownies are naturally low in starch without being low in decadence!

Brownies

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup oat flour
1/2 teaspoon guar gum
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
1 cup mini marshmallows (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line an 8 inch (20 cm) square baking pan with parchment paper.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar. Next, stir in the vanilla extract and eggs. Finally, stir in the oat flour, guar gum, salt and chopped nuts, and chocolate chips (if using).

Pour into the prepared pan and press mini marshmallows, if using, into the batter. Bake for about 30 - 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Serve at room temperature.

Makes 16 brownies, with less than 2 grams of starch per serving.

Strawberry short-"cake"

Yeppers.

Strawberry shortcake. 2.5 grams of starch. No wheat or gluten. All awesome.


This recipe was one of those crazy happy accidents- I was making crepes, and I was sick of trying to fry them. They were too delicate and were falling apart, so I thought that baking them might work a little better. Well, I didn't end up with crepes but using the oven worked like a charm! This cake is a little delicate, but mostly because it is rather thin.

Strawberry Shortcake

Chiffon-style Cake

4 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk
2 Tbsp butter (melted)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp xantham gum
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup potato flour (not starch)
1/4 cup flax seed
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda

Filling
Fresh fruit of your choice, jam, or pie filling
Whipped cream if desired

Preheat oven to 350°. Line two 13x19 jelly roll pans with parchment paper.

Combine the liquid ingredients. Slowly whisk in the flours. Whisk in the flax seed, let batter rest for 10-15 minutes. Whisk in the baking soda, pour into prepared pans, spread into a thin layer.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until done. It should be cooked through (a toothpick tester should have no crumbs) but it should not have browned very much.

Invert pans onto cooling racks, leave parchment on cake and let cool. When cool, remove parchment.

To assemble:

Often macerated strawberries (cut up strawberries tossed with sugar) are used when making strawberry shortcake, but they would make this cake much too soggy. Plain cut-up strawberries plus a bit of jam work much better, or as I did, pie filling (homemade or store bought)with some fresh strawberries works very well.

Cover one sheet of cake with filling of your choice- if you use pie filling plus fresh strawberries you'll need two cans pie filling plus 1-2 cups fresh strawberries. Top strawberry layer with whipped cream. Invert second cake onto the fruit and cream layer, cut into squares and top with additional whipped cream, if desired.

Makes about 18 servings, with 2.5 grams of starch per serving (depending on filling choice).

Crustless Pumpkin "Pie"

This is a pie so delicious that you won't miss the crust. We like to have pumpkin pie and cranberries for breakfast the morning after Thanksgiving but the topping is a little much for breakfast, so I make two pies and omit the struesel topping on the second pie. It's great both ways, and there are less than 3 grams of starch per serving, making this not-so-indulgent for those who have to limit their starch intake. You can decrease the starch amount even more (by about half) by using freshly baked or steamed pumpkin instead of canned.

Crustless Pumpkin "Pie" with Spiced Whipped Cream
pie
* 2 cups mashed pumpkin (or one 15oz can)
* 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
* 2 egg yolks
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 egg whites
topping
* 2 tablespoons oat flour
* 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 2 tablespoons butter, chilled
* 1 cup chopped walnuts
spiced whipped cream
* 1 cup whipping cream
* 2 tablespoons white sugar
* 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg


1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks. Stir in 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. In a large glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold into pumpkin mixture. Pour filling into a 1.5 quart casserole dish.
3. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. While the pie is baking, prepare the streusel topping: In a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Blend in the cold butter with a fork or pastry blender until the mixture is crumbly. Mix in the chopped nuts. Sprinkle the topping over the pie.
4. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake an additional 40 minutes, or until set.
5. Combine whipped cream ingredients in a clean metal or glass bowl. Whip until soft peaks form, serve over cooled pumpkin pie.

Monster Eyes

Serve these spooky eyes as a sweet Halloween treat!

1 1/2 cups all natural creamy peanut butter or sun butter
16 ounces superfine sugar or 1/2 tsp stevia
2 ounces pecan flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
16 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, or chocolate of your choice
3 ounces mini m&m's or dried blueberries

Using a stand mixer or a food processor, combine the peanut butter, sugar and vanilla. Mix well, chill until easy to handle. If you opt to use stevia instead of sugar, increase the pecan flour to 3-4 ounces.

Using a #100 ice cream scoop (disher) or method of your choice, measure out approximately 1 teaspoon of peanut butter dough. Roll into a ball, place on a wax or parchment paper lined baking sheet and freeze for an hour or until firm. It's much, much easier to use a scoop than to do it by hand as the "dough" is very soft.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Take peanut balls and dip in chocolate, leaving an opening for the cornea. Return to refrigerator on lined baking sheet with the cornea-side up, freeze until firm.

Place a mini m&m into opening, this becomes the iris. Serve your spooky monster eyeballs frozen (and freeze any leftovers).