Banana Muffins and Mini-Cakes

May 15, 2011 Leave a Comment

Banana Mini-Cakes with Chocolate Chips

Hello, my name is Andrea and I am a sugar addict.

It has taken me several years of intense struggle to finally admit that I have a real problem with sugar.  I stopped eating all kinds of refined sugars about 4 years ago (along with gluten and soy) but I have intermittently experimented with agave nectar, maple syrup, honey and more recently coconut sugar.  You see, I love dessert and really felt like I couldn’t live without it…so I adapted every recipe I craved into a “healthier” version using natural sugar substitutes.

However, as I am living a “cleaner” primal lifestyle these days, no gluten, soy, refined sugar or grains I find that even the “natural” sugars sometimes bother me.  And when I say bother what I really mean is that they tend to make me a wee bit of a crazy person!!!!  It’s like a drug to me as it is for many people.  My saving grace is that my will power (I like to use that term way better than saying my obsessive-compulsive tendency) doesn’t allow me to over-indulge in the desserts I make, I only experience the mental torture…

Whew, now that I’m past the denial stage…I will admit that I still like to enjoy sweet treats on occasion which has led me to seek out desserts and baked goods that are fruit or stevia sweetened.  I visit the blog What I Crave regularly and to my delight found a recipe for Date Sweetened Banana Bread.  I made this recipe into muffins and a few heart-shaped mini-cakes (with mini chocolate chips added).  These muffins have the perfect texture and sweetness, they are wonderful with a pat of homemade butter or a schmear of cream cheese.  I like to have them for breakfast or as an afternoon snack with a nice cup of coffee or tea.

Muffins and Mini-Cakes

Date Sweetened Banana Muffins

Makes 18-24 muffins

3 ripe bananas

1/2 cup medjool dates, pitted (5 – 6 dates)

5 eggs

1/2 cup butter or coconut oil, melted

1 /2 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup ground flax seeds

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

1/2 cup of pecans or walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line muffin tins with paper liners
  2. To a blender add two peeled bananas, pitted dates, eggs, and melted butter or coconut oil.  Puree until smooth.
  3. Sift all dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
  4. Add wet ingredients to the dry and stir until there are no lumps.
  5. Chop the remaining banana and add to batter along with the nuts and chocolate chips (if using).
  6. Divide evenly between the muffin cups (I use an ice cream scoop which is about 1/4 cup of batter).
  7.  Bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  8. Let cool completely on rack before serving.

Banana Muffins

Enjoy this wonderful recipe and check back often for more “sugar-free” treat recipes. 

 Remember…Life is too short to not have dessert!

This recipe is shared at:

Slightly Indulgent Tuesday,  Tasty Tuesday & Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

Gluten-Free Wednesdays

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Cupcakes, Cupcakes, Cupcakes

April 25, 2011 1 Comment

Do you really need a special occasion to make a batch of cupcakes?  I think not, but…when I came upon this adorable cupcake display at Williams Sonoma last month I knew without a doubt that Easter dessert this year would be CUPCAKES!  At least this holiday occasion would give me the opportunity to make several different kinds and lots of them (the display holds 24-36)!!!  From all the wonderful flavors, fillings and frostings to choose from…here are the ones that made the cut…Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is of course a must, being Easter and all…humm, you have got to have something chocolate so I settled on a Chocolate Fudge Cupcake with a Whipped Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting…fruit? definitely, Raspberry filled Vanilla Cupcake with Dark Chocolate Ganache and a light and airy Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake Cupcake with Blueberries.  It was so much fun making and decorating these little treats but the real joy was sharing them with my family, especially since they were all grain-free, gluten-free and refined sugar-free!

The Final Four

My favorite was the Chocolate Fudge Cupcake with Whipped Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting, for several reasons…1) it’s peanut butter and chocolate, 2) well, it’s peanut butter and chocolate and 3) should I say it again?  it’s peanut butter and chocolate.  This recipe is adapted from one that my grandmother makes called Carol’s Fudge Muffins, I don’t know who Carol is but this woman is a genius, these muffins are rich and fudgy but still light enough to be a cupcake rather than a brownie…Mama always made them with pecans and no frosting but I chose to omit the pecans this time since I was going to use a peanut butter frosting…they are equally delicious both ways!  Now, since I’ve been eating a mostly primal diet I don’t eat peanuts or peanut butter and would normally substitute almond butter in the frosting recipe but for Easter…its just got to be peanut butter!

Chocolate Fudge Cupcake

2 ounces dark chocolate (I used Dagoba Chocodrops 70%)

1/2 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup + 2Tbsp. coconut palm sugar

1/2 cup quinoa flour

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 F and line 12 muffin cups with paper or foil liners.

In a large bowl mix together flour and sugar.  In a small saucepan melt butter and chocolate and whisk until smooth.  Add butter and chocolate to flour mixture and stir until smooth.  Add slightly beaten eggs, stir in – do not beat.  Add vanilla and chopped nuts (if using).  Divide evenly between muffin cups.  Bake 22-25 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.

Whipped Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp. agave, honey or palm sugar

1 Tbsp. vanilla

pinch of sea salt

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup cold heavy whipped cream

Beat cream cheese, peanut butter, agave, vanilla and sea salt on medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  In a separate bowl beat heavy whip cream until stiff peaks form (for best results chill bowl and whisk in freezer before beating the whip cream).  Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.  Frosting can be made one day ahead and stored in the refrigerator until ready to use.  Be sure cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting.

Chocolate Fudge Cupcake with Whipped Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

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Mini Lemon Ricotta Cheesecakes

April 14, 2011 5 Comments

Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake with Blueberry Puree

Generally, my dessert of choice includes some sort of chocolate but as we are coming into warmer weather here in Colorado I am really enjoying the light texture and fresh taste of these Mini Ricotta Cheesecakes.  I have made them twice now, once as plain cheesecake with cherry topping and these pictured here with lemon zest and blueberry puree…both are equally delicious!  I love that they are grain-free and stevia sweetened, making them a very low carb, low glycemic, guilt free treat.  The recipe is super easy and can be adapted to just about any flavor of cheesecake…chocolate with raspberry sauce will be my next creation, of course.

This recipe will make six mini-cheesecakes. I use a mini-cheesecake pan with removable bottoms but you can also use a standard muffin pan lined with paper and foil muffin liners for easy removal.  I use full-fat dairy products but you could substitute low or reduced fat dairy for an ever lower calorie treat.  Also, make sure your ingredients are at room temperature before combining for an evenly blended batter.

Crust:

3/4 cup blanched almond flour

2 T. butter, melted

2 packets stevia (I use SweetLeaf)

1 tsp. vanilla

Cheesecake Filling:

9 ounces cream cheese, softened

3 packets stevia

3/4 cup ricotta cheese

3 large eggs

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

zest of one lemon (optional for lemon version)

Puree:

3/4 cup fresh blueberries (or fruit of choice)

6-9 drops of liquid stevia (or one packet)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 F.  Line six muffin cups with paper and foil liners.  Combine almond flour, melted butter, stevia and vanilla until mixture holds together, divide evenly between muffin or mini-cheesecake cups and press into the bottom.  Bake for 10 minutes or until slightly golden, remove and cool.  Meanwhile, in an electric mixer at medium speed, beat cream cheese and stevia until blended.  Beat in ricotta, egg, vanilla and lemon zest, if using.  Pour filling into prepared muffin or mini-cheesecake cups.  Bake 15 minutes, or until almost fully set.  In a food processor, puree blueberries for 30 seconds, whisk in liquid stevia and set aside.  Remove cheesecakes and let cool completely on wire rack.  Refrigerate one hour or wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight.  Serve chilled or at room temperature topped with blueberry puree.

This Recipe is shared at :

Slightly Indulgent Tuesday & Tasty Tuesday

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Coconut Flour Aebleskivers

April 8, 2011 14 Comments
Breakfast is definitely my favorite meal of the day, in fact I could eat breakfast food for all my meals, I love it that much.  I was recently watching The Best Thing I Ever Ate… on the Food Network, the Breakfast Food episode where Aaron Sanchez was eating these little fried puffed pancakes dunked in warm maple syrup…I had to have them!  I started doing some research on what exactly they were and how I could make them healthier, of course.  I searched for puffed or stuffed pancakes and the only thing that popped up was Aebleskivers, which are traditional Danish pancakes in the shape of a sphere…in America that simply means a puffed pancake.  I couldn’t wait to try to make them and knowing this also meant I was going to get a new pan as well!  I had seen the stuffed pancake pans in Williams Sonoma but for some reason they were never that appealing to me, that is until I saw those babies on TV, who knows…I may have just been hungry that day!  At any rate, I have experimented a bit with several gluten-free pancake recipes and a few different fillings, the possibilities are endless with this breakfast food.  If you are not gluten-free a simple buttermilk pancake mix works beautifully along with any filling.  Gluten free mixes are a bit more challenging as you will need to make sure the batter is pretty light and airy otherwise the Aebelskiver will not cook all the way through and will be slightly doughy in the middle, ick.  Now, since I am grain-free as well, I wanted to try to make the Aebleskivers with a coconut flour pancake recipe…to be perfectly honest I didn’t expect them to turn out, especially on the first try.  Surprise, surprise, this was actually my most successful attempt…they were perfect, light and airy, done in the middle and YUMMY!

Aebleskiver with honey drizzle

I used the Coconut Flour Pancake recipe from Cooking with Coconut Flour by Bruce Fife and stuffed them with chopped apples that I heated on the stove with some apple juice and cinnamon until they were soft.  The picture here shows them topped with a honey drizzle, they are also great dunked in maple syrup.  I eat mine with some additional cinnamon apples on top and a dollop of fresh whipped cream rather than syrup or honey…although they are great plain or hot off the pan with some butter too. Serve these with a side of homemade Maple Sausage and your good to go!!!
Coconut Flour Aebleskivers
2 eggs
2 T. coconut oil or butter, melted
2 T. coconut milk or whole milk (any nut milk would work here too)
1 t. palm sugar (or other sweetener)
1/8 t. salt
2 T. coconut flour, sifted
1/8 t. baking powder (grain free)
1/4 cup filling of your choice (cinnamon apples, raspberry jam, chocolate chips, almond butter and banana)
Blend together eggs, oil, coconut milk, sweetener and salt.  Combine coconut flour and baking powder and thoroughly mix into batter.  Let batter set for about 5 minutes, it will be thick. Heat Aebleskiver pan over medium heat, brush each cup with melted butter or coconut oil.  Spoon 1/2 T. of batter into each cup, place filling into the center of the mixture, top with and additional 1/2 T. of batter.  Use a spoon or chopsticks to turn the pancake over when the bottom starts to brown and cook until golden on both sides.  Remove from pan and serve warm. Makes 7-9 Aebleskivers.
***Please note there is not much sugar/sweetener in this recipe, if you desire a sweeter pancake you may add up to 2 T. of palm sugar, agave, maple syrup or honey.
A few last thoughts…to date I have not perfected the Aebleskiver with a gluten-free pancake recipe, the ones I’ve tried so far all tend to be too doughy, next I will be trying my Quinoa Pancake recipe so stay tuned on updates.  Also, there are so many variations for an Aebleskiver, sweet, savory, breakfast, appetizer…the options are limitless so I think the investment in the pan is well worth it.  Enjoy!
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Grain-Free Granola

April 2, 2011 5 Comments
I think I’m in love…since being gluten and grain free one of the things I miss is a crunchy, sweet and slightly chewy granola.  I like to have some texture in my fruit and yogurt, smoothies and occasional frozen dessert…my “go-to” topping is  usually toasted macadamia nuts (which are wonderful too!) but sometimes I have a hankering for a little something sweet and indulgent.  I came across this recipe at Heartland Renaissance and slightly adapted it to use my favorite low-glycemic sweeteners.  This recipe makes about 2 quarts or 32 ounces of granola, a typical serving is about 1/4 cup or 1 oz, so there is plenty to share with your loved ones or can easily be cut in half.

Grain-Free Granola

Ingredients:
2 cups almonds
1 cup pecans
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup unsweetened coconut, shredded
1 cup raisins (or your favorite unsweetened dried fruit, chopped)
1 T. cinnamon
4 T. butter
4 T. coconut oil
2 T. coconut palm sugar
2 T. – 1/4 cup yacon syrup (or agave, honey or maple syrup)
2 t. vanilla
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
In a food processor, place the 2 cups of almonds and pulse until they are chopped up. Process the almonds until they are a pretty coarse texture, some will be finer than others and that’s okay.  Pour almonds into a large mixing bowl. Process the walnuts and pecans to about the same texture of the almonds; this will not take as long as the almonds so be sure to watch the nuts in this step, add pecans and walnuts to large mixing bowl. I like to start with coconut flakes and pulse them a few times (or you can use shredded coconut and skip this step), next, add half of the sunflower and pumpkin seeds to the processor and pulse a few times.  Place the remaining seeds, fruit, cinnamon and coconut to the mixing bowl and mix well.
In the meantime, combine butter, coconut oil, palm sugar and yacon syrup over low heat until combined. Take off heat and stir in vanilla.
Pour the hot liquid into the nut mixture and stir well until evenly combined and all pieces are coated.
Pour the granola out onto a greased (or parchment lined) jelly roll pan and spread out to an even layer. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the mixture begins to smell fragrant and slightly brown on top. When done, remove and allow to briefly cool on the cookie sheet before transferring into your preferred storage jar while still warm, taking care not to allow it to cool completely on the cookie sheet as it can stick.

Berries, Cottage Cheese and Granola

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Chunkey Monkey Cake

March 25, 2011 2 Comments

Chunkey Monkey Cake

I love dessert, I eat it everyday at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, it’s the best part of my day.  Most days it’s just berries and whipped cream or yogurt, an apple with almond butter or a frozen smoothie, but several times a month I like to make something really decadent.  I am always on the lookout for gluten, grain, refined sugar and especially GUILT free healthy options for my special treat days.  Yesterday I came across a wonderful recipe for Carob-Banana Bars at The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen website, I could hardly wait to make these today…I have made a few alterations to the original recipe to include cacao powder rather than carob and added walnuts for some extra texture, it came out perfect!  I will try this recipe with carob powder sometime as I really do like the taste of carob…I was just out of it today and didn’t want to make an extra trip to the store since I had everything else.  My dad is coming over today so I am excited to see if he likes it…he loves dessert as much as I do so I’m sure he will!
A few recipe tips:
Make sure all ingredients are room temperature (even the eggs) otherwise they will cause the coconut oil to harden.
Use slightly over-ripe bananas for a sweeter cake.
If you choose to use the carob powder rather than the cacao powder the additional sweetener isn’t necessary, stevia can sometimes have a bitter taste so you may add the 1/4 cup palm sugar instead of the extra plain stevia listed in the recipe below.

 

Enjoy with a dollop of fresh whip cream

Chunkey Monkey Cake

 

2 cups blanched almond flour
1/2 cup cacao powder (or carob powder)
1/4 cup arrowroot powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 – 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
3 large ripe bananas, mashed (1 heaping cup)
2 large organic eggs
1/4 cup melted virgin coconut oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
24 drops chocolate liquid stevia + 10-20 drops plain stevia or 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil an 8 x 8-inch glass baking dish with coconut oil.
Mix together the dry ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Use your fingers to break up any clumps in the almond flour. Then whisk the ingredients together. Set aside.
In a small bowl, add the bananas and mash with a fork. Measure the mashed bananas to make sure they are just over 1 cup. Add more banana if needed or remove some. Then add the remaining ingredients and stir together with the fork.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk together. Pour into the prepared baking dish. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool before cutting into bars.  Serve with a dollop of fresh whipped cream or glass of ice-cold almond milk.  Enjoy!

Yep, Daddy liked it!

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Avocado Oil Spicy Mayonnaise, really?

March 15, 2011 Leave a Comment

  • Avocado Oil Spicy Mayo

Anyone who knows me will be quite puzzled by this post, but as always there is a motive to my madness.

One of the most horrifying memories of my childhood was on a bright sunny day in Shreveport at my grandmother’s house…I think I might have been about four years old.  My cousins and I had been enjoying a great day of playing in the sprinklers and riding bikes in the neighborhood when Mama called us in for lunch, we all sat down at my cute little metal table in the garage for our bologna sandwiches on white bread with a nice side of potato chips and a dill pickle, to my surprise as I bit into my sandwich…Mayonnaise!  If I had been a child that used foul language a hearty WTH? would have rang out of my mouth…I can vividly remember thinking, doesn’t she know I HATE mayonnaise? Did she mix my plate up with Scott or Troy’s?  I KNOW she knows I HATE mayonnaise…Why is there mayonnaise on my bologna sandwich????  Pretty funny the things that store up in our memories…no one else recalls this condiment tragedy but me, but it obviously made quite an impression. 

To this very day I still don’t eat mayonnaise as a condiment and have raised children who loathe the stuff as well…probably didn’t help having a husband that doesn’t like it either (which was a requirement to secure my hand in marriage).  Oddly enough we are a family that really digs ranch dressing…

For a couple of years now we have been making our own healthy, organic and artificial ingredient-free version of ranch dressing but we still have been using a canola oil mayonnaise.  In my desire to use healthier oils (more omega 3’s, less omega 6’s) I have been on a quest to make my own mayo…I only use it in a few recipes in my home which are the Ranch Dressing and my daughters favorite appetizer dishes of Hot Broccoli or Spinach and Artichoke Dips.  We are having an appetizer night tonight so I needed to get this made for our dip…came out great on the first try (today, that is…have tried several other times that were not successful, see recipe notes about “the drizzle”).  So, here it is, my Avocado Oil Spicy Mayonnaise Recipe…which will be lovely in my dressing and dips…and equally good as a condiment for those of you who actually like mayo!

Avocado Oil Spicy Mayonnaise

1 egg

1 T. lemon juice

1 T. mustard powder

½ t. minced garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

¾ c. avocado oil

In a food processor combine all ingredients except the oil and process until smooth.  While the machine is still running, drizzle ½ cup of the avocado oil into the mixture slowly.  Make sure you take your time on the drizzle, almost dropping it in a bead at a time; this will keep it from separating.  After you drizzle in the ½ cup, turn off the machine and scrape down the mixture and taste.  Add any additional seasoning, turn the processor back on and then slowly drizzle the remaining ¼ cup of oil.  Spoon into a glass jar or bowl, cover tightly and refrigerate for up to 10 days.  Makes 1 cup.

This recipe is shared at:

Slightly Indulgent Tuesday

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Almond Blossoms

March 8, 2011 3 Comments
Peanut Blossom cookies are my all time favorite cookie, my grandmother sent them in a goodie box every year at Christmastime.  I looked forward to them all year…for some reason when I was a kid it was the only time I got them.  One of my passions is adapting my favorite recipes into healthier, gluten, grain and refined sugar-free versions.  In this adaptation I used almond butter, almond flour, coconut oil and palm sugar rather than the traditional peanut butter, flour, butter and sugar.  I also used 70% dark chocolate molded into starlight mint candy molds for the added nostalgic effect, but you could use a few dark chocolate chips on top for a simpler version.  I hope you enjoy these as much as I do and note from the picture below…they are not just a Christmas treat for me anymore!

Almond Blossoms

Ingredients

      1 c roasted almond butter
      1/2 c coconut sugar (honey or agave both work well too)
      2 eggs
      1 t vanilla
      2 T butter or coconut oil, melted
      1 c blanched almond flour
    1/4 t baking soda
    3 oz 70% (or higher) dark chocolate chips (option to melt and mold or use as chips)
Preheat oven to 325 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl combine the almond flour, palm sugar and baking soda. In a medium bowl combine remaining ingredients and stir until smooth. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
Drop by 2T balls onto the baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes (depending on oven), do not over bake. Cookies will puff up, spread a bit and get lightly golden…they will look slightly underdone when you remove them from the oven. Press molded starlight chocolates or chips into the middle of the cookies (about 5 on each cookie or one molded starlight). Cool on the pan on a wire cooling rack. Best enjoyed after about 15-20 minutes of cooling.
Makes 24 cookies, recipe can easily be doubled.
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