We found a cupcake recipe!

This weekend we had a birthday party for my nephew. My sweet mom made a special gluten free cupcake for Eva to have at the party. We were just hoping to have a simple cupcake to give her, but this recipe was amazing! So much better than other almond flour cupcakes. It was rich and chocolaty. Many of us easily preferred these to the traditional cupcakes.

The original recipe is for a cake, but it worked perfectly for a 9 cupcakes. Just be sure to decrease the cooking time.

Gluten Free Almond Flour Chocolate Cake from The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook
Ingredients
2 cups blanched almond flour (we almost always use Honeyville)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (recipe called for 1/4 c cocoa)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup honey
2 large eggs
1 1/2 TB vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9 inch cake pan and dust with almond flour. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, combine wet ingredients. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined. Pour into cake pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 1 hour. Serve.

This is a cake recipe, but it made 9 PERFECT cupcakes. For cupcakes we cooked it for 30 minutes.

Nutty “granola” Bites

One of my favorite pre-paleo snacks was granola. I’ve tried several paleo versions of granola, but they’re always really crumbly and hard to transport. So, here is a yummy, portable granola-y treat.

I’ve made these with all different combinations of nuts and seeds, so feel free to use what you like!

1/2 c pumpkin seeds
3/4 c sunflower seeds (raw)
1 1/2 c coconut flakes – I use these big flakes and they make it so yummy!
1 c sliced almonds
1 1/2 c pecans, roughly chopped
1 c almond meal (I like meal better then flour here)
1/2 c melted coconut oil
1/8 – 1/4 c honey
1/8 c maple syrup
1 T vanilla
cinnamon, optional

Preheat oven to 325.

In large bowl, mix all dry ingredients

In a separate bowl, mix all wet ingredients.

Pour wet ingredients over dry and mix really well – making sure all the dry get coated.

Grease mini muffin tins with a little bit of coconut oil. Fill tins with the granola mix.

Bake for 10 minutes then check on them and rotate pan. Bake 5-10 more minutes until the tops are starting to brown. Let cool completely in pan. You’ll have to use a knife to help them out. I often bake them in a silicone muffin tin and the pop out very easily.

You can also just make this on a sheet pan with parchment paper. Just bake for about 20 minutes, stirring it half way through.

These make a great snack for dirty handed little ones…

Enjoy!

Paleo No-Bake Cookies

I got the idea for these cookies from Ingredients, Inc., but made several changes before we reached the perfect cookie (in our opinion!). The first ones were a bit too thin and runny, but after a couple of batches of changes we finally found ones that were worth making again and again. They are a great sweet treat that my kids and husband love.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. dark chocolate chips (at least 70% cocao)

1 tbsp. coconut oil

1 tbsp. honey

1/2 c. almond butter

1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 c. shredded, unsweetened coconut flakes

1/2 c. raisins

1/2 c. nut of your choice (we used roasted, salted cashews)

Directions:

-Combine the chocolate, coconut oil, honey and almond butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir often until completely melted.

-Remove chocolate mixture from heat and stir in cinnamon, coconut flakes, raisins and nuts.

-Drop by the spoonful onto a wax paper-lined cookie sheet.

-Place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator and allow cookies to harden.

-Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.