seriously good cucpcakes

We had a lovely Easter yesterday. The day ended with me making these cupcakes. Oh. My. Yumminess. They are good. And grain-free! They are made with coconut flour, which, honestly, I don't usually love baking with. But the creator of the recipe has really worked with this to perfect it. I changed the frosting recipe (see below) and only made 1/2 of the original cupcake amount (we do NOT need 20 of these lying around). Please try them!! You will not be disappointed. Mmmmm.

The changes to the frosting were as follows (for 10-11 cupcakes): 

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 oz. of the same unsweetened chocolate (from the cupcake recipe - I used Ghirardelli)

1/4 c. butter

I melted the above together in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Refrigerated this for a while and then stirred to warm up a bit before frosting the cooled cupcakes. Best part? I then topped with fine sea salt. Thanks Alton Brown :) Enjoy!

delicious goodness

These. Are the best things I've made in a looong time, possibly ever. I made the baked donuts for New Year's Day like I posted and, oh my yumminess, they are amazing. I recommend using cake flour (it's all I had, but I think it added to their light/fluffiness). Here is the recipe again and here you can buy the donut pan (which worked great!) though the recipe says they would work fine in a muffin tin, as well. The cinnamon/sugar topping just makes them, as does the nutmeg in the batter, so don't skip either of those. Please, if you don't ever make anything else I suggest, make these! Trust me :)

P.S. Because I generally try to eat grain-free, I tried a version today using almond flour (I love Honeyville Farms' because it is finely ground). They still taste ah-mazing, but due to the lack of gluten (most likely) they fall apart and instead of swirling in butter and dipping in cinnamon/sugar, I had to brush on the butter and sprinkle them with cinnamon/sugar. I will still make this version for myself, but for company I will make the original version with cake flour.

Breakfast cookies! Sort of...

Chocolate chip pecan gluten-free, grain-free cookies. Recipe on the blog shortly., a photo by elletrain on Flickr.

I've been making Paleo/gluten-free cookies for a few months now. I generally work off of the same recipe, but I continue to change it here and there. These are the best I've made yet...in my opinion. I really prefer the Honeyville Farms Blanched Almond Flour to any other I've used. Trader Joe's Almond Meal is great and will still taste amazing, but you won't get as close to a traditional cookie texture as you will with the Honeyville Farms. These cookies are so wonderful because not only are they gluten and grain free, but because of the almond flour and pecans, they are packed with protein. What does this mean? You can eat them for breakfast with your coffee and not suffer from a sugar/caffeine rush! Yay! I hope you'll try them out, whether you eat a grain-free diet or not. I promise, they are superb!

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
Ingredients:
-3 cups Honeyville Farms Blanched Almond Flour
-1/2 t. sea salt
-1/2 t. baking soda

-1/2 cup coconut oil (melted, but not hot)
-2 eggs
-1 T. vanilla
-1/2 cup maple syrup

-1/2 cup (or more) dark chocolate chips
-1/2 cup chopped pecans

Pre-heat oven to 350°. Prepare baking sheet with a Sil-pat (my favorite!) or parchment paper. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Melt coconut oil, but let cool while getting together other liquid ingredients. Combine eggs, vanilla, and maple syrup in a smaller bowl or Pyrex 3 cup measuring cup (easy to pour!). Add cooled, but still liquid coconut oil and whisk together. Add liquids to dry mixture, stirring just enough to incorporate both together.

Stir in chocolate chips and pecans. Scoop onto Sil-pat/cookie sheet with a 1 1/2" cookie scoop.

Here is a little trick for these. Bake them for 4 minutes, then take a spatula and press each cookie down to flatten it a little bit. Then bake for an additional 7-8 minutes, until golden brown and a little crispy on the outside. Cool on a cooling rack, but be sure to eat one that is still warm! Yum!!

Gluten-free/ grain-free cookie recipe!

Gluten free/grain free cookie recipe in the works, a photo by elletrain on Flickr.

Okay, so even though I am eating much healthier these days, I am so addicted to having a cookie in the afternoons. I love to bake so at least I'm making my own and making them gluten and grain free. I just got in some Honeyville Farms Blanched Almond Flour and of course had to instantly give it a whirl in the kitchen. I combined a few recipes and came up with the following:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

3 c. Honeyville Farms Blanched Almond Flour (order here)
1/2 t. sea salt
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 c butter, coconut oil, or combination of both (coconut oil is what I used today and it gives a little more coconut flavor. Use organic butter if you use butter)
2 omega 3 eggs
1 T vanilla extract
1/2 c grade A maple syrup
1/2 c (or more to taste) dark chocolate chips (I like less chocolate chips - you can put in as many as you like! Most recipes this size call for 1 cup)

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Melt coconut oil or butter and set aside to cool a bit. Combine other wet ingredients in smaller bowl and whisk together. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir. Then pour in butter/coconut oil and combine. Stir in chocolate chips.

Using a cookie dough scoop (this dough is sticky!) drop cookies onto lined baking sheet. (Get a Sil-pat if you don't have one!) Bake for 10-12 minutes. I push mine down a bit with a fork after 2 minutes or so. Makes them spread out just a bit more.

Cool them on a rack. Makes approx. 24 cookies.

I am so happy with how these turned out! You get a fluffy cookie with a soft center and a little crispiness outside. Oh man. Good. And not THAT bad for you. Protein in the almond flour, right?? Right.

I hope you enjoy! You can use other almond flour or meal, but beware of different results. Many people claim Honeyville Farms' almond flour is best for great baking results. Happy baking!