Baking

Harvest Bread (Grain Free, Toastable)

I know Autumn is just around the corner when the cicadas start screaming day and night. School started today! Waaagh! I have mixed emotions about it. We had such a nice Summer, and it seems like Summer just began.

However, I am looking forward to my favorite season and cooler days where I can throw on layers. The cool weather makes me think of different smells in the kitchen like cinnamon, nutmeg and bread baking.

Harvest Bread (Grain Free, Toastable)

Living a healthy life is more than just having everything you put into your mouth be uber healthy. It is also about balance, community, listening to your body, sharing time together over food, relaxation, spirituality, exercise, and fun! These things give us a sense of well being deep in our innermost self.

It is one of the reasons I like to blog treat recipes, like this very delicious and toastable bread that is reminiscent of my days as an artisan bread baker for my local food coop. I have made this seasonal recipe in a grain free version!

It is important if you have digestive challenges, like me, or want to improve your health in other areas, that you eat plenty of cooked and fresh vegetable produce, some fruit, good quality protein and healthy fats. I typically recommend 2/3rds of the plate consist of vegetables. Then there is a place for a piece of this grain free bread. Just don’t eat the whole loaf! Now, my daughters can eat plenty of this bread, and they absolutely love it toasted! I am happy with one thick slice toasted and savored with a cup of coffee or tea.

I purchase my pantry items such as the raisins, nuts, cashew butter, almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and the apple cider vinegar at Thrive Market online (see link in upper right corner of this page) and saved $1,500.00 on my grocery bill last year. This is my second year as a member. They have thousands of quality food and home care items, and for every membership that is purchased, they give a free one to a needy family. They have a mission to make quality food affordable. Let’s bake bread! 🙂

Harvest Bread Ingredients

Harvest Bread (Grain Free, Tostable)

Preheat the oven to 300º degrees. Grease a medium to large sized loaf pan with organic shortening, then line it with parchment paper. I used a pan my children bought for me as a gift when I started eating gluten free. It is a Pullman loaf pan and works well for gluten free breads, but it just makes a nice shape. Any medium to large loaf pan will work! (I left of the lid for this pan.)

Ingredients:

2 1/4 Cups Superfine Almond Flour

3 Tablespoons of Coconut Flour

1 Teaspoon of Sea Salt or Himalayan Pink Salt (my favorite!)

1/2 Teaspoon of Cinnamon

1/4 Teaspoon of Nutmeg

1/4 Teaspoon of Baking Soda

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. In a second bowl with a hand held mixer, blend together:

4 Eggs

1/4 Cup of Cashew Butter

3 Tablespoons of Honey

1 Tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar

After blending the eggs, cashew butter, honey and cider vinegar until well combined, add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Then fold in:

1/2 Cup of Raisins

1/2 Cup of Chopped Walnuts

Pour into the prepared loaf pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula, and then place in the preheated oven and bake for 45 to 55 minutes until golden brown on the top and hollow sounding when you tap on the bread.

Remove from the oven. Cool for ten minutes in the pan. Then use the overhanging sides of the parchment paper to lift the loaf from the pan. Cool on a wire rack for one hour before slicing.

Baked Harvest Loaf Ready to Remove and Cool

Delicious Harvest Bread (Grain Free)

Eat Your Nutrients!

Iced Orange Sweet Rolls

‘Tis the Season when I want to enjoy a treat! These rolls are purely indulgent and reminiscent of carefree days, my Mother’s baking, and sharing a decadent breakfast on a cold winter’s day.

Coconut Orange Sweet Rolls Ready to Eat

Times have changed for me since then. Who knew I would grow up and have food intolerances. But as hard as it was in the beginning to transition to a new way of eating, after almost four years of eating gluten free and then a grain free, Paleo diet, I never would have imagined food in it’s true form is what I have come to crave, what tastes really good to me, and is what makes me feel so great! These rolls satisfy all my indulgence dreams, and as a previous artisan bread baker, they are a great creative outlet. I adore handling dough……I know a little weird, but it is art therapy to me! 🙂

Orange Iced Sweet Rolls AIP Paleo Coconut Flour

I love this recipe, and I hope you do too! 🙂 It is a hit with my children for sure!

Iced Orange Sweet Rolls

Preheat the oven to 350º degrees. Lay out a parchment lined baking sheet.

The Bun Dough Ingredients:

1/2 Cup of Tapioca Flour

1/2 Cup of Tigernut Flour (Read More about Tigernut Flour in this article by Lauren of Empowered Sustenance)

1/2 Cup of Coconut Flour

1/2 Cup of Applesauce (No Sugar Added)

1/4 Cup of Clear Honey

1/4 Cup of Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

1/4 Cup of Organic Shortening

1/4 Teaspoon of Sea Salt

1/2 Teaspoon of Cream of Tartar

1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda

Directions: In a food processor, add all the dry ingredients. (Tapioca, Tigernut, Coconut Flours, Salt, Cream of Tartar and Baking Soda). Pulse a few times to blend. Add the shortening and pulse to get pea sized pieces in the flour. Add the wet ingredients and process until completely combined and coming together in a ball. Remove from the food processor and form a ball with the dough. Lay the dough out between to pieces of cookie sheet sized parchment paper, and roll into a rectangle until the dough is 1/2 inch thick.

Filling Ingredients:

1 Cup of Medjool Dates, Soaked for ten minutes in warm water and pits removed

1/4 Cup of Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

1/4 Teaspoon of Orange Zest

1/8 Teaspoon of Salt

1/2 Teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract (No Alcohol for AIP Friendly)

1/8 Teaspoon Sea Salt

Pulse all the ingredients together in the same food processor you made the dough in. No need to wash the processor. Spread the filling to within a quarter inch of the prepared, rolled dough.

Coconut Orange Sweet Roll Dough Spread with Filling

Taking the edges of the parchment as a guide, roll up the buns on the long side. It should look like this.

Ready to Slice Coconut Orange Sweet Rolls

Slice the buns into twelve even pieces with a serrated knife.

Place on your prepared, parchment lined baking sheet. Like this:

Coconut Orange Sweet Rolls Ready to Bake

Bake in your preheated oven for 18 minutes, until the buns are starting to brown.

Remove from the oven and cool completely before frosting. Icing Recipe Below!

Coconut Orange Sweet Rolls Ready to Frost

Sweet Coconut Orange Rolls Icing

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Coconut Butter

2 Tablespoons of Honey

2 Teaspoons of Tapioca Flour

1/8 Teaspoon of Sea Salt

With a hand held mixer, mix all the ingredients until creamy. Spread it on the cooled rolls. They are ready!

Coconut Orange Sweet Rolls Inside Frosted

Iced Orange Sweet Rolls are the perfect treat! Paleo, AIP and Gluten Free

Makes 12 Rolls.

Eat Your Nutrients!

Rum Print Cookies

Instead of visions of sugarplums dancing through my head, I have rum prints on my mind. What in the world is a rumprint? I found a recipe quite a few years ago in a holiday magazine. The cookies were very unique and memorable. I have never found another quite like them. Unfortunately, I lost the magazine at some point in a move I made. So, here is a replication from my memory of what they were like. These have been Paleo-ized, and I have to say, they are as good as I remember. The cookie base uses finely ground walnuts, and the frosting uses cocoa butter for creaminess and stability.

Rum Print Cookies

Ingredients for Cookie:

1 Cup of Walnuts (finely ground) I used a mini Ninja to do this (see Kitchen Equipment I Love)

1/4 Cup Coconut Flour

1/4 Cup Organic Palm Shortening

1/4 Cup Clear Clover Honey

1 Egg

1/4 Teaspoon Pink Himalayan or Sea Salt

1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract (SCD Legal)

Directions: Preheat oven 350º degrees. With an electric hand held mixer, cream together the shortening and honey. Add the egg and continue to beat for one minute. Add the vanilla extract and incorporate. In a small bowl whisk together the finely ground walnuts, coconut flour, salt, nutmeg and baking soda. Add to the wet ingredients and mix on medium speed until blended. With a tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake 11 minutes.

When the cookies come out of the oven, using your thumb, make an indentation in the top of each cookie for the thumprint. Cool completely.

Frosting Ingredients:

1 Cup Raw Cocoa Butter, Chopped (See In My Pantry for Resources)

1/4 Cup Clover Honey

2 Tablespoons Organic Palm Shortening

4 Teaspoons White Rum

1/8 Teaspoon Himalayan Pink or Sea Salt

Nutmeg for Sprinkling

Directions: In a double broiler, melt the cocoa butter. Remove from heat and add into a bowl. With an electric hand held mixer, beat the honey, salt and shortening into the cocoa butter. Add the rum and continue beating until the frosting is solidifying. The cocoa butter will start out clear when hot and become a white consistency as it cools. When it is a good texture for piping, place the frosting in a piping bag with a large star tip and pipe into the center of the cooled cookies. It sets up quickly, so pipe right away. Alternatively, you can scoop the frosting into the middle of the cookies by hand if you don’t feel like piping. Sprinkle each cookie with a dash of nutmeg.

Makes 15 Cookies