Father’s Day carrot cake extravaganza

I’ve had my eye on this Elana Amsterdam carrot cake recipe for quite a while now and Father’s Day was the perfect excuse to have a go at making it. I wasn’t really convinced the usual cake frosting could be done in a Paleo-friendly way, but I was happily proven wrong! It was delicious, in fact the cake was way better than any you could buy in a cafe. Yes, that may sound a little like I’ve got tickets on myself, but it really was that good. Only, not good enough for my twin brother to eat, but let’s not go there 😉 At least that means there was more for me and my Dad, since it was his day after all!

The only thing I need to sort out is how to avoid clumps in the icing which seemed to be the arrowroot powder clumping with the sweetener….I suspect it’s something to do with the temperature when the arrowroot paste gets mixed in with the rest of the icing mix.

As usual with Elana Amsterdam recipes, I swapped grapeseed oil for coconut oil and instead of agave (aka, hippie’s high fructose corn syrup) I used rice syrup and some maple syrup. The sweetness was perfect – the cake was moreish without being sickeningly sweet.

Carrot cake

 

 

Yer crazy in the coconuts: Coconut bread

Coconut must be one of the most versatile foods on the planet – it provides oil, milk, butter, cream, water, aminos (seasoning), flakes, flour…you get the drift. In Paleo and Primal circles, it’s a real staple and some are known to take their addiction to extremes – hey Nom Nom Paleo, I’m talking about you! Hang on, I just realised I own ALL of the coconut products I just mentioned…which means I’M CRAZY IN DER COCONUTS.

The lady and the coconut.

After one successful and one not-so-successful attempt at Elana Amsterdam’s almond butter/flour bread recipes, I decided to try out a coconut flour bread recipe to see if it will make the grade as my go-to bread staple. And the verdict is in…YES, coconut flour bread is a far better bread option than the almond. Why? Because it doesn’t need almond butter which is either expensive or tedious to make and it only takes about 5-10 minutes to prep.  You can’t beat easy and cheap (ish). Well, folks, it’s not as cheap as that $1 bread advertised as food these days by Woolworths. But I don’t consider that food, no one should. Call me elitist, but that stuff does more harm than good, no matter how much you need to watch your $.

Ok, enough with the radical health rant…here’s the recipe and some pretty pix.

Ingredients

6 eggs
1/2 cups coconut oil (or ghee, or butter depending on your dairy tolerance)
1/2 juiced lemon
1-2 tbsp honey or rice syrup, depending on taste
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup coconut flour
chia and sesame seeds for the crust

Method

Preheat oven to 165C or 350F.

Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl and mix the wet ingredients in another bowl.  Then combine the two lots of ingredients together and mix well until there are no lumps in the mix.

Line a bread tin with baking paper or grease well. Pour bread mix into the tin and smooth the top down, making sure the height is even across the tin. Then spread the top of the bread loaf with chia and sesame seeds.

Bake for 40-45 mins and check the bread is ready by inserting a skewer in the middle of the loaf to make sure the bread is cooked throughout (nothing should be on the skewer when you remove it).

Once ready, remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for an hour. Once cool, slice carefully with a sharp bread knife. I think this bread is best kept in the freezer and toasted lightly when you want to eat it.

Coconut bread fresh outta the oven.

Coconut bread - check the gorgeous brown and golden hues.

Rich Chocolate slice…need I say more?

I think one of the scariest prospects about starting any new way of eating, such as Paleo, is that of a life without chocolate. #Firstworldproblem surely? Yes, it probably is a problem for spoilt first worlders, but nevertheless it warrants some attention so that anyone thinking they may jump on board can be reassured that there’s no need to give up on the chocolately goodness. It’s just a matter of ditching the totally unnecessary ingredients that are used in commercial chocolate products such as truckloads of sugar. It really is that simple.

A couple of years ago, I came across the raw chocolate brand Loving Earth. The chocolate “butter” is incredible. Very rich, very decadent. I used to get mine from Dr Earth in Newtown on their regular discount days. The warmer months are the best time to eat it, as the coconut oil in it is pretty runny, meaning the butter is reaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyy smooth!!

Loving Earth Chocolate butter

Loving Earth is a conscientious brand with great corporate values to go with their delectable products. I really love seeing how the range constantly expands with really cool authentic products that are sustainably produced.

Anyway, back to the point of this post…the chocolate slice.

On the back of my Nui coconut flour packet is a simple recipe for chocolate slice which I was itching to make. I had most of the ingredients and planned for some simple tweaks to accomodate my current addiction to raspberries (is there a better fruit ?)

So, here’s the recipe, lovingly typed out by me…

Rich Chocolate Coconut Slice

Rich chocolate slice with raspberries and pecans

Ingredients:

• 70gms raw cacao powder
• 130g coconut oil
• 3/4 cup maple syrup (I used mostlyorganic honey)
• 50g coconut flour
• 1/3 cup hazelnuts (or the nut of your choice – I used pecans)
• 4 free range eggs separated
• pinch of fine sea salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon (but of course)
• 50g  fresh or frozen raspberries

Method:

Grease a 24x18cm slice tin with coconut oil (or line with non-stick paper). Preheat oven to 160C.

Combine the cacao powder with melted coconut oil. Whip egg yolks with maple syrup/honey til well mixed and creamy. Add the chocolate/coconut oil mix to the maple/egg yolks and stir well.

Gently fold in the flour and the nuts until well combined. Add salt to the egg whites and whisk or beat until stiff peaks form.

Gently fold the egg whites into the slice mix, add frozen raspberries and transfer to the slice tin.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin. Store in the fridge.