Tahini Ginger Molasses Cookies

If you're as into "alternate" baking as I am (although this is how people should bake, let's be honest!), you may have noticed a rise in popularity of the truly flourless cookie swirling around the internet. The formula is a simple one, basically it's one cup of nut butter for 1 egg, some sugar and baking soda and voila, you have truly flourless cookies. Sure the flourless peanut butter (or almond butter!!) cookie is a magical thing for some,  but is that really enough? Not for me. Baking without conventional ingredients is more than just refusing to follow the abomination that is the mainstream american diet. I will admit that it's a major factor, but why settle for boring plain jane almond flour cookies or cakes stuffed with heavy tapioca flour and gritty rice flour when you can make things taste even better than their american diet counterparts? It's like comparing Clark Kent and Superman here. Well maybe not, but I'm sure you all get the point I'm trying to make.

I have a couple of these nut butter cookie recipes up my sleeve, but this one is to die for. Yes, sesame is technically a seed, but tahini paste should not be overlooked in the baker's kitchen! The texture is chewy, yet the cookie holds its shape and chewy texture quite nicely even after a day or two. It's sweet enough to be dessert yet yields a flavour deep enough to be dipped in tea and happily consumed as a breakfast treat. The ginger pieces are optional, but if you know what's good for you, you'll ignore their sugar content and continue to eat in ignorant bliss. Sometimes you have to live a little!

Tahini Ginger Mollasses Cookies

1 cup tahini

1/3 cup organic coconut palm sugar

4 tbs organic blackstrap molasses 

1 tsp baking soda

1 egg 

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped organic candied ginger

Preheat oven to 325 Fahrenheit 

1. In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients together minus ginger, until combined. 

2. Fold in chopped ginger until just combined.  The mixture will look oily. 

3. Refrigerate for 30 minutes 

4. Roll into 1 inch balls on a tray lined with parchment paper, make sure to leave plenty of space as they melt!

5. Bake for 8-10 minutes, depending on your oven, or until flat and dark golden brown. 

6. Cool on cooling rack

Easy Grain Free Apple Crisp

I took a little bit of a hiatus to visit my aunt and uncle down in Phoenix, Arizona.  They spend the spring and winter down there now that their kids are grown up.  My cousin, who happens to be my age and the sister I never had, met me down there. A week with family can be a lot of fun, but after seven days with my extended family under one roof I think I can say I've had my fill for a while.  They have an amazing place out in Scottsdale, so I took full advantage of biking the flat roads, running the trails and of course, their back yard swimming pool!

My aunt is the queen of planning outings and events.  She took us floating down the salt river on tubes, complete with a tube for our coolers.  Note, if you ever want to torture your adult children, promise them sun, food and water, then take to them a river, throw them on tubes,  attach them to their parents and send them down a river for three hours.  Okay, so it wasn't that bad.  I love my family so we had a great time, but you can picture some terrible sit-com where the dysfunctional family takes a river trip and it ends up being a complete disaster.

The next surprise she had lined up for us was an hour long drive, without telling us where we were headed.  We arrived at a canyon, where there was an amazing old train station.  We me out guide, Fermin, who was half butler half tour guide on our train adventure. Sitting in an original caboose from the 1930's, our family got to sit back in our own personal car at the back of the train while we made our way through the Verde Canyon.  Did I mention it was fully catered, complete with a stocked liquor cabinet? My aunt outdid herself. 

As way of thanks, Mother's Day morning I decided to do a little baking.  They were trying to clean our their pantry as they were heading back to Calgary the next day, so it was a use what we've got type of baking session.  Lucky for me, I love a challenge!  I found the last of the apples, the rest of the butter from my bulletproof coffee breakfast routine (Kerrygold for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about) and some almonds.  I found some instant oatmeal, but I couldn't bring myself to use it. You have to draw the line somewhere right?

I basically just winged it and threw everything together. The crisp turned out lovely, even without oats.  In fact, it turned out so well I didn't have a chance to take a picture of the final product! My uncle loved it and my aunt, who doesn't bake or care for baked goods, enjoyed it throughly.  They ate it so quickly it hadn't even crossed my mind to take a picture. All in all, I had a great week full of amazing home-cooked meals and some stellar sun.  

Easy Gran-Free Apple Crisp

(This recipe is just a ballpark, so feel free to play around)

6 Honeycrisp apples, sliced (these were small little organic ones, so 4 regular size will do)
2-3 handfuls of almonds, toasted until slightly crunchy
5 tbs cinnamon, divided (use as much or as little as you like)
4 tbs honey, divided
5 tbs grass-fed butter, divided

Preheat your oven to 350 Fahrenheit.

Arrange apples in baking tray of choice.  I found a glass 9x9 baking dish. Arrange first layer, then sprinkle cinnamon freely over apples, along with 2 tbs honey and 1 tbs butter (chopped into tiny pieces)

Place second layer of apple overtop, adding more cinnamon and honey if desired.

In a blender or food processor, grind nuts until they are in small chunks.  I made mine quite fine, so that half of the almonds had turned to flour, while the other half were teeny tiny pieces.

Place nuts meal in medium bowl and add remaining honey, butter and as much cinnamon as you want. If you have coconut palm sugar or a sugar of choice, add it in as well.  Using your hands, blend ingredients together so you have a sticky, buttery paste. You can add more cinnamon if it's looking too light or more almonds if you don't think you'll have enough to cover your apples.

Spread the crumble mixture over your apples as evenly as possible.

Bake @ 350 for 34-45 minutes, depending on your oven. The top should be a nice deep golden brown and the apples should be quite soft.

Allow to cool, or if you're impatient, enjoy right out of the pan!

Note: this would be awesome with coconut whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Here are a couple of cool shots from my trip.

Vanilla Bean Macadamia Nut Butter

My dad turned 60 over the weekend.  Quite the big deal if you ask me.  But he's not a big deal kind of guy, so we kept it low key and took him out for a nice dinner at one of his favourite seafood restaurants in downtown Vancouver.  We had an amazing meal, with wonderfully creative dishes like torched hamachi with jalapenos, a candied salmon salad and a beautifully plated piece of sturgeon with crispy puffed black rice.  All in all I would say it was a success of a birthday.    

     

My father isn't a huge fan of cakes, but he sure loves to snack. He loves tropical flavours like pineapple, coconut and lime. (As bad as they are, the coconut cashews from Trader Joe's are his kryptonite)  Since he has been on a little bit of a health kick lately, I promised I would make him a healthier version of a key lime pie sometime soon, but for our little dinner outing he needed something to open.  Making thoughtful gifts means more than stuff to my family, so I went with a delicious and decadent nut butter.  On a family trip to Hawaii my father couldn't get enough macadamias and is still thrilled when people bring them back for him, so I decided that macadamia nut butter would be perfect.  He was so happy to open the little package and find a dainty jar full of buttery goodness.  I warned him not to go crazy with the stuff though, since this butter is extremely rich!




Vanilla Bean Macadamia Nut Butter

Makes 1 small mason jar full

2 handfuls raw organic macadamia nuts

2 tbs honey 

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

1/2 tsp salt

Optional: add 1-2 TBS coconut cream (from the top of the can) to make even smoother

Put nuts in food processor and grind until a paste forms. This happens quite quickly with macadamias since they are almost pure fat.  Add sweetener, vanilla bean, salt and milk if using.  Blend until the desired consistency has been reached, 2-4 minutes.  


The flavour is mild and buttery, with just enough sweetness to be eaten on its own.  Enjoy on toast, right off the spoon, or for me, on a crisp little cookie.