Ultimate Go-to Grain-Free Chocolate Brownies

Brownies were never my favourite treat. They were either a little too sweet, too cakey or too crumbly. Of course one bite brownies and those amazing batches of brownies that that one talented mom always used to bring to the bake sales were an exception. We all had one of those, am I right?

Needless to say, whenever I tried making brownies I didn't really care for them. I always had terrible results;  not enough chocolate flavour, too crumbly, you name it, I did it. Brownies just weren't my game. This gluten-free version however, is a game changer. The brownie itself is best right out of the fridge since it gives it a fudgy texture, but it keeps a little crumble just the way I like it. I love the addition of the chocolate chunks, which add a deep dark chocolate taste to the finished product.

The best part about this recipe is that it makes the perfect base to build on. Want to add nuts? Go for it. Add some fresh seasonal fruit? Why not. Switch up the icing or omit it altogether? You bet. Play around with this recipe and make it your own.


Ultimate Grain-Free Chocolate Brownies

Makes 14-18 brownies

7 tbs coconut flour

9 tbs grass-fed butter, melted

7 tbs cocoa (raw or roasted, but roasted gives deeper flavour)

5 tbs raw unpasteurized honey 

5 tbs coconut palm sugar

1/2 tsp salt if using unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

1/2 -2/3 cup dark chocolate chips (soy-free)

Optional add ins:

1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup cherries or other seasonal fruit
1 tsp instant espresso powder (to deepen chocolate flavour)

Decadent Chocolate Icing

4 tbs grass-fed butter, softened

2/3 cup chocolate chips, melted

5 - 6 tbs cocoa

3 tbs raw unpasteurized honey

1 tbs vanilla whey protein - optional

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x9 in glass dish with coconut oil or butter. (I use a pie dish, which works just as well)  Mix together melted butter, sugar and honey in a medium bowl. Stir until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and stir until blended. Sift cocoa and coconut flour into bowl and mix until just combined. Add in chocolate chips and other optional items if using. Bake on middle rack for approximately 12-15 minutes or until middle is set. Let it cool.

To make the icing, combine room temperature butter with all other ingredients in a medium bowl. Whisk together until you reach a glossy finish.

Frost brownies and place in fridge to set.

Fudgy Nutella Cookies

My boyfriend and I got into a heated debate a couple weeks ago. The topic? Nutella. He likes his on its own, straight out of the jar. (I seriously can't leave him alone with a jar of my homemade Nutella) To him, anything else is downright blasphemous. For me on the other hand, although I do love a spoonful straight from the source, I just don't think it's fair to limit such a magical spread to being the solitary star of a sandwich, or spoon for that matter. I spread mine over rice cakes with strawberry or raspberry jam, alternate icing layers of cake with it and even make room on the spoon for jam or ice cream. While I can admit it's amazing on its own, Nutella deserves a friend or two.

So let the blasphemy begin.  I made a batch of homemade Nutella the other day (See my chocolate cake recipe for the how-to), only to find that I had added the fixins in too early.  I ended up with a separated but thick paste, which tasted delicious but wasn't quite what I was looking for, so I abandoned that ship only to accidentally find myself in cookie heaven. These cookies are crisp on the outside, chewy and fudgy on the inside and the sliced almonds and homemade shredded coconut lend just the right amount of crunch to the whole ordeal.

Whether you are a Nutella purist or a sacrilegious strawberry jam and Nutella lover like myself, enjoy these cookies on their own, with jam or even as an epic strawberry ice cream sandwich!

Nutella Cookies

Makes 12

1 1/4 cup Nutella Paste (preferably homemade, see Nutella Paste recipe) 

1 egg 

3 tbs  organic coconut flour

1 - 2 tbs whey protein powder

1 tsp soda

1/2 cup organic coconut palm sugar (more if you like it sweeter)

1/3 cup sliced or slivered almonds

Sea Salt

Shredded Coconut or dark chocolate chips on top for decoration. 

If using homemade Nutella, make sure it's cold, or add a little chocolate and arrowroot powder to it so it sets better. (The firmer the Nutella the better)

1. Combine Nutella, sugar and egg in a medium sized bowl 

2. Sift in coconut flour, whey and soda

3. Add in almonds until just combined

4. Let sit in fridge until hardened, approx. 30 min - 1 hour. (I like to leave mine overnight sometimes)

5. Preheat oven to 350

6. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on baking tray lined with parchment

7. Press down balls slightly, then add salt if using.

8. Top with small piece of dark chocolate and coconut if using

9. Bake for 10 minutes, or until tops are cracked and cookies have spread. 

10. Cool on wire rack

 (ice cream sandwich made with local strawberries and coconut milk)

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.

Coconut Flour Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

The science behind baking has always fascinated me.  To a kid, adding a mix of ingredients together to make something complete new and delicious was magical, but I never really liked all the rules you had to follow.

As a child my home revolved around what was happening in the kitchen.  Both my brother and I spent a lot of time watching my mother cook.  The oldest child of three, she grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan where she would prepare a lot of the meals for her family.  My mother was raised on an all organic, free range meat, non-GMO diet before it was the cool thing to do.  Using her knowledge from her childhood, she would create amazing meals in our kitchen without a recipe in sight, with an almost perfect turnout. There were a couple memorable fails though, like the most bitter artichoke soup I have every tasted to this day. (Note to self, if I ever make an artichoke soup, it is best done by using the hearts only, rather than boiling the entire thistle, including the stem and petals.)  We were raised to love and appreciate good healthy food, which I still thank her for on a regular basis. 

Her baking however, wasn't quite as stellar. I don't mean any disrespect to my wonderful mother, to whom I owe almost all of my knowledge of the kitchen, but aside from her amazing lemon chiffon cakes topped with a thick layer of 7 minute frosting, her baking always required some "adjusting", to put it lightly.  My brother and I got creative though, softening rock hard cookies in the microwave or dunking them in milk to add to the browned and burnt flavour of her chocolate chip or ginger cookies. 

After one rock hard cookie too many, I decided to take the baking in that house into my own hands. I followed recipes with extreme caution, levelling teaspoons of soda and sifting flour to perfection.  I was rewarded with cakes and cookies which received rave reviews from friends and family.  My brother became my toughest critic.  If he ate them, knew it was good.

As my baking skills improved, my creativity felt stifled by the strictness of the recipes I followed.  I began to grow tired of my go-to recipes so I did what any curious baker would do - I started to make them up!  It started out quite innocent at first; a little less flour here, a little more vanilla there, but baking became much more fun when I started to throw recipes together based on my knowledge alone. Unfortunately, my success rate declined with all of my improvisation.  Sure, there were some fabulous desserts that made their way out of my oven, but also far too many epic fails to count.  The lack of success ate away at my motivation, which, combined with a more sedentary lifestyle after leaving the world of swimming,  caused me to lose my passion for baking. 

On to the present, where I swim for fun, coach an amazing team of young synchronized swimmers (yes you read that right) and lift on a regular basis.  In the past 12 months I've made a few major changes to my diet, along with many little ones that weren't that hard to give up.  I steer clear of refined sugars, most dairy products, gluten, legumes, processed foods and hydrogenated oils.  If you're interested in a baseline of the diet I follow, follow this link to learn more (http://www.bulletproofexec.com/the-complete-illustrated-one-page-bulletproof-diet/).  I didn't have to change my diet drastically as I ate quite similarly before hand, but we will save that for another post. 

The biggest challenge with my diet change was dessert.  I am a sucker for anything chocolate and a good chewy cookie.  Store bought gluten free baking didn't cut it, which typically contains a whole lot of potato flour, refined sugars and other yucky things.  Cut up fruit topped with nuts or coconut was boring, as were most desserts that the internet deems to be healthy and "paleo".  Frustrated and hungry, I wanted to know why you couldn't find a recipe that was made from a small list of good ingredients that would do your body good.  Dessert shouldn't be about sneaking a treat that harms the body, it should be about eating something tasty without worrying about where the residual effects will show up the next time you rock a swimsuit.  I knew I had to do something about it, since my chocolate and dessert cravings simply cannot be curbed.  That's why I started baking the way I bake.  Life should taste good and leave you energized. So snack away at these cookies, no guilt required. 

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

These little cookies are soft and chewy, with a spiciness that builds as you go along.  I like my cookies to be intense in flavour, so I've spiced them quite heavily. Taste them as you go, you never know how spicy you might want them!

Makes 12-15 cookies

1/2 cup grass-fed butter

3/4 cup coconut palm sugar

2 eggs at room temp.

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tbs maple syrup or honey

1/2 cup coconut flour

2 - 3 tbs almond flour

1/3 cup cocoa (or raw cacao)

2 - 3 tsp cinnamon

2 - 3 tsp cayenne ( I like em spicy)

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt if using unsalted butter

1/2 tsp soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 - 3/4 cup 70% dark chocolate or a dark chili chocolate bar, chopped. (try to find chocolate without soy lecithin)

Preheat oven to 350. (My gas range is extremely hot so I bake everything at 300, so try a test cookie at 325 or 350)

Whip butter until pale and fluffy in a stand mixer or by hand if you want a really good arm workout. Approx. 3 - 4 minutes. Add sugar and whip another minute. Add in eggs, vanilla and honey. 

Sift together coconut flour, almond flour, cocoa, spices and sodas.  Add to wet ingredients at low speed in your mixer. Once combined, dough should look firm yet still quite pliable. Add in chocolate chunks and mix until just combined. 

Roll into 1.5 - 2 inch balls and arrange on a tray lined with parchment.  Press down to make circular cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Let cool on cookie rack. Enjoy with coffee or hot chocolate :)