The past three days

I've tried out several recipes within the last few days.  So I decided I would take pictures of all and share in this post.  The first recipe was for coconut butter cookies by Bruce Fife in his book titled, "Cooking with Coconut Flour".  The link is a preview of his book from the simply coconut website.  I absolutely LOVED these cookies.  Think, coconut macaroons, but without all the work of beating the egg whites and gently folding in, etc, etc...  They have such a rich buttery flavor, and hold up so well.  My 2 year old niece Nevaeh ate two of them, and my mom (and myself) couldn't get enough :)  I did make a substitution for the sugar, using half a cup of Xylitol and several drops of vanilla flavored Stevia.  This adaptation made my cookies cane sugar free.  You could also use honey or any sweetener you prefer :) just depending on what you use might impact if they stay fluffy or spread a little more.  You will have to experiment.  If your interested in tyring coconut flour; which is very low in carbohydrates, high in fiber and great for those who have gluten intolerance, this link is a great starting point with lots of recipes.

The second recipe was my attempt at working with almond flour.  Almond flour tastes excellent and is ideal for an alternative to wheat flour.  I learned about this flour after reading Elana Amsterdam's blog called Elana's Pantry.  I finally broke down and bought a bag of this stuff.  It is expensive!  I couldn't wait to get it and try some new recipes.  Well, while I was waiting on my order to arrive, I found some videos on YouTube that showed you how to make your own almond flour.  So I made my own!!! It was so easy.  So I made Elana's chocolate chip cookies using my own almond flour.  The only modifications I made was to use Maple Syrup instead of Agave and melted coconut oil instead of the butter.  There are a lot of mixed ideas on the true health qualities of using Agave as a sweetener, so at this time I am choosing to use other sweeteners other than Agave.  I don't know if it was my homemade flour or the use of the coconut oil, but I didn't need to press down my cookies at all.  They were perfect and baked out just like normal chocolate chip cookies.  SO delicious, and after I calculated the nutrition facts, I think there were only 3 grams of sugar per cookie!  That is amazing :)  If you don't like the flavor of coconut I would definitely use the butter instead.  My husband is the PICKIEST eater you will ever meet, and he liked these cookies.  Although he said he did notice the coconut flavor.  All in all this recipe was a huge success in my book!

These are the cupcakes that I refered to in my last post.  Elana has two different Vanilla cupcake recipes.  One using coconut flour and the other using almond flour.  So I was inclined to try both :)  the one on the right with the coarser texture is the almond flour cupcake and the coconut flour cupcake was much more smooth.  They both tasted great, however the textures were so different they are completely different.  You will have to try them out to see which you prefer :)  The almond flour cupcake really almost reminded me of the texture of a corn muffin!!  They were delicate and moist and delicious.  I will make these again without the sweetener and crumble them up in some chili.  I will make that for dinner tonight I think!
I think I over baked the coconut flour recipe a little so it seemed a tad dry, but after sitting overnight they seemed much better!(I had one for breakfast with coffee, ha)  One thing I have noticed when baking with coconut flour, is that the baked goods seem to get better as they sit a day or two.  They seem to reabsorb the moisture or something!  So if you experimenting with baked goods using coconut flour, don't write it off until its really had a chance to sit and get better :) so below is the picture of both opened up so you can see the texture. :)
Well, I am going to go play with Eva now!  She is so cute :)  Until next time...
Love, Sara