experimenting

I've been experimenting with lots of new ingredients in the kitchen. Mostly because its fun, not necessarily because I think my old ways are bad and we're only going to eat the new stuff. I'm learning that I like moderation and variety in all areas. So I don't plan on cutting out regular flour and only using things like coconut flour, or cutting out regular sugar to only use organic cane sugar... though I think our family has successfully cut out processed food, which has been nice. Right now I'm focusing mainly on getting higher GOOD fats into my kid's diets. Not because I want them to be fat, but I think they need those higher, whole fats in their diets as growing kiddies; finding more foods that are "brain foods".

That's sort of my disclaimer, because I don't want anyone to think I think coconut flour is holy and making food for your kids with regular flour is child abuse. I don't at all.
As I've been experimenting with new things, I have been enjoying making some new recipes with coconut flour. At first I thought it would make all our food taste like coconut, but it doesn't! I'm glad too, because I'm not a fan of too much coconut taste.
These brownies are delicious! Especially with a glass of milk :)
I'm making the cookies tomorrow, so I can't give any recommendation...

Alison's Wheat free Brownies {with coconut flour} 
1/3 cup Butter or non-dairy alternative
1/2 cup Cocoa powder
6 eggs or equivalent substitute
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 cup chocolate chips {or desired amount, or none!}
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350.
In a medium saucepan over low heat, blend butter and cocoa powder.
Remove from heat and let cool. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, sugar and vanilla.
Blend this into the cocoa mixture. Stir in the coconut flour until the batter is no longer lumpy.
Add the chocolate chips, if desired.
Bake in 8x8 pre-greased baking pan for about 30-35 minutes

Wheat free Chocolate Chip cookies 
3/4 cup + 2 TBL Brown rice flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 Baking Soda
8 TBL butter or non-dairy alternative, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 light brown sugar
1 egg or equivalent substitute
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
Directions: 
Preheat the oven to 375. Blend together the butter and sugar until fluffy and well mixed.
Beat in egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix the flours and baking soda. Add this to the butter/egg mixture until smooth and well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using).
Drop the dough by the teaspoonful onto pre-greased cookie sheets.
These should be spaced about 2 inches apart. Bake about 8-12 minutes or until brown on the edges.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

Comments

Jessica said…
What a fun endeavor...I have been struggling between budget and ingredients for a couple of months. I am excited for this Winter when I can start the process of staying home with my family more and really taking more care of what is in their diet. I know my budget will be smaller, but my time at home to prepare and think ahead should be more. Anyway, I always enjoy reading your tips! :) Love you!
Gina said…
I know you all use a lot of coconut oil--doesn't that make your foods taste like coconut? And I didn't even know they made coconut flour--where do you find that? If it's wheat free, is it gluten free?
Stef said…
Hey Gina, not that we've noticed so far. If you use coconut oil to grease a pan or whatever, you don't need much at all. It is gluten free and I can only find it on Amazon {where its much cheaper, because it comes in bulk} or our local health food store.
Bob's Red Mill brand will usually have it at health food stores, but you'll pay much more.
Amazon's is like $25.00 for 4-6 bags of it. Even thought he bags are much smaller than regular bags of flour, remember you use much less coconut flour when you bake. The brownie recipe calls for only 1/2 a cup.
Gina said…
I know you all use a lot of coconut oil--doesn't that make your foods taste like coconut? And I didn't even know they made coconut flour--where do you find that? If it's wheat free, is it gluten free?

Popular posts from this blog

One Thousandth blog post + GIVEAWAY!!

keeping the sickies away

Blog Giveaway!!