Grain-Free Pineapple Upside Down Cake

One day in early October, I said to my Husband, "I feel like baking something." He said, "Pineapple Upside Down Cake!" And I said, "Well, okay then!" What he didn't know, or maybe he did, is that months earlier I had bought a can of pineapple rings for just this purpose. I had all the other ingredients on hand to make this Coconut Pineapple Upside Down Cake recipe,which I'd printed and put into my recipe file. But, it uses a dozen eggs, and that was going to make me dangerously low on eggs in the house. So after studying it for a bit, I went back to my printed recipe file, and found this Grain-Free Coffee Cake recipe, which I'd made as written before and found awesome. I taped them both to my kitchen cabinet, and proceeded to hybridize them. The result was fantastic! So now, I'll share it with you.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

2/3c + 1/4 cup (divided use) grade B maple syrup, or honey
1/4c + 1/4 cup (divided use) coconut oil, melted
4 eggs
1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk (or heavy cream if you can do dairy)
3/4 cup arrowroot powder
3/4 cup sifted coconut flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
12 1/2-inch pineapple rings (or a can of sliced pineapple)
1/4 cup unsweetened dried tart cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Oil a cake pan with straight sides. (I love this coconut oil spray. It's not perfect - contains soy lecithin and "propellant", but it's far better than the alternatives.)

Mix 2/3c maple syrup or honey, 1/4c coconut oil, eggs, and coconut milk until well combined.

Stir together arrowroot powder, coconut flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.

Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients and stir well.

Put the remaining 1/4c coconut oil in a small saucepan and heat over medium high heat. Stir in the remaining 1/4c maple syrup or honey. When it foams and bubbles, pour it into the bottom of the greased cake pan. Arrange the pineapple slices and dried cherries in the bottom of the pan. Pour the prepared cake batter over the top, and pop the pan into the preheated oven. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before running a knife around the sides, and inverting on a platter to serve.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Poppers

This is one of those "only via the Internet" stories. A friend on Facebook posted about making these poppers, with a link to where she'd pinned the recipe on Pinterest. That, of course, had been pinned by several other people - I don't "do" Pinterest, so I couldn't quite trace the path. Not that it matters. Clicking on the pinned recipe took me to a blog that posted the recipe, which that blogger had gotten from someone *else's* blog... I took a look at it, and immediately adapted it in my head to be gluten-free. A few days later, I tried out my adaptation, and if I do say so myself, they're PERFECT! So, without further ado, here is a delicious, sugary recipe, adapted to be gluten-free and nourishing, if still a bit sugary!

Pumpkin Poppers

1/2 cup coconut flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. allspice

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1/3 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup coconut palm sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup pumpkin

1/2 cup milk, cream, or coconut milk

For Coating - optional

4oz butter or ghee, melted

2/3 cup turbinado sugar

2 tbsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 F and spray mini muffin tins with coconut oil spray.

Combine coconut flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in a bowl and whisk until combined.

In another bowl, mix coconut oil, coconut  sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin, and milk. Pour in flour mixture and mix until just combined. Fill mini muffin tins until almost full and bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of one muffin comes out clean. 

If using coating: Melt butter in small bowl.  Mix sugar and cinnamon in a separate small bowl. After poppers cool for a few minutes, dip them in the butter and roll them in the sugar mixture - either the whole popper, or just the top for a bit less sweet! 

Yet Another Grain-Free Muffin Recipe (Blueberry Muffins)

This one isn't sugar-free, and is also based on the original grain-free cake recipe. I'm pleased with how it came out, so thought I'd post it. 

Blueberry Muffins (Grain-Free)

1 cup coconut flour, sifted

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking soda

10 eggs, preferably room temperature

1 cup coconut oil

¾ cup raw honey, coconut palm sugar, or rapadura/sucanat

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp orange extract

1 ½ cups fresh blueberries, rinsed, and any stems removed

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease muffin pan with coconut oil and dust lightly with coconut flour.

In a small bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the balloon whisk, blend eggs, oil, sugar or honey, and extracts.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and blend.

Gently stir the blueberries into the batter.

Fill the muffin cups with batter. (Since gluten-free baked goods don’t rise as much as ones containing gluten, it’s okay to fill the cups completely.) Pop the pan into the preheated oven, and bake about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. If your pan is thin, or the cups are smaller, start checking the muffins at 20 minutes. If you are using stoneware, it may take 35 minutes. Mine came out really brown on top, because I had to bake them the full 35 minutes.

Place the whole pan on a cooling rack and allow the muffins to cool completely before removing them from the pan. In addition to being really brown on top, when I popped the first one out, I was alarmed at how *black* it was. Then I realized that was just the blueberries. I broke it open, and it was pretty perfect, studded with lovely whole blueberries! 

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Chocolate Mug Cake

Husband's birthday is rolling around again soon, and he wants a German Chocolate Cake for it. I'm going to have a very talented pastry chef friend of ours make him one, but I wondered what I would have, as I'm totally gluten-free again now. Grain-free, in fact, for the time being. And trying to limit my general carb intake as much as I can. So I started scouring the intertubes for a gluten-free mug cake, and didn't like anything I found. They all called for too many ingredients, or one of those gluten-free baking mixes that taste kind of weird. I searched for coconut flour mug cake, but the only one I found used more rice flour than coconut. Then I thought, you know, I have a coconut flour cake recipe that I know works great, why not just chop it down and see how it comes out?? And I did, and it worked great!! So, without further ado, here is the recipe:


1 large egg
1 rounded Tablespoon coconut flour, sifted
1 rounded teaspoon cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tablespoons coconut oil
2 Tablespoons Grade B maple syrup
drop vanilla extract


Crack the egg into a large (12oz) heatproof coffee mug. Beat it with a fork until well combined. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to mix thoroughly. Pop the mug into the microwave, and cook on "high" for 2.5 minutes*. Take it out and let it sit for 5 minutes, then devour! Mine pulled away from the sides of the mug, allowing me to dump it out onto a plate, but I'm sure it would be just as tasty right out of the mug! 


That's exactly how long I did mine and it was right, but as we all know, microwaves vary, so watch it and see when it's done. It rose up right at first, higher than the mug, but then it went back down into the mug, and I basically just decided it smelled done and stopped it. I touched the top, and it was firm, so took it out and let it sit, and it was just right. Oh and I know, I prefer to avoid the microwave when I can - I do suppose you could pop the mug into a regular oven and bake it - not sure how long that would take, though. 

I have a friend who has to watch his sugar intake, so I ran the statistics on the recipe, as best I could figure:
454 calories
33.8g fat (65% of calories)
33.5g carb (28% of calories)
8.0g protein (7% of calories)


The vast majority of the carbs was 26.8g sugar from the maple syrup, so I suppose you could use a fake sugar if you were a person who needed, for medical reasons, to watch the sugar intake. For me, the fat/carb balance is what I watch. 


Anyway, I'm all about the *sensible* indulgences, as Mark Sisson calls them, and this one really fit the bill! 


**Update** The second time I made this, for some reason, it was quite bitter and not nearly as tasty as the first time. I can't now remember what I did differently, but I think I eyeballed some of the measurements, so maybe I over- or under-did something. Maybe I overcooked it. I'll update again the next time I try it and post how it comes out and anything I do differently. 

Coconut Waffles (Grain-Free)

I was following the grain-free waffle recipe from Organic and Thrifty, which was apparently adapted from Mark's Daily Apple, and I liked them. A lot. And Husband liked them, too. But I found them quite dry and dense. I realized there was no butter or oil in the batter, and most waffle recipes call for butter or oil. After studying up a bit in Joy of Cooking about proportions, I came up with the following recipe, and they are GREAT! The texture is moist and tender, and I dare say they taste like A Waffle, not like, some adapted, grain-free version of a waffle, if you know what I mean. Also, last time I made them, I added some shredded coconut to a couple of them, and we liked those, too, so I added that to the whole batch today. If you are not a huge fan of coconut, don't worry, they don't really taste all that coconutty. Just leave out the shredded coconut, and you will have simply a yummy, waffley, grain-free breakfast! One last note - these are super filling - I rarely eat more than one whole waffle.

Grain-Free Waffles
Makes 3 Waffles (doubles easily)

4 eggs
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg, or both
1 T grade B maple syrup, or local honey
1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk, cream, or full-fat plain yogurt
2 T melted coconut oil or butter, cooled slightly
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup coconut flour*
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (optional)

4 T (1/2 stick) butter
1 T grade B maple syrup (or local honey)

*Available at natural foods stores or at Amazon. Don't be alarmed by the price - you use so little of it at a time. My first 1lb bag lasted me a year.

Gather your ingredients, then start the waffle iron preheating. Whisk the eggs until uniform. Add the vanilla, cinnamon and/or nutmeg, maple syrup or honey, milk, and oil or butter, and whisk to combine. Add the baking soda and coconut flour and whisk. Stir in the shredded coconut, if using.

Pour a scant 1/2 cup into the center of your waffle iron, and cook according to the manufacturer's directions.

While the first waffle is cooking, melt the 1/2 stick of butter, and mix in the 1T maple syrup. Put a cookie sheet or plate in the oven on its lowest setting (170-200F).

When the waffle is done, use a spatula to transfer it to the pan or plate in the oven, and brush it generously with the butter/syrup mixture. Proceed with the rest of the batter, brushing with butter/syrup as soon as you put it in the oven. When they are all cooked, enjoy your filling, satisfying, grain-free, low sugar, low-carb, high protein, high fiber, DELICIOUS breakfast, loaded with GOOD fats! (Or lunch, or dinner!)

Make extra, so that you have leftovers. They freeze well: Place them between layers of waxed paper & put into a gallon baggie. When you are ready to enjoy, take them out and place them on a cookie sheet in a 350F oven for a few minutes to warm them. If you want to use a popup toaster to warm them, don't brush them with the butter/syrup mixture before storing them.

UPDATE: I tried mixing fresh blueberries into the batter. This turned out to be a gigantic mess. I do NOT recommend it!! The blueberries burnt and became glued to the waffle iron, and made the batter too wet, so the couple of waffles I managed to make turned out burned on the outside and falling-apart wet on the inside. I tried making pancakes with the rest of the batter, and had similarly disastrous results. So, if you want berries with your waffles, I recommend putting them on TOP of a COOKED waffle, and not trying to cook them into the waffles!

100% Rye "Biscuits"

So I got this recipe for Soaked Whole Grain Buttermilk Biscuits, and decided to try them. Husband misses such things, and he was on his way home. As with most things I cook, I used the recipe as a starting place, and made a lot of changes.

Friday night I went to the store for buttermilk, but was horrified at what they put in it. I remembered that in the absence of buttermilk, you could "clabber" milk with lemon juice or vinegar, both of which I had at home, so I bought a quart of whole, organic milk. (A so-so choice. Read about healthy milk choices here.) I came home and opened Joy of Cooking, checked substitutions, and found they suggest yogurt as a buttermilk replacement. I guess the clabbered milk substitution was from the previous edition of Joy of Cooking (I have both, LOL). Anyway, I had some homemade raw milk yogurt on hand, so I used that instead of clabbered milk. I also didn't have any whole wheat flour in the freezer, but I did have some stone ground rye flour, so I used that. Since I was using rye flour, I added some caraway seeds and rosemary to the dough. The rest of the method I followed. I did roll the dough out and cut them out with a biscuit cutter that was my Mom's - maybe even my grandmother's. Using that made me happy, but I'm sure the biscuits would be just as good made as drop biscuits, as recommended in the original recipe.

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups stone-ground rye flour
½ cup cold butter
1 T caraway seeds
1 T dried rosemary
1 cup buttermilk or yogurt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon unrefined sea salt

Method:
Measure the whole grain flour into a bowl or better, into the bowl of a food processor or mixer. Add the cold butter, cut into chunks. Cut the butter into the flour, using two knives, or mix with the food processor or mixer  until the mixture resembles the texture of cornmeal. Mix in the caraway seeds and rosemary. Stir in the buttermilk or yogurt to form a thick dough. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap, and allow to sit on your counter overnight.

In the morning, preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Once the oven is preheated, knead baking soda and unrefined sea salt into the dough.

Flour your hands and gently form the biscuits either by rolling them out and cutting them out with a biscuit cutter, or drop them straight from the mixing bowl onto a baking sheet or preheated baking stone.

Bake the biscuits at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for about fifteen minutes, or until they puff up and become a golden brown color. I used a Pampered Chef baking stone, and I think I baked the rye biscuits for 20 minutes. They didn't really puff up, but I don't know if that is the heaviness of the rye, or if I should have used more baking soda. I will try using a skosh more baking soda next time.

Use a spatula to transfer the biscuits to a rack to cool slightly, then slather with pastured butter, and enjoy!

Meringue Mushrooms

Or rather, 

"How To Make 100 Adorable Meringue Mushrooms a Whole Lot More Difficult Than They Needed To Be". 

First, realize at 8:15 at night that it's going to rain tomorrow, so those meringues really should have been made today when it was clear and dry. Decide that it's not too late to make them & dig out the recipe. Get out the two jellyroll pans and line them with parchment. Do a really bad job of trimming the parchment, so that the paper is not particularly straight in the pans. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Farenheit. 

Crack 6 eggs and separate the whites & yolks. Be sure they are Jumbo eggs because your Sweet Husband didn't notice the difference when he bought the last 2 dozen. 

Get out the wonderful KitchenAid mixer & whisk attachment. Wipe it down to be sure there is no residue, dust, or crumbs. Pour the six jumbo egg whites into the mixer bowl, attach the whisk, put the bowl up into mixing position, and see a tiny fragment of eggshell in the whites. Put the bowl back down, remove the whisk, detach the bowl, fish out the shell fragment, wash hands, put bowl back into position, reattach whisk, put the bowl up, and start the motor. Get the egg whites to just almost a nice soft peak stage, then realize that you forgot to add the Cream of Tartar with the egg whites. Add some, being sure not to measure it, and run the mixer some more to mix it in. Stop the mixer, & lower the bowl. 

Get out the sugar, measure 1 1/2 cups plus a little, maybe 1 3/4 cups, to account for the Jumbo eggs. Read, "Add sugar slowly". Start the mixer running, and pour the sugar in in a stream. Wonder why it doesn't seem to be getting to the stiff peaks stage. Get out the Joy of Cooking, look up "Meringues, About", and find out that you were supposed to add the sugar a Tablespoon at a time. Oops. Don't find any information about how to fix a meringue if something goes wrong. Keep running the mixer and finally realize that you have, in fact, achieved stiff peaks stage. Take the bowl off the mixer and put the whisk attachment in the sink to soak. 

Go get the stepstool and climb up to get the pastry bag supplies off the top of the refrigerator. Wonder, once again, how they ended up there inside the roasting pan in the first place? Open the supplies up and remember that the large pastry bag blew a seam the last time you used it. Get out a gallon Ziplock baggie to stand in for it. Don't find the large round tip. Decide to use the smaller pastry bag and a medium fluted tip. Put the gallon Ziploc away. Spend some time figuring out how to assemble the bag, tip, and plastic attachment thingy. Get it situated, open it up & start spooning meringue into it. Pause to wonder when the pastry bag had been washed last. Decide that it's been inside a sealed Ziploc ever since, so it's fine. 

Pipe the mushroom tops, complete with lines from the fluted tip, haphazardly onto the parchment-lined pans. Be sure not to have any symmetry or organization in the process. Get to the end of the first bit of meringue in the pastry bag. 

Get a bigger spoon and spoon too much meringue into the pastry bag, so that it won't close off completely. Now when you go to squeeze it through the tip, the meringue takes the easier exit out the top and onto your hand. Squish the excess out the top & decide if it goes back into the bowl or down the sink. Rinse your hand off & cursorily dry it, all while holding the overfull pastry bag in your other hand. 

Get back to piping. Fill the first pan with tops, and count them. Count them again to be sure, since there is no rhyme or reason to their layout on the pan. Start piping stems onto the other parchment-lined pan. Fill the rest of the space with tops. Refill the pastry bag with the rest of the meringue. Pipe more stems, to have an equal number, in between the odd gaps in the first pan. Completely fill both pans, and realize that you have a fair bit of meringue still in your pastry bag. Using one hand, while holding the half full pastry bag in your other hand, open the drawer, get out the parchment paper, pull a sheet off onto the counter, and resume piping tops & stems. Realize you've got 93 of each now, but think there is no way you can get 7 more out of the amount of meringue left. Decide to do 2 more, to have 95. Keep piping to 100. Have a bit of meringue left in the pastry bag. Decide it's going down the drain! 

Toss the pastry bag & mixer bowl into the sink & run some hot water in them. Blow the seam of the smaller pastry bag, in exactly the same way that you now remember that you blew the seam of the larger pastry bag. 

Get a spoon & start trying to smooth the mushroom tops. About 2/3 of the way through, glance at the Joy of Cooking page about making meringue mushrooms & see that they recommend using a finger to do this. Decide this is a better plan, and do so. Go into a bit of a trance while doing this detailed task. 

Get another cookie sheet down and slide it under the third parchment of meringues on the counter. Add a third rack to the oven, and slide the pans in. As it's now 9:30 and you want to go to bed before 11:30 when the oven should be turned off, dig out the oven manual and figure out how to set it to go off in two hours. 

Start cleaning things up. Seal up the bag of unused pastry bag parts. Look up at the top of the fridge where they were found, and wonder why there seems to be another gallon Ziploc up there? Get it down, and find the large round tip that you needed at the outset. Roll your eyes, sigh loudly, put it into the bag with the other supplies, and store them in the drawer they should have been in instead of on top of the refrigerator. 

Finish cleaning up, turn on the dishwasher, get a cup of tea, and go plop on the couch with netbook to share your idiocy with the world! 

Gigi's Famous, Award-Winning, Triple Ginger Cookies!

Yes, here it is, for you to have. THE recipe! I've never been secretive about it, actually. Below are the measurements for a single batch. I almost always make a triple batch, but I've got the larger KitchenAid stand mixer, so it can handle it. Note that these are NOT Ginger "Snaps", because while they are "snappy" with ginger and spice, they are *soft* cookies, not thin, hard ones. Those have their place, but they are not these!

Triple Ginger Cookies

2 ¼ c. unbleached flour
1 c. dark brown sugar
1 ½ sticks real butter (Kerrygold or Falfurrias is best)
1/4 c. molasses
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon (freshly ground is best)
1 tsp fresh ginger, peeled, and grated or chopped
1 tsp ginger preserve or chopped crystallized ginger
½ tsp ground cloves (freshly ground is best)
½ c. granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350° F.  In a large mixing bowl, combine half the flour, and the brown sugar, butter, molasses, egg, soda, gingers, cinnamon, and cloves.  Beat with electric mixer until thoroughly combined.  Beat in remaining flour.  Shape dough into 1" balls.  Roll each in granulated sugar and place 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake at 350° on top rack for 7-10 minutes or until set and tops are crackled.  Cool on racks.

Makes about 3 dozen.

This recipe doubles/triples easily, if your mixer can handle it! Every year at the holidays, I make four triple batches: about 40 dozen.

BE SURE TO SEE THE PHOTOS OF THE PROCESS HERE.
And specifically note the size of my "tablespoon" measurements.
There are also photos of grinding cloves & cinnamon. Makes a huge difference!

ENJOY!

Fearless Friday: Muffins

Based on the success of the cupcakes made from the gluten-free cake recipe, I decided to try an experiment to decrease the sugar even more. So based on that recipe, I made up the following one. If it works, I'll have a snack that is free of grain, gluten, dairy, sugar, and fake sugar. The only major allergen it contains is egg. I do have at least one friend who will not be able to eat them because of that. And I guess nuts, but those are quite easily left out.

Carrot Apple Raisin Muffins
(Free of gluten, grain, dairy, sugar, & sugar substitutes)

3/8 cup coconut flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon celtic sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons flax seed, ground
(1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp allspice - suggestions*)
5 eggs
1/2 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup raisins (used 1/4 cup golden & 1/4 cup regular)
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts**

In a small bowl combine flour, salt, baking soda, ground flax, & spices.
In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, and applesauce.
Add carrots, raisins, and pecans and mix.
Add dry ingredients into large bowl and mix.
Grease 12 cup muffin tin and dust with coconut flour, or line with muffin papers.
Pour batter into cups 2/3 full and bake at 325° for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean.
Remove from oven, allow to cool 10 minutes in pan, then remove from pans & cool completely.

*My applesauce was homemade, and was very spicy with ginger, cinnamon, & anise seeds, so I didn't add any extra spices. Therefore these measurements are just suggestions.
**If you know me at all, you know I used pecans. I always say, "A walnut is a Yankee's poor excuse for a pecan!" That being said, I concede that walnuts would work just fine in such a recipe.

I transferred them to a cooling rack, and we each grabbed a warm one on our way out the door - Husband was halfway through his before I bit into mine, so I asked him for an assessment. He said it was, "like cornbread with fruit in it," and he liked it. I bit into mine and found the texture to be fantastic! It was pretty much not sweet at all, except for the raisins. When we got home, we each had a room-temperature one, and found it much sweeter than the warm ones had been. I refrigerated them overnight, and in the morning found them *plenty* sweet for breakfast.

There are a couple of things I will do differently next time:
- I will grease & flour the muffin cups instead of using papers, because I didn't like how much muffin stuck to the papers.
- I will try using 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut in place of the flax seed, just to see how it affects the taste & texture. Perhaps I'll try using both as well.

But all in all, I declare this Fearless Friday a success! I will *definitely* be making it again.

**Update** I made a second batch, and it did not come out anything like as well as the first. They were edible, but soggy. There were a few changes contributing to this: 
1. I used a less-expensive brand of coconut flour, which was milled less finely and had a higher fat content than the Bob's Red Mill that I used before. I now recommend *only* Bob's Red Mill Coconut Flour. It's around $7/lb, but you only use tablespoons of it at a time. My first bag lasted me an entire year.  
2. I eliminated the flax seed, and added 1/4 cup unsweetened, flaked coconut. I loved the flavor of the coconut added, so next time I will try adding both.
3. My applesauce had sort of separated and was a bit runny, and
4. I didn't measure the carrot shreds, but just grated 2 carrots into the bowl. I don't know that this threw it off, but with baking, measuring is usually a good idea.

I'll make a third batch and let you know how they come out!

Cupcakes!

Tomorrow is Husband's birthday! Time to bake!

As I said, I have a new pan that makes rosette-shaped cupcakes. Since last year's cake was the first that really turned out for me, I decided to use the same recipe this year. Husband requested chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Since I don't intend to frost the cupcakes & obscure their shape, I added a cup of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips to the batter, to make it extra chocolatey for him. I checked with Joy of Cooking that any cake batter can be made into cupcakes; bake for 20-25 minutes. This agreed with the instructions that came with the pan. I had also asked the fabulous Heather Solos over at Home Ec 101 for advice on how to grease/flour the cups so that I didn't have flour globs on the rosettes. She advised me to use a bit of the flour/cocoa mix. Since this recipe uses such a *tiny* amount of flour (3/4c coconut flour/1/4c cocoa powder), I made 1/4 cup extra & reserved it for this purpose. The recipe uses coconut oil, which I have vast quantities of, but yesterday I happened upon a can of spray coconut oil, on sale, and decided to splurge on it. Hey, it's a birthday cake! And this isn't an inexpensive recipe, no matter how you slice it. (haha)

First batch seemed perfectly done at 20m. They spent 10m cooling in the pan, then I gave them a gentle massage to be sure they were loose from the sides, inverted a platter on the pan, turned the whole shebang over, and POP!! PERFECT CHOCOLATE ROSE CUPCAKES. I overfilled the second batch's cups because the batter was *almost* done, so it took the extra 5m.

While the first batch were cooling, I tried a couple of decorations, but I think I like them plain best. What do you think?

L-R: Plain; cocoa powder; flaked coconut mixed with powdered sugar; powdered sugar.

It's all I can do to keep from wolfing one down!!! (And then I did. It was DELISH!)

Lemon Pecan Shortbread

So Sunday night at a Superbowl party, we tried a lemon Girl Scout cookie. Husband mentioned later that he'd really liked it. So I said, okay, I'll make you some lemon cookies that are better!

So, I did a search for lemon shortbread on Epicurious.com and found this recipe to start with:

Lemon Shortbread
Bon Appétit August 2001

The secret to tender shortbread — a classic Scottish treat — is not overworking the dough.

Yield: Makes 24 wedges

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Preheat oven to 300°F. Blend first 5 ingredients in processor. Add butter; cut in using on/off turns until moist clumps form. Gather dough into ball; divide in half. Press 1 dough half onto bottom of each of two 8-inch-diameter cake pans. Pierce dough all over with fork.

Bake until cooked through and pale golden, about 40 minutes. Cool shortbread in pans on racks 5 minutes. Cut each warm shortbread in pan into 12 wedges. Cool completely. Using spatula, carefully transfer to platter. (Can be made up to 4 days ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.)


And here is what I actually did:

Lemon Pecan Shortbread

1 1/2 cups "white whole wheat" flour (It's all I had on hand. Gave it a pleasantly "Digestive" quality)
2/3 cup sugar (I ran out of turbinado sugar, so used half that & half white)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp lemon extract
grated lemon peel (I don't know how much, I just denuded two lemons with my Microplane zester/grater)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I put it back in the fridge after I cut it up so it would be really cold when I added it)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

I am a butter snob, I used Kerrygold from Ireland. If you can't get it, Falfurrias from Texas is actually just about as good. Recipes always call for unsalted butter, then have you add salt. So I just use salted butter and don't add salt.

Preheat oven to 300°F. Blend first 5 ingredients in processor. Add butter and pecans; cut in using on/off turns until moist clumps form. Don't over-process! Gather dough into ball; press into 9x12 pyrex pan.

Bake until cooked through and pale golden, about 40 minutes. Cool shortbread in pan on racks 5 minutes. Cut warm shortbread in pan into squares. Cool completely. Using spatula, carefully transfer to platter. (Can be made up to 4 days ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.)

They were even better the next day, the lemon flavor was even more pronounced. Yum!

Gluten-Free CAKE!!

Husband's birthday is today! To celebrate, I wanted to bake him a gluten-free cake, so that I could enjoy it with him. I found this fantastic recipe at Elana's Pantry, which is a wonderful organic, gluten-free recipe and information source!
Now, I did adapt the recipe in several ways, to use what I had on hand, and to make it "German Chocolate"-ish. The more coconut, the better!! Here is my version:

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting

¾ cup coconut flour, sifted
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 eggs
1 cup coconut oil
1 ½ cups agave nectar*
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl combine flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda.
In a large bowl of mixer, using the balloon whisk attachment, blend eggs, oil, agave nectar*, and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients into large bowl and continue to blend.
Oil (2) 9 inch round cake pans and dust with coconut flour.
Pour batter into pans and bake at 325° for 35-40 minutes.
Remove from oven, allow to cool completely then remove from pans.
Frost and serve.

"German" Chocolate Frosting
1 cup flaked (unsweetened) coconut soaked overnight in apple juice
1 cup Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips
½ cup coconut oil
2 tablespoons agave nectar*
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
pinch celtic sea salt

In a small saucepan over very low heat, melt chocolate chips and coconut oil.
Stir in agave, vanilla, salt, and soaked coconut.
Place frosting in freezer for 15-25 minutes to cool.
Remove from freezer and whip frosting in the mixer with the whisk attachment until it is thick and fluffy.
Frost over cake.
Serve!

Photos can be seen at my Picasa site!

IMPORTANT FURTHER UPDATE: (2/13/10) Use turbinado sugar, honey, or maybe maple syrup, but not the agave nectar. I have since found out that agave nectar has more of the processed sort of fructose (versus the good stuff in fresh fruit) than the evil High Fructose Corn Syrup. Stay FAR FAR AWAY from it.