Good for You Desserts by Priscilla Warshowsky

In our house, we eat desserts that are home made.  Since I do the cooking/baking and I am not a chocolate fan, I use carob instead which I find has a rich and delicious taste.  I also like to experiment with different kinds of flours and have found that almond, oat, and cassava ones are the best.  I do use coconut flour but sparingly as it is dense and will make the cake or cookies heavier.  For sweetener, I use organic maple syrup and for an extra zing, almond and vanilla extracts.  Melted coconut oil makes everything moist.

PALEO BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Dry Ingredients:

• 3 cups total flour/nuts
• Grind 1 ½ cups raw pecans, walnuts,  cashews, and/or  hazelnuts in a food processor to make “flour” – it gives the muffins a richer, nuttier taste
• 1 ½ cups of flours either almond, cassava, or oat
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• Pinch of quality sea salt
• Optional:  spoonful of hemp seeds and/or ground golden flax seeds

Wet Ingredients:

• ¾ – 1  cup of melted coconut oil
• 1 ¼ cups of non dairy unsweetened milk (coconut, almond, hemp, soy)
• ¼ cup sweetener (maple syrup or coconut nectar- this is optional)
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
• 1 cup of blueberries
• Optional:  ½ cup of vegan carob or dark chocolate  chips

Directions:

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Mix wet ingredients together except coconut oil.

Get muffin tin prepared and blueberries washed and dried. (if you don’t want the blueberries to “run” coat them with flour first.

Have oven preheated to 350.

Make a well in the bowl of dry ingredients.

Note:  when adding warm melted coconut oil to the colder wet ingredients, the oil will make the latter clump so work quickly.

Combine the non dairy milk, the vanilla extract, and optional sweetener in a medium bowl.

Pour the coconut oil into the non dairy mixture, mix quickly, and then pour into the well of dry ingredients.

Add the blueberries and chips.

Mix quickly and put in muffin tin. (the longer you mix, the “tougher” the batter)

Bake at 350 until tops are brown.

Note: If you notice the batter is too dry as you are mixing, add some more non dairy milk.    This will depend on how much coconut flour you use as it’s heavier than other flours. I use an ice cream scoop to put the batter in the muffin tin as that makes the muffins more attractive and uniform looking. These muffins freeze very well, and they go quickly in my house – a very popular snack!

Note:  If you want to make Paleo bread instead of muffins, delete the blueberries, use more almond meal and coconut flour and less of the other flours and bake in a 9 x 12 glass baking dish.  It won’t rise like bread as there is no yeast in it but it will be delicious as well.

 ALMOND OATMEAL COOKIES

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cup almond flour
• 1 ½ cup of gluten free oats toasted at low heat in a pan first to turn light brown
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (if you want the cookies to rise; if not that’s OK too – they will be flat)
• ½ cup melted coconut oil
• ½ cup or less of sweetener such as organic maple syrup or coconut nectar
• Two teaspoons of vanilla extract
• Handful (or more) of unsweetened carob or dark chocolate chips

Directions:

Put dry ingredients in a bowl (they will be warm from toasted oats)

Put wet ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly – add the coconut oil last

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients

Pour wet  ingredients in the well and mix quickly

Add carob chips

Spoon onto prepared baking sheet

Bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes – these bake quickly.

Enjoy!