Coconut Flour Dark Chocolate Fudgy Brownies

Bryan and I are in the middle of packing up our house for our Great Adventure!

I haven't mentioned here, yet, that we are moving to Costa Rica.  We are moving to a beautiful place in the mountains of Santiago de Puriscal, Costa Rica.  We are renting a small house on a coffee farm that also has a bed and breakfast.  I can't wait to get started living a more simple life, growing my own vegetables, and making yummy things from my own garden!  Our plane tickets are for September 5th, so we are in a frenzy of packing, selling, and giving away everything we own. 

We may be frantically working, but I am still making time to make healthy meals and a few healthy goodies.  Last night I tried a recipe that was posted by Ditch The Wheat that I found on Pinterest.  The recipe was naturally almost low-carb, so I only had to make a couple of changes.  I switched 3/4 cup honey for just under 1 cup of Swerve and added 1 tablespoon of heavy cream to make up for the liquid.  I topped them with pecans, and they were really yummy!

Mmmmmmmm..........chocolatey goodness to help me get back to work!

Coconut Flour Dark Chocolate Fudgy Brownies  (Thank you -- Ditch the Wheat!)

Made Low-Carb:

Ingredients

-1 cup + 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder  (do not use Dutch processed -- it will not bake properly)

-1/2 cup + 2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

-1 cup Swerve 

-1 tbsp heavy cream

-3 eggs

-1/4 cup coconut flour

-1/4 tsp sea salt

-1 tsp vanilla extract

 -handful of pecan pieces (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 inch by 8 inch glass square baking dish with parchment paper.
2. Using a mixing machine add all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth.
3. Spread the batter all over the baking dish. Top with pecan pieces.
4. Bake for 20 minutes and refrigerate for 30 minutes or more. You want the middle to be moist and slightly under cooked. (My oven is slow -- I had to bake for 25 minutes)
5. Once cooled cut into 16 squares. 

Low Carb Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Raspberries

Tonight I became a little more ambitious with my baking.  I found a lovely recipe posted on Facebook from Healy Real Food Vegetarian and since I had all of the ingredients on hand, I modified it a little for Low-Carb.

Two enthusiastic thumbs up from Bryan, so I guess this one goes into rotation!

This is how I made it Low-Carb:

Low-Carb/Grain Free Chocolate Cake

1/2 Cup Almond Flour
1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder
2 Tablespoons Coconut Flour
1/2 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons Swerve granulated
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 - (up to1/3) cup heavy cream
3 large eggs -- separated
1/4 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon butter or coconut oil to grease pan (I used coconut oil)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 inch round cake pan.
2.  In one large bowl, combine all ingredients except the 3 egg whites.  The mixture will be very thick, and you may need to add a little more cream to make it stir-able.  (Or put it in a food processor)
3.  In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
4.  Gently fold in the egg whites to incorporate into the rest of the batter.
5.  Bake 20-25 minutes -- when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, it is done.  Let it cool before frosting.


Cream Cheese Frosting

3 ounces cream cheese  -- softened/room temperature
3 Tablespoons butter -- softened/room temperature
1/3 cup Swerve confectioners
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and beat until smooth and creamy.

I garnished my cake with raspberries -- lovely and yummy.

My first attempt at Rhubarb Muffins (with coconut flour) -- Low Carb/Gluten Free

When I was a kid growing up in Michigan, we had a patch of rhubarb that grew behind the shed every year.  Each spring/summer we would have an endless supply of fresh rhubarb.  I love rhubarb.  I remember eating it raw with a sprinkle of sugar.  We made rhubarb sauce -- boiling it down like applesauce with sugar.  We made rhubarb pie.  My favorite was mom's recipe for rhubarb cake.  It had a lot of steps that included sour milk (milk with lemon juice added to it.) and sifting a lot of dry ingredients together, but it was delicious.  Always moist and gooey and tart.  A perfect assault on the taste buds!  Oh how I miss those days!  Rhubarb is expensive in South Florida, but a few days ago, there was a nice package at the local grocery, and I bought some.  Now, what to do with it?

I will admit, I am not much of a baker.  I am a cook.  I like to add a little bit of whatever strikes my fancy to whatever I am stirring up in a pan or pot.  Baking is more scientific.  If you add more liquid or less eggs or baking soda instead of baking powder, you can end up with a horrific mess.  Also, If I want a sweet treat, it still has to be sugar-free and low carb!  No way am I sacrificing my loss of 145 pounds -- even for mom's rhubarb cake!  So, I had to figure out a way to make a yummy rhubarb treat, keep some portion control, and make it low carb.

I decided to use coconut flour.  Since rhubarb releases a lot of liquid, and coconut flour absorbs a lot of liquid, I thought it might be a good combination. 

The end result?  Rhubarb muffins were yummy fresh out of the oven and slathered in butter.  Bryan went back for seconds immediately (Okay, and I had him get me another one, too!), so I know they were at least okay.  But were they mom's-rhubarb-cake-good?  Definitely not!  I will keep trying though.

My first attempt at Rhubarb Muffins:

Rhubarb Muffins  -- Made with Coconut Flour

Made 13 muffins/mini loaves

Ingredients:

Rhubarb mixture:
2 cups finely diced rhubarb
Juice from 1 lemon
2 tblsp Sweetner  (I use Swerve)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (next time I will use 1 teaspoon for more cinnamon flavor!)

Dry ingredients:
1 Cup Coconut flour
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup powdered sweetner (I use Swerve Confectioners)

Wet ingredients:
9 Eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup half n half
1/3 cup honey substitute ( I use Nature's Hollow Xylitol honey - you can use any sweetner to taste)
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Butter your muffin tins  -- these things stick!  They will stick to muffin papers, too
3. In one bowl, combine rhubarb, lemon juice, 2 tblsp Swerve, ground ginger and cinnamon.
4. Set the rhubarb aside.  I did this when I set out the eggs to get to room temperature.  It allows the rhubarb to soften a bit and soak up the lemon and sweetner.
5.  In another bowl, either sift or wisk together the dry ingredients.
6.  In a third, large bowl, beat the eggs and then mix in the other wet ingredients.
7.  Combine the dry and wet ingredients in the larger bowl.  When almost completely combined, stir in the rhubarb mixture.
8.  Let it sit for a minute to absorb.
9.  Using a 1/3 cup measure (or ice cream scoop!), measure out the batter into the muffin tin.
10.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 18-25 minutes.  When a toothpick comes out clean, they are done.

Slather them with butter and serve!


While he was cramming his second muffin slathered in butter in his mouth, Bryan made the comment that this was more like cake with rhubarb pieces than a rhubarb cake.  I think next time I try this, I will puree and cook down the rhubarb (and cool it before adding it) to get it to incorporate better into the batter.  Maybe I can get it to caramelize a little bit....hmmmmmm....



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