Tropical Macaroons

Delicious, and so paleo they're bangin' rocks together.

This is a recipe from Everyday Paleo that is apparently a part of their Easter menu. I suggest that you read the article in that link. It's got three other recipes in it that you might be interested in. (I'm probably never going to make the smoked salmon casserole, but that's because I don't like salmon, not because it looks like a bad recipe)

Anyway, the macaroons caught my eye, and since I already have a bunch of shredded coconut from the coconut macadamia shrimp recipe, it seemed like a good time to give it a try. I'm also deviating from the original recipe just a little by using canned pineapple. Since we'll be cooking it down anyway, there won't be much (if any) difference in the final product, and canned pineapple is easier to work with. Just make sure that you get the kind that's in 100% pineapple juice.

Make sure you get free range, organic, non-GMO, grass-fed,  never-sworn-at eggs. Failure to do so will irreparably damage your health.

Ingredients
4 egg whites
3 cups finely shredded coconut (unsweetened)
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 20oz can of pineapple chunks
3 tbsp coconut milk

Equipment
Pan
Mixer
Large Bowl
Spatula
Cookie Sheet
Parchment Paper (recommended)
Potato masher (recommended)

Preheat your oven to 325, and go ahead and either grease your cookie sheet or cut a piece of parchment paper to fit it. I prefer using parchment paper because it makes cleanup so much easier, and cookies never stick to it.

Put a pan over medium heat and add the coconut oil to it. Drain as much liquid as you can from the pineapple chunks and add them to the pan. Standard sized canned pineapple chunks are a little too big for this recipe, so you need to break them up somehow. I recommend using a potato masher on them in the pan. You could also chop them with a knife after you drain them and before they go into the pan, but that sounds a little messy to me.

Be careful with the potato masher, or you might fling hot pineapple onto yourself. Part of the beauty of Technically Paleo is that I get to learn these things the hard way so that you don't have to.

Cook the pineapple until any liquid in it has evaporated, and it has turned golden brown. You'll need to stir it occasionally as it cooks. When it's done, remove it from the pan so that it can cool down while you make the rest of the batter. Hot pineapple will cook your egg whites. Then you'll have a nice pineapple and coconut omelet. If that's not what you're trying to make, let the pineapple cool.

This is what it should look like when it's done. The liquid is pretty much gone, and the pineapple has browned slightly.

In a large bowl, whip the egg whites with your mixer until they're stiff. Start on a slow speed for a few seconds, and then gradually increase the speed of the mixer. It will take a minute or two with a good mixer. When it's ready, it will look white, like uncooked merangue (because that's what it is).

See my spiffy stand mixer? It was a present from Miriam, and it gets used A LOT.

You can also do the "stiff peaks" test. If you pull your mixer directly out of the egg whites and turn it upside down, a little point of egg whites should be standing up on the beaters. If there's no point, you're not done.

See? Standing up straight. That means the egg whites are done.

Now, use a spatula to fold the coconut into the egg whites. When I say "fold them in," this is what I mean:

1. Put about half of the coconut into the bowl.
2. Use the edge of the spatula to cut down into the center of the egg whites and coconut.
3. Gently turn half of the batter over onto the other half, kind of like you're folding an omelet or flipping a pancake.
4. Add the rest of the coconut to the bowl.
5. Repeat step 3 about 10 times, while turning the bowl a quarter turn each time.

Being gentle like this preserves as much of the air as possible in the batter. The air is the only thing that will make the macaroons light and fluffy.

Be gentle.

Add the coconut milk to the pineapple and mix them together a little before adding both to the batter. Just like with the coconut, you want to fold this in.

You'll end up with a very loose, very dry batter.

Make little balls from the batter and place them on the cookie sheet. The balls should be about the size of a golf ball, and you should leave about an inch between each one. When you've filled up the cookie sheet, press each ball down a little. They should be kind of biscuit-shaped, not super flat.

How do you like my super-dramatic cookie angle?

Bake the macaroons for 20 minutes. They will firm up a little when they're done, and will have little golden-brown spots.

They're a little fragile, so be careful when you handle them.

 Notes

• The potato masher trick got the pineapple broken up into the right sized chunks, but I seriously flung pineapple all over myself by accident. You might want to mash the pineapple in the pan before you put the pan over the heat. That way, you'll at least only get cold pineapple on you.
• When you're forming the macaroons into balls, you'll have to press them together a little or they'll fall apart. Also be careful when you flatten them that you don't mush them into pieces.
• Usually, when a recipe asks you to fold ingredients into egg whites, it's super important that you don't stir all of the air out of them, because that air is there to make things light and fluffy. With this recipe, though, it's not actually that important. You're folding so much stuff into the egg whites that it probably doesn't matter what you do - they'll come out the same. It's still good practice to do it right, though.
• I'm going to go ahead and put these in the indulgences category, but only because coconut is pretty calorie-dense. Nutritionally, I'd say you should feel comfortable having one of these any time you'd feel comfortable with eating a handful of nuts.

As-Paleo-As-You-Want-It-To-Be Chocolate Mousse

Channel the lame new Cookie Monster and think of this as a "Sometimes Food"

Like the title implies, this dish is kind of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" paleo dessert. It only has three ingredients, but one of those three is chocolate. Chocolate is an ingredient that skirts the edges of the paleo diet. Completely unsweetened chocolate is completely paleo as far as I'm concerned, but it's also not very useful without some other sweetening added to it. A more practical, but slightly less paleo option is to use a high quality dark chocolate in the 85-90% cocoa range. Look for one where the ingredient list is pretty much chocolate and some sort of sweetener, and you're doing OK for a treat item. If you want to go sweeter, you could use a dark chocolate in the 60-70% cocoa family, but keep in mind that the lower you go on the cocoa percentage, the less paleo this becomes (because the sugar will be increased). It's your food, so I'll leave it up to you. This time, I used an 85% cocoa chocolate, and the dish worked out to about 10g carbs per serving.

Ingredients
1 can coconut milk (not light coconut milk, regular coconut milk)
1 cup chocolate pieces (I broke a chocolate bar into little pieces. Chocolate chips would also work)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Equipment
Pot
Whisk
Mixer (recommended)

This dessert is essentially a whipped ganache made with coconut milk instead of dairy. If that sentence made sense to you, you can basically stop reading, because you already know what to do.

For everyone else, start by heating the coconut milk over medium-low heat. You want it to get warm, but don't take it to boiling. It will take about 2 minutes. It probably won't even be too hot for you to dip your fingertip in (depending on how sensitive your fingers are.) Chocolate melts at something like 90 degrees farenheit, so anything above that will work fine.

You could also do this in the microwave, but it's probably easier on the stove.

Add the chocolate to the pot and start whisking slowly.

If you can break a chocolate bar into pieces like this and not eat any before they go in the pot, you are not made of flesh and blood.

At first, it will look like you  have chocolate bits floating in coconut milk, but keep whisking and the chocolate will slowly melt and the mixture will even out into what looks like a thick chocolate sauce (because that's what it is).

Like chocolate gravy.

Take the pot off of the heat and mix in the vanilla extract.

I like Trader Joe's vanilla. Make sure you use real vanilla, not imitation vanilla.

 
Transfer everything into a container that you can put into the fridge for a few hours (because you need to put it in the fridge for a few hours.)

Depending on the chocolate you used, everything will set up in the fridge to a consistency somewhere between pudding and frosting. If you're happy with the consistency right out of the fridge, then good. If you're worried that your dinner guests will think you handed them a bowl of cake frosting, then get out your mixer. I have a cool stand mixer, so I dumped everything into its bowl and mixed it with the whisk attachment for about a minute. If you've got a hand mixer, you'll want to mix things for a minute to two minutes. You can also pour on the elbow grease and whisk everything by hand for about two minutes. The point is to lighten the mousse by getting some air into it. Don't work on it for too long, because the heat from mixing it will make it thin out too much.

Now, place it into four serving dishes of your choice and enjoy. (Enjoy one of the servings, not all four)

Notes:

• Here's the rule on ganaches: the higher the chocolate to liquid ratio is, the firmer the ganache will be. My cup of chocolate pieces contained about 125 grams of chocolate. Depending on the types of pieces you use, you may fit more or less chocolate into the measuring cup, and you'll have to adjust on the fly.
• If your cooled ganache is way too thin, you can always reheat it and add more chocolate.
• If you whip the ganache like crazy and it's still too thick, you could reheat it and add more coconut milk.
• If you use 85% cocoa chocolate like I did, this will be an intensely chocolatey dessert. Serious chocolate lovers will really like it, but not everyone wants a mousse that intense.
• You could top this with some raspberries to cut the chocolate flavor a little bit.

Technically Paleo Chocolate Cake.

Is it a really big plate, or a really small cake?

Last year, Miriam's birthday happened to fall right in the middle of a paleo challenge that we were doing at the gym. She wanted to stay really strict on the diet, so we didn't have a cake. Instead, I made a key lime pie out of paleo ingredients. If I had been a more experienced paleo baker, I could have whipped up some of these little chocolate cakes instead. They have a texture somewhere between a cake and a brownie, and they're awesome on their own or with a small scoop of coconut milk ice cream on top.

Now, before I get started with the recipe, here's the caveat. These are definitely in the "indulgences" category. They make a great treat for you and your sweetie to split after a romantic dinner, and if it's your birthday you can totally have one guilt-free. However, if you're having one of these after dinner every night, you're not going to be happy with the results.  (Well, the long term results, anyway. The immediate result is that you eat chocolate cake, and you'll probably be OK with that.)

Without further adieu:

I like to get everything together first

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups almond meal
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup grapeseed oil (or any neutral oil)
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Equipment
Whisk
Cookie Sheet
Miniature Tart Pans
Large bowl


Preheat your oven to 325.

Add the almond meal, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt to a large bowl, and whisk to combine.

A large bowl is the baker's best friend.

It won't be totally smooth, but that's OK. You're really just trying to distribute the baking powder evenly.

Now add the egg, oil, water, syrup, and vanilla to the bowl.

The maple syrup is what really pushes this into indulgence land

You really want to get it smooth. Remember, almond meal doesn't form gluten, so go nuts with the mixing. It should look like brownie batter when you're done.

Distribute the batter between four miniature tart pans (I think mine are 5 inch tart pans) on top of a cookie sheet.

It's really important to put the same amount of batter in each one. Otherwise you'll end up with a charcoal brick in some and chocolate pudding in others.

Now, bake the cakes at 325 for about 12-15 minutes. They're done if you can stick a toothpick in them and have it come back out clean.

You can kind of see the toothpick holes in the back two.

Getting these out of the tart pans is a little tricky. Most tart pans have removable bottoms, which helps a lot. I have good luck using a very thin-bladed knife to separate the cakes from the sides of the pans, then turning them upside down and popping the bottom out of the pan. Then the pan-bottom can be separated from the cake with the knife.

Notes

• These taste a lot like brownies. They're pretty dense, and very chocolatey.
• If you don't have tart pans with removable bottoms, you could try cutting a parchment paper circle to fit the bottom of the pan, so that the bottom of your cake won't stick to the bottom of the pan. I haven't tried it that way, but it might work.
• I have no idea whether or not you could just pour everything into one larger pan to make one larger cake. It might work OK in one nine inch pan, but I suspect you'd need to bake it for about 20 minutes. Maybe one day I'll give it a try.

Almond Meal Muffins (AKA My Most Versatile Recipe)

Muffin Recipe Prime

This muffin recipe has been a miracle.

I stumbled across a recipe for almond meal muffins very early in my attempts to eat a paleo diet, when I was really craving some bread. I'm pretty sure that the original recipe came from marksdailyapple.com, but I'm not sure, and I've changed it a little anyway.

This recipe is remarkable mainly because it lends itself to so many variations. Just about any dried fruit can be added to this recipe with good results, and adding a few spices opens up lots of possibilities. With a few tweaks, it can even be turned into pancakes or "corn"bread. I'll save those last two for another post.

Before we get started, I do have to say something. Remember in my very first post how I said I'd comment if something was more of an indulgence than a staple? Well, this is one of those times. These are awesome, and they're low carb, but they are definitely not low calorie. They're not as dangerous as the (as yet unpublished) paleo cookie recipe that I have, but you could get carried away. If you find that you're averaging more than one of these a day, you need to stop making them for a while.

On a lighter note, when you do make these, I suggest cutting them in half and spreading a little apple butter on them (find one made with just apples). I'm a big supporter of the "eggs and meat for breakfast" camp, but sometimes a muffin makes the morning better.

Without further adieu:

You will need these things

Ingredients
2 cups almond flour (or almond meal)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup coconut oil (The refined type that's solid at room temperature)
1/3 cup water
2 tbsp honey
4 eggs
Optional Additions (see notes)

You will also need these.

Equipment
Large Bowl
Muffin Tin
Cupcake Papers (optional, but recommended)

Preheat your oven to 350

Place the almond flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl and combine them with a whisk.

Mixing the baking powder and salt with the almond meal first makes things nice and even later.

Put the coconut oil, water, and honey into a microwave-safe dish and microwave on high just until the coconut oil becomes liquid (about a minute, depending on your microwave)

Solid fats are hard to mix into dry ingredients.

So, heat them up until they're liquid. Your stirring arm will thank you.

Add the coconut oil, water, and honey to the bowl and combine them with the dry ingredients.

This step is mainly to keep the possibly hot liquids from scrambling the eggs

Add the eggs to the bowl. If you're adding any optional flavors to the muffins, now is the time to add them. Stir everything until the batter is well combined.

See? Nice and unscrambled.

Mix the heck out of it. Almond meal doesn't form gluten, so your muffins won't be tough no matter how much you mix them. If you don't get out all the lumps, you'll have dry pockets of almond dust in your muffins. Blech.

Distribute your batter evenly into the muffin tin. It's important that each muffin cup have the same amount of batter, so I suggest using a 1/4 cup measuring cup or a 1/4 cup disher to help you keep it even.  If you use the cupcake papers to line the muffin tin, you don't have to worry about greasing anything, but if you don't use them, you need to grease the muffin tin before adding the batter.

I really suggest using the cupcake papers. Especially if your muffin tins have seen as many trips through the oven as mine have.

Bake for 12-15 minutes. You can tell if the muffins are done by pressing lightly on their tops. If they're done, the tops will feel springy. If not, the tops will feel like they're sitting on top of liquid.

Pull these out of the oven and get them out of the pan quickly (The cupcake papers really help with this) Let them cool on a rack.

Let's see that delicious finished product one more time!

Notes:

• The basic recipe makes a muffin with a very mild flavor. It's good, and it will help stave off that bread craving, but it's just begging to be improved with some optional ingredients. Here are some ideas:
• Dried Fruit
• Nuts
• Spices
• Tiny (Cooked) Bacon Pieces
• If you add fruit to this recipe, use dried fruit. Fresh or frozen fruit has way too much liquid, and will waterlog the muffin during cooking. You may think "Oh, I'll just toss these delicious, fresh blueberries in," but you'll regret it if you do. I've had excellent results with dried blueberries, dried cherries, and dried apples.
• This recipe can easily be turned into a delicious banana-nut muffin. Bananas are the exception to the fresh fruit rule. You should use one fresh, ripe banana instead of the 2 tbsps of honey. The banana has to be mashed and well incorporated in the batter, and should be added after the eggs along with about 1/4 cup of walnuts, a 1/4 tsp of ground cloves, and a dash of allspice.
• You don't necessarily have to use coconut oil if you can't find it. Any neutral oil will work. I like to use grapeseed oil for sweet variations, and olive oil for savory variations.

You'll see this recipe again, with some wide variations. I've gotten more mileage out of this recipe than any other that I've found.