What in Bob’s Red Mill Is Coconut Flour?

Do you ever hear some people talk about different kinds of flour, new seeds, or see a word on a menu that you have no idea what it really is? Sometimes when I walk into the “natural foods” section of the grocery store, I see things that look pretty cool, but sometimes just keep walking because I’m not sure what they are or how I’m supposed to use them. I just wonder “What in the world is that? And how am I supposed to use it?” When I heard about coconut flour, that was exactly how I felt, except for this time, with Bob’s help, I have done some research, experimented with some recipes, and feel like I know a little more about coconut flour. Hopefully I can share what I’ve learned with you so that you can add it to your shopping list and add a little healthy touch of coconut to your family’s diet instead of walking on by.

What is coconut flour?

Coconut flour is a soft, flour like product made from the pulp of a coconut. It’s actually a by-product made during the coconut milk making process. When making coconut milk, you have to soak coconut meat. That pulp is then dried out and ground into this powdery flour.

What are the health benefits of coconut flour?

Many people look to coconut flour to help create gluten free baked goods. Gluten free is definitely a great reason to use coconut flour, but that’s not all it has to offer. Coconut flour is also extremely high in fiber with almost double the amount found in wheat bran. In just 2 tablespoons of coconut flour, there are 5 grams of fiber (20% of the recommended daily value) and 8 grams of carbs. Mayo Clinic says a diet with plenty of fiber can help keep you regular, help maintain weight, and lower your risk of diabetes and heart disease.

How do you cook with coconut flour?

Cooking with coconut flour can be a little tricky. I have had a couple of recipes completely bomb. Once you get the hang of it though, it’s a super easy way to add nutrients and fiber to a ton of dishes. There are two things to keep in mind when working with coconut flour. Since it is so high in fiber, it requires a ton more moisture. There is also no equal substitution when working with coconut flour. You can usually substitute about 20% of the flour in a recipe for coconut flour and add at least 20% more liquid. My personal experience also says that when working with baked goods, you should also add about 3-5 eggs for every cup of coconut flour you are using. You can also add a tablespoon or two of coconut flour to sauces and gravies. It is a little clumpy so take your time when adding it in. Coconut flour has a naturally sweet flavor that can really add a nice little something extra to dishes.

Honestly, when you’re beginning to bring coconut flour into your cooking, stick to already established recipes. Once you start to get a little more comfortable, you can begin to experiment. I speak from experience… botched recipes can be costly and a little disheartening. Practice with some great recipes online first. You can even check out my first great coconut flour recipe success: Whole Wheat Coconut Blueberry Muffins.

Resources for More on Coconut Flour

-          Mayo Clinic article on benefits of high fiber diet

-          Nourished Kitchen: A great blog with tips on baking with coconut flour

-          Livestrong article on the benefits of coconut flour

-          Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour facts

-          Bob’s Red Mill Hangout on Google+: Tips for Baking with Coconut Flour

About Ashley – Ashley is a mom, wife, sister, daughter, and friend working to navigate through the mysterious world of Mommyia. Read more about her adventures at Momicles and follow her @Momicles2010.

As a registered dietitian and nutrition journalist, I’ve spent close to 25 years pouring over food and nutrition research.  And it’s led me to one conclusion as to how we can all live healthier, more vibrant lives. The answer: Eat more whole plants. In fact, there are now hundreds of studies backing up the notion that the healthiest diet on the planet is a plant-based one.

Contrary to popular belief, a plant-based diet really is more about what you can eat, rather than what you can’t eat. When most people hear the words “plant-based diet,” raw fruits and vegetables are usually the first thoughts that come to mind.  But a plant-based diet consists of a variety of whole plant foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices, and legumes.

Legumes are the perfect example of a plant-powered “protein package.” This means that legumes are packed with beneficial nutrients like fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals, and essentially void of the “bad stuff”, like saturated fat and sodium. In fact, legumes are as near to a perfect food as you can find. A half-cup portion, on average, contains at least 20% of our daily needs for fiber, folate, and manganese, 10% of our daily needs for protein, potassium, iron, magnesium, and copper; and 6-8% of our daily needs for selenium and zinc.  Research now indicates that eating legumes regularly can offer a variety of health benefits, including lower blood cholesterol levels, lower body weight, and lower rates of heart disease, hypertension, some types of cancer, and diabetes.

Aside from their nutritional perks, legumes are even friends to Mother Earth. Farmers discovered long ago that rotating their crops with legumes would replenish their soil. This is because legumes possess a unique ability to “fix nitrogen,” or transfer nitrogen from the air into the soil, reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers.

As if these benefits alone aren’t enough motivation to increase your intake of legumes, it helps to know that legumes are easy to cook, shelf stable, and economical. And a whole world of legumes awaits your discovery: lima beans, garbanzo beans, split peas, lentils, pinto beans, and kidney beans, just to name a few. They can easily be incorporated into soups, salads, wraps, or served as simple side dishes. You can also take a spin on legumes by trying them in alternative forms such as flours. These high-protein, nutritious flours are perfect alternatives for those with wheat and gluten allergies. Not only that, they can also pump up the nutrition in many of your recipes for baked goods. Simply replace a small amount of wheat flour in your recipes with legume flour and you’ve boosted your intake of plant-powered benefits.

Whether you’re a plant-powered vegan, vegetarian, or omnivore, I recommend you eat at least one ½ cup serving of legumes every day in order to promote your optimal health.

Red Lentil Stew with Root Vegetables

By Sharon Palmer, RD, The Plant-Powered Dietitian

This thick, colorful stew, which calls upon root vegetables, is easy on your wallet and delicious on your taste buds. Try serving it as a light lunch with a salad and rustic, whole grain bread; or for dinner with whole grains such as barley, farro or quinoa on the side.

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 medium Parsnips, sliced
2 medium Carrots, sliced
3 stalks Celery, sliced
1 medium Onion, sliced
1 medium Potato, peeled, diced
2 cloves Garlic, minced
½ tsp Low-Sodium Herbal Blend (i.e. Mrs. Dash)
½ tsp Smoked Paprika
1 tsp Thyme
2 cups Low-Sodium Vegetable Broth
4 cups Water
1 ½ cups red lentils, dried

Instructions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add vegetables, garlic, and seasonings, sautéing for about 10 minutes.
2. Add broth, water and lentils. Cover pot and cook for about 20 minutes, until vegetables and lentils are tender.

Nutritional Information per Serving:

Calories: 278
Carbohydrates: 50g
Protein: 14g
Fat: 4g
Sodium: 60mg
Fiber: 10g

Sharon Palmer is a registered dietitian, writer and author of The Plant-Powered Diet. Over 750 of her articles have been published in national publications, including Prevention, Better Homes and Gardens and Today’s Dietitian. She is also the editor of the award-winning publication Environmental Nutrition and writes for her blog, The Plant-Powered Dietitian. Sharon makes her home with her husband and two sons in the chaparral hills overlooking Los Angeles.

This delicious and different cake comes from Nadia Hassani, author of Spoonfuls of Germany. Nadia writes about traditional German cuisine on her blog and wrote a cookbook by the same name. In Germany, wheat farina is used for many different recipes and is not solely regarded as a breakfast cereal, as it is in the United States. She wanted to share this recipe with you, which has been adapted to use our whole grain brown rice farina. Nadia emigrated to the United States in 1998 and found there was a lot left to be explored  in German cuisine here. She took up the challenge of writing Spoonfuls of Germany to bring more awareness to the diversity of German food and get a taste of the German culture. The revised and expanded edition of Spoonfuls of Germany will be available this Spring, see her website for details.

(c) Ted Rosen

Hazelnut Loaf Cake with Brown Rice Farina

• 1 cup Milk
• 1¼ cups + 3 Tbsp (7 oz) Brown Rice Farina, plus more for the pan
• Butter or Oil for greasing
• 2¼ cups (8 oz) Hazelnut Flour
• 1 Tbsp gluten-free, aluminum-free Baking Powder
• 2 Tbsp Natural Unsweetened Cocoa
• Pinch of Salt
• 1¼ cups Sugar
• 1 large Egg
• 2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

1. Heat the milk in a small saucepan. Add the farina and stir well. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the sides and the bottom of a 8½ x 4½ x 2½ loaf pan very well. Sprinkle the bottom with farina. Turn the pan upside down over the kitchen sink and knock off any excess farina.
3. Mix the hazelnut flour, baking powder, cocoa, salt and sugar in a bowl. Add the egg and the vanilla to the cooled farina mix and stir well.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold just until evenly moistened. The dough will be quite thick. Pour it into the prepared pan and gently shake the pan to distribute the dough evenly.
5. Bake on the middle rack of the preheated oven for 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Gently loosen the sides with a knife and unmold the cake onto a wire rack. Turn it over at once and let cool completely before cutting.
    

Makes 12 servings

A few months ago, I received an early copy of The Lee Brother’s Charleston Kitchen (which is reviewed here). The Lee Brothers are big fans of our cornmeal and wanted to share their latest book with us. I was delighted with the wonderful Southern recipes from Matt and Ted Lee (there was more than a little bit of ooo-ing and awww-ing at our office) and I was doubly excited when Matt and Ted offered to write us a guest post and share their recipe for Pineapple Cornbread Pudding.

In the South, cornbread is our daily bread, and it’s not typically a sweet affair. Ask any southern grandmother: you’ve added a tablespoon of sugar to your cornbread batter? That’s called cake!

In this recipe, however, we embrace the sweeter side of cornbread and its awesome potential in the dessert realm. We take gently-sweetened cornbread, dice it up into cubes, and make it the foundation for a fun spin on that classic vanilla-custard bread pudding. We also incorporate pineapples, a fruit that was common in the markets of our hometown, Charleston, SC, in the 19^th century, but curiously rarely ever found its way into the regional cookbooks from that period.

We love this recipe for the way the vanilla custard ties together the syrupy, gently tart pineapple with the heartier flavors of the cornbread. Using stone-ground cornmeal in this recipe is essential; it more intense, naturally sweet corn flavor makes Pineapple Cornbread Pudding truly soar!

Pineapple Cornbread Pudding

serves: 6 | time: 1 hour

• Skillet Cornbread (recipe follows), cut into 1-1/4-inch cubes (about 5 cups)
• 2 cups small-dice fresh Pineapple Chunks
• 1-½ cups Heavy Cream
• 1⁄3 cup Whole Milk
• 6 Tbsp plus 1 tsp Sugar
• 3 large Eggs
• 1 large Egg Yolk
• 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
• ½ tsp plus a pinch of Kosher Salt
• 1 Tbsp Dark Rum

1. Set a rack in the top third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. In a 2-quart baking dish, arrange 1 ½ cups of the cornbread cubes, spacing the pieces evenly apart. Spread 1 cup of the pineapple into the dish, spreading evenly in the spaces between the cubes. Add another 1 ½ cups of the cornbread cubes spaced evenly apart, followed by a second layer of the pineapple. (Reserve leftover cornbread for another use.)

3. Pour 1 cup of the cream and the milk into a large bowl, add 6 tablespoons of the sugar, and stir to dissolve, about 1 minute. Add the eggs, egg yolk, vanilla, and ½ teaspoon of the salt, and whisk to combine thoroughly. Pour the egg mixture slowly into the pan around its edge, and gently agitate the dish to distribute the custard evenly. Transfer to the oven, and bake on the top rack until the bread cubes on top are gently browned in places and the pudding parts in the center have gelled, about 40 minutes.

4. In a large bowl, whip the remaining ½ cup cream with the rum, the remaining teaspoon sugar, and the remaining pinch of salt, until the cream is stiff and holds its shape. Reserve in the refrigerator.

5. Let the bread pudding cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with dollops of the rum whipped cream.

Skillet Cornbread

serves: 6 | time: 30 minutes

• 1 Tbsp Lard or Unsalted Butter
• ¾ cup Cornmeal
• ¾ cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• ½ tsp Kosher Salt
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 1 large Egg
• 1-½ cups Buttermilk, preferably whole
• 2 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease a 12-inch cast-iron skillet with the lard, leaving any excess in the pan, and place it in the oven.

2. In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients together. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg until frothy and then whisk in the buttermilk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix thoroughly. Melt the butter in a small skillet over low heat, and then whisk the butter into the batter.

3. When the fat in the skillet is smoking, carefully remove the skillet from the oven and swirl the fat around to coat the bottom and sides evenly. Pour the batter into the skillet; it should sizzle alluringly. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the top of the bread is golden brown and the edge has pulled away from the side of the skillet. Remove the skillet from the oven. Invert the cornbread onto a board, to cut and serve immediately with butter, or invert onto a rack to cool completely.

Fifteen years ago this month, my husband and I were married. As the last in-law to join his family, I wanted to make a good impression at our first Christmas together with his side of the family. So I decided to bring a decadent dessert that I had never tried before. Bold move on my part, owing to the fact that I was not exactly seasoned in the kitchen. I chose to make an apple cheesecake torte and, to my surprise, it was an instant hit. So over the years, my apple cheesecake torte has come to be expected at our family holiday dinners. And I’m happy to oblige.

However, two years ago things changed. My son’s diagnosis of Celiac Disease put the brakes on the traditional shortbread crust that this recipe calls for. I remember the first few weeks of cooking and baking gluten free there was so much to learn and at times it felt overwhelming. The diagnosis came one week before Thanksgiving. That dinner was a blur as we were still learning what was safe to eat. But by the time Christmas dinner preparations began I was a bit more confident and ready to try to rework some of my past successes.  Imagine my delight when, on the shelves of my regular ol’ grocery store, I spied Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Shortbread Mix! It was exactly what I needed to easily bring back my torte.

Notice I said easily. That was so important for me back then. I didn’t have to spend time experimenting with different flour mixes, operating in a world that still had so many unfamiliar terms. It was already done for me, wrapped up in a Bob’s Red Mill package and all I had to do was simply bake. I think it was then that Bob’s Red Mill gained my loyalty. As far as my torte was concerned that Christmas, no one detected anything different. My reputation remained intact within the family and my gluten free life was off to a great start.

Apple Cheesecake Torte

Crust:

• One package Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Shortbread Cookie Mix
• 1-1/2 sticks Butter, softened
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 2 Tbsp Water

Filling:

• 8 ounce package Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 Egg
• 5-6 small Apples, peeled & thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Lemon Juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450˚F. Line the bottom of an 8 inch springform pan with parchment paper and lightly grease the sides with cooking spray. Follow directions on Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Shortbread Cookie Mix packaging. You will be instructed to divide the dough. Press one half of the dough into the springform pan and half way up the sides. For filling, in mixing bowl beat cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, vanilla and egg. Pour over crust. In a small mixing bowl, combine sliced apples with sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon. Mix well. Pour apple mixture over top of cheese mixture. Using a spoon, push the crust down on the sides, even with the apples. Bake 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 400˚F, bake 20 – 25 minutes. Serve warm or refrigerate.

Heykidfoodie.com is a collaboration between Kid Foodie, a 10 year old food lover with Celiac Disease, and his mom. They started the blog to provide opportunities for Kid Foodie to enjoy fresh, delicious food and to inspire other kids and parents to expand their culinary horizons. Through videos, recipes and foodie field trips, they hope to show that kids can be excited about healthy foods even in spite of dietary restrictions.

The holidays wouldn’t be complete without a cake or something small to nibble on. I look forward to desserts during this time of year. Something to eat with my morning coffee or a small treat to keep me going while I decorate the house. These Mini Bundt Banana Almond Poppy Seed Cakes are the perfect solution.

Mini Bundt Banana Almond Poppy Seed Cakes

• 3 cups Ultragrain Flour or Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
• 2 cups Powdered Sugar
• 3/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill Almond Meal
• 2 tsp of Baking Powder
• 1/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill Poppy Seeds
• 2-1/2 ripe Bananas (smashed)
• 1 cup Vegetable Oil
• 3 Eggs
• 1/2 cup Buttermilk
• 1 tsp Almond Extract

Glaze:

• 3/4 cup Powered Sugar (sifted)
• 2 Tbsp of Coconut Milk
• garnish with Chopped Almonds

Preheat oven to 350°F

In a large bowl add flour, powdered sugar, almond meal, baking powder, and poppy seeds.

In a small bowl add bananas (smashed), vegetable oil, eggs, buttermilk and almond extract. Mix well.

Then add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix with an electric mixer until well combined.

Spray a mini bundt pan with a non-stick baking spray. Then pour a heaping 1/3 cup of batter into each 2 1/2 -inch bundt mold. Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes in pan then invert onto a cooling rack, and cool completely.

Now for the glaze…. whisk powered sugar and coconut milk together until creamy smooth. Drizzle over top of cakes then garnish with chopped almonds.

ENJOY!

By: Nicole Presley of Presley’s Pantry

www.presleyspantry.com

As a kid I have very fond memories of my grandma’s house being full of Christmas cookies. I think she would start baking around Thanksgiving to ensure she had tons of cookies to feed all of us. My favorite cookies that she made were volcanoes and I have never found another recipe like them. They are almost like mini pecan pies but with walnuts and cherries in the middle for the “lava.” When my family first went dairy free and then gluten free, these cookies were put on the back burner. When Bob’s Red Mill asked me to work on holiday cookies for their blog I knew I wanted to work on my cherished cookies.  The result is great and I am thrilled to be able to share my favorite cookie with my kids!

Volcanoes

What you need:

• ½ cup Butter Substitute
• 3 oz. Dairy Free Cream Cheese
• 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
• ¾ cup Walnuts, chopped fine
• 1 Egg
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 24 Bob’s Red Mill Dried Tart Cherries
• Cherry Juice or Water

Directions:

Cut the butter substitute and dairy free cream cheese into the flour until it is evenly combined. (Think pie dough not cookie dough, for the texture.) Form into a ball, cover and chill for at least one hour. While the dough is chilling place the dried cherries in either hot cherry juice or hot water to soak. To make the filling combine the finely chopped walnuts, egg, brown sugar and vanilla together in a bowl. Remove the chilled dough from the fridge and roll into 24 balls. Place each ball into a mini muffin tin and press into a bowl shape to the top of the muffin tin. You do not want the “crust” to be thin or they will break when you take them out of the pan. Place a small amount of the filling into each mini muffin tin. You want just enough filling to reach the top of the mini muffin tin because if the filling over flows the tin it will be hard to get the cookie out. Place one soaked cherry in the middle of each cookie for the “lava” and place into the oven. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes. Let cool in muffin tin before removing using a butter knife to run around the edge. Store in an air tight container or freeze for longer storage.

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Rebecca is the single mother to two wonderful boys and author of Going Free: Helping you move to a gluten and dairy free life! She and her two boys live a gluten, dairy and food coloring free life. Rebecca is always looking for easier ways to do things. When she first learned that we had to eliminate these foods, she did some research and cleaned out the cabinets and we hasn’t looked back. Sure there are days that she misses the convince of eating foods full of gluten but knows that in the long run they are all healthier for it. Find more articles and recipes from her at Going Free.

This decadent, gluten free dessert comes from Betsy of Betsy Life. Betsylife is a sunny place that focuses on cooking, healthy living, and creating the life you crave. Betsy is all about making time for the things you love in life, expanding horizons, and enjoying the small things.

Gluten Free Gingerbread Layer Cake

• 1 cup Molasses
• 1 cup Sugar
• ¾ cup Butter, room temperature
• 2 Eggs
• 3 Tbsp Gourmet Garden minced fresh Ginger
• 2-½ cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
• 1-½ tsp Bob’s Red Mill Xanthan Gum
• 1 tsp ground Cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground Nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground Cloves
• Pinch of Salt
• 1 cup boiling Water
• 2 tsp Baking Soda

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease 2, 9-inch round cake pans. Line the bottoms with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream molasses, sugar, and butter until fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add in the ginger.

In a separate bowl, sift together gluten free flour, xanthan gum, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. ½ a cup at a time beat the flour mixture into the molasses mixture until well combined. Meanwhile, whisk the baking soda into the boiling water. Mix water mixture into the rest of the batter (be careful of splattering!)

Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans. Bake at 325 for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack and cool entirely

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1- 8oz package Cream Cheese at room temperature
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) Butter at room temperature
• Zest from one Orange
• 1/2 tsp Orange Extract
• 2-½ cup Powdered Sugar, sifted
• 1 cup Heavy Cream

In a large bowl, mix cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add orange zest and extract. Slowly beat in powdered sugar until well combined. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whip heavy cream into stiff peaks. Fold whipped cream into frosting.

These delightful little donuts come from Anna of Blondie’s Cakes and Things. We love them because they’re cute and delicious, of course, but also because they use coconut flour- a high fiber, gluten free flour. Don’t be scared of all of the eggs, coconut flour absorbs a lot of liquid and eggs allow the baked good to come out fluffy and delicate. Of herself and her blog, Anna writes, “I started my blog, Blondie’s Cakes, a few years ago just so I’d have a place to catalog all my kitchen exploits. By then it’s been years since I started hovering over the shoulders of my friend’s aunts and grandmas, taking notes and watching them taste taste taste, sneaking in my spoon or sticking my finger in the sauce when I could. All along I’ve been hoarding up the recipes for some distant day in the future when I could pull them out and share them with someone, and through my blog that “someone” has turned into my readers. Along the way I’ve started writing and taking pictures and I like that my blog is pushing me to keep trying new things. I hope I never stop learning.” Enjoy!

Mini Gluten Free Choco-Coco Donuts

makes ~3 dozen mini donuts
recipe adapted from Comfy Belly @ comfybelly.com

• 1/2 cup of Bob’s Red Mill Organic Coconut Flour
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
• 3 Tbsp Bob’s Red Mill Carob Powder
• 6 Eggs
• 1/2 cup Honey
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla
• 1/2 cup Coconut Oil, slightly warmed
• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• 3 Tbsp Cherry Juice, Milk or Amaretto

Special equipment: Baking pan with mini donut shapes, though you can also bake these into cupcakes if you like.

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Combine all ingredients (except for powdered sugar and juice) in a bowl and whisk either by hand or a mixer until completely blended. Scoop into a plastic zippy bag.

3. If your donut pan is non-stick you are good to go, otherwise lightly grease it with a bit of vegetable oil.

4. Snip the corner off of your plastic bag and pipe the batter into your donut mold, about 1/2 full if you want true donut shapes and 3/4 full if you don’t care so much and just want thicker donuts (I chose the latter route).

5. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. If you have a regular donut size pan or if you’re making cupcakes, your baking time will double, so keep that in mind.

6. While the cupcakes are cooling, mix together the powdered sugar and your liquid of choice to make the icing. Once the cupcakes are cool, dunk them in and decorate as you like.

Note: These keep really well in a tightly sealed container in the fridge and get even more tender/moist by the 2nd day….if they last that long.

Greetings from the West Coast

I would like to introduce myself.  My name is Joy and my blog is Joy’s Misadventures.  I take life one adventure at a time but in my case, Misadventures is more appropriate description.  I enjoy sharing my successes, frustration, mistakes, and failures. 

A little background on me, I have/had allergies since childhood.  Between myself and my brother there was always an awareness of our surroundings and restrictions on what we were able to eat.  I vividly remember one occasion when my little brother ate a strawberry at a local restaurant.  Then all a sudden we had to leave and get medication into him because his throat started to close.   Since then, he never ate another strawberry.

Unfortunately, my daughter inherited similar allergic reactions from my side of the family.  I have always been aware of other people’s allergies but my daughter made me very cautious when choosing foods she is able to eat. 

At an early age, we found that she was allergic to seafood and nuts.  We walked into a pizza parlor that had peanut shells on the floor and within 5 minutes after order, she turned bright read and started to itch uncontrollably.  From that point on, I tried to find alternatives to foods I would think she would enjoy.

When I first started to experiment in making macarons, I felt bad telling her she couldn’t have any.  I would always feel bad when I would have to deny her of anything, especially food.  I started to experiment in making alternatives ingredients for the little cookies. 

My first attempt to a nut free macarons, it came out quite stiff and chalky.  I substitute coconut flour for the almond flour without altering the amount.  I had a feeling the coconut flour would work I needed to adjust the amount used.

According to the package 20% of the original amount in the recipe would be appropriate when using coconut flour.  For example, if it required 100 grams of almond flour then 20g of coconut flour could be substituted.  This is due to the dryness of the coconut flour.  After quite a bit of experimenting, I came up with this recipe.

Coconut-banana Macaron with a Key Lime-White chocolate Ganache

Coconut-Banana  Macaron

Meringue

• 175 Grams (3/4 + 1/8 Cup) of Sugar
• 67 Grams (2 Large Egg Whites) of Egg Whites

Flour Mixture

• 68 Grams (1/2 Cup) of Ground Banana Chips
• 20 Grams (1/4 Cup) of Coconut Flour
• 150 Grams (1 ¾ Cup) of Powder Sugar
• 67 Grams (2 Large Egg Whites) of Egg Whites

Directions

1. Take the 1^st set of egg whites into a large metal bowl and add the sugar.  Let it sit for 5-10 minutes until the sugar is absorbed by the egg whites.
2. In the meantime mix the coconut flour, powder sugar, and grounded banana chips.  I used a food processor.
3. Place the mixture into a bowl and set aside.
4. Whip the egg whites until it becomes medium peaks.  Slightly stiff but still glossy.  Set this aside.
5. Take the flour/powder sugar mixture then stir in the other set of egg whites.
6. Fold in the whipped egg whites into the flour mixture until it is well incorporated.  The consistency resemble marshmallow but a little bit runnier.  You should be able to make an indent in the mixture and it may hold the shape for a couple of seconds before it starts smoothing out.
7. Place the mixture into a piping bag and pipe out 1 inch discs on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Separate the cookies an inch apart.  You will notice the cookies will keep the shape while starting to spread slightly.
8. Let the cookies rest for an hour or two until a film is formed over the cookies.
9. Pre-heat the oven to 300F.  Place another cookie pan inside of the oven while it pre-heats (this helps when creating feet).
10. Place the cookies on the first cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes.
11. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool completely before removing from the pan.
12. Match up the cookie according to size.
13. Make the Filling

Key Lime and White Chocolate Ganache

• 11 Ounces of White Chocolate
• 1 Cup of Heavy Cream
• 3 Tbs of Key Lime Juice

Directions

1. Place the white chocolate and key lime juice in a medium bowl.
2. Pour the cream into a medium sauce pan and heat over a medium heat.
3. Once it starts to bubble, remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate.
4. Let it sit for a couple of minutes to allow the chocolate to melt.
5. Stir the chocolate until it is melted and smooth.
6. Let it cool to room temp.  This may take an hour.
7. Once it is cooled, whip the chocolate at a low then a medium speed until it because fluffy.

Assemble

1. Spread the filling on one of the cookies.
2. Place the matching side on the other side to form a sandwich cookie.
3. Serve