This coconut date ice cream only uses two ingredients – coconut and dates. It’s paleo and vegan friendly, and really easy to make. This was the first time making ice cream in an ice cream maker. (Instead of a Vitamix) I recently got one by Cusinart on sale a few days before Christmas. Luckily it’s warm in LA right now, and will only get warmer, so I decided I couldn’t wait any longer to test out my new gadget. It worked like a charm. Although I suggest freezing the ice cream after you make it. It comes out of the ice cream maker like soft serve, but I prefer mine colder and more solid, so I get pretty scoops and it doesn’t melt as easily.
I altered a family Christmas cookie recipe to make it dairy free and gluten free. It tastes like the original, which was my goal. However, this recipe isn’t sugar free. You can easily substitute a natural sweetener, but the cookie will not taste the same. I still haven’t found a good replacement for the flavor of powdered sugar (aka confectioners sugar). Here is the original recipe to reference:
Original Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup of butter
3/4 cup of confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups of flour
1 cup of finely chopped nuts
Directions: Cream butter, confectioners sugar and vanilla. With a spoon, blend in the flour. Add nuts; shape into 3/4 inch balls, rolling in palm of hand. Place 1/2 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets and bake in 300 degree oven 25-30 minutes or until cookies are a creamy color. Remove to rack until just warm; rol in confectioners sugar. Makes approximately 3 1/2 dozen.
These honey walnut cookies are a delicious guilt-free indulgence. They are made with almond and arrowroot flour and they are soft, and fluffy inside. If someone doesn’t like walnuts, since they do have a strong flavor, you can easily substitute sliced almonds or pistachios. Walnuts are just what I had in my pantry, when attempted and failed at paleo pizzelles. Despite my failed first recipe, I am really happy with the texture and height of these cookies and plan on using a similar recipe base for future cookie attempts. If you like your cookies a little golden brown around the edges, which I do, bake at 350 degrees. If you don’t like a little browning cook at 320.
I think these would taste great with some coffee or hot coco. You can also make them look pretty with a light dusting of confectionery sugar, or for people with a sweet tooth that can be hard to please. You can get a portable confectionery sugar duster, and then bring this batch to work and everyone can marvel at your grain-free, dairy-free baking skills.
1 cup of organic palm oil (Spectrum Organic non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening)
2 tsp vanilla extract
¼ sea salt
3½ cups of almond flour
2 cups of arrowroot flour
½ tsp baking soda
2 cups of walnuts
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Instructions
Mix dry ingredients, sea salt, baking soda, and flours, in a large bowl.
Mix wet ingredients, eggs, honey, and apple cider vinegar, in a separate bowl.
Then combine wet ingredients into dry ingredients, with a hand mixer on low. Gradually increase speed and add palm oil.
Use a food processor to easily pulse 2 cups of walnuts, and stir it into cookie batter.
Then line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and scoop dough into sizes a tiny bit larger than one tbsp, onto parchment paper. Leave a lot of room between cookies because they spread out.
Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until edges start to get golden brown.
Let cookies cool for 5 minutes before removing them from baking sheet.
This rustic apple tart was definitely a labor of love. This was my first time using the tart pan, and it was a bit of struggle to get the tart out. Luckily, with my husband’s help and a lot of patience we were able to manage. So you might want to get an extra set of hands in the kitchen for this recipe. Arranging the apple slices was a bit tricky as well. The closer to the center, the more difficult it became. The thinner the apple slices, the easier it is to arrange them, so take your time. If it’s not perfect don’t stress, just call it “rustic” like I did. It’s not a bad thing if it looks a bit homemade. You don’t want your guests to think you bought it!
I sprinkled it with a little bit of cinnamon instead of powdered sugar. We are trying to be healthy here! The crust is a paleo pie crust made with almond flour, coconut oil, and an egg. Honestly, I prefer a savory crust when the filing is sweet. I kept the amount of natural sweeteners I used in this recipe low as well. Only one tablespoon of honey is used in the filing, and I brushed a little bit of maple syrup over the apples before I put them in the oven.
Peel and chop two fuji apples. Add apples to saucepan with water and boil until soft, about 30 minutes.
Then transfer to food processor and puree to get a small batch of applesauce. Add honey if apples aren't sweet enough.
Use the food processor again to make tart crust. Combine almond flour, coconut oil, egg, and sea salt until it forms dough.
Then roll dough out between two pieces of plastic wrap. Otherwise the dough will stick to your roller since we use almond flour instead of regular flour.
Transfer rolled out dough to pie tart. I wet my fingers with water, since there is oil in the dough, to shift dough around until tart mold is completely filled.
Spread homemade apple sauce on bottom of tart.
Then, peel remaining apples and arrange apple slices in an overlapping circle until you reach the center. The thinner the apple slices the easier it is.
Brush maple syrup over apple slices and bake at 450 for fahrenheit for ten minutes.
Then turn down the temperature to 350 for twenty minutes.
Let apple tart cool before removing from tart mold.
I decided to make a healthier applesauce recipe, since I can’t get enough apple recipes this fall. Now that I know how ridiculously easy it is to make it yourself, this will be one item I no longer need to buy. If you’re too old for just plain old applesauce, you can always get fancy and mix it into muffins, cakes, waffles, an well anything you can think of. I’m seriously considering adding this to popsicles. It may be October, but it’s still hot in LA.
I kept the applesauce pretty chunky and didn’t cook it down a crazy amount. I wanted to apple taste and texture to really shine through. I used Granny Smith apples, which are pretty tart, so I added some maple syrup to balance out the sour with a bit of sweetness. A lot of recipes called for brown sugar, and since maple syrup is a similar color, I thought I try it out. However, you could always use honey or eliminate the natural sweetener altogether.
These peanut-free copycat Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups taste just like the real thing. Maybe a bit better, because I like my chocolate darker and this uses Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate. I love this brand because their products, including the chocolate chips, are made in a dedicated nut and gluten free facility, and are certified non-gmo and vegan. Beware, these chocolate chips are dangerously addictive and often go straight to my stomach, instead of a recipe.
I also used Barney Butter Smooth Almond Butter. Do not substitute a different brand. This almond butter is also made in a peanut free facility and is also certified non-gmo, gluten-free, and vegan. Plus, it tastes exactly like peanut butter! I don’t know how they managed it, but it I’m so excited to try more peanut recipes. The ingredients in this almond butter are blanched roasted almonds, evaporated cane juice, palm fruit oil, and sea salt. I found this at my local Whole Foods, but you can also purchase it on amazon. Seriously, if you don’t tell anyone it’s not peanut butter, they won’t know.
