Sweet potato, garlic and herb bread (dairy, soy free)

I found a recipe for potato bread, Italian style with garlic and herbs. This sat in my bookmarks for months till I had the time to try it out. I didn't really stick to the recipe but it became a huge hit. So  I started thinking what can I do to make it better. First I have kilos of homegrown sweet potatoes, so I decided to use them instead of the regular ones. For the herbs I use what I have at hand at the moment.

And this bread turned out really beautifully.

I used one orange sweet potato and a white one. Taste wise I don't think there would be any difference either way, but the orange one gives it a beautiful color.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potato
1 cup integral wheat flour
1 cup brown wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 yeast (live one) + 1cup oat milk, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon brown flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dry oregano
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 cloves garlic
Olive oil for brushing on top

Instructions:
1. Cook the sweet potatoes for about 30 minutes, drain the water and mash them.
2. Put the yeast in a cup of warm water or oat milk. Add one teaspoon of sugar and one of flour and wait until it rises.
3. In a bowl where you mashed the potatoes (they don't have to be completely cooled off) add the flour, salt, olive oil, yeast and the herbs and knead the dough for 3-5 minutes.
4. Leave the dough to rise for about 30 minutes then put in an greased pan.
5. Bake for 30-45 minutes at 150-200 degrees Centigrade.

One final note, this bread goes whit everything salty. It is a bit to strong for jam or  chocolate spreads. What I would strongly recommend is making my homemade pate. 

Chewy almond butter cups (gluten free, dairy free)

This is a recipe for something fast and furious. It doesn't take long to make and can help with any kind of sweet tooth or crave out there.
Also it's dairy free, and if you use paleo chocolate it can be sugar free. I use regular cooking chocolate with high percent of cocoa (54%).

 Our 4 year old loves this and as he is allergic to soy and dairy this is a perfect treat for him. It's homemade jet totally has a store bought candy feel to it.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup almonds (optional: roasted)
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 100 gr chocolate (paleo if you can get it, or at least one with high percent of cocoa)

PREPARATION:

•  In a food processor grind the almonds and then add the coconut oil and blend until you get almond butter (liquid as in the picture-at room temperature).
• Melt chocolate in double broiler, or microwave oven.
• In paper cup put chocolate to cover bottom, then put it in a freezer for about 10 minutes
• Next add in every cup about one tbsp of almond butter and cover with the remaining melted chocolate.
• Put in fridge for about 1-2 hours.

Enjoy!

Paleo Lemon Curd Tart (sugar, dairy and gluten free)

When you buy new silicone molds you naturally have to try them out. So I found dozens of recipes for tarts I liked and then chose out of them 4 for lemon tarts. Took out of them parts I liked and paleolized them to get this beautifully light and delicious dessert.

For the crust:

• 1 cup almonds
• ½ cup coconut flour/flakes
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ cup coconut oil (cold)
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon ground vanilla

Roast almonds quickly in a skillet (optional) and grind them in a food processor. Coconut flakes can be ground in a coffee grinder and added to the mixture and in also the salt, soda and vanilla and mix. Then add in the egg, honey and the oil, mix shortly. A ball of dough will form. Press it with fingers into one large pie mold or six small tart ones like I did and stab the bottom with a fork. Bake it at 170 C for about 20 minutes (the middle has to be baked without the edges being burned).

For the lemon curd:

• 5 eggs
• Juice from (1 lemon + 1 orange)
• 5 tbsp honey
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 tsp gelatin

Combine eggs,  juice, honey and coconut milk. Gently heat stirring constantly. Stir until thick (3-5 minutes). Soak gelatin in 1 tsp cold water. Stir into curd mix. Spread the curd mix into the baked crust and let cool. Sprinkle with cinnamon (optional).

Paleo cheesecake (dairy, soy, gluten free)

First I have to emphasize that making a non dairy cheesecake is somewhat extravagant and not at all vitally important but it is DELICIOUS! 

It's nice to know you can make this faux cheesecake for a child that never tasted cheesecake because of dairy allergy and everybody is always talking about it. As a matter of fact I don't think I know anybody that doesn't love cheesecake. There are a lot of recipes on the web for making this dessert and the base is always ground cashews. This recipe is a variation of cheesecake because of a wonderful gooey toffee that comes on top and I decided to use and remodel this recipe just because of this toffee layer.

Hope you'll try it. It is definitely not a light cake as you end up using half a jar of honey and a small jar of coconut oil with one can of coconut milk but the ingredients are healthy and tasty at the same time.


INGREDIENTS:Crust:

• 1 cup almonds
• 3 Tbsp coconut oil
• 1/8 cup honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ¼ tsp salt

Cheesecake Layer:

• 2 cups cashews (boiled for 20 minutes)
• ½ cup coconut oil
• 2 medium ripe bananas
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• ¼ cup honey

Toffee:

• 1 can  coconut milk
• ¼ cup honey
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• ½ tsp vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS:
 
Crust:

•  Preheat the oven to 350F. Line the bottom of a pan with parchment paper.
•  Combine all crust ingredients together in medium sized bowl and mix until well combined. Press into   the bottom of the pan.
•  Bake for 15 minutes. 
•  Remove and cool.

Banana Cheesecake layer:

• Add all of the ingredients into a blender, mix until very smooth (about 5 minutes).
• Pour the cheesecake layer on top of the crust and place in the freezer.

Toffee:

• Place all of the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Allow to boil lightly for about 60-70 minutes, stirr occasionally.
• As the mixture starts to darken, stir frequently to prevent burning. 
• Once the mixture thickens and has reached an amber color, remove from heat and pour on top of the banana cheesecake layer. Return the pan to the freezer and allow to set for about 1 hour.

Paleo flatbread-great for paleo sandwiches and paleo pizza (dairy, soy, grain and sugar free)

We have never been big bread eaters so not eating grain is not something that came hard on us. But having some bread here and now is nice.

Paleo breads are usually made from nut flours or coconut flour and have good portion of eggs in them so they are very moist (zuchinni-bread-coconut-flour). These are nice but discovering paleo flatbread was close to a miracle. This is something you can eat with lunch or make a sandwich with. And everybody that are on paleo know how hard it is to make a paleo sandwich. Usually you use some kind of mushrooms or paleo pancakes. But having flat bread makes it easier, faster and more like ordinary sandwich. This also makes a way for a nice paleo pizza because this flatbread is great as pizza dough.

The one I make is garlic bread because we adore garlic. Recipes on the web for flatbread usually ask for a pizza stone, but as we don't have one we don't use one. I really consider this unnecessary because simple baking pan placed at the bottom of the stove works well enough.


INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup tapioca powder

• 1/2 cup coconut flour

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp fresh oregano leaves

• 3 fresh basil leaves
  

• 1/2 cup olive oil
  

• 1/4 cup water

• 2 whole eggs

• 3 garlic cloves

  INSTRUCTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. 

• Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.

• Add warmed water, olive oil (1/4 cup) and slightly whisked eggs. 

• Crush the herbs well and add them to the mixture.

• Mix thoroughly, adding additional coconut flour as needed. It should end up being a very sticky dough that can be flattened with a spatula.

• Let sit a few minutes to let coconut flour absorb water.

• Pour onto parchment paper and spread with spatula to 1/4 inch thick.

• Place parchment paper on a baking tray and bake until golden.

• Mix olive oil (1/4 cup) with mashed garlic.

• Remove and add coat with olive oil and mashed garlic mixture.

Extra moist and fudgy sweet potato brownie

So the season has taken off. The season of the sweet potato. We LOVE it. And this year we decided to grow it ourselves. And this was made with the very first sweet potato we dug up. The recipe gave something more than just a moist brownie. The result was an extremely moist brownie that tastes like slightly baked chocolate pudding. I made it yesterday and it's gone.

I again used chocolate and I'm sticking to the one with the three ingredients (Alnatura). When I make it again I will try to use cocoa and honey plus dates mixture to replace the chocolate and make it totally paleo without any added sugar.

This time I peeled the sweet potato, diced it and cooked it in water shortly because it was a very large potato, but next time I plan to roast it whole to amplify it's sweetness even more.


INGREDIENTS:

• 150 gr dark chocolate (Alnatura)
• 1 large sweet potato (cca 1kg)
•  1/4 cup honey
•  3 eggs
•  1 tbsp vanilla
•  1/4 cup coconut flour
•  1 tbsp coconut oil
•  1 tsp baking powder

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Melt the chocolate with the coconut oil. I use a steel or glass bowl over a pot of boiling water.
• Cook the sweet potatoes (peeled, diced) until soft and then puree them in a blender until smooth.
• Add in the chocolate, honey, eggs, coconut flour and baking powder and blend until the mixture is smooth.
• Bake in a dish covered with baking paper for 50-60 minutes at 180-220 C.
• Let cool a bit, take out of the dish, remove the baking paper, slice and ENJOY!

Home made hazelnut-chocolate spread aka Nutella

For a long time I was trying to find something nutella like but without dairy for my son who has a cow milk/soy allergy. And as much as we tried there wasn't anything like that on the market until couple of weeks ago when I did find one in DM from Alnatura. and it is delicious, very dark chocolate, not to many side-ingredients. But still not Nutella like because no hazelnuts.

So when I stumbled upon a paleolized Nutella recipe I had to try it. The recipe is very simple and I adapted it to a point. I made it once so far and seeing/keeping/tasting this I decided to make some additional changes next time I make it, and there will definitely be a next time because it is GREAT!

But I didn't want to wait to share this recipe because I know the demand for something Nutella like spread jet healthier is HUGE.

Let talk about the chocolate you decide to use. This is up to you. As far as I know there aren't any paleo chocolate brands available in Croatia jet (without regular cane sugar). But this is not such a big deal. You can just use cooking chocolate that has a minimum of ingredients. The one from Alnatura is nice, it contains only 3 ingredients, unrefined  cane sugar, cocoa and cocoa butter.

The original recipe asked for almond milk to be used, this I replaced with water. Commercially available almond milk is everything but almonds as are other pseudo milks also. There are better ones, like some rice milks and oat ones, that do not contain any added sugar so you are welcome to use one of those, just read the label and if it is simple: rice/oat+salt+water+not hydrogenated oil it's OK.

What will I be changing next time and you can change right away if you want is that I will replace the coconut oil+water with coconut milk. This will make it more creamier even straight from the fridge. How much, this I will add as a comment to this post when I try it out.

This is spreadable on room temperature but hard when in a fridge, just like real Nutella.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup hazelnuts (soaked for minimum of 4 hours but recommended overnight)
• 1 cup chopped chocolate
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/3 cup water

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Melt chocolate.
• In a blender add the soaked hazelnuts, melted chocolate and oil and blend for about 5 minutes.
• Add in the water and blend more. Blend until the consistency is smooth.
• ENJOY!

Coconut peach/plum pie

Deserts are not really allowed on the 30 days of  the Whole 30 program. The reason for that is that we all have a very emotional and psychological bond to sugar and sweet which needs to be broken in order to restore our healthy eating habits. So during this time you really do break free. One of the most surprising benefits for me was on my teeth. When you give them a break from sugar they give you a break from cavities and the like. So if you stay on a paleo based lifestyle afterwords there are a lot of paleo desserts out there. And there is no reason you shouldn't indulge from while to while but you have to keep in mind that even if there are no bad ingredients in these desserts they too can again enslave you to the sweet demon.

This is a pie I made in two variations and both were delicious. First time I made it was with plums and second with peaches (had them in the fridge).

You can eat it warm or cold. It will keep for days in the fridge too.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 kg of plums or peaches
• 1cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flakes
• 1 package of baking powder (1 tsp)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 5 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1/3 cup coconut oil

 PREPARATION:

• Preheat oven to 180 C.
• In a pie plate stack plums/peaches in a single layer.
• Sift together the coconut flour, salt, baking powder, and spices.
• Beat the eggs and whisk into the flour mixture until completely combined. Add vanilla, the honey, and the melted coconut oil until smooth.
• Pour batter evenly over plums/peaches
• Bake for 40 minutes (use the toothpick test).

The indispensable brownie (prvo pa slatko)

Here I am. Although it is not very paleoish to start with a desert, the art of making healthy sweets has really taken me over. One of the reasons why I decided to take the whole Whole 30 program on was the sweet tooth that has pested me from early youth. So...brownies (kakao kocke) are easy to make, a common desert that everybody loves. There area thousands of  paleolized versions available online and I decided to merge couple of recipes I found and then adapt them. So this is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup dark chocolate (from Lidl, cooking chocolate, Fin Carre)
• 1 cup almond butter (will post recipe soon)
• 2 tbsp coconut oil (from Muller, the only brand they have, cheaper than brands available in Bio&Bio)
• 1/3 cup dates (local grocery store; pureed them with handheld blender)
• 1/4 cup muscovado sugar (available almost everywhere...but beware...invest in the Muscovado, the rest are plain refined and colored sugar)
• 1 tsp vannila ( I use pure ground vanilla from Harrisa, extracts have alcohol and tend to be chemically manufactured)
• 2 tbsp coconut flour (the stuff they sell here and call flour are flakes so the easiest way is to blend them in a high speed blender until they turn to flour)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Preheat your oven to 180 C ( 350 F)
• Melt chocolate (on stove or in the microwave oven, both way work like a charm)
• Blend dates (add in the coconut oil it will simplify the blending)
• Wisk eggs with a mixer
• Combine all of the above ingredients together with the almond butter, sugar, chocolate and vanilla
• In a separate bowl combine coconut flour, baking powder and cinnamon and the add to the above mixture and mix it all well.
• Pour into baking dish lined with sheet of baking paper.
• Bake for 30 minutes.

This is the final product

Very moist in the inside jet with crunchy crust....

Some final remarks. Paleo and especially Whole 30 program does not allow sugar. The reason I did use sugar is that there is no acacia honey  available this year and that is what I would normally use.This is because off all of the rain that fell at the time the bees where supposed to collect the pollen and we always buy are honey from local producers. I do have chestnut honey but it is far to aromatic to use in a plain brownie recipe. I don't use maple sirup or agave sirup because they are just too expensive.