MELT Grain Free Chocolate Chip Cookies and MELT Buttery Baking Sticks and Spreads

Have you seen or heard of MELT Organic?  It’s a company that makes organic coconut oil baking sticks and spreads. They sent me some samples.  They are really good!  They are made of all organic ingredients and are vegan.  This is good news for me, since my 14 year old is trying out being vegan right now.  Not sure how long he’ll go on with that diet plan, but it’s been interesting for me to try to keep him fed.  He seems to be living off peanut butter sandwiches right now.  But I hadn’t realized these baking sticks and spreads were vegan, so I can’t wait to tell him to have some toast!  It’s kind of a family joke—whenever the boys tell me their stomach hurts and that they’re hungry, I tell them to have toast.  It became such that they were really annoyed every time I’d say that.  So now lately whenever they have any issues at all, a stubbed toe, sunburn, headache, you name it, I tell them the best thing for them is to have toast.  They LOVE it. (eyeroll)  Try it next time you have any ailment, have some toast.  Try it with MELT.  I’ve made a couple grilled cheese sandwiches with it (with gluten free bread for me).  Good stuff!

 

Hello, back to cookies—you know, really what life is all about.

Since I have My Favorite Grain Free Chocolate Chip Cookies already, I simply used the MELT Organic baking sticks in place of the coconut oil in the recipe and they turned out delicious and perfect.  I love them.  They are all for me.   One thing I realized as I made them a couple days ago, they seem to be better with age.  Which is quite the opposite with regular chocolate chip cookies.  If you’re looking for a grain free, refined sugar free chocolate chip cookie recipe, you should definitely try mine that I’ve linked here.  Try them with MELT! 

 

Want a cookie?  I’ve got plenty.

 

But hurry, they won’t last long…………..

 

Guess what, MELT also makes a Chocolate MELT Organic Spread!  (It’s not vegan, as it has some honey), but it’s good!  I actually haven’t tried it on just some toast, but all the sudden that sounds really good and now I must.  MELT Organic mention that even their spreads can be used for baking, so I have tried the Chocolate MELT Spread a couple times with a brownie recipe.  But I’m still tweaking it.  I don’t think it’s the MELT that is causing me to not be perfectly in love with the recipe yet, I think it’s my substitutes for regular granulated sugar (using coconut sugar and raw honey) that I haven’t gotten just right yet.  My goal (and we should all have goals, right?) is to keep making brownies, brownies, brownies until I get it right.  Then I’ll share the recipe.

 

Thanks for the samples, MELT!  Toast, cookies, brownies and grilled cheese sandwiches, gluten free and all pretty healthy.  Sounds good to me!  Check them out on Facebook and Twitter.

Chocolate Chip Walnut Blondies—Grain Free, Refined Sugar Free

One of the best goodies I’ve made that I can eat right here and I love the taste and texture.  I have a simple, little secret to tell you—I made the dough of My Favorite Grain Free Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I wanted to add nuts, because for years now, I haven’t been putting nuts in cookies, even though I totally think they should be there, because people around here at my house don’t like them.  Then it dawned on me that I can put all the nuts I want into my own goodies because I am generally the only one around here who will eat them.  So good, healthy, grain free, refined sugar free chocolate chip cookies, with walnuts, needed to happen.  After making the dough, I didn’t feel standing around baking the cookies. 

 

So I hurried and threw the dough into a baking pan and baked them.  Hello?  Easiest thing ever—and these blondies were born.  I know, takes a lot of brain power for that one.  I love the texture and I love having nuts in my own treats.  So win—win.  I wasn’t sure how they’d actually bake, but I decided after 20 minutes to call it good and I let them cool completely.  I thought they’d sink down after taking them out of the oven, but they stayed nice firm.  Not sure I’ll ever make chocolate chip cookies for me again, because this was sure easy and I have 16 blondies to enjoy over the next little while, you know, if I wouldn’t eat three or four of them a day. ; ) No, I think the most I’ve had the first day was three.  They were great stored in an airtight container for a few days.  Now the rest have been in the fridge and are still great. 

 

These have a perfect soft, chewy texture that you want in a blondie and work the same magic that having a cookie would have in the cravings department.

 

Chocolate Chip Walnut Blondies, Grain Free, Refined Sugar Free, by Katrina Smith, Baking and Boys!

1 cup almond flour

¼ cup coconut flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons coconut oil

½ cup coconut sugar

¼ cup raw honey

6 tablespoons almond butter

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon pure almond extract (optional)

1 large egg

1 cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips, or chocolate of your choice (ingredients in the chocolate—evaporated cane juice, natural chocolate liquor (non-alcoholic), non-dairy cocoa butter—dairy, soy, nut and gluten free)

1/2 cup lightly toasted, chopped walnuts (or nut of your choice)

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x9 inch baking pan with nonstick foil, lightly oil with coconut oil (probably don’t have to have the foil, but I like using it). In a medium sized bowl, combine the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of a mixer, combine the coconut oil, coconut sugar, honey and almond butter. Beat until well combined. Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts with a spatula. Spread all of the batter  evenly into the baking pan and bake for 20 minutes.  Check the center of the bars with a toothpick that comes out  mostly clean, but a little bit of crumb/chocolate is okay. Let cool on wire rack completely.  Remove the bars from the pan using the foil edges and cut on a cutting board into 16 squares.   Store the ones not eaten immediately in an airtight container.

 

 

Deliciousness!  Can’t wait to try them with pecans.  Also going to try them with peanut butter instead of almond butter and put some peanuts in them.  Oh the endless possibilities!

My Favorite Grain Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have had My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe for years now.  I’ve tried so many different recipes over the years, even since finding THE one, but the one I always make holds true.  It is a perfect cookie dough and makes perfect cookies.  I’ve used the recipe to add all kinds of things to the cookie, including peanut butter yumminess, coconut and nuts, and freeze dried raspberries, just to name a few.  I adapted the Jacques Torres/New York Times recipe years ago and have made this one my go-to.  Everyone loves the cookies.  Check out the link for lots of mouth-watering pictures.  There was a problem—now that I don’t eat gluten and refined sugar, I knew I was really missing out on one of my favorite things.  In the meantime, I’ve tried many gluten free and grain free chocolate chip cookie recipes.  They are usually okay.  They usually “do the trick” for me, you know, get me over that “I need a chocolate chip cookie” fix. 



I need to tell you though—I’ve found My Favorite Grain Free Chocolate Chip Cookie and need to share it with you all here.  I almost always make the regular ones into huge cookies, they are just perfect that way.  I give them away to lots of happy people and hear many compliments.  I recently needed to give some good gluten free chocolate chip cookies to someone who can’t have gluten (at all, I cleaned everything well and kept it well away from anything gluten), so I created this one and it’s the best one I’ve made.  Perfect combination of chewy on the inside and crisp edges and the flavor is great with what I think is just the right amount of sweetness from coconut sugar and a little honey.  Must make these again!



My Favorite Grain Free Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Katrina Smith, Baking and Boys!
 

1 cup almond flour
1/3 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons coconut oil
½ cup coconut sugar
¼ cup raw honey
6 tablespoons almond butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon pure almond extract (optional)
1 large egg
1 ¼ cup Enjoy Life chocolate chunks and mini chips (ingredients in the chocolate—evaporated cane juice, natural chocolate liquor (non-alcoholic), non-dairy cocoa butter—dairy, soy, nut and gluten free)
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium sized bowl, combine the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of a mixer, combine the coconut oil, coconut sugar, honey and almond butter. Beat until well combined. Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chunks/chips with a spatula. Scoop the dough into cookies on the baking sheet and bake for 10-14 minutes (depending on size of cookies). Let cool on the baking sheet for 3-5 minutes, then move them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
 

You know you want a bite.  Or maybe even your own cookie (s )!

Sweet Potato Chocolate Marble Bundt Cake (Gluten Free, Grain Free)

This was my birthday cake I made a couple weeks ago, but it would be perfect for your Thanksgiving desserts or Christmas, or any holiday or any occasion or just because you want cake—it’s practically healthy!  Get this—the cake is not only gluten free, but it’s grain free and it’s made with much healthier coconut sugar and raw honey for the sweetener.  Hello, it also has a vegetable in it.  The sweet potato acts like pumpkin.  I love the flavor.  With sweet spices added, sweet potato and and chocolate go together perfectly!  If you’re trying to find healthier desserts or have diet restrictions, this pretty bundt cake would be just right for you. 
It was certainly just right for my birthday, which just happens to fall on National Bundt Day, November 15.  I’ve enjoyed making a bundt cake for my birthday for a number of years now, ever since Mary at The Food Librarian started in with her love of bundts.  She has hundreds of bundt cakes posted on her blog.  She would even do 30 days of bundts leading up to my birthday National Bundt Day, and post a bundt a day before that.  She did that for a couple years.  She has some great round ups of all the cakes she’s made as well as some round ups of the bundts everyone makes to join in the fun and send her their links. 

I can’t wait to make this cake again.  I recently bought two sweet potatoes that were huge—one was over three pounds!  I baked it and used it to make a puree.  It was well enough for this cake and a lot more.  Some of it even went in the freezer since I went out of town and couldn’t eat it all up before it would have spoiled.  I still have the second big one and some smaller ones to use up.  I thought the big one wouldn’t be good (over grown) or as sweet or something, but it was great and perfect for this cake!
Sweet Potato Chocolate Marble Bundt Cake, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!
4 ounces good chocolate, melted and cooled (I used Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips)
1/2 cup arrowroot powder
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 cup almond meal/flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup (168 grams) raw honey
1/2 cup (224 grams) coconut oil
1 cup (250 grams) sweet potato puree (Make sure it’s cool if you’re baking it right before using it. I baked mine the night before I made the cake, then cooled it and stored it in the refrigerator, then pureed it right before using.)
4 large eggs (I actually used 5 sm-med. farm fresh eggs, for a total of 202 grams out of shell)
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips
Ganache Drizzle:
2 1/2 ounces chocolate (I used mini chocolate chips)
4 tablespoons heavy cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spread coconut oil evenly over the surface of the bundt pan.  (You’ll want at least a 6 cup bundt pan, but bigger will work, too, it’s not a super high cake that totally fills the pan.)  You can also dust it with cocoa powder or almond flour or coconut flour, but I didn’t, just oil.  (The cake stuck in one little place and usually doesn’t at all when I add some kind of flour after oiling the pan.)  Set aside.  Melt the 4 ounces of chocolate in a medium sized microwave-safe bowl.  Stir after 20-30 second intervals until all melted and smooth and let cool while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine the arrowroot, coconut flour, almond flour, baking soda, salt and all the spices.  Whisk together, set aside.  In a large bowl, combine the coconut sugar, honey and coconut oil.  Whisk (or use mixer) until well combined.  Add the sweet potato puree and beat until combined.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well.  Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix together until well combined.  Remove about 1/3 of the cake batter from the bowl into another pan and add the 4 ounces of melted chocolate to it, then combine well. 
Working in spoonsful or scoops at a time, put the batter in the pan, first the sweet potato cake batter, then in opposite places around the bundt the chocolate batter in spoonsful.  Continue in layers of both cake batters until you’ve used it all.  Take a butter knife and swirl the batter to make the marble effect (not too much swirling or it will not look marbled).  Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.  Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes.  Turn the cake over and let it sit for a couple minutes, then tap the sides and bottom of the pan to release the cake.  It should come out nicely!  Heat the cream in a microwave safe bowl until slightly bubbly (careful it doesn’t boil over, it can come to that stage pretty quickly, especially since it’s such a small amount.)  Pour the heated cream over the 2 1/2 ounces of chocolate, let sit for a minute.  Then slowly stir it together until the chocolate is all melted and you have a nice smooth ganache.  You can do this while the cake is cooling as it sets up a bit after it’s all melted.  Drizzle the ganache over the cake (I put it in a plastic zip top bag and snipped the corner off to drizzle it over the cake, you can also do it by the spoonsful.) 

As I wrote down the recipe, it seemed a little involved, but I have found if you get everything out and in place (Mise en place, I’m all for it!), it’s not bad at all.  Prep everything ahead of time, bake your potato, melt the chocolate, etc.—it’s really not too bad.  And fun.  And worth it for this cake!  Not only does it taste great—it looks great, too.  I think it’s a real show stopper.  If you had this on your dessert table and didn’t tell anyone it was grain free, I don’t think anyone would even know.  Only Kevin and my son, Scott, even tasted the cake.  But after that I hid the rest for the next couple days so they didn’t eat more, because it was all for me on National Bundt Day—MY BIRTHDAY!  I thought it tasted better the next day and the next.  Maybe because I’m kind of cake-deprived, but try it and tell me what you think!
I’m home for Thanksgiving in Idaho with my parents while my awesome husband is home with the four boys.  He’s amazing and I am so blessed and grateful for all the wonderful blessings I have been given.  He even spent the last two days repainting our bedroom—5 1/2 years in our home and we’ve never really liked the paint in our room.  Love it now!  Happy Holidays to all!

Coconut Flour Brownies and The Benefits of Coconut Flour and Other Recipes

Do these brownies look gluten free to you, even grain free?  Not only are these refined sugar free (made with raw honey) they are also made with coconut flour.  You know that coconuts are not nuts, right?  With my diet changes of late (gluten free, mostly refined sugar free, mostly processed foods free), I have been using coconut flour (and coconut palm sugar and coconut oil) more and more.  I have really liked the results for all the different baked goods I’ve had when using coconut flour.  I love even more that it’s good for you.  Coconut flour is low in carbohydrates and high in fiber.  Check out more info about coconut flour at Nuts.com.  I always have some in stock now and love using it as a gluten free and grain free flour substitute.  Like these brownies.  I adapted a recipe from Empowered Sustenance for these brownies.  Great blog and source of healthy baked goods and other foods!

At first I thought I didn’t like the brownies, they are super dense, but I also thought they were not sweet enough.  I put them in the refrigerator to chill and tried one the next day and the flavor was much better!  I added pecans and Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips to them.  These brownie would be great with a healthy ice cream made with coconut milk and a little drizzle of melted chocolate on top!  But they are also great as a quick bite for a treat as-is now and then.  I keep them in the fridge.  I’ve always liked chilled brownies.

Coconut Flour Brownies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys! adapted from Empowered Sustenance

10 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup (40 grams) cocoa powder

3 large (free range) eggs

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (210 grams) raw honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon (50 grams) coconut flour

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/3 cup chopped pecans (could use walnuts)

1/3 cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.  Line an 8x8 inch baking pan with nonstick foil.  Grease lightly with coconut oil.  In a medium sized glass bowl (microwave safe), melt the butter.  Whisk in the cocoa powder.  Whisk in the eggs until fully incorporated.  Next whisk in the honey and vanilla extract.  Switch to a spoon and stir in the coconut flour and salt.  Then stir in the nuts and chocolate chips.  Spread the batter evenly in the baking pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.  Remove from pan using foil edges.  Cut into pieces.  (You may chill the brownies, too.)  Keep in an airtight container (I prefer in the refrigerator).

I have plenty of other recipes that use coconut flour as well.  Check them out here:

Almond Joy Coconut Brownies

Healthy Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles or these Healthy Peanut Butter Caramel Chocolate Truffles

Grain Free Gingerbread Blondies with Chocolate Chips

Grian Free Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Grain Free Chocolate Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache

These were all fantastic and I’ve either made them numerous times already or will be making them again for sure!  Stock up on coconut flour and don’t run out, it’s great!

 

Grain Free Gingerbread Blondies with Chocolate Chips (also refined sugar free)

Probably the last thing I’m able to get posted before Christmas, sure wish I could get to posting more often like I used to.  Someday.  I’ve missed it.  But here we are, the last week of December, Christmas Eve tomorrow and the year is gone.  2013, not my favorite year, we’ve sure had our fair share of trials in our family.  Bring on 2014!  I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a great coming new year as well!

I haven’t been making as many treats as I’d like.  Just haven’t had the energy to do so.  Bums me out!  But I did make a few things worthy of getting posted, so here’s one.  I took a few ideas and recipes that were grain free, refined sugar free and made these blondies.  I’ve been craving gingerbread like crazy and these have really hit the spot.  I do like gingerbread without chocolate, but for some reason I prefer it WITH chocolate—go figure.

These are simply made with almond butter and coconut sugar for the sweetener.  There is a little coconut flour in them as well as some molasses and those wonderful spices that make gingerbread so good.  I have really enjoyed them slightly heated up with a few more chocolate chips on top—they get all melty and add a nice topping.  They are just find without the extra chocolate.

Grain Free Gingerbread Blondies with Chocolate Chips, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 cup almond butter (I made my own with almonds I roasted)

2 tablespoons unsulphured blackstrap molasses (It doesn’t have to be blackstrap)

2 large eggs

2/3 cup coconut sugar

1/4 cup coconut flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

1/3 cup Organic Fair Trade chocolate chips, more for topping if desired

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line an 8 inch square baking pan with nonstick foil (or grease with coconut oil).  Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the almond butter, molasses, eggs and coconut sugar.  Whisk together until well mixed.  (This can all be done by hand or with an electric mixer.)  In a small bowl, whisk together the coconut flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt.  Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir until combined.  Fold in the chocolate chips.  Spread the mixture evenly into the baking pan.  Bake for 12-15 minutes.  Let cool then remove from pan by lifting the edges of the foil and cut into squares. 

Put those few extra chocolate chips on top of a piece of the blondies and  warm it up for 15-20 seconds.  Then let it sit for a minute.  The chocolate will melt a little, then just spread it over the top, it wasn’t all that pretty when I did it that way late one night, so I don’t have a photo, but it sure tasted great!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year!  So grateful for all who read my little ol’ blog.