Creative paleo and gluten-free recipes
Did you suddenly realize you were in need of a quick but impressive dessert for Christmas day? I have five ideas for you. You probably have most of the necessary ingredients in your pantry already, but if not, stores should be open for a few more hours! Make your day merrier by whipping up one or more of these last-minute delicacies.
Chocolate Bark with infinite variations (10 minutes to make, 30 minutes to set): If you have some chocolate on hand (milk, semisweet, white–pick your favorite!), melt it, spread it on a parchment-lined sheet, and swirl in toppings of your choice. This recipe calls for pepitas and sea salt, but here are three more ideas: dried cranberries, chopped pecans, and sea salt; crushed candy canes; chopped almonds and toffee bits. After about half an hour in the freezer, just break the chocolate up into pieces and you’re done!
Mexican Brownies (15 minutes to make, 20 minutes to bake): These are a snap to make if you have paleo flour blend on hand. If not, you can measure out almond flour, tapioca starch, and coconut flour individually. If your family enjoys desserts with a little kick, they will absolutely love these!
These brownies are SO good! Rich and fudgy in the middle and irresistibly crunchy around the edges–I can’t stop thinking about them. Their flavor is enhanced by a dose of a cinnamon and a hint of cayenne pepper, but you can totally leave those out if you want a more classic brownie.
I made a big pan of these (doubled the below recipe) for the first meeting of my school’s Spanish Club, and they were a huge hit! The meeting was at ten am, but nobody complained about being served brownies for breakfast. I made them again day before yesterday in these Christmas molds
These brownies don’t taste gluten-free to me at all! The original recipe called for a relatively small amount of flour, so I knew it would be a great candidate for using my paleo flour blend. If you don’t have the flour blend on hand, I’ve also provided measurements for each individual type of flour. The ratio is slightly different from that of the flour blend for ease of measurement, but I have made the brownies both ways and did not notice a difference in taste or texture.
If you’re looking for a last-minute edible gift, why not whip up a batch of these Mexican brownies? Just make sure to give them away quickly before you break down and eat them all. Or, go ahead and make them for yourself for breakfast! ¡Feliz navidad a todos!
I was invited to a Hanukah party last night, and needed to bring a dessert that was nut-free and vegan. I wanted to bring a traditional Hanukah dessert, but soon realized I didn’t know of any. I guess I never really made it past the mountains of latkes at my family’s Hanukah celebrations. A quick search revealed that oily, fried foods like jelly-filled doughnuts are often eaten at Hanukah, but I wasn’t about to fry up a big pile of donuts to be eaten hours later. I also don’t really like jelly-filled desserts; I feel that jelly belongs at breakfast. Since I had dreidel and Star of David cookie cutters, I decided Hanukah sugar cookies would have to be traditional enough. I also got out my snowman and snowflake cookie cutters, since winter is almost here.
My next task was to find a great vegan cookie recipe. Since the cookies had to be nut-free, I soon realized it would be very hard to make them gluten-free as well. So, these cookies are a total gluten bomb. I promise to be back with more gluten-free eats very soon!
