Tag Archives: sugar free

Heavenly Healthy Brownies

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This is probably my favorite gluten free, sugar free recipe. I love brownies….

  • 1 cup brown rice flour
  • 1 cup peanut flour (if you don’t have peanut flour you can just double the brown rice flour)
  • 1 cup cocoa powder
  • 1.5 Tbsp baking powder
  • 1 cup maple syrup
  • ½ cup grapeseed oil
  • ½ cup agave
  • ½ cup stong brewed coffee (we use a stovetop espresso, resist the urge to add more just because you made it – trust me, it makes it too liquid and will not bake)
  • ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup chocolate chips – we use the Sunspire Grain Sweetened Chocolate Chips 

(malted barley, corn and brown rice sweeten these chocolate chips and they are quite amazing especially if you have given up normal chocolate due to the sugar – here is what Sunspire says on their webpage about their Grain Sweetened Chocolate Chips, “Our proprietary grain-based sweetener is not only nutritionally sound, but also perfectly complements the rich flavor of our chocolate and confections. This complex carbohydrate is derived from a mixture of whole-grain barley and corn that is first boiled, then dried. No chemicals are used, and no nutrients are removed. This sweetener contains natural malt sugars and proteins.”

Heat oven to 350. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and a pinch of salt into a bowl. Whisk maple syrup, oil, agave, coffee, almond milk, and vanilla in another bowl. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Pour half the batter into a greased 9’by11’ baking dish, top with half the chocolate chips then pour the remaining batter and top with the rest of the chocolate chips. Bake 30 minutes and let cool. Don’t over bake. There isn’t anything that needs to be cooked (like eggs) so not over baking will give you a little bit more gooey goodness in your brownies unless you want more cake like brownies, which are good too!

Variation 1: We have done it without the chocolate chips and added little drops of peanut butter on top – we will try to swirl it next time.

Variation 2: Add 1.5 Tbsp of cinnamon to the batter and mix. This is probably our favorite variation.

Sit, put your feet up, grab a glass of milk and a brownie….mmm goodness!

Recipe is a modified spin off of a recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow.

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Thin Mint or Peppermint Patty Cookies

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       This sugar free, gluten free, dairy free, soy free cookie recipe is adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks, the Gluten-Free Almond Flour cookbook, by Elana Amsterdam. She has a myriad of other fabulous recipes on her website.

I took her recipe for Chewy Chocolate Cookies and made a dough that can either be rolled flat and cut into thin slices to mimic a Thin Mint or made thicker to taste more like a peppermint patty.  Here’s the recipe with the secret ingredient at the end!

  • 3 cups blanched almond flour
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ cup arrowroot powder
  • ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ½ cup grapeseed oil
  • ¾ cup agave
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 7 drops of natural peppermint oil (I use LorAnn Oils)

Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl mix the almond four, salt, baking soda, arrowroot powder and cocoa powder. In a medium bowl, whisk together the grapeseed oil, agave and vanilla. Mix the wet ingredients into the almond flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Add 7 drops of peppermint oil and mix again. Scoop the dough (about a ¼ of a cup) onto baking sheet or roll out and use a cookie cutter or glass rim to cut thin circles in the dough and place on the cookie sheet.

        

Bake 10 – 15 minutes if you use scoops. Bake 9-11 minutes if you roll out the dough and use flat circles. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 30 minute – this also allows them to finish a last bit of cooking. You don’t have to worry about egg in this recipe being undercooked and that even means you can sample the dough!

We love ours with a glass of unsweetened almond milk. Enjoy!

Gluten Free, Sugar Free Pizza

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When I went gluten free and sugar free about 7 years ago, I was determined to find a good pizza. What I found were gluten free crusts, but they all included some form of sugar. I made one out of almond flour that my husband kindly referred to as a thick, heavy almond mush…and that’s what it tasted like too. After looking for a couple of years I gave up the battle and resigned myself to never having pizza again. A sad day.

It was after we had a pizza party at our house, with the pizza smell wafting from the oven, that I knew my search was not over…I had to find a pizza dough that would work. One night on Facebook  I stumbled across a posting from a company called Chebe. I was intrigued by their gluten free breads and started to look into their ingredients and see what other products they offered. I found a pizza dough mix as well as a breadstick mix that were not only gluten free but sugar free too! Now visions of childhood and eating breadsticks at Pizza Hut with my family danced in my head. I brought myself back to reality and remembered not to get excited until I had actually found the mix in the store and actually made it to see how it tasted.

The verdict is in…pizza and breadsticks are back in the game!

Not only are the Chebe breadsticks and pizza dough mix gluten and sugar free, they include an entire list of “free” items as follows:

  • Gluten free
  • Soy free
  • Corn free
  • Rice free
  • Potato free
  • Yeast free
  • Peanut free
  • Tree nut free
  • Egg free (you add eggs to the dough but can use a substitute)
  • Lactose/casein free (you add eggs to the dough but can use a substitute – we use unsweetened almond milk)
  • Iodine free
  • Sugar free
  • Non GMO

Now for a couple of pictures and tricks to make your pizza and breadstick experience the best!

           

Pizza: We used the instructions on the back of the Chebe box, but also baked the crust first for 10 minutes before toppings to ensure a crispy crust.  We made a pizza sauce from tomato sauce, crushed red pepper, Italian seasoning, black pepper, salt and a bit of agave (to taste).

Breadsticks: We used the instructions on the back of the Chebe box. Then I mixed up some olive oil, basil, oregano, salt and parmesan cheese to spread over the top of the breadsticks before baking. Make a bit of extra pizza sauce above for dipping your breadsticks.