New and Improved Zucchini Bread Recipe

It's zucchini  season!  What do you do with your extra zucchini? I love sauteed zucchini as well as zucchini chips and even raw zucchini salad, but my favorite way to eat zucchini is probably zucchini bread. I've made several different versions of zucchini bread over the years, but this version is definitely my favorite.  Give it a try and see for yourself.

Zucchini Bread
2 1/2 C shredded and drained zucchini
2 1/2 C almond flour
4 eggs
1/2 C maple syrup
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1C chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients together except chips. Gently fold in the chips then scoop batter into muffin tins. Bake at 350 *F for 20-30 minutes.

Apple Cinnamon Cake in the Dutch Oven

 

I've been testing out Gluten, dairy and nut free Dutch oven recipes for my local Girl Scout Day Camp. One of the most popular recipes is Dump cake, which consists of canned pie filling and boxed cake mix. In recreating this recipe, I stuck with the pie filling, finding ones that are gluten free, but nixed the boxed cake mix in favor of one I created myself. The result was good enough to serve tonight at a dinner party! Even though, it's a recipe easy enough to make at camp, it's tasty enough to serve to company. Give it a try on your next camping trip...or at your next dinner party.

 



 

Apple Cinnamon Cake in the Dutch oven
2 Can apple pie filling or 2 C stewed apples
¾ C Coconut Flour
¾ C Tapioca Flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbs. cinnamon
½ tsp. salt
6 eggs
1 Can coconut milk
1 Tbs. vanilla

In a Dutch oven or a deep pie dish dump one can of pie filling or 1/2 of fruit. In a separate bowl, mix all other ingredients until well blended. Pour batter over fruit then pour second can of pie filling or second half of fruit over top of the batter. (Cover Dutch oven if using.) Bake in a 350F oven (or use 6 briquettes below and 18 briquettes on lid of Dutch oven) for 45 – 55 minutes or until knife comes out clean from center of cake.

Pumpkin Cupcakes Made in the Box Oven

This past weekend my family went camping with a few other families, several of which also ate Paleo or similar. On this trip we cooked our food in a variety of ways. We baked coffee cake in the Dutch oven,  made pancakes over a camp stove, made omelets in zip lock bags in boiling water, roasted sweet potatoes and more in the campfire coals and baked chocolate chip muffins and pumpkin muffins in box ovens. Box ovens may be my favorite camp cooking method just because it seem amazing to me that you can make an oven that will reach baking temperature using only a cardboard box and aluminum foil. That's kind of crazy, really.

 

The pumpkin muffins were a big hit with the adults while the chocolate chip were the kids' favorite. I'm really psyched to try out more flavors in the box oven. Have any requests?

Box Oven Pumpkin Cupcakes

1 ½  C almond flour
1 small can pumpkin
1 ½  tsp. baking soda
¾  C honey
1 tsp. cloves
2 Tbs. cinnamon
2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. salt
6 eggs

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Spoon batter into a lined muffin tin.

If making in a regular oven, Preheat oven to 350F. Bake muffins for about 30 minutes or until they are firm on the top when you press on them.

If making in a box oven, light 9 charcoal briquettes. Using the instructions here, place the muffin tin in the box oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until muffins are firm on top when you press on them. Keep in mind when using a box oven that every time you lift the box up, you will lose 25 degrees F from the oven and will need to add an additional 15 minutes to the cooking time. That's why the nifty window is so nice!

Paleo Chocolate Birthday Cake

Last year for my birthday hubby made me a very yummy birthday cake that was somewhat labor intensive to make. So this year on his birthday I decided to make one for him, but since it was sunny and warm outside, I didn't want to spend the whole day inside making cake. I decided to go for a quick and easy, but very yummy chocolate chocolate chip cake with a drizzled chocolate frosting. Everyone loved it and some even asked for seconds!

Chocolate Cake
1 C almond flour
2 Tbs. Coconut flour
3 T cocoa powder
4 Eggs
2 Tbs vanilla
1 tps cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C Honey
½ C applesauce
1 C chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large mixing bowl, mix all ingredients except chocolate chips. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon batter into parchment lined cake pan.  I cut a circle of parchment for the bottom them made some wings to hang out over the sides to make it easier to remove from the pan. Bake about 20-25 minutes.  This recipe makes one 8" round cake. For layer cake double recipe.


Chocolate Drizzle Frosting
1 C Chocolate chips (use 72% or higher cocoa)
1/2 C coconut oil

Melt Chocolate and chips in a microwave safe bowl stirring frequently in 30 second intervals. Drizzle over cake when melted.

 

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

This weekend the Girl and I went on a Girl Scout camping trip on the beautiful Hood Canal. For one of the meals, the girls cooked it from start to finish in their cook shelter. The Girl volunteered to help with dessert which would be chocolate chip cupcakes. Since one of the girls in the troop also eats gluten and dairy free, I went to work making a paleo recipe that the girls could take to camp and easily make in a box oven. I mixed all dry ingredients into a Ziploc bag at home, then the girls added the eggs, honey and applesauce at camp. Simple!

 

They first needed to make the box oven (instructions here), then mix up the cupcake batter and cook it at their campsite. The results were better than I expected, really. Once we got the placement of the cupcake pan right (don't sit the pan directly on the coals!), then the cupcakes cooked up like they would have in a regular oven. The window on the top, that The Girl insisted on including,  made checking on the cupcakes much easier! I highly recommend a window in your box oven. And I highly recommend giving box oven cooking a try, just for the novelty of the whole thing if for nothing else. :)

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
1 C Almond Flour
2 Tbs. Coconut flour
3 Tbs. Cocoa Powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
4 eggs
1/2 C applesauce (one of those 4 oz cups of applesauce works great for traveling)
1/2 C honey
1 C chocolate chips (we used dairy free chips)

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl, then add all wet ingredients to dry and stir in the chips. Scoop batter into lined muffin cups. Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes in a regular oven. For box oven, use 9 briquettes and cook for about 30 minutes. Cupcakes will have gooey melted chips inside when warm.

Honey Carrot Muffins

In the fall I often have extra veggies from my garden that we can't eat right away. We eat as many apples, pumpkins and carrots as we can, but after a while you just can't fit anymore into your menus. When that happens I make applesauce and pureed pumpkin and carrots to freeze. The purees freeze really well in old 32 oz yogurt containers for use throughout the winter. The other day I pulled out a pureed carrot tub to thaw. I wasn't sure what I would make with it, but today I put it to good use. I made Honey Carrot Muffins! (But the kids think they are pumpkin pie muffins because I used pumpkin pie spice in them. I don't plan to clear up that confusion as they both ate them and said they loved them.) You could use just about any fruit or veggie puree like pumpkin, apple, carrot, sweet potato, butternut squash in these and achieve the same results.  

Honey Carrot Muffins
1 C Carrot puree (or other fruit or veggie puree) - room temp
1/3 C Coconut flour
1/3 C honey
3 Eggs - room temp
1/3 C coconut oil - melted
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (could mix cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice to make your own)
1/4 C almond flour

Bring all ingredients to room temperature and preheat oven to 350F. Mix all ingredients and spoon into lined or greased muffin tins. (I made 18 mini muffins and 2 large ones.) Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until muffins are firm to the touch.

It's My Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday! For the last few years my husband and kids have made and decorated a birthday cake for me on my special day. This year I requested a Paleo birthday cake. I was considering a carrot cake, as I LOVE carrot cake, but I thought the kids would not really want to share carrot cake with me. And I wasn't looking for food battles on my birthday. So I opted for dark chocolate, which is a winner with the whole family. This cake recipe was adapted from The Food Lovers Primal Palate and was perfect. The cake is made with coconut flour, and the icing is made with coconut oil, so it definitely has a coconut flavor, which I love. Then the kids decorated it with dark chocolate chips and candy sprinkles (I ate the chips, they ate the sprinkles. ) To top it all off, we got the first significant snow of the season yesterday, just for me! :)

Dark Chocolate Cake with Icing
Cake Ingredients:

• 10 eggs
• 1/2 C honey
• 1/2 C maple syrup
• 1/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 t salt
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 1 C coconut oil - melted
• 3/4 C coconut flour, sifted
• 1 t baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. In small bowl combine coconut flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda.
3. In a large bowl blend with a hand mixer combine eggs, coconut oil, honey, syrup, and vanilla.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet and continue to blend.
5. Grease two 9" round baking pans.
6. Pour batter into (2) 9" round baking pans. Divide evenly.
7. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Paleo Chocolate Icing
Icing Ingredients:

• 3/4 C Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1/4 C Dark Chocolate chips
• 1/2 C coconut oil
  

Icing Process:

1. In a double boiler over very low heat, melt chocolate chips and mix with oil.
2. Cool in freezer about 15 min or until mixture seems to be not as liquid.
3. Blend with a hand mixer until fluffy