Paleo "Sugar" Cookies

Hey everyone! Welcome to Day #2 of my Holiday cookie series. I am super excited to be doing this. I know sticking to a diet during the Holiday season can be a nuisance. My goal is to make it a little bit easier for you with this series. Yesterday, I made "sugar" cookies, and the recipe is ALMOST the same as the gingerbread recipe I made the other day, minus the molasses and spices of course.

Sorry about the piping work in advance, I am in no way shape or form a master icing piper. The goal with these was to have fun with them. If you're only strictly grain or gluten-free, by all means, feel free to use regular royal icing with normal sugar. I used powdered monk fruit sweetener for this to keep it sugar free. It yielded good results, but nothing beats regular royal icing. The sugar-free alternative did have to be worked with SUPER fast because of the fast setting time.

Grain-Free "Sugar" Cookies

(paleo, dairy-free, gluten-free)

Serves 14-16

• 1 1/2 cups almond flour
• 3/4 cup tapioca flour
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or almond extract
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Process:

**You MUST use an electric or stand mixer for this recipe**

1. In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine the almond flour, tapioca flour, and salt.

2. Mix until well-combined, then add all wet ingredients and beat until mixture starts to form wet crumbs. This may take a few minutes. 

3. Remove the dough mixture and combine the dough together by pressing it together with your hands until it becomes one large ball.

4. Roll the dough in between 2 pieces of parchment paper until about 1/4" thick. (Make sure it is as even as possible.)

5. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350.

6. Cut cookies with a whatever shaped cookie cutters your heart desires and bake for 8-12 minutes until golden brown. You can repeat the process if you have a lot of extra "scraps". Just keep rolling, refrigerating, and baking until you run out of dough!

7. Cool and decorate as desired with your favorite royal icing recipe. Use powdered erythritol in places of regular confectioners sugar if desired!

Paleo Gingerbread Men!

Hey everyone! Welcome to Day 1 of my holiday cookie series! Over the next 10 days, you will find my favorite holiday cookies, paleo/keto-ified. I am going to shoot for 5-6 recipes total. Be sure to stay tuned on Instagram or "follow" this blog so you can check them all out!

I decided to start out with Gingerbread men because my son, Tristan has been dying to decorate them. We did decorate a pre-made Gingerbread house kit, but mean mom wouldn't let him eat that not ony because of the junk, but because I like to look at it all made up until after Christmas, hah!

These gingerbread men are SUPER forgiving so don't be afraid the dough will crumble and they won't stay together well, they do! Feel free to experiment by making these even lower in carbs by upping the almond flour and replacing some of the tapioca flour with coconut flour.. but beware, they may be a little less "forgiving" than the original recipe.

The frosting pictured is honestly just regular old royal icing for easy decorating with a 5 and 2 year old, but I did find a promising looking recpie for sugar-free royal icing here!

Can't wait to see how these turn out for you. Please leave feedback and photos in the comments! Merry Christmas!

Grain-Free Gingerbread Men

(paleo, dairy-free, gluten-free)

Serves 14-16

• 1 1/2 cups almond flour
• 3/4 cup tapioca flour
• 3 tablespoons molasses
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Process:

**You MUST use an electric or stand mixer for this recipe**

1. In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine the almond flour, tapioca flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt.

2. Mix until well-combined, then add all wet ingredients and beat until mixture starts to form wet crumbs. This may take a few minutes. 

3. Remove the dough mixture and combine the dough together by pressing it together with your hands until it becomes one large ball.

4. Roll the dough in between 2 pieces of parchment paper until about 1/4" thick. (Make sure it is as even as possible.)

5. Refrigerate dough for 30-40 minutes. Preheat oven to 350.

6. Cut cookies with a gingerbread man shaped cookie cutter and bake for 8-12 minutes until golden brown. You can repeat the process if you have a lot of extra "scraps". Just keep rolling, refrigerating, and baking until you run out of dough!

7. Cool and decorate as desired. 

Paleo Salted Caramel Fudge (with keto option!)

Hey guys! Happy Thursday. Things have been pretty crazy pre-Thanksgiving and beyond. I had the big responsibility of cooking the bird this year so I was VERY determined to not mess it up. Ha! I ended up being up the entire night before Thanksgiving because I was THAT nervous I was going to screw it up. However, it came out absolutely delicious. 

We are approaching Christmastime and I couldn't be more excited. My kids are anxiously awaiting Santa's arrival and Christmas treat season has begun. My favorite Christmas treat to eat is fudge. My mom used to make her homemade fudge for every Christmas function we went to. I remember waking up on Christmas morning and that was the first thing I wanted before presents. Coming up with a fudge recipe that tastes a lot like my mom's has been on my list for a long time. And... I think I have finally done it. The caramel totally was a spur of the moment decision but a good one. I topped the caramel off with espresso Jacobsen flake finishing salt. I absolutley love their salt. You can find them at Williams Sonoma or online.

AAAAAND! Exciting news! I have been working on something new that I am beyond happy about! As you may know, I have a huge passion for natural health and wellness which is what led me to becoming a Nutritionist. But what always sat in the back of my mind and what really goes hand in hand are the body and beauty products you use.. our world is full of toxic beauty products that can disrupt your hormones and cause cancer.. and the US still allows these ingredients in our body care and makeup. SO, I took a plunge that I have been wanting to for a long time.. I joined Beauty Counter! You can read all about Beauty Counter's mission and shop my catalog here! (Please email me if you have ANY questions here)! 

OK.. Back to the fudge.. Please let me know how this recipe goes if you decide to make it or modify it. I hope to get a few more recipes up before Christmas. Stay tuned!

Paleo Salted Caramel Fudge

(Gluten-free, vegan option)

Serves 12-16

Fudge Ingredients:

**READ ME**

(*This recipe should be doubled if you like thicker fudge. I used a pan like this.)

• 10 ounces dark chocolate chips OR 10 ounces sugar-free chocolate chips like Lily's brand (you can find them here)
• 2 tablespoons stevia or xylitol
• 2 tablespoons organic unsalted butter or coconut oil
• 1/4 cococnut cream (the fat from the top of a can of full fat coconut milk. can also be purchased in a can on its own)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt

Fudge Process:

1. Using a double boiler OR a medium sized saucepan on very low heat, melt all ingredients minus the vanilla over a double boiler. Whisk until melted.

2. When everything is melted and shiny, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

3. Pour mixture into a small square pan lined with parchment paper (I used 6x6" pan)

4. Let mixture set for 1 hour before pouring caramel (if making). Let cool for 3 hours until slicing.

Salted Caramel Topping Ingredients:

**READ ME**

(*I haven't fully mastered a keto caramel sauce.. yet.. the paleo version works very well. If you try to use a sugar-free brown sugar substitute, please let me know how it goes!*)

• 1 1/2 cups canned full fat coconut milk (Must be canned. I used Whole Foods organic coconut milk)
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar (sugar substitute for keto)
• 2 tablespoons of butter or coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Salted Caramel Topping Process:

1. In a heavy medium sized pot, melt coconut milk and coconut sugar over medium heat.

2. When mixture comes to a boil, turn down to a simmer and simmer for about 30-40 minutes, stirring every few minutes.

3. When mixture is thick and coats the back of a spoon, add the butter or coconut oil and cook for 5-10 more minutes until mixture is very thick.

4. Remove from heat and pour into a heat-safe bowl. Cool for 10 minutes and then pour, while still warm, pour on top of the fudge. 

5. Let set in fridge for 2-3 hours before slicing. Add a finishing salt, if desired. (I used Jacobsen espresso flake salt)