Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

This one's for Nova!  We are both chocolate chip cookie lovers, so it was necessary to find us a suitable recipe for times when afternoon treats are required.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 cups almond flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup granular xylitol
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• A pinch of sea salt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup organic butter (or coconut oil), melted
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup sliced almonds, chopped are good too
• 1 cup 73%+ organic dark chocolate chips or cacao nibs

Method

• Combine all dry ingredients (except chocolate chips and almonds) in a bowl and form a well in the middle.
• In separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients.
• Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix well until combined, the mixture will be a bit crumbly. 
• Fold in chocolate chips and almonds.
• Form 1 inch balls of batter, place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and gently press down into small discs.  Keep in mind that the shape you form is the shape they will bake as.  These cookies don't puff up or melt down, so try to make them a little bit pretty!
• Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes until the edges are golden brown.
• Cool (they're very delicate when they are warm) and enjoy with a cold glass of almond milk. 

Luscious Lemon Pound Cake

Luscious Lemon Pound Cake

This is sort of a summery dessert recipe, but it's one of my favourites, so I decided to make it this afternoon and share it with all of you!  Coconut flour is a great grain-free alternative to wheat flour.  When used in baking, it doesn't rise as much as regular all-purpose flour, so don't be alarmed when your pound cake only rises to 2 inches!  The yogurt in this recipes makes it moist and delicious, and all of the lemony goodness really masks that stevia flavour.  Top it with organic strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries and stevia sweetened whipped cream or Cashew Cream.  And oh yeah, it's Advanced Plan friendly too! 

Ingredients

• 5 large organic eggs
• 1 tsp. liquid stevia (again, sweeten to your taste)
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup organic plain, unsweetened whole milk yogurt
• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 5 lemons, depending on their juicyness)
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) organic butter, melted
• 2 tsp. aluminum free baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. kosher or sea salt
• 1 cup organic coconut flour, sifted (make sure to sift - the texture of coconut flour is a bit lumpier than wheat flour)

Method

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan with coconut oil, and flour with coconut flour.
• In a large bowl beat the eggs with an electric mixer.
• Next add the stevia, vanilla, yogurt, lemon juice and zest. Mix until combined. Taste, and adjust sweetness by adding more stevia if you prefer.
• Add the melted butter in a constant stream, mixing continuously.
• Sift together all of the dry ingredients.
• Using a spoon or spatula fold in the dry ingredients to the wet. The mixture will thicken up instantly once you have added the coconut flour and other dry ingredients.
• Bake for about one hour (time will vary slightly depending on your oven), until a toothpick inserted in the center of cake comes out clean.
• Let cake cool for 5 to 10 minutes in the pan. Invert on a cooling rack and let cool completely.

A Special Request

M's Chocolate Mousse

I was chatting about the Advanced Plan with one of our Practice Members the other day.  After I had finished telling him and his wife that they needed to eliminate all sugar, all grains, and most fruit from their diet, he looked at me with determination written all over his face and said, "Ok Steph, I can do this.  But I would really reaaaalllly love to have chocolate mousse once in a while."  We all chuckled.  But everyone has got their thing.  Their vice.  Mine is muffins.  His was chocolate mousse.  Pretty cute.  So anyways, after some experimenting... here it is, chocolate mousse!  You can still have a life AND eat on the Advanced Plan.  Honest.  :) 

Ingredients

• 2 ripe avocados
• 2 tsp. liquid stevia (more or less, depending on your preference)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup organic unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted (make sure to sift - there's nothing worse than lumpy mousse!)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 cup organic full-fat coconut milk
• 1 tbsp. brandy or rum (obviously an optional ingredient, and maybe not so Maximized, but live a little!) 
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon (another optional ingredient, but I think it makes a big difference.  It doesn't add a real cinnamon flavour, but it really helps to cut the super-sweet after taste of stevia, which is important in these sweet dishes when so much stevia is used.)

Method

• Place all ingredients in the food processor (a blender can be used in a pinch) and process until completely smooth and creamy.
• Dollop into pretty bowls or ramekins and refrigerate. 
• Garnish with strawberries, slivered almonds, mint leaves, whatever your heart desires!