Almond and chocolate mini muffins in less than 30 minutes: Paleo - Gluten free – Grain free

Well, hello there… It’s been quite some time since the last I posted in this blog, to be precise just about 2 month. My excuses? Several… but I hope soon to talk about them.

In the meanwhile, here you have a great little recipe I found while looking how to satisfy a baking / sweet craving and manage to remain gluten free and grain free (and almost sugar free).

To be perfectly honest I didn't expect much of the recipe due to it having so few ingredients and the claim that it will be ready in less than 30 minutes but I gave it a go and I'm so glad I did!

This little bites are delicious and moist and can be eaten just plain as they are or adding some almond butter or cashew butter or even honey to them.

So without much ado, here they are…

Almond and chocolate mini muffins – Gluten free – Grain free

SERVES: 12-15 mini muffins

Prep Time: 5 minutes                  Cook Time: 15 minutes

How many?: 12-15 mini muffins

Recipe adapted from The Sweet Spot

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup almond butter (You can buy almond butter here  or if you are in Málaga or Alhaurín El Grande check out the Herboristerías - Make sure it is the butter made of raw and peeled almond.)
• 1 medium sized bananas (The riper, the sweeter! Don't worry about using those that has the skin already blackened ;)
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or the seeds of 1 vanilla pod
• 1 serving of Stevia*. (If you buy it from Mercadona, they come in little sachets, use 1; if you buy the granulate Stevia the equivalent of 1 tablespoon. If you don't now where to get it, check here). These measures gives you a medium sweet muffin, if you like sweeter ones, add one more tablespoon.)
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon of double cream**
• 2-3 tablespoons of organic dark chocolate chips (at least 70% cacao). If the chips are too big don’t be shy and cut them with a knife.

Instructions:

1.    Preheat the oven at 180ºC.

2.    Place all ingredients - but the chocolate chips- into a blender or food processor. You can also use a stick blender if you have one. Blend until well mixed. Batter should be sticky in texture.

3.    Add 2/3 of the chocolate chips into the batter and mix. Keep the rest to use as topping.

4.    Pour batter into a greased muffin tin or those handy silicon mini muffins moulds.

5.    Add the rest of the chocolate as topping to each muffin.

6.    Cook time: 10-12 minutes for mini muffins.

 

I didn't expected them to rise so beautifully but here they are!

Note: best eaten the same day. If you have some left for the next day you can reheat in a toaster oven for about 4 minutes at 150ºC or just eat them at room temperature, your choice.

Hope you try them and let me know how you like them...

Ciao!

* I use Stevia to do some baking every once in awhile instead of sugar and results are quite good. I'm not saying it is the same but in terms of health I prefer Stevia. You can find information about stevia such as glycemic index here and how it is processed here. Or even something not so good here. Make sure to do your research..so you KNOW what’s going into your body. 

** If you want to make this dairy free you can change the double cream for apple cider vinegar.

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Delicious No Flour Banana Pancakes

I'm just beginning week 3 of my #NSNG challenge and I was totally craving some sweet treat, to be totally honest, I was dreaming of having butter and honey on toast with my coffee while driving back home. I think that my current craving state could be due to the lack of proper sleep last night and the fact that today it is really hot, mind you, it's one hell of a hot afternoon today. 

So coming back to the cravings, I wasn't planning to indulge them so I began searching for something sugar-free and grain-free to have with my afternoon coffee and found this recipe. To be completely honest, if I wasn't desperate for a solution I would've doubt about this one, but after trying it... it was a Godsend.

It doesn't taste exactly as your normal Sunday flour + sugar pancakes, but if you do it right texture and flavour are great. It taste a bit like bread pudding in the middle (depending on how thick you want them, I prefer mine thin, crepe-like). Keep this in mind so you won't have "hotcakes" sort of expectations.  They take only a couple of minutes to make and they only have 22 calories per pancake, so it's sugar-free, grain-free, low-carb, high-protein and taste great. 

Iced Coffee and cream with the banana pancakes
Total calories: 125

Sugar-free, Flour-free Banana Pancake Recipe

Original source unknown, tutorial by Our Best Bites

Ingredients
1 large banana (about 1/2 cup, mashed)
2 eggs (medium size)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder (optional but recommended)
1/2 - 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon depending on how much you like cinnamon* (optional but HIGHLY recommended)

*Cinnamon helps curve down sugar cravings and also makes the pancakes taste totally like dessert.

Instructions

- Heat a frying pan or skillet on the stove to medium heat (too hot and you'll burn the pancakes).  
- While pan is heating, add the banana, the eggs, the baking powder and cinnamon into your blender or food processor and pulse a couple of times until you get a smooth batter.
- If you don't have a blender or food processor you can mash the banana with a fork making sure you get it smooth and with no  lumps, and then mix in eggs, baking powder, and cinnamon. 
- When frying pan is hot add a bit of butter or spray it with non stick spray (butter taste way better).  Pour 2 full tablespoons of batter at a time and cook until bottom appears set (30-60 seconds) flip with spatula and cook additional minute or less.

- Serve warm with butter or eat them cold with fruits on top.  

- You can get about 10 or 11 pancakes.

Why don't you give them a try and let me know what you think...

Leti~


Nutritional Info (per pancake )
Cal: 22  Protein: 1.3 g Fat: 0.9 g Carbs: 2.4 g

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Orange cake with Cointreau sauce

We are still in “Oranges season” here and our Valle del Guadalhorce is pretty much famous for its orange trees. My brother and a friend brought home several bags of oranges freshly collected from the countryside, so I try to find creative and delicious ways to use them.

Searching the web I found a “Moroccan Orange Cake” recipe that looked simple and delicious, so changing  it up a little and adding a Cointreau sauce  we came up with this truly fantastic cake to go with a cup of coffee or tea.

To my delight it was so delicious that my DH asked me to bake some cupcakes  with this recipe for his workmates.

We still have oranges at home!

So, if you want to give it a try, here you have the recipe:

Orange cake with Cointreau sauce

Cake Ingredients

• 4 eggs (at room temperature)
• 1 ½ cups of margarine, melted
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 sachet of baking powder (15g)
• A pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• ½ a cup of fresh orange juice
• Zests of two oranges

Preparation

• Get your orange zest and juice ready. 
• Preheat your oven to 350° F (180° C). Grease and flour a tube pan or your cupcake tray. 
• With an electric mixer  beat together the eggs and sugar until thick. Gradually beat in the melted margarine. Make sure the margarine has cooled down before adding it to the mix. 
• Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt, and then the orange juice. Continue with the electric mixer until smooth, and then mix in the zest and vanilla. 
• Pour the batter into your prepared pan or into the cupcake try, and bake for about 40 minutes, or until the cake tests done. 
• Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling. 
• Soak the cake with the Cointreau and Orange syrup  while it is still warm. With the cupcakes, follow the same procedure and for even better results, grab a bakery syringe and inject the syrup into the cupcakes. Once the syrup is cold it will get a thicker consistency.

Ingredients for the Cointreau and orange syrup

• ½ cup of white sugar
• ¾ cup of fresh orange juice
• 1 shot (about 3-4 tbs) of Cointreau

Preparation

In a pan, mix together the sugar and fresh orange juice and take it to boil. Once the sugar has completely dissolved, lower the heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and add the Cointreau (Dark rum also goes really well with this cake). Let it cool down for about 100 minutes and then while it is still warm, pour it over the cake.

If you try the recipe, please let me know how it goes.

Leti.-

 

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