I am ecstatic over my last baking effort.
When I started going grain-free, I knew things might get worse before they got better. Because most of the grain westerners eat is refined, it doesn’t provide a lot of quality fibre. When I dropped it all from my diet, I had to replace it with something else or I would have starved to death so I upped the quantity of vegetables I ate. They have heaps of fibre and our bodies don’t like to suddenly get an overload. Our systems take a while to adjust to more fibre as it kicks the digestive system into top gear after being sluggish for so long. In fact, I had a rough few days and was very glad to be on a two-week break from work. But I stuck to it.
One of the bonuses of changing the way I eat while on holiday is that I have the time to be aware of the effect of everything I eat. The fibre issue has settled down but what I have found is that nuts seem to be an irritant for me. Now this is a bit of a problem because grain-free diets like the paleo one uses nuts, almonds in particular, as a substitute for grain in baked goods. They mainly use almond flour and almond meal but, if I am intolerant to almonds, that is a real pain.
So the hunt has started for grain and nut-free recipes so I can still have sweet treats for morning tea at work. The refined sugar-free thing continues but that is the easy part.
I have been doing research on various different websites and found a recipe that almost fitted the bill on the Against All Grain blog. However, Danielle used almond butter and walnuts, which wouldn’t work for a nut-free recipe. The almond butter could possibly be replaced by coconut oil (coconut is not a nut) but I’m not sure that it would hold the cookies together unless they were placed in the fridge to keep the oil hard. At lower temperatures coconut oil hardens but becomes runny at higher temperatures. Because we are in summer, the oil is a bit sloppy out of the fridge at the moment. Even though I often bake dairy-free because many people are lactose intolerant, I am pretty sure that is not a problem for me because I was dairy-free for some time when I was younger and nothing changed. So I used butter in my cookie version. As for the walnuts, I simply left them out and added more dried cranberries. On her blog, Danielle used applesauce but I had none so I used a ripe banana instead.
You can click though here to read Danielle’s recipe or below is my version. These turned out superbly with great flavour and texture. And best of all they can stay out of the fridge without dissolving. No, actually the best thing is that I can eat them with no ill-effects at all and nearly all baked goods have some negative effect on me.
I have a flourless chocolate cake which is perfect as well but I didn’t photograph it when I made it and now I have another similar recipe to try in the next few days. I will let you know how it goes.
This is NOT a low Fodmap recipe.
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ½ cup butter
- 2-3 tbsp date puree (depends how sweet you want your cookies)
- ¾ cup shredded coconut
- 1 ripe banana
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- pinch salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¾ cup dried cranberries
- Heat the oven to 350°F/180°C.
- Mix the flour, butter and date puree in a food processor.
- Add all other ingredients except the cranberries.
- Remove the mixture from the food processor to a bowl and add the cranberries.
- Place a sheet of baking paper on an oven tray.
- Drop tablespoonfuls of the dough onto the paper, making sure they are rounded and not messy.
- Bake about 10 minutes until they are golden but still soft.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray for half an hour so they firm up a little.
Very interesting to follow your experimentations. I can’t tolerate too many nuts either so often the recipes that call for lots of almond flower don’t work too well for me. Walnuts and peans are the worst for me. I guess they are too oily. Your cookies looks really tasty and I’m so glad your experimentations are resulting in positive efforts. Good luck with trying out different recipes! I’ll keep learning!
I’ve been reading interesting things about nuts. They contain high quantities of phytic acid which is not digestible by humans and inhibits the absorption of minerals, in particular iron and zinc. Phytic acid is also found in many plants, especially in the bran or hull of grains. Most people can tolerate some phytic acid but others can’t. Perhaps you and I are among the latter.
I don’t think I have a problem with nuts, although I have noticed that sometimes when I eat too many I do have some issues. So your experiments are really interesting to me. Really nice cookies — these would be great anytime, but are also a terrific Christmas cookie.
You probably aren’t intolerant to nuts but if anyone eats too many of them, they will have problems because of the Phytic acid (see the comment above) and they are also high in Omega 6, which is the one we don’t want too much of.
Your new diet system interests me Suzanne. I don’t think I will have the willpower to do everything that you are doing. Keep it up! You are an inspiration!
Thanks, Rowena, the answer is to do it gradually so you don’t feel too deprived all at once.
I don’t know if I had the patience to create cookies without flour, or even without grains at all. I admire that and you you did a fantastic job with these cookies. I’m inclined to bake them myself for they are surely healthy.
Frank, they are surprisingly easy to make. In fact, they seem to be quicker to make than baking with grain but I’m not sure why.
I’ve never seen coconut flour over here. I will have to do a bit of online research I think. I seem to have lost my email subscription (since your changeover) so will sign up again.
We can now buy coconut flour in the normal supermarkets but some of the gluten-free flours are only available from specialty shops. I use coconut flour because it is gluten, grain and nut-free.
Your name is still on the Feedburner list but I added something to the code to exclude a certain category from being sent out and I think it isn’t working right. I have now removed it. Thanks for letting me know.
These cookies look wonderful, I love the coconut and cranberry together!
Thanks, Laura.
Now I am ready to do my breakfast, later than having my breakfast coming again to read other news.
These look great! Do you think you could swap out the butter for 1/2 cup coconut oil to make dairy-free?
Lou, I imagine this would work. Just check the consistency of your cookie mixture and make sure it’s not too runny. Add a very little more flour if it is but remember that a little coconut flour goes a long way.
I like this I like this recepe, but i thought dates are high foodmaps,.
Dates are high Fodmap. You will see above the recipe that it says that this is NOT a low Fodmap recipe. It was from days before I discovered the diet.
Do you know what I could replace the date puree for?? Maybe more banana?