Grain-Free Gingerbread Men

Holidays were sweet at my Mom's house--between the occasional sweet bread and a few biscotti, there was always a pile of sugar cookies, which we would decorate one by one with softly colored icing and plenty of sprinkles. 

Prompted by the holiday carols on the radio and the snow outside, I've been thinking about holiday cookies a lot lately. Is there anything sweeter than an afternoon inside, decorating cookies while humming little songs? 

These cookies are crispy and snappy. They're full of warm gingerbread spices, which makes them perfect for dipping in a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. Best of all, they'll fill any craving for holiday sweets or cookie decorating afternoons. 

While there are a lot of frosting recipes out there, and quite few recipes for Paleo Royal Icing, I actually just decorated these with straight coconut butter. It's simple, it's easy, and it's super creamy. Coconut butter on a spoon? Yuum! Coconut butter on a cookie? Double yum! Personally, I find the cookies sweet enough. If you want to decorate these cookies with something more traditional, go for it! To be totally honest: plenty of these cookies were eaten before they finished cooling down, which means they never got frosted at all! Oops. 

One last totally honest tidbit: one year I dressed up as a gingerbread man for Halloween. My parents had to talk me out of eating my candy buttons before the 31st. I couldn't have been any older than 5, what could you expect? #EmbarrassingMoments. 

Grain-Free Gingerbread Men

Paleo, Primal, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free    |   Caitlin Sherwood    

Thin and crispy, these gingerbread men have all of the snap of the traditional cookie.

Yields: 24   |    Total Time: 30 active minutes

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Ingredients:

• 1-3/4 cups almond flour
• 1/4 cup arrowroot powder, plus extra for rolling out cookies
• Pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil
• 1/3 cup coconut sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup coconut butter

Directions:

1. In a food processor, combine the dry ingredients (flour, arrowroot, baking soda, salt, spices, sugar).
2. When dry ingredients are well combined, add the butter/coconut oil to the food processor. Pulse several times, until butter is incorporated but not fully mixed in. Add the egg, and then continue to pulse until dough comes together into a sticky ball.
3. Remove dough from food processor. Roll into a ball and then flatten into a disk shape. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge for 30 minutes.
4. When ready to bake cookies, preheat over to 350°F. Cut two pieces of parchment paper the size of your cookie sheet. Sprinkle one piece with arrowroot powder. Take dough out of the fridge, and unwrap. Place dough on piece of parchment paper, and sprinkle with more arrowroot powder — just a small amount, it keeps the dough from sticking too much. Place the second piece of parchment on top, and then use a rolling pin to roll dough out to a 1/4 of an inch thick. Peel off top parchment paper carefully. Now, using cookie cutters, cut cookie shapes about 1/2 inch apart from each other. I use the reverse cookie-cutting method to make my cookies, because this dough is fragile: Use cookie cutters, and then remove the excess bits (i.e., don’t try to move the cookies them selves) from the parchment. Then, transfer entire sheet of parchment paper to cookie sheet and bake until cookies are puffy and golden — 6-8 minutes. Allow to cool 5-10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. Repeat this process until the dough has been used!
5. Once cookies are completely cool, melt the coconut butter. Spoon melted coconut butter into a frosting bag fitted with a fine frosting tip, and decorate cookies as desired.

Note: as coconut butter melts in warmed temperatures (around 76°F degrees, you may need to keep decorated cookies in the fridge. This will depend on how warm you keep your house (mine is much lower than 76°F, so I keep them on my counter top in an airtight container.

Grain-Free Salted Maple Pecan Pie Bars

I gotta say-- as cliche as it may sound, I never thought I'd turn out quite so much like my parents. If you had offered me a slice of pecan pie 10 years ago, I probably would've passed it up, and left more for my dad, who loves the stuff. Nowadays, I jump on the opportunity to make pecan pie, and am happy to eat it all myself. 

The first bite still makes me think of my dad, but then I'm overwhelmed by Oh my gosh, soooo gooood thoughts, and I just keep on munching. 

My mom, on the other hand was more about pumpkin pie. She would spend the week leading up to Thanksgiving pouring over copies of Living and other foodie magazines, earmarking her favorites pumpkin pie recipes (along with stuffing recipes, biscuit recipes, etc). When the big day finally came, she'd make all of the classics, with funny twists and tasteful turns. Nonsense, right? I would never spend weeks searching for every odd version of pecan pie and then finally settle on making something completely different... 😉

And if you were to ask how I decided to make Salted Maple Pecan Pie Bars instead of regular pecan pie, I'd probably open my mouth to explain. In a voice just like my mom's, I'd say something like "Oh, you know, I just was experimenting," because that's the type of thing I heard her say my whole life. 

But sometimes, experiments pay off: these gooey puppies are caramelly, nutty, and crunchy. They're sticky, but no too sweet. They don't need whipped cream/whipped coconut cream/ice cream just to cut the sweetness, but... we all know that whipped cream isn't really optional when it comes to pie.

Grain-Free Salted Maple Pecan Pie Bars

Paleo, Primal, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free    |   Caitlin Sherwood    

A thick shortbread-like crust topped with a gooey layer of maple butter filling and toasted pecans. Finished with flake sea salt.

Serves: 12   |    Total Time: 1.5 - 2 hours

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Ingredients:

• 1 recipe Paleo Pie Crust dough (unbaked)
• 1 1/2 cup pecans
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 teaspoons arrowroot powder
• 1 teaspoon cold water
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons coconut milk
• 1/8 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon fleur de sel, for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Make the pie crust dough according to instructions. Then, press the dough into the bottom of a 9x9 pan, working the dough so that the crust goes about 1/4 inch up the side of the pan (this creates a reservoir for the filling). The bottom of the crust will be around 1/2 centimeter thick. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in syrup, and cook until mixture is bubbling, about 1 minute. Let cool slightly, 5-6 minutes. In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together the arrowroot powder and water. Whisk in milk, eggs, vanilla, and salt. Slowly add warm butter mixture, whisking constantly, until smooth. Pour filling into pie shell, then arrange pecans evenly on top
3. Bake until pie is puffed and set along edges, 20-25 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

Grain-Free Brown Butter & Pear Coffee Cake

Let's start from the top with this one, because there is just soooo much to love.

First stop: Streusel. I'm a big streusel fan, and have been in quite the streusel mood lately. I've been finding all sorts of things to top with it -- even this banana bread with an added streusel layer. 😍Streusel is buttery, crunchy, sweet, -- what more could you want? I'm mad for it. 

Next stop? 🍐The pear and raisin filling. Perfectly ripe pears are a delight in any form, but in this cake they are both creamy and light, all in one bite. They're sweet, with a hint of floral flavor. The raisins add a bit of texture, and after being baked in this cozy cake, they soak up hints of vanilla, buttery flavor, and become even more delicious than before they were added into the cake. Together, they make this treat a perfectly delicious and light-enough-for-a-snack cake.

The last part--the cake batter itself- is the best of all. The real magic maker is the browned butter. Have you baked with brown butter? The first time you do it will change your life! Seriously-- once I discovered brown butter I never made cookies the same way again. Browned butter starts as just regular butter, but you cook it low and slow until it becomes a beautiful caramel color. Something happens when butter begins to brown, it goes from tasting like butter to tasting like caramel, butter, and so much more all in one bite. See what I mean? Life changing. Anyways, brown butter is what makes this soft-crumb almond flour cake so drool-worthy. 

If this is what fall tastes like, I'm happy with the seasons just standing still right here. 🍂

Grain-Free Brown Butter & Pear Coffee Cake

Paleo, Primal, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free    |   Caitlin Sherwood    

Brown butter is the secret magic that makes this cake so good, but if you’re dairy-free, go ahead and try it with coconut oil or even ghee.

Serves: 8-12   |    Total Time: 60 minutes

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Ingredients:

Cake:
• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 3-4 tablespoons honey
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup coconut milk (canned)
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 pears
• 1/3 cup raisins
Crumble Topping:
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
• 1/3 cup almond flour
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350°F. In a small sauce pan, melt the butter for the cake over low heat. Continue to heat over low until butter turns golden in color and begins to smell of caramel. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, honey, coconut milk, vanilla, and once cool to touch the browned butter. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, folding until fully incorporated. Next, dice and seed the pears. Fold the pears, along with the raisins, fold into batter.
3. Spread the batter into a grease 9-inch cake pan.
4. Make the crumble topping: melt the butter, and stir in the coconut sugar, almond flour, and coconut flour. A course meal should form. Sprinkle over entire cake in even layer. Place in center wrack of oven and bake for 30 minutes, until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.