Homey Grain-Free Apple Pie

Remember those apples I said I picked? This is where most of them ended up: drenched in sweet cinnamon and wrapped in almond flour pastry dough. Baked into a pie, and yes...served with ice cream. Dreamy.

I love the way this pie turned out in the end: rustic, they way many of my favorite recipes are, and not too sweet. But I gotta tell you, I was stressing about it from first apple slice until the the first bites were taken. Not real stress, just the kind of stress you get when you're baking something. 

I used to bake more than I cooked (bread for dinner!) but in the last several years that has reversed (for better), and I cook about ten times more than I bake. Between my infrequent baking and baking with alternative flours, I some times feel like I've lost my baking touch. Years ago I could've baked without using measuring cups, and been right on (I know, this is not technically correct, but I just did it enough that I knew how much was how much). These days, I find I have to try a little hard to get things right. 

But my co-worker and friend, Chrissy, is an amazing pie-baker, and her pretty pies inspired me to up my game with this one. I decided I wouldn't settle for excuses, like "almond flour is hard to work with" and instead strive for "this pie is a piece of art". I bought a new aspen leaf cookie cutter, and went to work. And, I was pretty happy about how my paleo apple pie looked before it went into the oven! A spiral of fall leaves, which was just my mood in the moment. 

Twenty minutes into baking, I realized that my crappy electric oven was heating the pie from the top first, so I rushed to the rescue with foil. I texted Chrissy in a panic, but she encouraged me, saying, I like burnt crust, and I crossed my fingers that the foil would save any more burning: I'd settle for dark golden and rustic. 

The leaf spiral barely resembled leaves when it came out of the oven, but the pie was still grand looking, so came the real test: serving up slices to our guests and taking the first bite. 

Phew! 🙌 I still know how to bake somethings. (To be fair, there are all sorts of baked goods on this blog-- just none of them as prestigious as the good old apple pie).

Homey Grain-Free Apple Pie

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

Just a good old classic apple pie, made grain-free.

Serves: 12   |    Total Time: 45 active minutes

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Ingredients:

• 2 batches almond flour pie crust (double the recipe so your have enough for the top-crust), shaped into two balls of dough and refrigerated
• 8 cups cored, peeled & sliced apples
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2/3 cup coconut sugar
• 1/4 cup cassava flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil, sliced into thin pats

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. In a medium bowl, toss apples in coconut sugar, cassava flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon juice.
3. Shape your crust: remove one ball of dough from fridge, and roll it out between two pieces of parchment paper until it is 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch thick. Place back in fridge on flat surface for a moment to make it easier to remove the parchment paper. Remove from fridge after 2-3 minutes and carefully peel back to layer of parchment. Dough should now only have parchment on one side. Place the crust over your pie pan, parchment side up. Now, carefully, peel back top layer of parchment and fit crust to pan. If you get a tear hear and there, just patch it together using your fingers to press the dough together (no one will notice!).
4. Trim edges of crust, and fill with apple mixture. Add pats of butter/coconut oil over apple mixture.
5. To make top crust, repeat the same rolling process as you did with the lower crust: parchment, roll, briefly refrigerate. Then, remove top piece of parchment and cut dough as desired (strips for a lattice, or use a cookie cutter like I did). Transfer pieces carefully to top of pie to finish.
6. Place in oven and bake for 50 minutes. Watch carefully, and wrap crust in foil if it browns too quickly (My oven seems to be overly hot on top, so I do this after about 10 minutes). Allow pie to cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Chai-Spiced Chocolate Coconut Bark

Gosh, it has been way too long since we've had a chocolate recipe around here, hasn't it? Not to worry, it's not because I haven't been eating chocolate (oh -- that's not what you were worried about? Hmph.) I've been eating plenty of these melt-in-your mouth cookies, and eating my fair share of chocolate chips (Did half of the chips destined to become this bark end up being eaten straight from the bag? ... Maybe).

Anyways -- what you really care about: A chocolate recipe you can enjoy pretty much right now. Like not even kidding. All you have to do it melt some chocolate, top it with some extra goodies, and throw it in the fridge for a few minutes to set. Then all of this chocolatey goodness is yours. You don't even have to wait for the bark to set -- I almost guarantee there'll be a chocolatey spoon or spatula that needs licking. 

The bonus? This chocolate bark is a super cute Christmas present. One that's full of homemade thought and sweet with handcrafted love. Tuck some bark into a pretty bag, tie it with a bow, and every chocoholic will love you. I know I would. 

✅Last minute present success! 

Wishing everyone a happy holiday/solstice/winter break! 

Chai-Spiced Chocolate Coconut Bark

Published December 23, 2015 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 8   |    Active Time: 15 minutes

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Ingredients:

8 ounces chocolate

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

2 tablespoons toasted coconut flakes

2 tablespoons crystallized ginger chips

Directions:

1. Fit a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Melt chocolate in a double boiler, or in the microwave (for microwave: place chocolate in a bowl. heat for 30 seconds, stir. Heat for 30 more seconds, stir, and repeat until chocolate is smooth).
3. Stir ground ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom into chocolate. Spread chocolate in a thin layer on the parchment paper.
4. Sprinkle chocolate with crystallized ginger and toasted coconut. Place chocolate in fridge until set. Break into pieces. Store into airtight container.

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.