Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

I have a pet peeve with companies that follow a ton of people on social media and then unfollow everyone a few days later. While it's irksome when an individual does it, with a company it just comes off as a little tacky. We all know that the company is doing it to get massive amounts of people to follow them and then betting that most people either don't know how to check or don't care enough to unfollow the company once the company unfollows them. Then the company has 30,000 followers while only following 10 people. It looks bad. I wish that PR companies would do a better job of discouraging this behavior. Almost all the likes that they receive with this type of social media behavior won't be the ones buying their products, the followers don't equal profit. It's a much better idea to actually have a great product and offer coupons on social media, making people care enough to genuinely follow your company. I'm hoping that once companies get a better grasp on how to run social media effectively this behavior will begin to stop. However, as of now that isn't happening, it's pretty much  a free for all.

Since going gluten free I have tried just about every type of gluten free flour. Some have been okay, others kill my stomach (I'm referring to you soy and quinoa flours, no thanks). I've joked with my husband that I'm going to go to a straight steak and potato diet. It would taste awesome and my stomach would be happy. However, it would also cost a mint and variety is better for my health. Coconut flour seems to be all the rage right now, so the following is my recipe for Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting.

Adapted from Healy Eat Real.

Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes

Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Recipe Type: Dessert

Preparation Time: 0h, 20m

Cooking Time: 0h, 30m

Recipe by Foodie in WV

Yield: 8-10 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 5 eggs
• 1/3 cup maple syrup or honey
• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup milk

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend.
3. Allow batter to sit for 5-10 minutes.
4. Place batter into a muffin tin either greased or with muffin liners.
5. Bake for 20-30 minutes.
6. Let cool before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Cooking Directions

1. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer for 3 minutes. Add vanilla and cream and beat for another 1-2 minutes. If needed add more cream to get to a spreading consistency.

Tips: 

• If you've never used coconut flour before it absorbs liquid like crazy. You have to use a lot more liquid than flour in order for baked goods made with coconut flour to work. 
• These cupcakes are a mix between muffins and cupcakes. The texture is somewhere in between. 
• If you don't consume cows milk you could try using coconut milk in this recipe. I often substitute canned coconut milk in baking recipes and it works well. 
• The coconut oil could also be substituted for vegetable oil, canola oil, or unsalted butter. 
• If you like sweet cupcakes/muffins I would increase the amount of honey to 1/2 cup. Additionally the honey can be substituted for date or coconut sugar (or granulated if you eat it in your diet). 
• The frosting obviously has butter and confectioners sugar so if you are avoiding either of those things you would want to make a substitution. An easy way to make dairy free frosting is to whip a can of full fat coconut milk and a teaspoon or two of vanilla. You can add cocoa powder (or cacao) if you are wanting chocolate flavored, approximately 2 tablespoons. 

Oat and Nutella Cookies

Gluten Free Oat and Nutella Cookies

I am jealous of adorable well behaved kids. My house seems to play by another set of rules, or at least my two boys seem to think it does. While I love my kids to no end, they can be the kids that other parents dread. You know the kids, the ones that fight at the store, touch everything they see, talk non-stop (really I don't think they breath in-between sentences), and think that having a MMA fight in the middle of the store is something that should happen. I have those kids. They are adorable, but since they travel in a pack it's like trying to tame wild hyenas. Then every once in a  while I run into another parent with multiple boys, and we share a moment. In a glance, a smile, or a joke we have instantly bonded over having all boys. The world seems a little less crazy, and then I realize my boys are currently on the floor trying to tackle each other. My word realigns back to normal and I realize I don't have perfect kids, but I love them just the same. Hopefully they will one day turn into the adorable well behaved kids that other parents seem to have, in the meantime they are still my off center version of perfect and that's just fine with me.

I have a slight Nutella obsession. I can't keep full jars in the house or I will eat them (normally with a spoon straight out of the jar - is there any other way..). So in order to avoid my waistline from becoming non-existent I only buy Nutella for recipes or as a very seldom treat. My Nutella obsession happens to work perfectly with my cookies obsession, they are a match made in heaven. Today I tried a new recipe for Oat and Nutella Cookies from the May 2014 issue of Food and Wine Magazine. Here is the recipe with changes.

Adapted from Food and Wine Magazine. 

Oat and Nutella Cookies

Recipe Type: Dessert

Summary:

A delicious combination of Nutella and oats that makes for a great snack or dessert.

Cooking Time: 0h, 10m

Total Time: 1h, 0m

Yield: 60 Cookies

Oat and Nutella Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 13 ounces Nutella (one jar)
• 2 cups quick cook oats

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine first 4 ingredients in a bowl and mix.
3. Using a mixer, cream the shortening and sugars until creamy (2-3 minutes on medium).
4. Add the eggs one a time and then add Nutella.
5. Beat the mixture until smooth (another 1-2 minutes on medium).
6. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. Roll the cookies into balls (1 tablespoon for each ball).
8. Place the cookies on the baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes. Do not over bake these cookies. They should be just barely set, if you bake them too long they will be way too crunchy. 

The original recipe has a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. I made the cookies as written in the magazine and I found that the cinnamon flavor was a little much. Now, that may just be my tastes, if you love cinnamon go for it. My husband thought that the cinnamon was the best part of the cookie, so you might love the cinnamon like he did. I also reduced the amount of salt. I found a full teaspoon to be too much for my tastes, so I reduced it to 3/4 of a teaspoon. However, I under salt everything so I'm a little strange. If you aren't a fan of vegetable shortening I would assume that coconut oil (you might need to reduce the total amount), butter, or another fat would work just as well. The version I made I used gluten free all purpose flour that had xanthan gum already added. If you use another type of gluten free flour I would suggest adding xanthan gum to the mixture (about a tablespoon).

Glutenfree Chocolate Coconut Pound Cake

Online I'm pretty vanilla. I make a conscious effort not to write all the things that pop into my brain on a daily basis. Part of this is an effort to not offend anyone online, but a larger part of it is that what I put online is only part of the person I am. In public I'm not very controversial. I think many things, but have learned as I've gotten older that learning to bite your tongue is hard, but an important lesson. I transfer this understanding online. I could have larger blog hit numbers if I ranted about things daily, if I attacked another person's point of view, or spoke vocally about everything that entered my brain. I chose not to. Yes, the person I am on my blog is only part of the person I am offline. However, it is the part of me that highlights the things that I wish I could be more of in life in general. My blog is me edited down to the person that I strive to be and oftentimes fail miserably at attempting to achieve offline. It's still me though either way.

So vanilla always makes me think of desserts. I love dessert as most of you know and last week I tried a new recipe for Chocolate Coconut Pound Cake from the March 2014 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 2 hours of total time, 20 minutes of which is active, and makes 8 servings. I did make a number of large changes to the original recipe. First, instead of using all-purpose flour I substituted brown rice flour and a tablespoon of xanthan gum. Secondly, I used my mixer. I know the recipe says not to do the whole recipe in the mixer, to stir the dry and wet ingredients separately and not to over mix or the top will crack. Well, I hate having to make more dishes, so I ignored the instructions. That's right I threw everything in the mixer with the paddle attachment and let it go. Yes, the top split a little bit, but it tasted just as good and no one in my house cared. Plus, I was happy since I only used one bowl. I did find that my total cooking time was a little longer than the recipe suggests, approximately 1 and a half hours total.

This cake turned out really well. It rose beautifully and the gluten free flour made for a moist cake. If you aren't a fan of brown rice flour, potato flour, sorghum flour, or white rice flour would work just as well. I rarely use gluten free all-purpose flour, but it would also be an acceptable substitute. If you use the all-purpose flour omit the xanthan gum since most pre-made gluten free all-purpose flours already have it in the ingredient list.

For the recipe go to Chocolate Coconut Pound Cake. 

Dark Chocolate Waffles

Almost everything I believed in strongly when I was younger has completely changed. There are a few things that have survived the years and life changes, but the major things that I was adamant and unyielding about I no longer believe in at all or nearly as much. I was determined in my early 20's that no one else could possibly understand how I felt and that everything I felt strongly about was of the utmost importance. Only I could understand things the right way and I knew that my opinions would only get stronger with age. Yeah, that didn't happen, not even remotely. I grew-up, I had kids, I saw the world from new eyes. I still believe in many things, but I also understand that opinions change with circumstance and that compassion is far more important than being right. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to not push something that you know is right because in the end it isn't what's needed. Oftentimes what's needed is just an ear to listen, not a mouth to tell us how to change things. As young women we want to change everything around us to make it better, change the world with our views. As older women we want to cherish the world that we have created and make sure that the loved ones we hold dear are sheltered from everything we had to endure. Age is a tricky thing, as women we are almost different people throughout our lives, each one unique and wonderful.

As a women in my middle 30's I still love chocolate. That hasn't changed much over the years, but I have made a shift from milk to dark chocolate. When I was younger I couldn't stand dark chocolate, now it's my favorite. This week I tried a new recipe for Dark Chocolate Waffles from the February 2014 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 20 minutes of total time, all of which is active, and makes 6 servings. I made a number of changes to the original recipe. First, I adapted it to be gluten free by using a homemade gluten free all purpose baking mix. Instead of buying a bar of dark chocolate I used dark chocolate chips which I finely chopped. Buying the dark chocolate chips was much cheaper than buying baking bars or chocolate bars.

These waffles had a nice dark chocolate taste without being over powering. I would consider these more of a dessert waffles than something for breakfast, they are pretty sweet for something in the morning. As a dessert they were great plain or with whipped cream and my kids loved them. They also froze very well in case you don't want to eat the whole batch at once.

For the recipe go to Dark Chocolate Waffles.