Baking with coconut flour

I came across Elana Amsterdam's cookbooks sometime last year. Since trying to eat Paleo, I have really struggled with accommodating my love for eating cakes and anything else baked! First I had to locate a retailer who actually stocks coconut flour. Not easy - Australia's supermarkets are not very advanced with stocking coconut flour and almond flour (almond flour is almost impossible to find, only almond meal which is not the same). Probably about this time last year I found a store that sold coconut flour, and have been busting to get to real baking since. I have tried a lot... and ruined a lot... so when I came across Elana's webpage I got very excited. Her food actually looks like the yummy treats I've been wanting for me and my family. So, I eventually managed to bite the bullet and order her book Gluten-free Cupcakes from Amazon. After then waiting within days of 2 months for it to be delivered (a story for another day!), I finally received it!

Here is what I learnt from the early pages of Elana's book on baking with coconut flour, prior to attempting  recipe:

• Follow the recipe instructions. When she says to use a hand mixer, use a hand mixer, and when she says to mix by hand, mix by hand.
• Ensure the batter is mixed thoroughly with no lumps but be very careful not to over mix.
• Do not open the oven until the minimum time has been reached.
• Allow the cupcakes to cool in the baking tin for an hour after removing from oven (not on a wire rack).
• Coconut flour batters are more runny than a normal wheat flour batter.
• Load the cup measurements by dipping and then scraping the top. Otherwise you risk getting less flour than required.
• Use large eggs.
• If you need to make more, don't double the recipe, but make 2 separate batchess.

Sounds basic, but these are all mistakes I would regularly make in baking! So for the first time since I was a child I followed this recipe to the line, with two exceptions:

1. Agave nectar. I am yet to find an Australian store to stock it, so I used honey.
2. Grape seed oil. It is not an ideal oil in Paleo due to changes in it's oxidation when at high temperatures and it happens to be expensive so I am experimenting by using light olive oil. If it works I will just use that instead.

The batter tasted yummy - I don't normally get into the batter, but this was good. Nice level of sweetness, and actually resembled a batter consistency.

9 little cupcakes waiting for the oven

Finished product

I decided not to frost this time around. I wanted to test the quality of the cake itself. Sunshine, Sweet-pea and I just cracked into them and there were lots of "oh my goodness"'s and "ohhhhhhh"'s and "yuuuuumm"'s and then Sunshine said "Mum, you should make these all the time". BINGO! That is the response I wanted.

The texture was light and so wheat-like, I can't believe it is actually healthy and completely grain-free. The honey made it a rich sweetness, but perfectly delightful. I'm so impressed with this cook book. Can't wait to do the full deal with frosting!

Easter 2007 - The Lord will provide

Okay, so Easter 2007, was a particularly difficult one for us financially. Sunshine was one and I was only working from home about an hour or two a day so we were effectively on one income (Westley and I were committed to raising our children ourselves so me working outside the home and putting Sunshine into daycare was completely, 100% out of the question for us). Our one income was pretty meagre, hard to remember now, I think Westley earned about $40,000, and we recieved about $100-200 per fortnight in tax benefits. We had hideous debts, and a car repayment of $400 a month. Basically our budget ran at about negative $700-800 a month. I used to call Westley on pay day and cry and try to decide with him which bills we should pay first as whatever was left towards the end didn't get paid. It was only God's providence that got us through that period of our lives.

So we had just moved into a new rental house, our last landlord had defaulted on her mortgage so we were issued a letter from lawyers to evacuate the premises. This turned out to be a blessing in that we found somewhere cheaper as our financial position became more real to us. So, there we were, moved twice in 4 months (you know how expensive that can be...). We had some great friends though, who helped us move so the actual move cost us nothing (just connection fees etc) they very good friends. It was the week leading up to Easter and I had to go to the bank to withdraw the bond refund money to give back to my good friends who had lent us the money for our new bond. I had planned to get some Easter eggs while I was there, Sunshine was finally old enough to experience chocolate at Easter. I was so happy. When I withdrew the money I discovered we had nothing left for eggs after I gave my friends their money back. I was devastated. Tired... I was also pregnant with Sweet-pea too - I forgot to mention that! I distinctly remember walking through the local shopping centre after withdrawing the money, crying in front of everyone because I couldn't afford to buy any Easter eggs. I actually could barely afford to buy us any food either. I was focused on the eggs because I was all set on fulfilling a dream. I looked around at all the other shoppers thinking how they had so much. Not really wishing I could swap with them, just wishing we had more ourselves.

Skip ahead two or so days. I had somehow (I've forgotten now) got into my head, I had been praying, that we would have a feast at Easter. I believed God tell me I would be feasting at Easter. We had been reading/listening to a lot of Graeme Cook's stuff online and it had been really inspirational. If you ever want to hear of encouraging supernatural experiences of God's providence, check his stuff out. Anyway, I was believing for a feast. We had no food or money, but I was believing none-the-less. On Easter Saturday, with no food in the house except for a few skerricks of this and that, I made us our lowest meal yet. I based it on something I remember Mum making (although Mum made it right and added cooked veges, and I had no recipe, but I remember Mum telling me that Nanny used to make it back in the 1940s+). I had some flour, butter and gravox. So I attempted to make dumplings in gravy. It was the one of the most ugliest thing I have ever eaten. It was ugly, yucky, and a true sign of where we were financially. A far cry from our feast!

Around the same time we had some other good friends, J & D call us and ask us if they would see us at church on Sunday. We had no money for petrol so couldn't get there. They were on their way home and happened to be driving near our house (their house is about an hour from our house which is close to church). They thought, wouldn't it be nice for us to go and sleep at their house and then go to church with them and they would drive us home on Sunday. It meant fitting Sunshine's car seat in their (2 door) car, lugging the portacot and stroller, but we thought it was a good idea so we did it.

From that point on, our loving friends (not having a clue about what we had had for dinner that night) took us and fed us and fed us well. After church on Easter Sunday, they cooked us the most amazing Paella and can I tell you friends, we feasted. The Lord provided me with the feast He promised me. It was good to my body and encouraging to my spirit.

Also, a sister of the good friends who helped us move, happened to buy Sunshine a chocolate Winney the Pooh face for Easter. So sometime later, when me, Westley and Sunshine were all home together, I put Sunshine in her high chair and the three of us devoured it in one sitting. Good times!