Intense Brownie Cravings and a Yummy Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Swirl Brownie Recipe

I've been searching the internet high and low for a good gluten-free/low sugar brownie recipe. The last recipe I tried was a Paleo one that was way too chocolaty and not sweet at all. In other words it was YUCK! (At least to me... If anyone wants to give them a shot, let me know and I'd be more than happyto share the recipe.) Though they did look delicious.

Today my sister sent me over a link for some more Paleo brownies that seemed promising. I didn't have all the ingredients, plus I wanted to make them a little sweeter this time so I altered the recipe a bit and decided to add a peanut butter swirl to them since I've been dying for a Reese's cup!

Here is my version:















Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

• 5 ounces Bittersweet or Dark Chocolate Chips

• 5 tbsp Coconut Oil

• 1/4 cup honey

• 3 eggs, beaten

• 3/4 cup Truvia Baking Blend (add more if after tasing batter you want them sweeter)

• 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp almond flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa  powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 325°F and line an 8"x8" or 9x9" baking pan with parchment paper. 
Place chocolate chips and coconut oil in the top part of a double boiler on stove top. Melt chocolate chips and oil and mix until smooth. Remove from heat and let cool down slightly. 

Pour chocolate mixture in bowl of stand mixer and add honey, eggs, and Truvia. Mix on low until thoroughly mixed. Add in almond flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Mix on medium speed until well combined. You can taste a tiny bit of batter to see if it is sweet enough. You may add a little more Truvia if you want the brownies to be sweeter. 

Pour brownie mixture into baking pan. Microwave peanut butter for about 30 seconds. Pour melted peanut butter on top of brownie mixture and swirl with a fork for a marbled effect. 

Place pan of brownies in the oven for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 15-20 minutes before removing from pan. 

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Gluten-Free Almond Flour Crackers

I've been trying to come up with something witty and cute to say about the recipe that I'm going to share with you today. Nothing came to mind, other than the fact that the crackers themselves were VERY, VERY cute and not to mention tasty. I even made them heart shaped in honor of Valentine's Day.

Gluten-Free Crackers:

1 cup almond flour or almond meal

1/4 cup warm water

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter

1 teaspoon coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon of honey 

1/2 teaspoon salt

Sea salt for the top of crackers

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Add oil, melted butter, honey, and water and mix until the dough comes together into a ball. (Add more water if the dough seems too dry, but just a bit at a time, don’t overdo it. Or if the dough is too watery add a little more almond flour.)

Pat the dough into a disk. Place the disk between two pieces of parchment and using a rolling pin, roll until very thin, about ⅛ inch.

Remove the top piece of parchment from dough and cut dough with cookie cutter or you can cut into 1" squares. Lightly brush the dough with water and sprinkle with sea salt or seasoned salt.

Keep the dough on parchment paper and move onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees until crisp and slightly puffed, about 15-20 minutes. Rotate the cookie sheet after about ten minutes. Keep your eye on the crackers. It could take a little more or less time, it really depends on the gluten free flour blend that you use and how thin you roll the dough.

Let crackers the cool fully on the cookie sheet.

My Sweet Tooth and A Low Sugar Gluten-Free Dark Chocolate Chip CookieRecipe

So I have a horrible sweet tooth, I always have. I love candy, and cookies, and cupcakes, and brownies, and I could go on forever. If it has sugar, you know I'll love it.

Eliminating sugar has been one of the hardest things about my diet. I also didn't realize how hard it would be to find a sugar free and gluten free recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies so I kind of made up my own. And guess what, they came out pretty good! :) 

*They aren't completely sugar free, as they use Truvia Baking Blend, but they are a low sugar option.

Low Sugar Gluten-Free Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1/3 cup Coconut Oil 

1/3 cup Truvia^® Baking Blend 

2/3 cup Dark Chocolate Chips

1 1/4 cup Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour

1/2 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

1 Egg White

1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 tbsp. Almond Milk ( You may need another Tbsp. if the dough seems too dry)

1/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray baking sheet with baking spray.
2. In a small mixing bowl combine the flour, salt and baking soda.
3. In a separate medium bowl, combine the coconut oil and Truvia^® Baking Blend and beat using an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes until the mixture is slightly light a fluffy. Do not over mix.
4. Add the egg, milk and vanilla. Continue to mix for 1 minute, or until all the ingredients are blended together.
5. Mix in the flour, salt and baking soda mixture until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
6. Portion the cookies into 1 tbsp each. Place them several inches apart on the baking sheet. Press the cookies flat using the palm of your hand. They should be ¼” to ½” in thickness.
7. Bake the cookies on the center rack of the oven for 7-8 minutes, until brown at the edges. Rotate the cookies half way through baking.
8. Transfer the cookies to the top rack of the oven and bake for 1 addition minute, or until the top of the cookie slightly browned.

Sugar-Free Berry Compote Recipe

So, I've already shared my new favorite almond flour waffle recipe with you, so today I am going to share my NEW favorite waffle topping! 

Mixed Berry Compote:
(This recipe is enough for 1-2 waffles, but can easily be adjusted)1 cup frozen mixed berries1 1/2 tsp. Truvia Baking Blend

Place a saucepan over medium heat. Add your berries to the pan and coat evenly with Truvia, bringing them to a boil. Stir until all the Truvia dissolves and bubbles start to appear on the sides of the pan.

Gluten-Free Banana Nut Bread and Baking without Sugar

This week I've been cooking up a storm! With my new diet I am trying new recipes and trying to keep myself motivated by making food fun. I've been doing great so far and am already down 4.5lbs since I started! I know the diet is more for health reasons rather than losing weight, but it's definitely an added bonus.

I think the hardest part of my diet change so far has been avoiding sugars, not like processed sugars in candy and soda's but sugars in baking. As a baker I want things to look and taste the same as before, though I know that will not always be the case.

This week when my hubby and I went grocery shopping we came across Truvia® Baking Blend. While its not sugar free it does reduce the sugar content in recipes significantly and it has 75% less calories than sugar. I decided to give it a try. :)

The first thing I decided to make with it was Banana Nut Bread which is one of my favorite desserts. Not only is this Banana Nut Bread low in sugar its also gluten-free. 

Banana Nut Bread:
(Makes one 8x4 loaf; 12 pieces)

1 1/4 cups gluten-free all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 eggs 
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (I used 3 whole bananas)
1/4 cup Truvia® Baking Blend
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup chopped walnuts





1. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and walnuts in a medium bowl. 
2. Mix together eggs, bananas, apple sauce, and sugar in a separate bowl. 
3. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Lightly grease loaf pan with cooking oil and transfer banana mixture to pan. 
5. Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. 
6. Cool for about 10 minutes before removing from pan. Set on wire cooling rack to continue cooling.

*FYI There are about 111 calories per slice according to My Fitness Pal. (That is just an estimate though) 

This recipe came out so good! My husband didn't even realize it was Gluten Free! :)

Gluten Free baked Chicken Strips

I've been experimenting with healthy recipes. I figured I'd try to make some of my favorite foods, just a little healthier. I don't know about you, but chicken strips and french fries are one of my favorite things to eat. I decided to do try my luck at a gluten free version.

Gluten Free Baked Chicken Strips:

(Serves about 4; about 287 calories per serving)
1/2 cup gluten free all purpose flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
2 tbsp. milk ( I use Almond milk)
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. oregano or Italian seasoning
3 pieces of boneless skinless chicken cut into strips
2 tbsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl. Beat eggs and milk together in mixing bowl. Use 1 tbsp. olive oil to grease baking sheet.

Dip chicken strips in egg mixture then in fllour mixture and place on baking sheet. Drizzle with remaining tbsp. of olive oil. Bake for 15 minutes then flip strips over to brown other side. Bake for additional 10 minutes. If you want the strips to brown a little more broil for a few minutes, keep an eye on them so they won't get too dark. 

Chocolate Nutella Macarons

So Ferrero Rocher chocolates are my absolute favorite! I can eat like 10 in a row ( totally not healthy, I know, but so good!!!) Coley and I decided to re-create them in macaron form. They came out so good! 

Chocolate Macaron Shells:
110g blanched slivered almonds or almond meal/flour

• 200g confectioner’s sugar (minus 2 tbsp)
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 100g aged egg whites (3 egg whites), room temperature
• 20g sugar
• finely chopped hazelnuts for garnish

1. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat. 
2. Grind the almonds, cocoa, and confectioner’s sugar in a food processor. Grind for 2-3 minutes until fine and like sand in texture. Sift 2-3 times to lighten the dry mixture. Reprocess as needed to get out all of the big pieces of almonds ground down, and lumps out of the sugar. You are looking for the consistency of sand.
3. In a bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl with a hand mixer whisk the egg whites until a foam starts to foam. Slowly add in the sugar while mixing and whisk until a medium stiff peak forms. 
4. Sift half of the dry mixture onto the egg whites, and mix in to lighten. Sift in the remaining dry mixture, and begin to gently fold in. Once mostly combined, tip the bowl at a 45° angle. Spread the mixture out on 1/3 of the side surface of the bowl, sweep under and fold it over on it self. Repeat this process 10-12 times. When you reach the 10th time, stop and lift up a spatula full of the mixture if it forms thick ribbons, watch the mixture and count to 10. It should absorb into the rest of the mixture with only slight indication of edges, your mixture it done. It should just very slowly settle on itself.
5. Pour mixture into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe out following your guide pattern. Sprinkle with finely chopped hazelnuts. Gently tap the bottom of your sheet twice to remove air bubbles, and let it set out to dry to form a shell.
6. Bake at 300°F for 18 minutes or until the shells easily lift off of the parchment paper. Once finished baking let cool for 10 minutes then remove from parchment paper. When they are completely cool it will turn off of the parchment quiet easily. If you are using a silpat you can let sit out to cool until you can easily remove from the silpat.
7. Pair up the shells of the same size and flip bottom up to let cool completely before adding in filling.

Nutella Ganache:

2oz. Milk chocolate (Finely chopped)

1/2 cup heavy cream

6 tbsp. nutella

2 1/2 tbsp. finely chopped hazelnuts

Place chocolate and Nutella in a medium-sized heat-proof bowl. In a small saucepan, bring heavy cream to a simmer. Pour hot cream over the chocolate and Nutella and let sit for 20 seconds. Stir to combine until smooth. Place ganache in the refrigerator until thickened, but still pourable. Make sure to stir a few times during the process so the ganache is a uniform consistency throughout. Using an electric mixer, whip ganache until it is a pipeable consistency and light in color. Add chopped hazelnuts to ganache and whip until combined. Place ganache into a piping bag and pipe a small circle onto one macaron shell. Top it with a similar sized shell and squeeze together carefully.

Almond Flour Waffles and PCOS

Last week I was officially diagnosed with PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome). I am also extremely high risk for developing Type 2 Diabetes (Which sucks for the baker in me). My doctor strongly recommended I get on a low-carb high-protein or strict "diabetic" diet. PCOS is a condition that causes infertility in women and is linked to an insulin resistance.  This is going to be a struggle for me, but I want kids in the near future so I am willing to do everything I need to do to make that happen.

My husband and I researched what foods I can and can not eat and went grocery shopping. As I learn more about PCOS I'll share tips and recipes I've found. But first here is a NEW favorite recipe if mine:

Almond Flour Waffles:
(Makes about 2 Belgium waffles)

1 cup almond flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. honey
1/4 tsp. cinnamon (optional)

I've made this recipe twice this week already! The first day I tried it with fresh whipped cream and strawberries on top, and the next time I added 1 tbsp. peanut butter and half a smushed banana to the batter, then topped it with half a banana and a drizzle of honey.