Best Chocolate Cake

So moist! So chocolatey! So simple to make!

Preheat oven to 320F (160C)

1/2 C cocoa powder
1/2 C coconut flour (flour not flake)
2 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t cinnamon (I use Ceylon Cinnamon from Penzeys. Worth. It.)
pinch of sea salt

6 eggs
1/2 C honey or maple syrup
1/2 light cooking oil (I like rice bran oil)
1/2 C milk or coconut milk
1 t vanilla

In a mixing bowl add cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, & salt and combine.

Add eggs, honey, vanilla, milk, & oil, whisk until smooth and combined.

Oil a 8" or 9" round cake pan. Cut a circle of parchment paper or paper bag and place in the bottom of the pan, oil that too.
Bake 45 minutes or until wooden skewer comes out clean. Let cool.

Recipe adapted from The Healthy Chef

Doesn't need frosting or even a fork, but if you want to dress it up, try Rich Chocolate Frosting

Brownies

I have yet to find a brownie recipe that I love. I tried 3 this weekend, and this one is the one worth keeping, for now. The search continues. I'm going to try these next.

2 C almond flour
1 C cocoa powder
1/2 t cinnamon*
1/4 t salt
1/2 C coconut oil or melted butter
1/2 C honey
1 t vanilla
2 eggs whisked
1/4 - 1/2 C coconut milk
2-4 squares baking chocolate, chopped into chip-sized pieces

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease a 9"x9" baking dish.

Mix together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, & salt. Melt the oil or butter, mix honey and vanilla into it. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well. Mix together  1/4 C of coconut milk and 2 eggs, and stir it into the mix. If it appears too stiff, add up to 1/4 C more coconut milk. Fold in baking chocolate chips.

Bake 35 - 40 minutes.



*original recipe called for 1 teaspoon cinnamon, which I found overwhelming, distracting from the chocolate

Egg Nests

I found this gem in an old Martha Stewart magazine from the 90s, as I cleaned out the last of the pages saved in notebooks. (Which was an improvement from the boxes of magazines I saved before that. We have the internet now; that's where we save things!) So here I save this delicious, simple egg recipe, of an egg yolk, lightly baked in a nest of its own savory meringue.

If you don't eat dairy, leave the cheese out and up the herbs for more flavor, and grease the ramekin with olive oil.

For 2 servings:

2 eggs
butter
grated cheese, 3-4 Tablespoons
1/4 t salt
1 T each chopped parsley and scallion (or whatever herbs you enjoy)

Preheat oven to 375F.
Butter/oil 2 4-ounce ramekins, and coat with grated cheese. Gently separate 2 eggs, setting the yolks aside, and whip the whites until foamy. Add 1/4 t salt and whip until firm but not dry - so a bit past soft peak, but not all the way to hard peak. (This is easiest to do with an electric mixer, but you can use a whisk. I once watched my brother make meringue with chop sticks, so anything's possible!) Toss in the chopped herbs before the meringue is finished, but if you miss that, fold them in gently.

Divide egg whites into the 2 ramekins and make an indentation for the yolk to sit in. Gently slide the yolk into the indentation, and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake until white puffs up and is golden brown on the peaks, 6-8 minutes depending on your oven. For ours I think it would be 7 if we hadn't been opening it every few minutes to check on it!

This is simple enough for a weekend morning, but fancy enough for formal brunch. Enjoy!

Above, I doubled the recipe. In these shallow ramekins 2 eggs still takes 7 minutes, longer if you want the yolk less runny.

Almond Torte with Orange & Chocolate

My office mate is wonderful, and she gave me this recipe from the "One Bite at a Time" cookbook by Rebecca Katz. I'll be playing with it considerably, but here's the first version.

Torte
1 1/2 C almond meal (you can grind your own if you like)
1/4 C coconut flour
3 eggs
1/4 C maple syrup
1 t vanilla extract
1/4 t sea salt
zest of 1 orange

Topping
3 oz baker's chocolate
2 T agave syrup

Preheat oven to 375F. Line an 8" spring form pan with parchment paper (or brown paper bag), spray with oil. Mix all torte ingredients until combined and pour into pan. Bake 15 - 20 minutes until center is firm and does not jiggle.

Combine syrup ingredients in a microwave-save bowl and zap until chocolate is melted. Stir to combine and taste for sweetness.

When the torte is out of the oven, froste with the chocolate mixture. (I had planned to drizzle it but it was too thick!) To gild that lily, we ate it with ice cream.

Chocolate Ginger Macaroons

Adapted this recipe from Australian chef and blogger Girl on Raw. Can't make them fast enough! Best. Cookie. Ever.

3 C shredded coconut (unsweetened)
1/2 C ground nuts or nut flour
1 C cocoa powder
1/2 C honey or maple syrup or a mix of the two
1/2 C almond butter
1 T vanilla extract
1 T grated ginger*
2 t lemon juice
pinch salt

Mix all ingredients together. Use a cookie scoop or roll into 1" balls and dehydrate for 8 hours. Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside!

*I keep whole ginger root in the freezer. It keeps for ages, grates beautifully, and slices okay if you have a good, heavy knife. I use a wood rasp for grating.

Chocolate Cookies

I don't know the provenance of this simple, delicious cookie recipe. I got it from my friend Monika, who's trying out the paleo diet and loving it. Paleo is a whole food diet with low carbs, minimal sugar, and no dairy. I prefer the low carb high fat diet which allows dairy. My ancestors were Northern European, therefore I have the gene that allows me to get nutrition from cow's milk. If your ancestors are from elsewhere, you may want to consider a non-dairy diet.

The idea of Paleo chocolate cookies makes me giggle. Cavemen did not eat cookies. Or chocolate. But we can, and they're delicious.

2 C almond butter
2 squares unsweetened bakers chocolate, chopped into chocolate chip-sized pieces
2 eggs
1/2 C cocoa powder
1 T vanilla
1/2 C honey

Mix together, drop about a table spoon at a time onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (I cut up paper grocery bags for this, rather than buying baking paper.) Bake at 350F for 10 minutes, and let set for 10.

PS Yes, that's supposed to be a tablespoon of vanilla, really. Best source of almond butter is Trader Joes or Costco.