Paleo Baking

I've mentioned before that I generally stick to a paleo-friendly diet. Not only is it a fantastic way to stay skinny without going to the gym, but it's also very PCOS friendly in that it keeps your glucose levels from spiking, thus supposedly helping the little ol' ovaries from reacting to too much glucose and producing too many follicles and clogging them up and preventing actual ovulation.

Not that sticking to this diet has helped me ovulate AT ALL, but whatevs, I actually believe it's a healthier way to eat REGARDLESS.

So whether I have PCOS or not, which I am STILL on the fence about, I find it helpful to stick to a paleo diet in my day to day life...most importantly when I am the one cooking. Eating out is a whole other ballgame in which all diet restrictions go out the window, thus we only eat out on the weekends!

That being said it's been hard to find ways to incorporate fall flavors like PUMPKIN into anything besides baking.

And baking paleo-style is a bit of a...challenge.

Luckily I stumbled upon this blog and I've spent the better part of a day baking my face off.

First up I made these lovely pumpkin bars, which are sweet, moist and just plain delicious. Especially for being carb free, gluten free, sugar free, wheat free etc!

Pumpkin Bars

½ cup pumpkin (acorn, butternut or other squash) puree

½ cup agave nectar

2 eggs

1 cup blanched almond flour

¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon cloves

1. In a food processor, combine pumpkin, agave and eggs and pulse for 2 minutes
   
2. Pulse dry ingredients into wet for a full minute, until well combined
3. Pour batter into a greased 8x8 inch Pyrex baking dish
   
4. Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes
5. Serve

I don't own a food processor, so I just mixed it all by hand and since the flour is actually almond flour it doesn't really matter if it's a bit clumpy, it tastes delicious even if it's chunky because it's almonds...not flour, flour chunks are gross.

Anyway, I also threw in some chocolate chips because my husband is a chocolate fan and doesn't really think a dessert is a dessert without chocolate. My chips were 70% cocoa which means I had THE TINIEST BIT OF SUGAR IN THIS DESSERT but that was my own doing and was unnecessary. Either way, DELISH!

I also decided to make pumpkin bread, again using Elana's Pantry recipe:

Paleo Pumpkin Bread

• 1 cup blanched almond flour
• ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
  
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon cloves
• ½ cup roasted pumpkin (I used canned)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• ¼ teaspoon stevia
• 3 eggs

1. In a food processor
   
   combine almond flour, salt, baking soda and spices
2. Add pumpkin, honey, stevia and eggs and pulse for 2 minutes
3. Scoop batter into a petite loaf pan
   
4. Bake at 350° for 35-45 minutes
5. Cool for 1 hour
6. Serve

I didn't use the Stevia, because I don't like Stevia and again, turned out DELISH! It's sweet and cinnamony and YUMMY.

I was actually quite proud of myself that these both turned out. In the past my paleo baking has been a bit...meh. I tried using regular recipes and just substituting regular ingredients with paleo friendly ingredients and let me tell you...that doesn't work. And since I don't have the skill or the inclination to make up recipes that DO work myself I am beyond pleased to have found Elana's Pantry because then she can do all the hard work and I can just bake and enjoy!