Peanut Butter Bites and Balls

These are so incredibly simple and delicious and perfect. I strongly recommend that you stop whatever you’re doing and make them. Right. Now.

(Adapted from Sprouted Kitchen)

1 cup (actually, a little less than 1 cup) cashews

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup pitted dates

½ tsp. cinnamon

heaping ½ cup natural peanut butter (and by “heaping” I mean that you over-fill the ½ cup by so much that it might be closer to ¾ cup)

semi-sweet chocolate (optional)

1. Grind the cashews in a food processor.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and process until well-combined and fairly smooth.

3. Scoop spoonfuls of dough and roll into balls. Place on a plate and smoosh with a fork to create the internationally-recognized peanut butter cookie hash marks. OR refrigerate in ball-form while you melt a couple ounces of semi-sweet chocolate. Dip the balls in the melted chocolate.

4. Store in a sealed container in the fridge. They’ll probably keep for up to 5 days, but I wouldn’t know. They haven’t lasted longer than two days in this house.

Grain-Free Chocolate Cake

This cake is the product of procrastibaking (not my term, unfortunately). It is very cold and very windy here in Maine. Running in very cold and very windy conditions is rather unpleasant—if it’s just for a day or two. After weeks of very cold and very windy, it f***ing sucks. And so, one cold and windy Sunday morning I decided to bake while I “waited for it to warm up.” It never warmed up, but I made a cake. And I told Pete it was his birthday cake (six months late). And I sang (because that’s what you do with birthday cakes). And we ate cake before 9am. And we oohed and ahhed over the deliciousness of the cake. And then I told Pete what was in the cake. And instead of gagging, he said, “huh” and went back for a second piece and I went for a run with cake in my belly (and my oft-disgruntled belly was fine with that).

This cake has subsequently passed rigorous taste-testing by a panel of 10 food-loving athletes.

15 oz. can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 banana, sliced

4 eggs

¾ cup maple syrup

1 ½ cup chocolate chips melted

½ tsp. baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 9-inch round cake pan. (I used a springform pan.)

2. Dump the chickpeas and the banana into a food processor and process until smooth.

3. Add the eggs and whir.

4. Add the maple syrup and the baking powder and whir.

5. Add the melted chocolate chips and whir until the batter is all one color.

6. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 40-50 minutes (until a poker of your choosing comes out clean).

Gluten-Free Sand Tarts (a.k.a Christmas Cookies)

FYI: No, the elephant has not been shot. That's his eye.

My mom and I have been making Christmas cookies together almost every year for as long as I can remember. Hold on, let me clarify the terms “making” and “together.” My mom makes the dough, rolls the dough and cuts out the shapes. I decorate.

So anyways, these are Sand Tarts. They’re like sugar cookies, but lighter (thinner), fresher (lemony) and less sweet (better). The official origin of the cookie seems to be unknown. It may have come from Normandy or from the American South or from Pennsylvania. All I know is that my grandmother and my great grandmother used to make them, but nobody decorated them the way I do.

(Adapted from the original Joy of Cooking)

1 ¼ cup sugar

¾ cup butter

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

3 cups sifted Brown Rice flour (Bob’s Red Mill)

1 tsp. Xanthan Gum (make it a generous teaspoon)

¼ tsp. salt

2 egg whites

decorations of your choosing (cinnamon, sugar, colored sugar)

1. Sift sugar and set aside.

2. Beat butter until it’s soft and then gradually mix in the sugar.

3. Add the egg, the egg yolk, the vanilla and the lemon rind and continue beating until the mixture is very soft and creamy.

4. Combine xanthan gum, the sifted brown rice flour and the salt and sift the whole mixture.  

5. Gradually add the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Stir until well blended. (This can be challenging. Don’t be afraid to use your hands to knead the dough.)

6. Split the dough into two lumps. Wrap each lump in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least four hours. (My mom typically makes the dough a week before we make the cookies.)

7. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400°F.

8. Roll the dough so that it’s as thin as possible. Use fabulous cookie cutters of your choosing to cut the dough into shapes and then transfer the shapes onto a greased (or buttered or oiled) cookie sheet.

9. Brush the tops of the cookies with egg whites and decorate.

10. Bake for eight minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a rack until cool enough to handle. Store in an airtight container for up to three weeks.

Stupid-Easy Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Apple Crisp

I’m not sure if this qualifies as a crisp or a cobbler or a brown betty or none of the above, but it’s delicious and it’s apple-y and I made it up yesterday.

Apples (I used 5 or 6 Macintoshes), peeled and thinly sliced

Coconut oil

Lemon juice

Maple syrup (1-2tbsp.)

Cinnamon

Pamela’s gluten-free dairy-free Ginger Mini Snapz (we used ¾ of a bag)

1. Preheat oven to 375° and put a sliver of coconut oil in the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish.

2. Add the sliced apples to the baking dish along with a couple small slivers of coconut oil. Add maple syrup and toss to combine. Sprinkle with lemon juice and toss. Sprinkle with cinnamon and toss to combine.

3. Pour the cookies into a food processor and grind ‘em up. Add about 2 tsp. or so of coconut oil and pulse until the crumbs start to get a little clumpy.

4. Spread the cookie crumbs over the apple mixture in the baking dish and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the apples are soft.