I have always loved baking. Breads, pastries, you name it. Playing in the kitchen has always brought me a great deal of pleasure. Roll the clock forward a whole lot of years, and I chose to alter my ingredients to gluten free and paleo friendly. Learning to use gluten free flours took a lot of trial and error. They are all so different in terms of the finished product they produce.
I started out with organic almond flour because the nuts in regular almond flour come from trees that use agricultural runoff to water them. The idea was to get healthier, not sicker. Didn’t take me long to determine that almond flour alone turned out a product that tasted nice and fresh and yummy for maybe two days max.
That’s when I began adding tapioca, arrowroot, cassava, and/or coconut flours. Almond was still my go-to ingredient, but I’d include a quarter to half cup of one or two other flours. Psyllium husks make a lovely dinner roll but aren’t much good in muffins or cakes.
The next challenge was sweetening. Honey requires other add-ins since it’s nowhere close to sugar in terms of consistency and moisture content. Coconut and maple sugars can be used in a one-to-one replacement for processed sugar, but I prefer my finished product far less sweet, so have adjusted accordingly. I never warmed to the sugar alcohols like erythritol. Also don’t care for stevia or monk fruit. Once I made a pancake recipe with Himalayan tartary buckwheat flour and monk fruit. Had to throw the whole batch out. That’s how overwhelmingly bad the monk fruit flavor was. Some people love it, but not me.
Hubby often asks why it takes so long when I go to the store. I tell him it’s because I read labels. All of them. Do you have any idea how tough it is to find simple ingredients without added sugar? There’s only one vinaigrette dressing on the market without sugar: Brianna’s. Of course, it doesn’t help that I live in the sticks. The nearest Trader Joe’s is a three-hour drive. Ditto for Costco. Whole Foods is nearly four hours away. Leaves me stuck with Von’s and Grocery Outlet. The latter occasionally has wonderful deals on organic foods, but they’re not consistent. They buy whatever they can from discontinued sources, so shopping there is hit or miss. They do, occasionally have Nancy’s probiotic dairy products, though.
This is one of my favorite recipes. Feel free to give it a whirl. I did not create it, but not all recipes I have gathered from the Internet turn out. This one sure did.
The ultimate Paleo Lemon Bars
Shortbread crust:
1 ½ C finely ground almond flour
¼ C tapioca starce
½ t salt
¼ C melted GF butter, ghee, or coconut oil
1 egg
Lemon filling:
6 egg yolks + 2 whole eggs
½ C grade A amber maple syrup
¼ C lemon zest
2/3 C freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ C melted ghee or GF butter
Optional: powdered sugar for topping
- Preheat oven to 350
- Mix crust ingredients. Pat dough evenly in 8X8 pan you’ve lined with parchment paper. Bring dough 1” up the sides. Prick with fork. Par bake crust for 20 minutes.
- While crust is baking whisk together all the ingredients for the filling. Cook in a double boiler until a thermometer reads 170F and the filling thickens.
- Remove filling from heat. Pour through fine mesh sieve to remove any egg bits.
- Pour the hot filling over the hot crust and bake until filling is just set. This takes about 25 minutes where I live at 8000 feet elevation, but it could happen far sooner closer to sea level, so keep an eye on things. Start checking at about the 15 minute mark.
- Cool completely before slicing. Refrigerate any leftovers for up to 3 days, but I bet they won’t last that long. They never do around here. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if you’re so inclined. I find them just fine on their own.
That’s it. Let me know how you liked them!