Hello Dolly Bars

Today I was missing my grandma. Grannie Grunt has been gone a long time but she helped start my baking addiction. I have dozens of her cookbooks that sometimes I just glance through to see her handwritten notes or find recipes she liked. I remember holiday dinners or birthdays or some other occasion and getting to eat her wonderful meals. My mom apparently inherited her cooking skills because she is a wonderful cook also. Anyway – I found this recipe going through one of her cookbooks. My mom and I made these little cookie bars all of the time. There are also called Magic Cookie Bars (I’m pretty sure a similar recipe is on the back of a sweetened condensed milk can). They are very simple to make but not gluten free. So I decided to accept the challenge of recreating one of my favorite desserts into something I could eat again. Result – success! These were so very similar to the real thing and I cut out the dairy, gluten and some extra sugar.

½ cup sorghum flour

¼ cup coconut flour
¼ cup teff flour
¼ cup coconut sugar
¼ cup coconut oil (or melted butter)
1/3 cup almond milk (I used unsweetened vanilla)
2 Tbsp brown coconut sugar
½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
¼ cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup cocoa nibs (or chocolate chips – I used Enjoy Life! brand)

• In a mixing bowl, combine flours, ¼ cup coconut sugar and coconut oil and mix together until mixture is coarse crumbs.
• Press crust mixture into a 9x9 greased baking pan.
• In a small saucepan, combine almond milk and coconut sugar and bring to boil. Boil for about 2 minutes and then let cool.
• Pour cooled milk mixture over crust. Sprinkle pecans, coconut and chocolate on top of crust.
• Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes or until coconut starts to brown. Let cool 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies - extra post!

I love mother-son cooking days. I’ve also decided that my cookies turn out better when my son helps. These were great. It probably helps that he dumped an entire bag of chocolate chips into the batter so there was literally like 20 mini chips per each little cookie. Regardless, these are very soft and sweet with a little crunch out the outside plus a small hint of pumpkin. Of course, they are still gluten-free and dairy free!

2 cups gluten free flour (I used an all-purpose baking blend)

¼ cup of dairy free butter (or shortening)
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 Tbsp olive oil
½ cup water
1 cup brown coconut sugar, packed
¼ cup stevia
1 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp xanthan gum
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life! brand)

• In a large mixing bowl, combine butter, pumpkin, sugar and stevia until creamy.
• Add in flour, water, olive oil, baking powder, soda, xanthan gum, salt and vanilla.
• Mix until well blended. Fold in chocolate chips.
• Using a cookie scoop, form dough into 1” balls and place on a greased cookie sheet.
• Bake at 350°F for about 10 minutes or until cookies start to brown.
• Let cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Store in a sealed container.

Chocolate Chip-Banana Almond Cookies

These cookies are a slight modification of a whole-wheat banana cookie I use to make that my boys LOVE! They would literally eat the whole cookie sheet full in one evening. It was so very simple and fairly healthy, but full of gluten. This is my first attempt to recreate them gluten free. It’s not how I imagined they would turn out BUT they are still good. Next time, I will try a different flour mixture but for now, these will definitely do. They smell amazing and would be perfect in the fall!

1 large overripe banana mashed (approximately ¾-1 cup)

1/3 cup of nut or seed butter (I used almond)
1 tsp maple extract (or vanilla, almond etc.)
1 Tbsp honey
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp applesauce
1 cup almond flour
½ cup coconut flour
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon (or ½ if you like cinnamon)
½ cup mini chocolate chips (or regular size, chunks, etc.)

• Mix together all ingredients except chocolate chips in a bowl on low speed.
• Using a cookie scoop, place cookies onto a greased baking sheet (or lined with parchment paper).
• Bake at 350°F for about 15 minutes or until cookies are slightly browned. Let cookies cool for about 10 minutes so they continue to set up properly.