Nancy and Carl Everyday: Joyful Abode - Zuccinni Bread & Chocolate-Chunk Muffins

Some of you know that I follow this blogger. She is into healthy gluten-free, non-grain, paleo-ish, low-carb eating and has some great recipes, like the two below...

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"Joyful Abode" - 2 new articles

Grain-Free (Coconut Flour) Zucchini Bread Recipe

Zucchini is something I look forward to every spring and summer… and I always hope for a bountiful crop of it in my garden. Other people complain about having too many, but I never seem to have enough for everything I want to do with it! Last year, our plant hardly made any at all, so I never got to make Zucchini bread. (Yes, I realize I could've bought it at the store. It just didn't happen that way. We'd buy it for dinner but not for bread.)

This year, we had enough zucchinis "ready" at once that I felt like it was time to jump in to the zucchini bread thing with both feet. But wait. I've been grain-free since last June. We don't even have wheat flour in the house. Not that I miss it!

Enter coconut flour zucchini bread. Just as simple to make, delicious and spiced, and grain-free / gluten-free.

The recipe is based off of one in Bruce Fife's Cooking with Coconut Flour, but I used different spices and also changed the sweetener – the original recipe uses brown sugar, which I replaced with truvia and honey.

Coconut Flour Zucchini Bread Recipe

3/4 cup shredded zucchini (this was 2 smallish zucchinis from our garden)

8 eggs

1/2 cup melted butter

3 packets of truvia

2 Tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice mix

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup sifted coconut flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

While it's heating up, combine everything but the last 3 ingredients in a bowl.

Mix together the coconut flour and baking powder, then stir into the wet ingredients until there are no lumps.

Fold in the walnuts.

Pour into an oiled/buttered loaf pan (9×5x3 ish) and bake for 60 minutes. Then cool.

I made a spread of coconut oil and honey mixed together to top the warm slices with. The oil melted into the bread and made it very moist. Otherwise, I think it would have been a bit dry on its own (butter would be fine to spread on too). It had very good flavor, and it made a great after-dinner treat!

Note: I think it's best enjoyed the day it's made. The coconut flour tends to absorb moisture in the air, making the leftovers sort of mealy/soggy after a day or two. If anyone has a good suggestion for keeping this from happening, let me know! Coconut flour can be tricky to work with.

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Grain-free Chocolate Chocolate-Chunk Muffins

My foray into baking with nut butters began with this gluten-free grain-free muffin recipe. It was delicious, but as I mentioned, the next day they were a tad dry (easily remedied by spreading on some butter). In my next incarnation of the grain-free cake recipe, I added a banana, which rectified the dryness completely.

With this version, I took things back to a cupcake/muffin but added cocoa to make a double-chocolate treat.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Throw in the stand mixer (or mix with an electric hand-mixer):

About a cup of nut butter (almond, peanut, macadamia, whatever)
3 eggs
About 1/4 cup of honey
1 very ripe banana (I didn't even bother cutting it up – the mixer did a good job pulverizing it)
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup chopped dark chocolate
Then when everything else is combined, about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Fill oiled muffin tins about 2/3 full with the batter and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

As a general rule, frosting isn't a big part of my life. I just really don't care that much about it to go through the extra steps of making it. But with the addition of a dark chocolate ganache or a cream cheese frosting, this would be an awesome birthday treat or other special occasion "cupcake."