Or shall I call them Gingerbread Hazelnut Cookies since they are made primarily with hazelnut flour? Our children have so much fun cutting out and decorating these lovely gluten-free Christmas cookies! Just look at that photo, what is not to love? I am sharing this recipe as part of a wonderful blogging event called Home for the Holidays....Gluten-Free Style hosted by Shirley from gluten-free easily! Twenty-four bloggers were asked to create and share recipes that meant both home and holidays to them. In addition to the recipes, we’ll also be hosting giveaways of the resources you value the most....cookbooks, resource books, apps, and the grand prize, a Vita-Mix!

You can view yesterday's post from Heidi at Adventures of a Gluten-Free Mom. She shared her Gluten-Free Fritter recipe. Tomorrow Sunny from And Love it Too will be sharing a holiday recipe. So be sure to go check their sites as well.

For me, Home for the Holidays takes me back to baking gingerbread and sugar cookies with my mother. My brothers and I would decorate dozens of cookies with beautiful colored sprinkles and bright white icing. I wanted to share that experience with my own children, only with a healthier, gluten-free version, and thus this recipe was born (actually the recipe came to me in a flash one night). It uses coconut sugar as the main sweetener, along with a powdered coconut sugar icing. Although coconut sugar is definitely a low-glycemic sweetener, it is still sugar, and these cookies are to be considered a sweet treat.
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I like to use coconut sugar when making a treat for our family and friends. It has a rich, caramel-like flavor that isn't too sweet. Plus, coconut sugar doesn't have that heart-palpitating affect like cane sugar does. This powdered coconut sugar recipe can be used to make icing for cookies and cakes, or used wherever powdered sugar is called for in a recipe.

Coconut sugar is a low-glycemic granulated sweetener, with an index of 35. Compare that to honey with a glycemic index of 75, cauliflower at 30, lentils at 35, and watermelon at 100.

Coconut sugar comes from the sap of the coconut palm blossoms. It is dried and granulated making it perfect for cooking and baking. Use it to replace any other granulated sweetener in equal amounts. Coconut sugar is dark so keep in mind that it will turn your "white cake" brown. It is best used in chocolate or spiced molasses type treats. Use it in sweet or savory sauces and in marinades. Use it basically anyplace a granulated sugar is called for. Now you can also replace regular powdered cane sugar with coconut sugar using this method.



Powdered Coconut Sugar

Powdered sugar is harder to replace, but you can make your own by grinding granulated coconut sugar in your Vitamix or coffee grinder. Please read my Cranberry-Pear Sauce post where I talked about potential gluten cross contamination in some coconut sugar brands before you go out and purchase any coconut sugar.

1 cup coconut sugar
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder

Place the coconut sugar and arrowroot into the dry container of your Vitamix. Place the lid on tightly. Start on low speed and gradually work your way up to the highest speed. It will take a few minutes to powder the sugar. You can start and stop the machine if you need to. Just don't open the lid or you will have powdered sugar floating everywhere in the air! The dry container of the Vitamix is designed to keep dry ingredients moving and not get hot and cake to the bottom of the container. I don't think the regular liquid container would work for this recipe but you could try it.

Keep blending the sugar until it is all powdered and light brown in color. Keep the lid on for a few minutes to let it settle to the bottom. Then place into a glass jar and cover tightly with a lid. Store it in your pantry until ready to use. Source: www.NourishingMeals.com

Use powdered coconut sugar to make icing for cookies!

The above photo of gluten-free gingerbread cookies is a recipe that will be coming soon. So stay tuned! If you do not own a Vitamix and have been thinking about getting one, the Vitamix 5200 package is on sale for over $100 off on Amazon.com!

Other recipes using coconut sugar:
Coconut Sugar Apple Crisp
Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
Vegan Corn Muffins


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This year's cranberry sauce recipe uses ripe pears to sweeten up the tart and tangy cranberries. I've added a smidgen of coconut sugar to help balance the flavors but I imagine that stevia could be used instead. Coconut sugar is a low glycemic sweetener but stevia is a "no-glycemic" sweetener meaning it doesn't raise blood sugar at all. This recipe can be made days ahead of the big day and served cold or warm.

If you are gluten intolerant be sure that the coconut sugar you are using is gluten-free. Anything that is dry or granulated like sugar, flours, cornmeal, polenta, etc. can be processed in a facility where wheat or gluten products are processed. I use coconut sugar from Big Tree Farms, which is sold under the brands, Sweet Tree and Essential Living Foods. Our wonderful local food co-op also stocks coconut sugar in the bulk section but it is NOT gluten-free. It comes from Glory Bee Foods. I called them and none of their products are anywhere near gluten-free, so beware. Our other health food store in town, Terra Organica, sells coconut sugar in bulk and it comes from Essential Living Foods so it is okay. My friend Melissa from Gluten-Free For Good made a comment in the post we recently did on gluten cross-contamination pointing out that some coconut sugar brands are contaminated with gluten. Other than the one I mentioned above, I have not seen any sold around here. If you know of one, please leave a comment to help each other out.
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We have a newborn baby in the house now and that means that our meals have changed a little. A few weeks ago our sweet new baby girl, Camille Rose Malterre, arrived peacefully in our home by candlelight.....a successful VBAC at home! Our children were all there to witness her birth, though we couldn't really wake our 3-year old twin boys to be fully present. I put myself on a mildly restrictive breastfeeding elimination diet once she was born to help ease the transition into life outside the womb.

Newborn babies have such delicate digestive systems up until around three months of age. Compounds in certain foods can cause fussiness and crying, excess gas, and even skin rashes in the breastfeeding baby. Luckily it is really simple to just remove the most common offending foods from your diet at birth or before to keep baby calm and happy. I actually removed any dairy I was eating a few weeks before she was born as it can take up to a month for dairy to clear your system. Dairy, specifically the casein protein, is often the cause of a lot of digestive and skin issues in newborns. Our sweet baby girl has been sleeping through the night since she was a few days old and is a very peaceful, happy baby.....just like our first daughter, Lily. She has had a few bouts of fussiness, you know the kind where they are really uncomfortable and want to nurse and then cry and then nurse and then cry and so on. I realized those were the days that I had eaten citrus. Testing it one more time to make sure, we found that this is the one food that I simply cannot eat. I have not tested them all, such as dairy, cruciferous vegetables, or raw garlic, and in fact, I would suggest not testing these three foods for many months. I can eat cooked onions, a little cooked garlic, and tomatoes....oh we have been enjoying tomatoes in all sorts of recipes lately, thank goodness!

Baby Camille, 3 weeks, with big sister Grace

I did a great post a year or so ago on Nourishing the New Mom with a list of foods to eat and not to eat in the postpartum period. You can refer to that for more information. Below is a short list on the most common foods breastfeeding babies can react to. I would suggest to avoid them all at the time of birth and then if you are feeling up for it, slowly challenge each food in every 4 days, similar to our Elimination Diet. Please note that some babies require mom to go on a much stricter elimination diet, usually eliminating most foods and sticking with only with rice, millet, quinoa, chicken, turkey, yams, squash, salad greens, olive oil, and sea salt for 2 weeks and then slowly adding back in foods like nuts and seeds, other mild fruits and vegetables, and lastly, those listed below to determine the source of baby's upset.

Foods that most often cause issues in the breastfeeding baby:

• dairy (including goat and sheep)
• eggs
• raw onions and garlic (sometimes cooked can also aggravate babies) 
• citrus
• tomatoes
• a lot of acidic fruit
• peanuts/peanut butter
• chocolate
• soy
• wheat/gluten
• beef
• caffeine 

Rice Breakfast Porridge

After all of my babies have been born I have craved rice porridge for breakfast and sometimes even as a bedtime snack. It is easy to digest and easy on baby's newly functioning digestive system. Rice porridge can be made out of any brown rice but our favorite is Brown Jasmine Rice. You can try sweet brown rice, short grain, or even black rice if you desire. I like to top my bowl with a little coconut sugar, ground raw almonds, and lately, fresh nectarines or peaches. We have been buying boxes of fresh, organic fruit every week from Smallwood Farms (delivered to Bellingham once a week). They have the most delicious fruit imaginable, plus we save a lot of money buying it by the case! I have been working to freeze and dehydrate most of it to store for the winter.

2 cups uncooked long grain brown rice
6 to 8 cups water
¼ teaspoon sea salt


Optional Toppings:
ground raw almonds
coconut sugar or maple syrup
cinnamon
frozen blueberries 
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We've been experiencing a rather cold, rainy spring here in the pacific northwest so the other night I made a big pot of vegetarian chili. It would not have been complete without a batch of warm corn muffins. Our family enjoyed these so much that I decided to share them with you. I needed to make another batch yesterday just so I could get some photos.

Ground golden flax seeds

The muffins are of course gluten-free, as well as egg-free, dairy-free, and xanthan-free....and still full of so much flavor! I also use flax meal to help bind them together instead of any gums, such as xanthan gum. I grind golden flax seeds in the dry container of my Vita-Mix but a coffee grinder works equally as well. Store any remaining ground seeds in a glass jar for up to a week in your refrigerator. I like to use golden flax seeds when making a lighter colored muffin or bread recipes but you could also use the darker variety if that is what you have on hand.



Vegan Corn Muffins

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This scrumptious gluten-free, grain-free, sugar-free, and dairy-free coffee cake recipe comes from Kelly Brozyna's new cookbook, Grain-Free Baked Goods and Desserts! It is one of those recipes that is nutritious enough to stand alone at breakfast time, though I prefer to serve it with a Green Smoothie! It is filled with cooked white beans, coconut flour, eggs, and a little honey and stevia! My children love this recipe and as the neighbor girl who was visiting today said, "I can't believe this is gluten-free, it is so good!"

As a kick-off to the giving season, I have one signed copy of her book that I am giving away today! In fact, every post in the next three weeks will have a book or product being given away to one of you! All you need to do is leave a comment below to enter.

Last year I reviewed Kelly's first book, The Spunky Coconut Cookbook. A year later, I am back with more praise for her second book! I love how nutritious and kid-friendly all of Kelly's recipes are. As the title describes, this book is grain-free, but also completely casein-free, soy-free, and refined sugar-free. Many of the recipes are also egg-free. If you are vegan or are sensitive to eating eggs then you will still find plenty of recipes in this book to suit your needs. This book also works well for diabetics and others with blood sugar metabolism issues.

Both of Kelly's books are filled with beautiful, color photos. My children like to sit down with the new book and page through it picking out all of the recipes they want me to make! They also think it's pretty neat that I wrote the foreword for her book. Below is one of our favorite recipes from her book, enjoy!




Grain-Free Coffee Cake

This recipe is moist and delicious to the last bite. I never dries out and is best kept in the fridge after the first day. I've made a few changes to it, mainly doubling the cinnamon in the topping and increasing the cooking time. All of her recipes take longer for me to bake. I think that might be because Kelly creates these recipes in a very dry climate at an altitude of above 5000 feet and I am at sea level in a very moist climate. Although her recipe indicates to bake this coffee cake for 25 minutes, it takes me 45 to 50 minutes until it is cooked all the way through. No recipe can ever be perfect because of all of the variables involved. Just check for doneness in the center of the cake after 25 minutes. Then you be the judge as to how much more time it needs. Note: you can view the original recipe on Kelly's website.

Wet ingredients:
2 cups cooked and drained white beans (at room temp)
6 large organic eggs
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup melted virgin coconut oil
3/4 teaspoon liquid stevia
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon almond flavoring

Dry Ingredients:
1/3 cup coconut flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Topping:
2 to 3 cups raw walnuts
1/2 cup coconut sugar
4 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons cinnamon


Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9 x 13-innch glass baking dish.

Use an 11-cup or larger food processor fitted with the "s" blade. Add to it all of the wet ingredients. Process until smooth. Then add dry ingredients. Process again until very smooth and creamy.

Pour batter into prepared pan, scraping the sides of the processor with a rubber spatula. Then rinse the food processor to make the topping.

Place the walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon into the food processor and process until nuts are very finely ground. The add melted coconut oil and process again. Sprinkle topping over cake batter.

Bake for *25 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Source: www.NourishingMeals.com

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Enter to win Kelly's new book, Grain-Free Baked Goods and Desserts!
In the past when I've done giveaways such as this one, sometimes the winner doesn't respond. Since your email address is not embedded in your comment it is up to you to check back to see if you've won. If you subscribe by email or RSS you will be notified in my next post.


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This drawing is open until 9pm PST on Monday December 6th, 2010.