Breadfruit: the new wheat?

I found out last night that a friend of a friend has been experimenting with steamed breadfruit as a primary baked good ingredient, with promising results. She made some breadfruit cookies that look just awesome!

I found a photo of them here, because a fellow blogger posted about the Puna 'Ulu Festival, where those breadfruit cookies proved themselves big time! The following is excerpted from said blog: 

The 1st Place Winner in the Dessert Category also took the overall Best of Show Award.

Pūnana Cookies 

1-1/2 cups ripe 'ulu, steamed

1 cup finely chopped raw, unsalted macadamia nuts

1/2 cup shredded, dried, unsweetened coconut

Pinch sea salt

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

Homemade liliko'i ginger jelly

Macadamia nut oil for pan, optional 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F 

Mash steamed breadfruit using a crank processor, a potato masher or a brief pulse in a blender.  The resulting paste should be sticky and clumpy, like buttermilk frosting. 

Put the macadamia nuts, coconut, salt and cardamom in a mixing bowl and fold in the breadfruit paste, much like mixing butter into a batter until all the ingredients are well incorporated. 

Either wipe a cookie sheet with macadamia oil or use a non-stick cookie sheet.  Take about one tablespoons of breadfruit batter and roll into a ball.  Form the dough into a nest with an impression on top for the jelly.  Wet hands can help form the well-structured nest.  Fill the sheet with the nests about 1 to 2 inches from each other.  Then add about 1/2 a teaspoon of jelly to each nest.  Liliko’i jelly is ono because of its bright, tart flavor, but any firm jam or jelly will work. 

Put the cookie sheet into the oven and bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned on the bottom and/or top.  Remove and cool on a rack.  Enjoy! 

Notes: This recipe is easy, healthy (for a dessert), and can be sourced completely locally! Plus, it is vegan and gluten free! 

Yield: about 24 cookies.

Entry by: Raven Hanna and Jeremy Lutes, Pahoa

Awesome, right? I must try these soon.

It turns out that there are some efforts currently underway to dry and pound breadfruit into a flour for import from other countries. Click here to read about one such effort. It's not a grain, so woohoo for us Paleo peeps!

For those who may not know, breadfruit is an awesome tropical plant that you can read more about here!

Want this!

My previous post about almond flour pancakes was made possible by a recipe from Zenbelly that, it turns, out, was an adaptation of a recipe originally created by this lady, Elana Amsterdam  (click the link to go to her website). A whole book with almond flour recipes?! After making yummy cookies, pancakes, and banana bread with almond flour, I am completely sold. Its natural sweetness means less sweetener is needed, too! 

Tender, delicious, almond flour pancakes!

Is it just me, or is food just as beautiful as the most gorgeous models out there?! I do seem to have a singular obsession with the look of certain beautiful foods. Tomatoes, for instance. One of my previous roommates used to laugh at me, because I would buy plump, firm, red tomatoes at the market even though I never liked the taste of tomatoes. I would admire them and let them expire in my vegetable drawer. Wasting food, I know. I don't do it anymore!

No, because I moved onto devouring grain-free, gluten-free, low carb, high-protein pancakes! And what a sight to behold. Almost makes me want to appreciate them visually instead of in a dance of joy with my taste buds. Almost. 

 

Find the recipe here: http://zenbellyblog.com/2012/02/29/fluffy-almond-flour-pancakes/

You will need an electric hand mixer unless you have arms of steel. After one CrossFit workout, I found out I definitely do not! Not yet, that is.

I subbed maple syrup for the honey since I have not re-introduced honey yet. I used coconut milk instead of cream because I haven't re-introduced cream yet. I also didn't use any flax seed; I just didn't have any!

I like to serve these with coconut oil or butter and maples syrup. And bacon and strawberries and bananas. Maybe some eggs too. Grain-free feasting, here we come!

Autoimmune/Paleo/Taste buds-Friendly Chocolate Chunk Cookies!

Chewy and gooey morsels of glory!
A.K.A. Grain-free, gluten-free, mostly dairy-free, low carb, high protein, high antioxidant, fights-for-your-happiness Super Cookie!

A couple of days ago, I had the great good luck to stumble upon a site called The Food Lovers Kitchen. It is a site featuring paleo recipes from a couple on the East Coast. I found them because I was, as was bound to happen soon after I started eating eggs again, scouring the internet for a good recipe for chocolate chip cookies made with almond flour. The recipe I found (http://beta.primal-palate.com/recipe/chocolate-chip-cookies/) and I are quite happy together. Everyone who has tried the batch I made (a panel of four very experienced eaters who don't follow the Paleo diet) has enjoyed these cookies very much. That is, unless they lied to me. No one eats a free cookie and then says it's bad, right? Have some manners!

I want to give the recipe authors their proper due (how could I really, they deserve gold medals!) so I won't paste the recipe here. I did use refined coconut oil instead of unrefined because I find unrefined to have an overwhelming coconut flavor. If you like coconut chocolate chip cookies, by all means, use unrefined coconut oil. I also only eat %70 dark chocolate, per Chris Kresser's recommendations. So, instead of semisweet chocolate chips, I broke %70 dark chocolate bars into chunks. Yes, my hands were sore by the end of all of that breaking. But I digress...really, what are you still doing reading this? Leave me talking to myself (as usual) and go make yourself some delicious Super Cookies!

Happy eating!

-Emma