vanilla Archives - Pamela Salzman

Salted Flourless Chocolate Chunk Cookies Recipe

I swore I wouldn’t post this recipe, but I gave in to persistent begging. I didn’t know the world needed another chocolate chip cookie recipe! But apparently many people could not live without this one. I will admit, these are quite, quite delicious and you can’t always say that about a grain-free, flourless cookie.

The reason I was reluctant to post this is because it is a very finicky recipe. I probably made these cookies 20-24 times and I had a couple of fails. Not inedible fails, but they didn’t look like the pictures you see here. Again, these are totally delicious in every way. Big chunks of melty dark chocolate and crispy flakes of sea salt are always a win in my book. The fact that these are also grain-free/flourless is just an added bonus, especially for all my GF and Paleo students, who seem to be growing in numbers. Although that might just be the post-holiday detox trend. I digress.

The two ingredients that affect the outcome of these cookies are the almond butter and the sugar. You cannot use a runny almond butter or one that is very oily. Once during a class, I had a new jar of room temperature Maranatha almond butter which I may not have stirred properly to incorporate the oil on top. I had oil dripping down my arms while I was rolling out the dough. I knew the cookies were going to be a disaster and they kind of were — very flat, oily and crumbly at the edges. Thankfully, this batter is a snap to make, so I just made another batch quickly with almond butter I had in the fridge. The next round was perfect.

These cookies are slightly softer than traditional chocolate chip cookies, unless you use brown sugar and then they do get a little crispy around the edges. The flavor is spot-on with just the right amount of sweetness. After 2 days, I store them in the fridge. They also freeze well.

Instead of giving you a blow-by-blow of all cookie escapades, let me summarize here:

use cold, refrigerated almond butter;
thicker almond butter is better than thinner;
if your nut butter is thinner, you can add 1 1/2 Tablespoons coconut flour to the batter;
you can make these with sunflower butter, but there will be a reaction between the sunflower butter and the baking soda which will tint the cookies green;
mix by hand (with a wooden spoon) not a mixer;
brown sugar, although a refined and not Pamela-approved sweetener, gave the best results — slightly crispy and chewy;
muscovado sugar was the second best and coconut sugar came in third — see the images in the post to compare;
do not use maple syrup, honey or another liquid sweetener;
you must allow the cookies to cool completely on the pan, not a cooling rack;
I always make 12 cookies, but you can make fewer and just make them bigger.

Ok, that’s all she wrote. Hit me with your questions and let me know if you make them!

brown sugar used here — brown sugar (and peppermint bark instead of chocolate chunks)

4.8 from 5 reviews

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Salted Flourless Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Author: Pamela

Serves: 12 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup unsweetened, unsalted almond butter (raw or roasted, make sure it is well-blended)*
½ cup coconut sugar, brown sugar or muscovado sugar
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Maldon salt, divided
¾ cup chopped dark chocolate (about 4 ounces) or semi-sweet chocolate chips
optional add-ins: 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder to make chocolate cookies or ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, mix almond butter and sugar until well combined.
Stir in baking soda, egg, vanilla and ½ teaspoon flaky salt until well combined.
Stir in chocolate.
Scoop a heaping tablespoon of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle the cookies with remaining ½ teaspoon salt.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool completely on baking sheet before transferring to a rack. To keep longer than one or two days, store in the refrigerator.

Notes

*If your almond butter is thin and runny or very oily, add 1 ½ Tablespoons of coconut flour to the batter.
Please read the suggestions outlined in the post.

DIY Vanilla Extract and a Gifting Idea

Is it too early to start thinking about the Christmas holidays. Absolutely. Do I do any of my holiday gift buying before Labor Day? Under no circumstances. I might have my meal plan figured out for the week, but I’m the mom on Halloween morning looking for electrical tape to try and make a Bat Man costume.

But, I do have a great idea that you can do now for holiday gifts or holiday baking — DIY vanilla extract! Why am I talking about this now after I just said I don’t plan for the holidays this far in advance? Because although vanilla extract takes minutes to make, it requires about 6 weeks to sit and brew. Still a little early to think about this, but lots of holidays are coming up and I will not be thinking about making vanilla extract in November. #thanksgivingtrumpsall

My assistant Lauren gave me a bottle of homemade vanilla extract last year for Christmas and I was absolutely delighted to receive it. First of all, I just love homemade gifts, especially homemade food gifts! And vanilla is something I use a lot of, so I was really grateful to be given something so good AND useful. I love the essence of vanilla in baked goods and desserts. In fact, I think it’s one of those ingredients that has a natural sweetness to it without actually containing a sweetener. Just an FYI, even if you don’t make your own vanilla extract, do read the ingredient label on commercially-prepared ones. Somehow manufacturers are allowed to use the word “pure” on the label while adding things like corn syrup solids. So troubling.

Recently, I had Lauren provide me a little tutorial on making vanilla extract and give me all her sources for labeling and making these look so cute. Here’s what you’ll need:

Grade B Vanilla Beans: Grade B beans are best for extract as they are too dry for cooking, but still are high quality in taste and flavor. We used 3/4 of a pound of these Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans. Bourbon, by the way, refers to the island of Bourbon in Madagascar, not the alcohol. Bourbon vanilla is the most flavorful of all the vanillas and what I use for all my baking.

Vodka: Vodka used because it has no flavor, as opposed to other other alcohols. You don’t need to buy the best vodka to make vanilla extract. Any mid-level 80-proof vodka will do. Figure on spending about $15-20 for a 1.75 liter bottle. We used 2 bottles.

Large glass jar: This is to brew the extract. We used this gallon kombucha jar which was $10 on amazon.

For gifting, there are obviously hundreds of options, but here is what we used in the pictures on this post:

Glass bottles: I like the idea of gifting 4 ounce bottles since that is a standard size for vanilla extract. These are the bottles we used which as you can see are dark glass. Clear glass is fine for brewing, but for long term storage, dark glass is better since light is no friend to extracts. In general, specialtybottles.com is a great source for lots of different bottles.

hoemmade vanilla extract perfect for holiday gifts | pamela salzman

Labels: I love the labels Lauren used. It makes the gift more personal and printable labels are especially nice if you don’t have nice handwriting. These Avery kraft square labels were found on amazon.

String: Not necessary, but I use this baker’s string for many gifts from my kitchen. I think it’s adorable. Red is perfect for the holiday, but there are lots of pretty colors available.

Here’s what you do:

1-2 months before you want vanilla extract, prepare the batch. I like the ratio of 4 whole vanilla beans to 8 ounces of vodka.

Split the vanilla beans lengthwise and place them in the large bottle. Cover the beans completely with vodka. Secure the lid on the bottle and swirl it around a bit. Store at room temperature for 4-6 weeks, the longer the better. It will darken as time passes. The batch above has been sitting for 6 weeks.

When you transfer the extract to smaller bottles for gifting, add the beans to the bottles as well. As you use the extract, just keep adding a little vodka to replace what you took out. Vanilla extract lasts indefinitely. You can also take vanilla beans from which you scraped the seeds and add them to vanilla extract in the works.

Store finished extract in the pantry (not the refrigerator) away from light and heat.

Have any of you made other extracts? I think I have the extract-making bug!

vanilla

Chocolate-chia-raspberry popsicles recipe

This is the last hurrah before school starts and then the recipes start getting more serious. Throughout the summer, I’ve assembling more than cooking, presenting meals at irregular hours, winging it a bit. But with the first day of school looming, I know I have to get my act together and have a plan for three well-balanced meals a day. But until then, we’ll keep eating these popsicles for breakfast or to cool off in the afternoon.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: my weakness (beside guacamole and chips) is ice cream. I hardly ever eat it anymore, even the clean recipes I have on my site for dairy-free, refined sugar-free cashew ice cream. Once I start, it’s hard for me to stop, so I try to stay away from ice cream altogther. But I still crave it, especially ice cream with chunks of something tucked inside like chocolate chips, nuggets of banana, a swirl of peanut butter or a salty almond. Now look what I’ve done. I’ve gotten myself all worked up.

A homemade popsicle is my answer to an ice cream craving. It’s sweet, cold and creamy. It takes a little longer to eat. It’s a reasonable serving size and therefore an acceptable calorie count. And I can make it the way I want. My kids and I have been devouring these chocolate chia pudding popsicles. I got the idea from seeing Martha Stewart on The Today Show. She took a small container of plain yogurt and swirled some fruit into it and then stuck a popsicle stick into it and froze it. I thought that was a clever breakfast to-go for the warmer first days of school. We eat a lot of chia pudding for breakfast and snacks. My son prefers the chocolate version which I make with raw cacao powder and the next day we’ll add in fresh fruit or shredded coconut and the like. Chia seeds are really high in protein, fiber and good fats, so they make a great breakfast or substantial snack. So I took some leftover chocolate chia pudding, stirred some fresh raspberries into it and poured it into popsicle molds. Voila! Delicious and a truly healthful treat!

I think these are like a chocolate popsicle with texture. I kept the sweetness pretty low, but if you want this to feel more like a dessert, it would be super easy to make it sweeter. Just add a little honey or maple syrup to the pudding before freezing and you’ve done it. Or use more dates if that’s how you’d like to go. I love the combo of chocolate and raspberries, but you can keep these straight chocolate or add coconut or chopped cherries or strawberries or even raw cacao nibs if you’re a hardcore superfood junkie!

One message I am always trying to get through to my students is that so many recipes are just formulas that you can tweak into dozens of other recipes. Chia pudding is one of those. Once you know the basic ratio of chia seeds to liquid to sweetener, you can change it to any number of flavor combinations, like strawberry-basil, blueberry-almond or mango-coconut. You can blend fruit into the almond milk if you don’t want chunks. Or just stir pieces into the pudding if you want the texture. Or mini chocolate chips would be nice. And then there’s peaches and raspberries. Or lemon. Or banana. I can do this all day. Savor these popsicles in case they’re you’re last ones until next summer!

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Chocolate-Chia-Raspberry Popsicles

Author: Pamela

Serves: 5-6 popsicles

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups unsweetened almond milk or a combination of coconut milk and almond milk
3-6 pitted dates or sweetener of choice, to taste
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2-2 ½ Tablespoons raw cacao or unsweetened cocoa powder, depending on how chocolaty you like it
¼ cup chia seeds
¾ cup fresh or frozen raspberries
4-6 popsicle sticks

Instructions

Place almond milk, dates, vanilla and cacao in blender and process until dates are pulverized. A Vitamix does a great job with this. If your blender leaves the dates too chunky, you can strain the mixture before adding it to the chia seeds.
Pour chia seeds into a medium container and add almond milk mixture. Stir immediately to combine otherwise you may end up with blobs of chia seeds. Allow to sit on countertop and stir every 5 minutes. After 15 minutes, it should have thickened.
Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
When the pudding mixture is completely thickened, stir in the raspberries. Divide the pudding into popsicle molds and insert a stick in the center of each. If your molds hold 3 ounces of liquid, you should be able to get 5-6 popsicles out of this recipe.

Notes

The sweetness is to taste, so taste the mixture before refrigerating and adjust accordingly. If you don't want to use dates, try Grade A maple syrup, honey, coconut sugar or whatever you prefer.

almond milk cacao chia seed raspberries vanilla

Whole grain and almond pulp pancakes recipe

I am kicking myself for all the almond pulp I have thrown away in my lifetime. It honestly makes me crazy to think of how much perfectly good raw, soaked, organic almond pulp I wasted because I didn’t know it would be amazing in banana bread or pancakes, among other things. I make so much almond milk and the only things I used to be able to think to do with the leftover pulp was to add it to smoothies and stir it into oatmeal. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it just got boring after a bit.

Then a light bulb went off in my head and I tried using the pulp (which is different from store-bought almond meal because it is wet) in banana bread and it was amazing! Have you seen this recipe yet? It’s was so delicious and after my first attempt baking with almond pulp, I assumed every cookie and cake recipe would turn out great. Not the case. I actually had a few failures using almond pulp.Continue reading

almond pulp butter buttermilk eggs maple syrup vanilla whole wheat pastry flour

Whole grain banana bread with almond pulp recipe

Something I really hate to do is to waste food. One of the reasons I plan out a week of meals is that I can shop accordingly and only buy what I know I will use. But what about that leftover almond pulp? Despite my best efforts to use up the almond byproduct that results every time I make almond milk, it just doesn’t always happen. And raw almonds are so expensive that it actually pains me to throw the pulp in the trash. It’s perfectly good food, especially since the almonds were previously soaked, making them much more digestible and nutritious!

So what do I do with it? Of course, there’s the obvious — add it to anyone’s smoothie or stir it into a warm porridge or muesli. And almond pulp freezes well, so I can save it for another time. But I am just way too lazy to get out my dehydrator and dry out the pulp to use as almond meal. And then I thought to myself, what if I just tried the almond pulp in a quick bread in place of some of the wheat flour? Well, guess what? It worked! Although apparently, a million other people already knew this and I am extremely late to the almond pulp party!

I decided to take one of my banana bread recipes and tweak it a bit with almond pulp that was leftover from 1 cup of whole, soaked raw almonds. Remember, almonds have a lot more fat than grain flours, so we can cut back on some of the added fat. But almonds have no gluten, so I was reluctant to make an all-almond pulp bread this first time. I know this will be neither Paleo nor gluten-free (although I am confident you can swap the gluten flour for a good GF all purpose mix + a little xanthan gum), but I think we can fix that with a few more tweaks. Using half whole wheat flour and half almond pulp, this bread came out to be ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! Moist but hearty, not crumbly, and not too sweet. It’s perfect banana bread, in my book. My life changed instantly!! Let’s all imagine the possibilities of subbing some almond pulp for flour in different recipes! Is this exciting or what??

Most of the recipes on my site have been made in my cooking classes and at home about 20 times, but this one I just did once so I haven’t tested all the permutations, e.g. all almond pulp, no bananas, butter for coconut oil, and so on. But you can bet I will! I am planning on making my Millet Blondies today with almond pulp. Check my Instagram for updates! And please share your experiences with subbing in almond pulp in any recipes — I’ll try anything!

One last favor — I love Saveur Magazine and they’re conducting their annual food blog awards right now. If you like my blog, would you kindly take 15 seconds out of your busy day and nominate me for a Saveur Food Blog Award? I think the category of Best Special Interest Blog (healthy cooking) would be great. Thank you so much! Here’s the link (and I promise it takes 15 seconds!) http://www.saveur.com/article/contests/blog-awards-2015-nominate

5.0 from 17 reviews

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Whole Grain Banana Bread with Almond Pulp

Author: Pamela

Serves: makes one 8½ x 4½ -inch loaf

Ingredients

1¼ cups whole wheat pastry flour, whole spelt or sprouted spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
¾ cup packed almond pulp (leftover from 1 cup of almonds to make almond milk)
½ cup pure maple syrup
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter or unrefined coconut oil, melted
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2-3 very ripe bananas, mashed (2 large or 3 small-medium)
½ cup pecans or walnuts, chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 8 ½ x 4 ½ loaf pan with butter or coconut oil and line with unbleached parchment paper, if desired.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Place the almond pulp, maple syrup, melted butter or coconut oil, eggs and vanilla in a blender and process until combined. Or whisk well in a medium bowl.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine until just blended. Fold in the mashed bananas and nuts.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan 10 minutes and then remove the bread and transfer to a rack.

almonds banana coconut oil eggs maple syrup pecans vanilla whole wheat pastry flour

Whole grain buttermilk waffles recipe (refined sugar-free, gluten-free adaptable)

I never posted my waffle recipe on my site because I really didn’t know if most people owned a waffle maker. Plus, I don’t want to nudge anyone to buy an expensive appliance that s/he may not get much use out of. Annnnnd, I had never found a good waffle iron that wasn’t lined with Teflon. But if you saw in my Friday Favorites back in October, I found the waffle maker of my dreams and it’s under $40. No Teflon, easy to use, no PFTE’s or PFOA’s. Go check out my link if you are interested in more of the specifics. Sooooo, since so many of you have asked me for the recipe on Instagram, I am finally happy to oblige.

This waffle recipe isn’t that much different from my Whole Grain Buttermilk Pancake recipe, but it’s designed to have more heft. These waffles are still light but hearty and subtly sweet. My kids are so used to whole wheat pastry flour and whole spelt flour that whole grain pancakes and waffles taste “normal” to them. But if you haven’t used whole grain flours yet or your family doesn’t like the nuttiness, try going half and half or even using 1/2 cup whole flour and 1 1/2 white flour to start. I personally enjoy whole grain flours because they actually have some flavor, as well as the fact they don’t leave me feeling like I ate a candy bar for breakfast. I like to see what bits of random flours (e.g., oat, buckwheat, cornmeal) I have in the fridge that I can use up for a truly multigrain waffle.

These waffles are the perfect backdrop for tons of different seasonal fruit combos with or without maple syrup or a dollop of yogurt. Sometimes I let Mr. Picky add some mini chocolate chips for fun. He doesn’t use maple syrup, so I’m ok with the small amount of extra sugar. I usually like to finish the batter and make all the waffles even if it’s too much for all of us, and either save them for the next day or freeze them for another time. They go right into the toaster oven for a re-crisping. You might even try using homemade waffles out as sandwich bread for a quick PB&J.

I wish I had posted this yesterday or last week for you all you snow bunnies who have been cooped up with schools closed again. Waffles are a great breakfast if you’re not in a super big rush since you can only make one at a time. Although my kids are staggered out the door in the morning and I taught them how to use the waffle iron, so it works out pretty well for me on a weekday. There are a few occasions coming up when it might be a nice treat to make waffles. February 14th is obviously Valentine’s Day and it’s on a Saturday this year, so that’s a perfect day to make these. Or if everyone’s off from work and school on Monday, February 16th for President’s Day, that would also be a good time to try this recipe out. And since we’re celebrating something, why not go all out with some organic whipped cream piled high? I approve!

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Whole Grain Buttermilk Waffles

Author: Pamela

Serves: 4-5

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, white whole wheat flour or whole spelt flour or a blend of these and other whole grain flours*
1 ½ teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 cups buttermilk**
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon 100% pure maple syrup
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Melted, unrefined coconut oil for brushing the waffle iron

Instructions

Preheat waffle iron to desired heat level.
Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.
In a medium bowl or 4-6 cup measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, maple syrup and melted butter until well blended. (A blender can do this easily, too.)
Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
Brush the inside of the waffle iron with coconut oil and spoon about a scant ½ cup of batter onto the middle. Add blueberries, chocolate chips or diced banana to the surface, if desired. Close the waffle iron and follow the manufacturer’s directions for cooking the waffles.

Notes

*Or you can use GF flour blend, such as ⅔ cup oat flour, ⅔ cup buckwheat flour and ⅔ cup brown rice flour. Millet flour can also be use.

**No buttermilk? Sub half unsweetened yogurt and half whole milk.

buttermilk eggs spelt flour vanilla whole wheat pastry flour

Dutch baby pancake recipe

When I think back to my childhood, I don’t think “deprivation” or “missing out.” But the fact that I didn’t know about and had never had a Dutch Baby until I was an adult makes me a little sad, like my family was out of the loop. So many people recall fond memories of leisurely Sunday family breakfasts with Mom pulling a puff of sweet heaven out of the oven. Wow. My mom did not get that memo. My husband came home when we were first married with a small pizza box from a restaurant called Dinah’s by Los Angeles International Airport. Inside was a very buttery, cinnamon and sugar-covered disc of sliced apples held together with a minimum of batter. “It’s a German apple pancake. Have you never had one of these before?” Wow. No, I had not. A Dutch Baby pancake, similar to the German apple pancake, is a puffed, kind of ugly pancake that is more egg-y than flour-y. It’s not quite like a pancake that you make on the stove in that it’s a little denser, but very delicious it its own way and so much easier because you make the batter in a blender and then bake the whole thing in the oven.

The best part of a Dutch Baby oven pancake is when you first pull it out of the oven. It goes in as a thin batter in a skillet, and comes out as an irregularly puffed, golden, warm pancake with a sweet aroma of vanilla. The. Best.

The Dutch Baby pancake recipes I have seen involve the regular suspects: white flour, white sugar, milk, eggs and butter. Those suspects are easily changed to whole grain or even gluten-free flour, maple syrup, almond milk, but I still keep the eggs and butter. You can change the butter to Earth Balance if you need to. But I’m not quite sure how to make a Dutch Baby without eggs. Plus that’s where the protein comes into play if you are wanting to serve this for breakfast on its own.

What you put on a Dutch Baby can vary from lemon juice and butter (very popular actually,) to fresh or cooked fruit to powdered sugar or maple syrup. We keep it simple in our house with seasonal fruit, like sautéed apples and pears in the fall/winter and berries in the summer. It is incredibly good with fresh blueberry sauce. Recipe here and you can make it with frozen blueberries!

I always take two weeks off around Christmas and New Years to spend with my family. Maybe you have a little time off too, or perhaps you are having friends for brunch on New Years Day. These are the days that I like to make breakfasts that are a little more special, that we can sit a savor for a bit longer. Hoping you can find some time to do just that this week. And if you do, this Dutch baby recipe is the perfect one to try.

Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy, peaceful and joyous 2015!

5.0 from 3 reviews

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Dutch Baby Pancake

Author: Pamela

Serves: 4 (but I swear I could eat the entire thing myself)

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
3 large eggs, at room temperature
¾ cup whole milk or almond milk, at room temperature
⅔ cup whole grain flour, such as spelt or whole wheat pastry or ¾ cup all-purpose flour or your favorite GF flour blend
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup or sweetener of choice
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Accompaniments: fresh fruit, preserves, butter, powdered sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the butter in a 9-inch skillet or pie plate and transfer the skillet to the oven until the butter is melted. Brush the sides of the skillet with the melted butter.
Add eggs, milk, flour, salt, syrup and vanilla to a blender and process for 1 minute.
Pour batter into the skillet with the melted butter and bake until puffed and set, about 20 minutes.
Serve immediately with desired accompaniments.

Notes

Room temperature ingredients, as well as whole milk and all-purpose flour make the pancake rise the best. But it will still turn out well with whole spelt flour and almond milk.

eggs milk vanilla whole wheat pastry flour

Grain-free White Bean Coffee Cake Recipe

Trust me that this cake is so good! It does NOT look like it has white beans in it, nor does it taste like white beans (which may I remind you taste like nothing.) And lest you think I am a genius coming up with blending white beans to make a high-protein, downright delicious cake, I will come clean and tell you this is nothing that hasn’t already been done about 16,7000,000 times, according to google. Even my idol, Martha Stewart, has made cupcakes with white beans! If it’s good enough for Martha, it’s definitely good enough for moi.

I thought this would be such a different, delicious and healthful cake for your Mother’s Day brunch, and what a conversation-starter! It’s always fun to quiz your family and friends — “Can you guess what the secret ingredient is?” I would never suggest making this for Father’s Day because most dads I know would rather have doughnuts than a cake with nutritional benefits. Moms are different. We’re always looking to have our treats without the guilt!

This cake was a huge hit in my classes last year. I first told everyone to open their minds because this would not resemble a classic coffeecake. Most people that come to my classes are pretty open-minded anyway. In fact a few ladies said, “Ah, of course. Black beans in brownies, white beans in coffeecake.” I agree, it makes perfect sense. But I would never make any dessert or any recipe for that matter just because it’s kind of healthful. Of all things, dessert should be enjoyed, and you will love this cake! It’s very moist, just sweet enough and light. I ate quite a bit of this cake last year and I never felt uncomfortable or sick after eating it. That’s an indication of a pretty clean dessert.

I normally encourage you to make your beans from scratch, but for this recipe it is very important that your beans be nice and creamy soft. So if you want to be on the safe side, just used canned. I love Eden which doesn’t use BPA in its can liners. The one ingredient which might throw you for a loop is the coconut flour, although I do have a great muffin recipe on my site that uses almond flour and coconut flour. At my Whole Foods, you can buy coconut flour from the bulk bins, which is nice if you just need a little bit. Most recipes which use coconut flour only call for small amounts of it because it is so absorbent. Don’t go thinking you can substitute regular grain flours for coconut flour! They are completely different!

If you decide you don’t want to make this coffee cake with the faux streusel topping, just make the cake with your favorite frosting or serve it with fresh fruit and whipped cream or whipped coconut cream. Either way, moms deserve a treat on Mother’s Day, so indulge or do something generous for all the special moms in your life! Happy Mother’s Day!

4.9 from 7 reviews

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Grain-free White Bean Coffee Cake

Author: Pamela, adapted from The Spunky Coconut

Serves: makes one 12X9 or 13x9-inch cake

Ingredients

Crumble Topping:
3 cups walnuts
2 Tablespoons coconut oil or butter
¼ cup coconut palm sugar or brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (optional)
2 cups cooked white beans (make sure they’re soft and not crunchy), such as cannellini or Great Northern, drained and rinsed if canned (cold or at room temperature)
6 eggs
¾ teaspoon vanilla liquid stevia or plain stevia and add an extra ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ cup melted coconut oil, plus extra for greasing pan
⅓ cup honey
⅓ cup coconut flour
½ teaspoon sea salt
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 12 x 9 or 13 x 9 baking dish with coconut oil or butter.
To make the topping, place the walnuts, coconut oil or butter, sugar and cinnamon in the food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse until combined and the texture resembles a crumb topping. Remove from food processor and set aside.
In the same food processor (no need to clean it) place the beans, eggs, stevia, vanilla coconut oil and honey and puree until smooth.
Then add the coconut flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder to the white bean mixture and process until smooth. Pour into the greased pan.
Spread the topping over the top of the batter and use a fork to swirl into the batter, then pat down to set.
Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool before serving. Store leftovers in the refrigerator where it will stay good for up to a week.

coconut flour coconut oil eggs honey stevia vanilla white beans