Coconut Flour Pound Cake

It's so nice to have a bit more time to blog now that summer is here! I'll have more gluten-free low carb recipes coming your way, with more of a focus on primal ingredients. What do I mean by primal? Head on over to Mark's Daily Apple and check out the primal blueprint, a paleolithic way of eating (and living!). It works with our evolution instead of against it, unlike modern processed food and the typical high-carb high-fat high-grain American diet. I don't always stick to such a plan 100% (evidenced by this upcoming dairy laden recipe!), but I make an effort to put health over convenience and at least avoid the prepackaged stuff. The primal way constitutes a budget-friendly approach for students, too. The prices of organic vegetables and wild salmon burgers are far exceeded by fast food, pints of Ben and Jerry's and card swiping at the vending machines around campus!

Check out some of these fab looking primal recipes:
Homemade Almond Cheese @ Ginger Lemon Girl
Chocolate Pudding @ Caveman Food
Primal Peach Patties @ Son of Grok

Speaking of budget-friendly, I'd like to thank all of the readers who used my iherb rewards code (to buy this fabulous stevia I'm assuming!), giving me a credit towards my last purchase. Every little bit helps. Thanks, y'all!

As a gift to you, I'll be holding a couple of giveaways in upcoming posts. Stay tuned for some sweet surprises...

Did anyone else enter the Emerald Forest Xylitol recipe contest? I did, with a fluffy peanut butter pie, and mini chocolate raspberry cheesecakes. Perhaps they weren't looking for natural low carb fare since a rice pudding and zucchini muffins took the top prizes. What's the point of using a carb-free sweetener for desserts made with white rice and white flour?! Your insulin is already going crazy with the amount of starch in those ingredients, so what difference do a few more grams of sugar carbs make? Ah well, my loss is your gain since I will be posting the recipes for you guys. :) The peanut butter pie and mini cheesecakes were winners according to the people in my dorm!

And now, a new recipe. Finally. Do you like pound cake? How does healthy low carb gluten-free grain-free pound cake sound? There's been a lot of buzz about coconut flour lately. It's a wonderfully nourishing gluten free "flour," made from finely ground defatted coconut meat. The possibilities are really endless once you get the feel for baking with it. Because of its dryness, you cannot just add it haphazardly to existing recipes. A bit of creativity is required to make some of our old favorite desserts with it. It provides a fantastic nut-free option for all of you tree nut sensitive low carbers. But I guess that's what natural foodies are doing here all the time, huh?

You can make this nearly sugar-free with a bit of honey, or completely sugar-free with my favorite natural sweetener, erythritol. It'll be quite sweet if you use the erythritol, and lightly sweetened if you use honey. The texture is almost cheesecake-y with all its richness. This ain't a light and fluffy pound cake. It's heavy and decadent and stick to your ribs. Enjoy!



Healthy Coconut Flour Pound Cake
Adapted from this recipe at Cooking God's Way

Makes 12 hearty slices

Ingredients:
1 1/4 sticks (1/2 plus 1/8 cup) unsalted organic butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese
10 large eggs
3-4 tablespoons honey OR 3/4 cup erythritol
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons (yes, tablespoons) pure vanilla extract
2 cups organic whole milk yogurt
1 teaspoon organic lemon zest
3/4 cup water
2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1 teaspoon good tasting pure stevia extract (use 1/2 teaspoon if using erythritol)
2 cups sifted coconut flour

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325°F.

Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan, and line the bottom of the loaf pan with a cut rectangle of parchment paper. Grease pan and paper with coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil spray. Sift coconut flour, lightly spoon into cup, and even with the sweep of a knife to measure out the proper quantity. Whisk in the rest of the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese together for a minute. Beat in sweetener, and cream for a couple more minutes until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, and alternately add the wet ingredients and dry ingredients (except the lemon zest) until combined. Beat in the zest. Pour loaf pan almost to the brim with batter. You may have a bit of batter leftover, which can be baked in a mini muffin pan.

Bake for 90 minutes, covering with tin foil after the first half hour if the top is already golden brown. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of cake comes out clean, and the center looks completely set. Let cake cool for at least 2 hours, preferably OVERNIGHT, in pan. Invert cake on to a cooling rack and let cool completely, or else just tip it out of the pan and rest it on its side until cool. This cake tastes MUCH better the next day. Serve at room temperature, and store individual slices in the fridge.


~9g net carbs per 1/12th of a recipe (using honey)
~6g net carbs per 1/12th of a recipe (using erythritol)