While I absolutely love to cook and spend a lot of time tinkering with recipes and ideas in the kitchen, I have never been much of a baker. In part this is because baking is more of a science. Back in the day, when I tried things like baking bread but I always seemed to kill the yeast and when I made layer cakes they usually came out uneven and messy. But a larger reason for my not baking was if I baked something then I would eat it - and keep eating it. Cookies and sweet treats can be overly tempting for me. There was always the "bake and release" option but I didn't love baking enough to do it in my spare time so mostly I didn't bake.

After several years of sticking to a mostly Paleo-ish diet (inspired by my daughter who has Hashimoto's Disease), I have found that I can have certain baked goods around more and not go crazy. As you may already know, the Paleo template avoids foods that can be inflammatory to many of us, including refined sugar, dairy and grains. Maybe it's because Paleo treats don't include those ingredients or maybe it's because my palate has changed - I don't know - but recently I have started baking more and I am kind of loving it. I'm sticking to easy things like quick breads and scones and it's all working out quite nicely.  And the good news is that my husband and teenagers seem to love it too, so the temptation isn't around for very long anyway. Grain-free baking uses things like almond flour and coconut flour and sometimes no flour at all! Almond flour is a little more expensive than typical grain-based flours. Bob's Red Mill brand is easily available at most grocery stores. I also like the almond flour at Trader Joe's.

Some of my favorite recipes have been from Elana's Pantry. She has celiac disease so all of her recipes are gluten free and mostly grain-free as well. We love the chocolate chip scones and her pie crust is one that I have used for my last few Thanksgiving cherry pies. 

We made at least a dozen batches of these cookies over the holidays. They have only 4 ingredients and take about 5 minutes to whip up. So simple and good! Plus there are lots of variations and optional add-ins.

I also love Everyday Maven. Alyssa's recipe for vanilla macaroons is the bomb!

My #1 favorite thing to make is this super-yummy banana bread that I stumbled on a few months ago from Peanut Butter Runner. It tastes exactly like "regular" banana bread. My son could not tell the difference! I've now made it so many times I know the recipe by heart. I like to add about 1/2 cup each of chopped walnuts and these dairy-free mini chocolate chips.
Enjoy!

xo

Lisa