Chocolate Banana Muffins

You will probably have noticed how Primal Plate posts to date have been biased in favour of low-carb replacements for those ‘naughty but nice foods’ that you’ve always been happy to eat, but might have assumed were essentially off the radar for low carb life-stylers. 

Introducing Primal Plate with Grain-Free Bread, Spiced Fruit Scotch Pancakes and Chocolate Banana Muffins is quite deliberate; a ploy to explode the myth that eating grain-free is an uncomfortably restrictive diet plan. 

That said, these relatively healthy alternatives are not intended to be eaten every day. Carbohydrate intake is the deciding factor in gaining or losing weight and the sweet spot for losing those extra pounds is between 50 to 100 grams of carbohydrate per day. 

One of these Chocolate Banana Muffins uses up 28 grams… so go steady, these are only intended as an occasional treat!

Chocolate Banana Muffins (Makes 6 Muffins)

Ingredients

100g (1 cup) ground almonds                

40g (¼ cup) organic coconut flour

1 level tsp baking powder                

½ level tsp sea salt

1 level tsp cinnamon

½ level tsp nutmeg

30g (2 tbsp) organic coconut oil, melted        

3 large eggs

85g (¼ cup) raw coconut nectar (or maple syrup)        

2 tsp vanilla essence

2 medium-large mashed ripe bananas (300g unpeeled weight)

50g (¼ cup) dark chocolate chips (70% cocoa solids)        

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180ºC (350º F).

Mix dry ingredients (ground almonds, coconut flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg) well in a large bowl. 

Beat the eggs and mix in the rest of the wet ingredients (coconut oil, bananas, coconut nectar, vanilla). 

Combine the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients mixing well. 

Fold in chocolate chips. 

Pour into cupcake liners in a muffin tin (about ¾ of the way full).

Bake for 30 minutes. 

Carbohydrate 28g Protein 9g - per muffin

Spiced Fruit Scotch Pancakes with Orange & Apricot Syrup

Tuesday 17th February 2015 is Pancake Day!  It must be at least 25 years since I last allowed myself the indulgence of eating pancakes. My prohibition began with the Hay System Diet, a diet that promotes separating food into three meals a day - one meal carbohydrate, one protein and the third entirely alkaline. I followed the Hay Diet, which subsequently evolved into Vegetarian food combining, for over two decades.

Pancakes are normally made of wheat-flour, eggs and milk, that is to say, high starch wheatflour, protein eggs and milk and, if you’re a traditionalist like me, alkaline lemon juice to serve. Add to this the generous quantity of refined sugar people like to sprinkle on top, for Food Combiners and Atkin dieters (that dietary exploration came later!) pancakes were probably one of my most obvious dietary ‘no nos’ of all time. Until now…

Thanks to this brilliant grain-free pancake batter recipe all things ‘pancake’ have been at the forefront of my mind recently - big time! Sweet or savoury, perfect pancakes have the potential to fill so many of the previous gaps in my culinary repertoire. 

Spiced Fruit Scotch Pancakes is my first offering. Stacked high and served with sugar-free Orange & Apricot Syrup and perhaps a dollop of creme fraiche, it makes for a very impressive dessert when entertaining. Alternatively, leave out the fruit and spice and serve these little beauties plain for a lazy Sunday breakfast, perhaps accompanied by a mixed berry compote (recipe to follow in due course!) or with fresh blueberries and a drizzle of maple syrup. 

Spiced Fruit Scotch Pancakes (Makes 16) (V)

Basic Pancake Batter Ingredients

180ml (¾ cup) raw whole milk (or almond milk, if preferred)

3 large eggs

30g organic ground almonds

45g Sukrin reduced fat organic coconut flour

40g arrowroot flour

15g (1 tbsp) coconut oil

1 tbsp clear, preferably raw (unheated) organic honey

½ tsp apple cider vinegar

½ tsp baking powder

Plus:

1 tsp mixed spice

85g (½ cup) mixed dried fruit e.g. currants, sultanas, raisins, cranberries

Instructions

Blend all the basic pancake batter ingredients in a blender. Fold in the mixed spice and mixed dried fruit. Set aside. 

Add some coconut oil to a pre-heated non-stick frying pan.

Drop good tablespoons of batter into the pan (one spoonful per pancake - obviously these need to be cooked in batches). 

Even them out slightly with the back of a spoon then leave alone to cook for 2 - 3 minutes (small bubbles will appear on the surface when they’re ready to turn). 

Cook for 2 minutes more, until the pancakes are cooked through, then remove from the pan. Cover with a tea towel to stop them drying out.

To serve, warm through in a low oven and stack them into a tower on each plate, allowing four to five per person.

Drizzle Orange and Apricot Syrup around the pancake stack and top with a spoonful of creme fraiche, if liked.

Carbohydrate 8g Protein 3g - per pancake with fruit

If you don’t like dried fruit or you want to minimise your carb intake, just cook 3-4 tablespoons of the basic pancake batter first...  

Carbohydrate 5g Protein 3g - per pancake w/o fruit

Orange & Apricot Syrup (4 servings) (V)

Ingredients

2 heaped tbsp All-Fruit Apricot Conserve (St Dalfour’s range of all natural 100% fruit spreads are available in most supermarkets and health food shops) 

Juice & finely grated zest of 1 large orange, preferably organic

1 tbsp clear, preferably raw, organic honey (or 1 tbsp Sukrin icing sugar)

Instructions

Heat all the ingredients together in a small saucepan over a low to medium heat for 3-4 minutes.

When bubbling and slightly reduced, pass through a fine sieve into a bowl, pressing as much of the apricot flesh through as possible.

Return to a clean pan and gently warm through when ready to serve.

Carbohydrate 18g Protein 1g - per serving (made with honey)

Carbohydrate 14g Protein 1g - per serving (made with Sukrin icing sugar)

Grain-Free Bread

Just over a year ago I decided to ditch all grains including bread, pizza, pasta, cakes, rice and corn together with potatoes, sugar, trans (hydrogenated) fats, high Omega 6 seed and vegetable oils and anything else that was highly processed, aka made in a factory. Cheerio to the last one standing, which for me was Pizza Express!

It wasn’t such a hardship. I’d been ill for several months and prescribed medication had done diddley-squit to improve my symptoms. My decision to go cold turkey with the steroids and address the problem naturally by re-focusing all my attention on my diet I now know probably saved my life - or at the very least, added more life to my years.

Once I got better, I wanted the comfort of carbs back in my life and so began my search for the perfect no-grain bread. This is where my search ended, on the Living Healthy With Chocolate website (although there's no chocolate in this recipe!)

Still warm from the oven and simply buttered I’d defy you to tell the difference. Thinly sliced and made into a chicken salad sandwich, it is to die for. Or try it toasted and topped with perfectly scrambled eggs or sautéed mushrooms in a creamy tarragon sauce. This is food fit for the gods! Plus, it sustains you like no wheat-based bread ever can!

Grain-Free Sandwich Bread (V)

Ingredients - dry

200g (2 cups) organic ground almonds

85g (½ cup) organic arrowroot powder

50g (⅓ cup + 1 tbsp) organic ground flaxseed

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 rounded tsp baking powder

1 tsp whole flaxseeds (to sprinkle on top)

Ingredients - wet

90g (6 tbsp  butter (or coconut oil)

4 large organic eggs, well-beaten until frothy

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

140g (½ cup) Greek plain yogurt (or coconut cream)

Instructions

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and let cool for 5 minutes.

Switch the oven on to 180C.

Grease an 8½” x 4½” medium loaf pan and line along the bottom and up the short sides with a long strip of non-stick parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix the almond flour, flaxseed meal, salt, baking powder and arrowroot powder.

Whisk melted butter together with the eggs, apple cider vinegar and yogurt.

Using a rubber spatula, gently mix wet and dry ingredients to form a batter being careful not to over mix or the batter will get oily and dense.

Pour batter into prepared loaf tin. 

Sprinkle top with whole flaxseeds.

Bake at 180C for 40 minutes - or until a metal skewer inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then loosen around the edges with a spatula and turn out.

Let it cool completely on a wire rack and then cut into thin slices.

Notes

To preserve freshness, wrap the loaf in a paper towel, place inside an airtight container and keep refrigerated.

Carbohydrate 7g Protein 5g - per slice

Welcome to Primal Plate!

Welcome to the first posting on Primal Plate’s food blog. In the words of Michael Buble, “It’s a new dawn, it's a new day, it’s a new life, for me, and I’m feeling good!” My hope is that by this time next year you’ll be singing the same song!

This site is dedicated to putting the “Oh Wow!” as well as the “How?” back into the not so simple challenge of ditching the foods you are happy to eat now in favour of a low carb lifestyle.

Many of the recipes are not my own. However, I tirelessly trawl through the web and recipe books to find the best, so you don’t have to, I then test, convert or adapt them before making them available here as a one-stop resource for you. My daughter, Sarah of Mirror Imaging Photography, will help tell the story in her beautiful images.

To inspire you to think differently, instead of following conventional dietary wisdom that takes you down a path to disease and an ever expanding waistline, my first two offerings are Grain-Free Sandwich Bread.  And, as a last goodbye to Christmas, Spiced Fruit Pancakes with Orange & Apricot Syrup. Who would have thought it possible without wheatflour?