CRUNCHY COOKIES

Oh my word. I finally got around to making these delicious biscuits that are Low Carb and High Yumminess! Man, that sounds cheesy but it's true. They are perfect for a quick fix with a cup of coffee (and no I didn't eat ALL the cookies on the plate - the pic would have looked a bit boring with only two though!).

I found this coconut flour recipe online that I tweaked a little. You're not really supposed to have too much honey if you're Banting (just 1 teaspoon a day) but I tried these biscuits with Stevia and I can't deal with that taste. If you're only having a cookie or two then the honey really shouldn't be a problem... just don't go eating the whole lot! The same applies to the chocolate chips. I used Lindt 85% dark chocolate. The higher the cocoa percentage the less sugar in the bar. Keep an eye on the cookies in the oven because they can burn quickly.

COCONUT AND ALMOND COOKIES

3 tbsp coconut flour

1 tbsp ground almond

2 and ½ tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp honey

½ tsp vanilla essence

a pinch of salt

2 tbsp 85% dark chocolate chips

heat the oven to 180°C

mix all the ingredients except the chocolate chips in a food processor.

stir in the chocolate chips until they are evenly distributed

roll into little balls on a lined baking tray and squash with a fork

bake in the oven until browned, about 10 minutes.

they will crisp as they cool.

LOW CARB BREAD

It's been a month of living on on low carb high fat diet and things are going pretty well. I have lost about two and a half kilograms so I'm feeling great about that! I can't say that it's been the easiest month. I do miss potato, and crackers, and chips, and chocolate and TOAST! Man I would give anything for a slice of toast. So, this brought me to the whole low carb bread making process...

It's been really difficult finding all the ingredients in Maun, but luckily the in-laws came up for a visit from South Africa and bought me the stuff. I set to work making what will now become known as 'The Most Expensive Bread In The World'. I worked out the cost of a loaf at between R50 and R60 (a normal brown loaf in Maun is about R9) and I don't know if I love bread that much anymore.

It wasn't particularly hard to make, but my oven only has two temperatures - blazing hot or warm - so it was quite hard to know how long to put it in for. I first made The Real Meal Revolution Carb Free Bread. What a flop. I did everything perfectly, and when I took the loaf out of the oven it looked incredible - it had risen nicely and looked like a normal loaf of bread - and it smelled amazing! Within a minute, though,  the whole thing started to sink and it became this short, fat brick of a loaf. It was also incredibly eggy. Not at all what I imagined it to be. Apparently it's because I mixed it too vigorously and the air bubbles inside were too big, thus collapsing when it cooled. Moving on.

I then went online and found this version which has worked out quite nicely, also a bit of a brick, but it tasted much nicer. I am going to play around with the recipe and hopefully I can make something in the future that resembles a normal loaf a bit better. Remember to cut it before you freeze it otherwise you will never get a knife through.

LOW CARB BREAD

½ cup coconut flour

½ cup ground flaxseed (use a coffee grinder to grind the seeds)

½ tsp baking powder

6 eggs, beaten

2 tbsp honey

pinch of sea salt

½ cup coconut oil, melted

butter for greasing


Preheat the oven to 180 and grease a loaf tin with the butter

sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well

add the eggs a little at a time until well combined

add the honey and coconut oil - the mixture thickens a bit with the oil

pour the mixture into the loaf tin and pop it in the oven on the middle shelf for about 40 minutes until the loaf is cooked through. You can test this by spiking it with a very sharp knife - if it comes out clean it's done.

Remove the bread from the tin and cool on a rack. It crisps as it cools