Primal Vanilla Cheesecake

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You all know how I feel about cheesecake. It’s my favorite dessert, I have it about once a year on my birthday, and there’s no substitute for the real thing. I also never make it because it seems really complicated. However, I had a friend that was having a birthday dinner and I told her I would make her dessert. I asked her what she would like to have. She said she didn’t care. I was thinking maybe carrot cake would be a good idea! She told me that carrot cake and cheesecake are her favorites. Then she says….I kind of want cheesecake. That’s all it took. I was off at my first attempt to make cheesecake!
This recipe is not strict paleo because of the cream cheese, but everything else is.

Primal Vanilla Cheesecake

Ingredients:

 Crust:

  •  3/4 stick of grassfed butter
  •  2 1/4 cup nut flour
  •  1 tsp cinnamon
  •  1 Tbsp honey
  •  1/4 tsp salt

Filling:

  •  3 blocks organic cream cheese (ROOM TEMP)
  • 2 Tbsp coconut milk
  • 2 Tbsp arrowroot powder
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 vanilla bean, seeded
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • 4 eggs

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Combine all the crust ingredients and pour into springform pan. Bake until the crust browns slightly, which should be about 10 minutes. Get it out and let it cool. Lower the oven temp to 325F and place a dish with water on the bottom rack.
While the crust is cooling, whip the cream cheese until its creamy and smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients one at a time until it’s all combined and pour over the crust. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Then turn off the oven and let it continue to sit in the oven for another hour. Get out of the oven and let cool to room temp before placing in the fridge to set and cool. Serve!

Carrot muff-a-cake

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I love carrot cake. I love the typical cream cheese frosting too because it is rich, creamy, and not too sweet. However, I usually only have cream cheese once a year…homemade cheesecake on my birthday! However, that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the same flavors throughout the year.

What’s the different between a muffin and a cupcake? Typically it’s the sweetness and frosting. This carrot cake is not super sweet. So, it can be used as a morning muffin or you can up the sweetness and frost it in order to go the cupcake route.

Carrot cake muffins:

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups almond flour
  • 1/4 cup arrowroot powder (or tapioca)
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp cardamom
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • Zest of one lemon
  • 1 1/2 cup grated carrots
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  • 2 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven at 350F.

Whisk together dry ingredients.

Whisk together the olive oil, eggs, vanilla, syrup. Once well combined, add the carrots, walnuts, and lemon zest.

Combine the dry and wet ingredients. Distribute among 12 silicon muffin liners. Bake for 18 minutes or until set. Let cool completely before frosting.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

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I pretty much feel like I’m a vanilla expert at this point.  Ok, so that was a joke.  However, let me save you some time with my experiences.  A couple years ago, I did a “homemade month” where I decided I was going to make everything that I felt like I spent too much money on to see if it was worth the hassle.  I kept lots of those things in my routine!  Vanilla was one of them.  The only annoying thing about making vanilla is having to wait a few months to use it.  That means forethought and patience.  However, you SAVE SO MUCH MONEY!  My first batch I did with vodka.  It tasted like vanilla but not the depth of flavor that I was used to.  So, my next batch I did with bourbon.  This is the way to go.  So rich, bold, and perfect! I was also doing this in a mason jar before.  That is sort of a disaster because it gets caught up around the rim and sometimes sticks.  I found these cute flip top bottles at Meijer for nothin’.  So I decided this go round I would make my vanilla in this.

Ingredients:

  • 5 vanilla beans
  • 12 oz bourbon

Shake the bottle every few days for a couple months.

I used these ratios but really this is open to interpretation.  Use as many or as little as you want in order to get the intensity of vanilla flavor you want.  Penzey’s makes a double strength vanilla that you can use at half the dose for the same flavor or you can up your vanilla flavor by using the double strength in the same quantity the recipe calls for.  All this vanilla is, is double the amount of beans to make the same amount of extract.  Moral of the story, they more beans you add, the stronger the vanilla will be.

Paleo Vanilla Cupcakes

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I am not much of a cake person…or cupcakes for that matter.  To be honest, I hate frosting.  What?!  I know.  However, sometimes there’s a time and place for a good cupcake!  I was invited to a “favorite things” party this past weekend and I went through my head a million times of all my favorite things trying to decide what I thought ANYONE would also love and could get good use out of.  I decided on silicon muffin tin liners.  I use these to make lotion bars, muffins, mini quiches, homemade “reese’s cups” and all kinds of great stuff.  Why do I love them?  Well, nothing sticks to them!  You get the entire muffin or cupcake to come out clean and you don’t produce any waste for landfills!  Perfect.

So, in true Dr. A fashion, I wanted to bake something to take to the party and thought it would only be fitting to use the liners to make cupcakes.  If i made cupcakes, I had to try my hand at frosting.  So, THE DAY OF THE PARTY I decided on Vanilla cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting.  Neither were hard, and everyone really liked them!  I did not taste test these on my brother’s palate, so my friends could just have been lying that they were good!  You should try them and let me know. ;)

Paleo Vanilla Cupcakes: (thanks to Paleo Indulgences)

makes 12 cupcakes

  • 2/3 cup coconut flour, sifted
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 8 eggs
  • 2 Tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted (or coconut oil)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl except the melted butter and mix to combine.  With the mixer on low, slowly pour in the melted butter.  Pour the batter evenly into 12 SILICON MUFFIN LINERS and bake 22 minutes or until the center springs back when you press on top.  Cool completely before frosting. (Frosting recipe on it’s way!)