There’s a school bake sale today to raise money for a worthy charity, and all the parents have been asked to donate baked goods. This always makes me a bit nervous. What should I send that will represent paleo/gluten free well? I almost chose to not send anything but besides my son, I know that there are a handful of other kids and parents that are gluten free and/or dairy free. I know that whenever I’m somewhere with lots of “regular” food and I see something gluten and dairy free, it makes my day!
Baking, paleo or otherwise, isn’t one of my strengths. So I made two untried recipes (see below for links and notes), in case one didn’t turn out, but they both did! I find that because I’ve been eating this way for so long, even if I think something is “amazing,” other people don’t feel the same way. This first recipe passed the “Daniel-test” this morning; Daniel’s not a fan of baked goods in general, so when he scoffed the donut hole down at breakfast, I figured it was good to go.
Cinnamon Sugar Donut Holes from Texanerin
Texanerin is a clean-eating baker but not always paleo. Many of her recipes can be modified for gluten free, dairy free, and paleo. She almost exclusively does baking and treats, and I’ve tried two or three of her recipes so far–all great! I think her page is one I can go to if I need a no-fail recipe, like for a bake sale! I especially like that she puts weight measurements for the ingredients where applicable, such as “66 g of coconut flour.” I think this is so important in gluten free and paleo baking!
Here are my notes on how I made the recipe:
- These could be considered donut holes but they are basically mini-muffins, so that’s how I’ll refer to them
- I used the weight measurements that are listed in the recipe – my standard measurements would have been way off! If you have a scale, use it! If you don’t, consider getting this one. It’s cheap, light, reliable, and doesn’t take up much space.
- Coconut oil instead of butter
- Honey instead of maple syrup, just because I was out of syrup
- Coconut sugar instead of brown sugar and granulated sugar
- Made 24 mini-muffins (using these mini-muffin pans), plus three donut rings (using this pan)
- The mini-muffins were a bit more moist than the donut rings, but the rings still turned out really well. I’d probably bake the rings a minute or two less next time.
- Several of the comments on Texanerin’s recipe page mention that the muffins stick to the pan or the paper liners. I use these silicone liners for regular size muffins, but don’t have any for minis, and I don’t have any paper liners either. I oiled the heck out of all three pans with coconut oil.
- I let the muffins cool overnight. One mini-muffin pan had no sticking at all, one muffin pan stuck for 6 out of 12, and the donut pan did not stick at all. Riiiiiight….so not sure what that’s all about! Overall I had good success getting the muffins out, and the donut pan has always stuck with other recipes, so this was the best experience I’ve had with it.
- I had no problem dusting the “donut holes” with the coconut sugar and cinnamon mixture, but they are also great without the coating!
Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies by Lexi’s Clean Kitchen
These cookies are really good–not the BEST ever, but definitely take-to-the-school-bake-sale good! I’ve tried so many gluten free and paleo chocolate chip cookie recipes over the years that I’m not even sure which CCC recipe would be my favorite. What’s that? I should have a paleo chocolate chip cookie bake off and report the results? Why certainly! Anything for my readers. I’m willing to make that sacrifice for you…
Here are my notes for this recipe:
- Doubled the recipe with no problems
- I used ghee instead of butter or coconut oil. If you can tolerate dairy, definitely try the butter–I think it would make the cookies better. I’ll try coconut oil next time to see what the difference is.
- Because of the liquid state of the ghee, I had to refrigerate the dough for about 10 minutes. If you use coconut oil, you may have to do this as well.
- I used these dairy free chocolate chips
- I forgot to sprinkle the sea salt–argh!! I love sea salt….sigh…
- I used a tablespoon to scoop the dough and place it on silicone mats on a Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Commercial Baker’s Half Sheet
” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>baker’s sheet.
- The dough drops fit three across, so 12 per sheet, and spread nicely. I didn’t pat them down before baking, and there was no merging action.
- The sheet in the middle of the oven was done right on time (12 minutes), but the sheet towards the top needed 2 more minutes.
Happy baking!
Tried & True 