Book Review – Paleo Indulgences

By : Diana Rodgers | 2 Comments | On : October 8, 2012 | Category : Recipes

My sister-in-law who is also following the Paleo diet hosted my birthday party dinner last night and I offered to make the Vanilla Cupcakes from Paleo Indulgences by Tammy Credicott. These cupcakes blew me away. They are incredible! Let me repeat this - THEY ARE INCREDIBLE. The vanilla frosting is also to die for. I’ve been gluten free for 12 years and have had many gf treats over the years. Gluten free cupcakes, cakes and cookies are usually very dense. These cupcakes are light, not terribly sweet but just right, and the icing is better than any buttercream frosting I’ve ever had.

Here’s the recipe (doubled so that it makes one dozen cupcakes):

Dry Ingredients:

2/3 cup coconut flour, sifted

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking powder

Wet Ingredients:

8 eggs

2 TBS vanilla extract

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped (optional but I did opt to do this and I think it adds a deeper flavor to the cupcakes)

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

Preheat the oven to 350. Place the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and wisk to combine. Add the wet ingredients, except the coconut oil to the dry and mix well with a hand mixer. With the mixer on low, slowly pour in the coconut oil. Mix well (note: my mixer broke so I used an imersion blender and it came together just fine). Divide the batter among 12 paper lined muffin cups. Bake 22-25 minutes or until the center of the cupcakes spring back when pressed lightly in the center. Cool in the pan 5 minutes then turn out to a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.

She provides three frosting recipes in her book. I went for the vanilla, which was enough to frost 12 cupcakes:

1/2 cup palm shortneing

1/3 cup maple syrup

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 TBS arrowroot starch

2 tsp coconut flour, sifted

pinch sea salt

2 TBS coconut oil melted

Place all the ingredients, except the coocnut oil in a medium bowl, and use a hand mixer to blend until fully combined. With the mixer on low, slowly add the coconut oil, blending until completely smooth. I put the frosting in a zip lock sandwhich bag and cut a small hole in one corner, and piped wormy looking swirls of frosting on the cupcakes. They were a huge hit with my kids and their cousins, and especially the adults who were completely blown away by the fact that these were paleo.

I am also excited to try some of the chinese restauarant recreations in the book. Tammy includes quite a few dinner recipes that look great.