More about Coconuts

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This is a "part two" to a posting from a couple of days ago. I was looking around a bit more, following links as I went along and found this recipe. It looks like it could be delicious! It'll be a few days before I can test it out...if anyone sees this and tries it before I do, please let me know how it turns out for you :)

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http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2011/11/16/missingyourmuffins/

Many of the hundreds of emails that flooded my inbox after the Wheat Belly book review was published were from people seeking wheat substitutes for their daily delights.

The reason I eliminated wheat from my diet before I had even heard of Dr. William Davis’ toxic wheat theory was to reduce carbohydrates, as I suspected I had a carbohydrate intolerance. Most gluten-free flours are still high in carbohydrates (and may be perfectly fine for your weight loss and health but were not for me), so I turned to coconut flour.

Coconut flour is made from ground coconut meat and is super high in fibre (61 per cent as opposed to wheat bran’s 27 per cent fibre content). It has three times as much fibre as it does digestible carbohydrate, which works well for my diet goals.

It is also high in fat. Coconut fat, I have discovered, is a very intriguing substance. Among alternative nutritionists it has the reputation of being a low calorie fat (not that I could care less about counting the calories I am consuming any more; I’ll talk about that in another blog). For those who do count, it actually has slightly fewer calories than other fats: 8.6 calories per gram, not 9 calories per gram.

Coconut fat is also unique in that it is comprised of medium-chain fatty acids, where most of the fats in the Western daily diet are made up of long-chain ones, and the medium ones are more easily digested and have a reputation of both increasing metabolism and reducing appetite. I have been consuming coconut oil in large quantities, and have found all this to be true. Actually I have tripled my fat intake in the past few months, and my weight loss is at 26 pounds, as of today. (More about that in another blog, too)

The muffin recipe below is adapted from one by Dr. Bruce Fife, ND, who is a prolific author on the nutritional benefits of coconut. If you don’t like the taste of coconut, then I’m sorry, but it is riddled with it. Even a beginner cook can make muffins, and you don’t need much in the way of fancy kitchen equipment, even a toaster oven will do.

The best part? One of these muffins fills me up for 3-4 hours.

Basic coconut muffins

3 large eggs

1/4 cup sugar (or the equivalent if you are watching sugar intake)

1/4 cup melted coconut oil (or melted butter)

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

2-6 tablespoons liquid, sometimes more (canned full cream coconut milk, milk, cream, water, or I am using a product called So Delicious unsweetened dairy-free coconut milk beverage)

Heat your oven to 375 deg F. Grease your muffin pans (or make your life easy and get some silicon baking cups – best invention ever). Whisk the eggs with salt, vanilla, oil, and if you are using a liquid sugar substitute add it now). Stir together the flour and baking powder, and sugar or dry sugar equivalent ingredient, then stir it into the egg mix.

Now don’t freak out. Coconut flour is hugely absorbent and your muffin mix will look like an ugly lump. Stir in the liquid (the amount of which changes on any given day depending on the humidity in my experience) until it reaches a texture where you can scoop it up in a spoon and drop it as a semi-solid mass into the baking cups. Don’t scoop it yet, though.

Now is the adding fun flavours part: I stir in 1/2 a cup of frozen raspberries (two reasons: my freezer has a supply of homegrown ones, and they are a good low-carb fruit) but 1/2 cup of any fruit will work. Now scoop the mix into the cups. It won’t rise an awful lot , so fill them up.

At this stage I have added cubes of cream cheese poked into each (my husband’s favourite), and toppings like shredded unsweetened coconut (yes, I have gone a little coconutty) or slivered almonds.

Bake 15-18 mins – they are done when they are browned. This recipe makes 6 muffins, but you can double the mix and they freeze well.

Nutritional content will vary with your ingredients.