I really didn't care about any of it except for the coconut. I freaking love any and all things coconut - coconut cream pie, coconut curry, coconut water. My all time favorite dessert is German chocolate cake - really for the nutty, coconut goodness that is the icing.
One of my first SIBO symptoms was a sudden onset of lactose intolerance. Lactase enzymes helped at first, but by the time my birthday rolled around in May this year, I had cut out all dairy. However, for probably the last 10 years or so, I have had at least one German chocolate birthday cake (the all-time record was three for one birthday - so much coconut icing goodness!). With the dairy cut out, I tasked my husband with finding a vegan version. I didn't have much hope in it being grand, but I thought it would be ok. This being PDX, one has quite a lot of choices of vegan bakeries so it shouldn't be that hard to find one.
I feel like I should give my disclaimer about vegans. If you are forced to cut out cheese, milkshakes, and all other dairy happiness for some medical reason, then vegan food is your friend. However, if you cut out cheese voluntarily, then IMO you are batshit crazy. I like a lot of vegan food, but I also really like cheese and I would never give it up voluntarily.
So back to my vegan bday cake. The husband found a great vegan bakery on Alberta Street (Back to Eden) and I must say it was divine! No one could even tell that it was sans dairy and eggs.
I have returned to the bakery several times and have loved everything I have tried. Sadly, this no-sugar silliness has put a halt to my Back to Eden visits ... for now. I will be back!
I am not a sweets person - I will take salt over sugar any day - but maybe the old adage is true: you want what you can't have. As a result of 7+ weeks with no sugar, I now want desserts. Or maybe it's really just the bready goodness of cakes and dessert loaves that I miss. Either way, in addition to my cooking, I have taken up baking - something I have done very little of in the past. My baking gadgets are pretty sparse - who knew I would actually need a flour sifter some day? Well, I bought one, but contrary to what I was told, it doesn't sift almond flour. I don't know what kind of sifter you need for almond flour, but if I find out I will have to get one. So tonight I made a mediocre pork cacciatore and really wanted dessert afterwards. The bananas weren't ripe enough for banana carrot muffins, I was out of apples for apple cinnamon bread, and I was about an ingredient short for all of the new recipes that I wanted to take a stab at. Then I came across one on paleoplan.com for coconut bread. However, it wasn't listed in the dessert section - it was listed in the sides section. Odd, but whatever. So I made it and it wasn't too bad. Pretty dense - somewhere between a scone and maybe shortcake. I sliced it up, drizzled some honey over it, and sprinkled some unsweetened coconut on top of it and called it dessert any way. I think it would be best with maybe some fresh berries and honey on it. It would actually probably make a really good strawberry shortcake now that I think about it.
Coconut Bread
One word of warning, make sure you melt your coconut oil before adding it to the eggs and honey. Trust me on this one.
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