A Guide to Fertility and PCOS-Friendly Baking

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (COLD)
• 1 cup blanched almond flour
• 1/2 cup oat fiber
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 6 tbsp powdered erythritol
• 1/4 tsp stevia powder
• 6 tbsp lilys chocolate chips
• 1 tbsp coconut oil

Instructions : 

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a stand mixer with the dough hook attached, add the cold butter, almond flour, oat fiber, erythritol, stevia and sea salt.
3. Start the stand mixer on the lowest setting and mix for a couple of minutes until it forms a dough. (You could use a food processor or a strong hand mixer as well)
4. With your hands, grab the dough and form a ball. Place the ball on top of a parchment paper, place another piece of parchment paper over the ball and press down.
5. With a rolling pin, roll into a ½ inch thick disk. Cut into small bricks or cut using biscuit cutters, a knife or a pizza cutter. You should be able to make 40 cookies.
6. With a dough scraper, lift up each cookie and place onto the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
7. Take out of the oven and let cool completely. This will solidify the cookies.
8. Once the cookies are cooled, you can dip them in chocolate. In a small bowl, add the chocolate chips and coconut oil and microwave 40ish seconds until melted. Stir with a spatula to make sure all of the chocolate has melted properly. Dip each cookie into the chocolate halfway (or whatever design you want) and place each dipped cookie back onto the parchment paper.

Ingredients :

Crust

• 2 tbsp coconut flour
• 1/4 cup blanched almond flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp erythritol
• 1/8 tsp stevia powder
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter melted

Cheesecake

• 2 cups cream cheese room temperature
• ¾ cup sour cream
• 3 tbsp erythritol
• 1/2 tsp stevia powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs room temperature

Optional Decorating

• lily’s dark chocolate chips melted
• almonds chopped
• cashew nuts chopped

Instructions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 300F. Wrap the bottom of a 6” springform pan with aluminum foil.
2. In a small bowl, mix the ingredients for the crust together until it resembles a buttery crumble. Place in your springform pan and press unto the bottom with a spoon. Even it out with the back of the spoon.
3. In a large bowl, place the cream cheese, sour cream, erythritol, stevia powder and vanilla, and beat with a hand mixer until the mixture is completely smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated. Do not overmix. Add the baking powder, and mix for a few seconds.
4. Pour the cheesecake batter into the springform pan over the crust. Tap a couple of times on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles (if there were any).
5. Prepare a tall oven-proof tray and add 2-3 (1″) of water. Carefully place your aluminum-wrapped cheesecake into the water and place into the oven. Bake for 60 minutes.
6. Open the oven door and let the cheesecake cool completely inside the oven for 1-2 hours until completely cooled (Your cheesecake should still be wiggly in the middle). Cover with plastic wrap, and place into the fridge overnight. You can decorate it as you wish or eat it plain once it’s completely cooled and set the next day.

Ingredients :

• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 cup corn syrup (light or dark)
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• Royal Icing, recipe follows

Instructions

1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Put the brown sugar, shortening, and corn syrup in a saucepan and heat on medium, stirring constantly until the shortening is melted.
3. Put all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl; then add the warm sugar mixture, stirring until all of the ingredients are well blended. The dough will appear crumbly but will hold together when rolled out.
4. Use the dough immediately, while it is still warm. If it starts to crumble, place it in a warm oven for 1 to 2 minutes until it softens a bit.

*To make decorated cutout cookies; Roll out the dough to about 1/8-inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Cut out gingerbread women and men with cookie cutters. Place the cookies on foil-lined cookie sheets and bake until golden brown, about 10 to 15 minutes. Cool the cookies on racks before decorating.

**To decorate, tint a recipe of royal icing to your desired colors. Keep the icing covered with a damp towel while you are working to prevent it from drying out. To cover a cookie with icing, thin some of the icing with a little water and spread it on the cookie with a knife or metal spatula. Add dragees, edible glitter, colored sprinkles, or other decorations to the wet icing. To attach candies to un-iced cookies, brush a thin layer of clear piping gel on the cookie with a small paintbrush and add decorations.

Royal Icing

• 5 tablespoons meringue powder (found in cake decorating stores)
• 1/2 cup minus 2 tablespoons water

Ingredients:  

CAKE:

• 3 cups blanched almond flour
• ¼ cup coconut flour
• ¾ cup raw cacao powder
• ½ cup raw coconut palm sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup coconut oil, melted
• 1 cup coconut milk, full fat
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons raw honey

MIDDLE LAYER CHOCOLATE GANACHE*:

• 1 can (13.5 ounces) full fat coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons raw honey
• 4 tablespoons raw cacao powder
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

CHOCOLATE FROSTING:

• 6 tablespoons coconut milk, full fat
• ¾ cup dark chocolate chips

Instructions

CAKE:

1. Preheat oven at 350°F.
2. Grease the bottom and sides of a 7-inch springform pan with coconut oil and line the bottom with parchment paper
3. In a large bowl mix together the almond flour, coconut flour, raw cacao powder, raw coconut palm sugar, baking soda and salt
4. In a separate bowl whisk together the coconut oil, coconut milk, eggs, vanilla and honey
5. Using a rubber spatula, gently mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients to form a batter. Do not over mix.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, approximately 45-50 minutes. If you feel you need to cook it longer, cover cake with aluminum foil to prevent burning the top and lower the heat to 325°F. Cook until toothpick comes out clean.
7. Let cake cool completely then cut horizontally in the middle
8. Spread the chocolate ganache over the bottom half of the cake and refrigerate for 30 minutes
9. Top with other half of cake, then spread the chocolate frosting over the top and sides of the cake
10. Sprinkle top with shaved dark chocolate if desired

MIDDLE LAYER CHOCOLATE GANACHE:

1. In a medium saucepan, bring the coconut milk and honey to a light boil
2. Simmer on low heat for two hours, stirring occasionally. Do not cover the pan. You will know you cooked it long enough when the coconut milk is reduced to half and has a thicker consistency and darker color, similar to sweetened condensed milk.
3. Mix in the raw cacao powder and vanilla extract and stir until all is combined and smooth
4. Let it cool and refrigerate until cake is ready

CHOCOLATE FROSTING:

1. Melt the chocolate chips in a bowl over simmering water (double boiler).
2. Mix coconut milk with melted chocolate until all is combined and smooth.
3. Let cool for 5 minutes before icing the cake.

Ingredients:

• 1 gluten-free pie crust (Trader Joes or Whole Foods have in their freezer section)
• 5 cups apples, peeled and thinly sliced
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• zest of 1/2 orange
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp fresh orange juice
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. allspice

Crumb topping

• 5 Tbsp cold grass-fed butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats
• 1/3 cup gluten-free vanilla cake mix ( Bob’s Red Mill is recommended )
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 T caramel sauce optional

Instructions:

1.Preheat oven to 325 F or according to directions on pie crust.

2.Combine apples through allspice and pour into thawed pie shell.

3.Combine butter through cinnamon and use pastry blender or fork to blend well to a crumble. 4.Sprinkle on top of apples and bake in oven until apples are bubbly and crumble is lightly brown about 70 minutes.

5.Top with a drizzle of caramel sauce if desired.