Before I started living a Paleo Lifestyle, baking was one of my favorite past times.
At least once a week you could find me in the kitchen baking oatmeal cookies or chocolate chip cookies.
When I decided to go grain-free, I knew that giving up the cookies (technically a processed food) would only make me healthier.
However, for me, baking was about more than the cookies: it was therapeutic.
Baking, like working out, helps me relieve stress.
Even though I was grain-free, I knew I wouldn’t be able to give up baking.
That’s one of the reasons this blog was born almost three years ago. If you’ve been around, you know that I love to bake, and that I’m still able to bake grain-free treats to enjoy on occasion.
I was so excited when I found Jenny from Nourished Kitchen’s new book, The Nourished Kitchen Guide to Grain-free & Dairy-free baking, Sweets and Treats.
There’s a lot more that goes into grain-free baking than just substituting almond flour for regular flour.
I learned that over years of grain-free baking experiments.
I wish I’d had the Nourished Kitchen Guide when I first got started.
In addition to over 90 recipes, The Nourished Kitchen Guide also has tips for how to make grain-free treats the same flavor and texture of your grain-full favorites, and simple substitutions to convert your favorite sweets into grain-free goodies.
To test out the guide, I decided to make Jenny’s Cowboy Cookies…
and they did not disappoint. Cowboy cookies are basically chocolate chip cookies with pecans, coconut flakes and raisins.
Seriously. These cookies were ridiculous.
The recipe was really simple and tasted JUST like a floury baked good.
The cookies were dense and chewy– just how I like them.
It’s a good thing I only made half a batch…because it was really hard to stop eating them 
I can’t wait to try the other recipes in the book!
All of the recipes are grain-free and dairy-free, which means they’re paleo/primal approved.
So true, so true. I was a HUGE baker before going paleo. I was pretty stinkin’ good at it too. Bread, pastries – you name it. But it was the process I loved (though I for sure ate my fair share of the results too!). I have found through this journey that it is following the recipe that I love, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be baking. I have made a couple paleo treats, but trying to keep those to a minimum I find interesting savory recipes to try.
Great posts – and I just realized you are in my area! I’m about an hour west of Boston. I’m always glad when I enjoy reading a blog and they turn out to be local!