Author Archives: Zoe

About Zoe

Gluten-free and dairy-free food blogging with a focus on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD).

Chocolate Olive Oil Madeleines with Almond or Pecan Flour

chocolate olive oil madeleines with almond or pecan flour

I’m going to be the first to admit that I’ve never eaten a traditionally made madeleine. I make mention of this since I was recently asked in a comment on one of my previous madeleine recipes if they tasted like “real” madelienes.

The only madeleines I’ve eaten are the ones I’ve made and that I’ve posted here before. The only wheat-laden madeleines I’ve seen around here are at Starbucks, sealed in a plastic package and sold in threes, by the tip jar and I’ve never tried them simply because – truth be told – I like mine. (I hope that doesn’t make me sound like a snob!)

It’s almost a month since I last posted a chocolate recipe, so I hope it isn’t too soon to be posting another.

This recipe I’d actually marked down a long time ago – cough, two years ago – and only made it just this month. No time like the present, right? Everyone here has loved them and I’ve made them several times already. Using either almond flour or pecan flour doesn’t seem to make a noticeable difference in flavour, so use what you have on hand or prefer. They’re soft and moist, almost on the plush side. The olive oil works nicely with the cocoa and can be tasted even after baking (usually an issue when baking with olive oil), so be sure to use a good, quality oil.

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Oil Pulling with Coconut Oil

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Oil Pulling Therapy: Detoxifying and Healing the Body Through Oral Cleansing (image via Amazon.com)

Have you heard of oil pulling? It’s an ancient practice found in Ayurvedic medicine that flushes out toxins from the body by cleaning out bacteria found in the mouth. The philosophy behind it is that all disease starts in the mouth. You swish a spoonful of oil in your mouth for fifteen to twenty minutes once a day, in the morning, then spit it out. You don’t eat it or swallow it.

I first heard of oil pulling in an email that was sent to me by my Mum, but it wasn’t until some time went by that I actually decided to give it a try in mid-December last year after I did some further online research. I’ve been oil pulling now for a little over two months and I’m happy to report I’ve had positive results from doing it. The first noticeable thing was that my teeth became whiter (this is one of the first signs that many people experience during the initial stages of oil pulling). I continued to experience improvements, including clearer skin.

If you do a quick Google search, you’ll find all kinds of success stories and testimonials from people who have done oil pulling and their various (sometimes multiple) ailments vanishing that they’d had for years – asthma, diabetes, chronic congestion, sinus problems, arthritis, rheumatism, skin conditions, etc. – some since childhood. (For women in particular, PMS symptoms including cramps and skin breakouts have gone away or have drastically been reduced with oil pulling. Myself, I have had improvement in this area also.) If you’re looking for an informative resource about oil pulling, instead of doing online research or in addition to, look no further than Oil Pulling Therapy by Bruce Fife.

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Basic Gluten-Free Pancakes

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Last Sunday my brother wanted pancakes. It was when I started looking for a recipe – starting here on my blog, of course – that I realized I did not have a basic or standard pancake recipe already posted, unless one can count these coconut flour pancakes. But I did not have coconut flour on hand. So, gathering what flours I did have on hand and scouring the Internet for gluten-free pancake recipes, I came up with these.

They were originally chocolate pancakes, with chocolate chips and strawberries, from With Style and Grace. I didn’t change much, except for leaving out the cocoa powder and not using either chocolate chips or strawberries. I added an extra egg, and also used honey. My Mum found a blackberry blossom honey and it is exquisite: it’s sweet like sugar and really lends itself to everything we’ve used it in (flognarde, especially chocolate sauce, and now these pancakes).

In short, these pancakes were a hit! They’re fluffy and don’t at all become tough as they cool. We ate them with butter and drizzled honey or jam spread on top. I needed to make a double recipe, in fact; while all the while that song from Matilda started to play in my head. (If you’ve seen the movie, I’m sure you know the one. One of my favourite scenes from the movie was with Matilda making pancakes.)

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