Or, in more SEO friendly terms: Pumpkin Spice Cookies- SCD, Nut Free Gluten Free, Candida, and Hackable Vegan!

Yeah, so, I’ve been out of town. First, to Cape May, and most recently, to stay with good friends in Martha’s Vinyard. I’d love to regale you with stories of my exploits, but instead I’m going to get back on the horse and give you all a recipe. Oh, and I’m going to remind you that food bloggers are mortals too. Onward, my first ever self-deprecating post!

So, this came about in a bout of desperation about two three four weeks ago. We were in Cape May, land of ice cream and fudge, with not an SCD or gluten-free friendly place in sight, except for that really tiny organic market which just happened to be out of reach (and budget. What was it, $10.00 for nutmeg? I mean, I love you and all, but screw you). Lucky for us, we had rented an apartment at the lovely John Wesley Inn, which was equipped with a full kitchen. We also had a random acorn squash. Here’s what happened.

Now, I later reproduced this recipe with pumpkin/butternut squash and it was just as good. And then, when I decided to photograph it, I tried to bake it in these lovely little decorative cake molds.

It was disasterous. No, seriously. I didn’t grease the pans properly, and the batter was too sticky, and I cooked it too long, and it all burned and went to hell. So, don’t do that. But lucky for you, I have emerged a wiser woman, just in time to pass my profound and arcane knowledge somewhere toward your general direction.

Hmmm… let’s see. What else? You can use this proportion (key word, PROPORTION) of spices to flavor any generic “autumnal” dessert, but it works particularly well with squashes and pumpkins. This batter makes an amazing pumpkin pie, but it can also be spooned onto a cookie sheet to make really delicious, gooey cookies.

Oh, and if you replace the eggs with flax-seeds, and the butter with coconut oil, and the honey with your sweetener of choice, it’s Vegan too! Then again, pretty much anything is vegan if you do all that.. anyway.

Time for the Rundown:

• SCD: Check
• Candida Diet Friendly: Check
• Kid Friendly: Yes!
• Gluten Free: Check
• Nut Free: Yes
• Dairy: If butter is tolerated, then this is lactose free.
• Vegan: Yes, with some hacks
• Low Fat: Sort of

We Begin.

Ingredients

• 2 Acorn Squash
• 3/4Cup + 2 Tbspns of Butter (Or 3/4 Cup+ 2TBs of Coconut Oil)
• 2.5 Teaspoons Cinnamon
• 1 Teaspoon Nutmeg
• 3 Cloves, Grated
• 1/2 Teaspoon Ginger
• 1/2 Teaspoons Salt
• 2.5 Teaspoons Vanilla
• 4 Eggs (Or a suitable ratio of flax seed. For no-bake, you can use gelatin too)
• 1/2-3/4 Cup Coconut Flour, depending on how wet the squash is.
• Honey, to taste. I added a little over a half cup. For vegans: Brown Sugar, Sugar, Agave, or the sweetener of your choice.
• An oven, preheated to 350 degrees

Prepping the Squash

Slice the Squash lengthwise Scoop out the seeds, using a spoon or your fingers. Reserve for later in case you want to toast them.

Your cleaned squash should look like this. Make sure the other squash are watching, so they know you mean business.

Place about 1/2 tablespoon butter in each of the cavities

Shake some cinnamon over the squash

Repeat for all squash halves, and put in the oven at 350 degrees. Ignore lurking water filtration systems.

After 40 minutes, check the squash by stabbing the biggest one with a fork. If it isn’t soft enough, keep cooking until they have the consistency of a ripe pear.

Remove from oven, and allow to fully cool

Making the Batter and Cakes

Grease the pan of your choice. Once you are done, begin to loosen the flesh of the squash from the peel by wedging a spoon between the layers and “jiggling”

You can also make a slit in the skin and peel it away from the flesh. This creates the least waste.

Do it for all the squash pieces.

Using a knife, dice the cooked squash into chunks.

This is about the right texture

Use a whisk or potato masher to smash up the squash.

Cut up 1 cup of butter into small chunks, and whisk/cut into the mix.

It will partially melt, that’s ok. Mix it in really well.

Add Vanilla

Add spices and salt.

Grate 3-4 cloves into the mix, to taste.

Mix well. Keep tasting and tweaking the spice mix.

When you are satisfied, add a quarter cup of honey, mix in, and taste. Want it sweeter? Add more honey.

When satisfied with the flavor, beat eggs in a bowl.

Add to the batter.

Mix in…

Until nice and smooth. The batter should now be pretty runny.

Begin thickening the batter by adding coconut flour 1/4 cup at a time and mixing.

It will look like this- forming soft peaks. We want stiffer peaks.

So, add more coconut flour.

Mix in, well

This is the right consistency- it should be a stiff batter, one that forms hard peaks.

Add baking soda.

Mix well.

Use a spoon or the utensil of choice to apportion the batter.

Ladle into your baking pan. Alas, the dreaded cake molds.

Lucky for me I also made some in a conventional tin. Put into the oven, and check after 15 minutes, then check every 5 minutes thereafter. It should take no more than 30 minutes to cook fully. It’s done when a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

And now, the moment of truth!

Success!

Failure, yet again.

Eat, and thank me in your prayers for having saved you 13 hours of scrubbing charred squash fragments out of tiny crevices with a toothbrush.

#hatemylife

OH! By the way, I’m handing out samples of my food this Thursday at Sunnyside CSA. Feel free to drop by and visit!