Bread with Coconut Flour

I love the taste and the smooth texture of coconut flour. I also love how economical it is. Even after the cupcakes, christmas cooking, and bread we have not used more then 2.5 lb of flour. That being said, I am still getting used to cooking with it.

The nicest thing about the holiday break from school is that L has been home with me or her aunt and she has had to eat what I put in front of her. When she started having anxiety attacks nearly everyday I started using food as a reinforcer. If you transition from summer camp to the car I will give you root beer (full sugar root beer). If you do not run away you can get ice cream. L loves sugar, junk food, and even (gasp) McDonalds. Although, the McDonald's thing has been cured for a while since grandma snuck her it and she got sick.

As L eat worse everyone ate worse. S would steal her food and have a sugar meltdown. J was adamant that everyone be treated equally, so he deserved sugar as well. Our house was complete chaos, and I let it get to that point. The harder L falls into junk eating the harder it is to bring her back to eating healthy.

After a week at home she is eating full course meals again. Although, she is the only one in the family still eating peanut butter (I can not find a good enough reason to make her stop). I have even started getting some non liquified vegetables into her diet. Our rule is that you have to take at least three bits. Last week she would hide under the table or in her bed. Tonight she eat three bites of everything and finished off the parts she liked. She did not even ask for the bucket of raisins.

The two hardest parts for L has been the lack of bread and pizza. I was very excited to try my hand at the bread. The recipe originated in the book Coconut Flour Recipes: 40 Scrumptious Recipes For Celiac, Gluten free, And Paleo Diets (The Simple Recipe Series). I modified the recipe by using 12 whole eggs instead of 10 whole eggs and 2 egg whites. I also used coconut oil in place of the butter.

The bread turned out very tasty. L loved it. However, it is not something that would be very useful for sandwiches (that hunt still continues). We ended up cooking the bread for about 50 minutes and the center of the loaf was still a little soft. However, the outside was starting to burn so we took it out. When I cut the bread in slices the slices fell into pieces.

Overall I can see us making this again. L ate two whole pieces. She insists that it tastes better with agave nectar over the honey. I think that tomorrow we will try a piece with paleo whipped cream - almost like a shortbread. I love that it is filling and full of protein and fiber.

For next time, I think we will try a smaller loaf size. I doubled the recipe and then cooked them in a large loaf pan. I think it would be worth the try to put them in smaller loaf pans to get the center cooked better.