Rarely did I ever eat pizza to begin with but it is one of those comfort foods that I tend to crave more on cold winter days.

I decided to stay in last night and make some gluten free pizza. The gluten free pizza was actually amazingly good. Hot, saucy and cheesy, just what I wanted! Andrew, who is not gluten free, enjoyed it as well! He was really excited for me and I thought that was kind of him to consider my plight.

Here is the dough. I should have taken out the stand mixer, but at least I got a good workout out of it.

Here is the recipe:

crust:
1 packet yeast
3/4 cup milk, room temperature
1/2 cup potato starch
3/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter

Toppings:
your favorite pasta sauce
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
your favorite pizza toppings (I used red bell peppers and pepperoni)

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, combine yeast and milk. Stir to dissolve yeast. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients and shortening. Mix well.
3. To dry ingredients, slowly add milk/yeast mixture. Mix well. Dough will look wet, thick, and pasty but is quite workable if you spray your hands with nonstick spray or keep your hands damps with water. This is a soft dough.
4. Roll or pat out dough onto a lightly greased baking tin or pizza pan. For a thin crust, pat out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. A 12-inch circle will make a thicker crust.
5. Bake until the top is lightly browned.
6. Top with the sauce, cheese and the toppings you chose.
7. Return pizza to oven to warm the toppings and melt the cheese (about 5-7 minutes)

I just used pasta sauce as pizza sauce, it worked out fine.

This is before it was baked. I forgot to take a picture of it finished! I was so eager to begin eating!

So that was my pizza night. I had not had one of those in a long time. This version of pizza dough is a little bit of a splurge interms of calories. You can replace the butter with olive oil and the milk can be any unsweetened variety, almond milk hemp milk etc.

Let me know what you think or send me some sugestions for gluten free pizza toppings in the comments section.

-Chelsea

These muffins are also very quick and easy to make so they are my new favorite addition to the breakfast rotation.

Used my favorite coconut flour for these muffins. No other flours necessary for this recipe.

The recipe calls for 6 eggs, but it is only about 1/2 an egg per muffin (if you are concerned with cholesterol) and the more protein the better.

The dough is dense and may look like it needs more liquid but trust me it works out great.

Makes 12 perfectly portioned muffins.

The Coconut muffins come out nice and golden brown.

You will notice that these muffins are really dense because the coconut flour is dense, but the texture is very nice.

Coconut Muffin Recipe:

ingredients:

dry ingredients:
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt

wet ingredients:
- 2 ripe bananas pureed (1/2 cup pureed)
- 6 eggs
- 3 tablespoons honey or agave nectar
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons milk (I used hemp milk. almond milk, soy milk and the regular stuff work just fine too.)
- 2 tablespoons melted butter (can use another 2 tablespoons of coconut oil or applesauce to substitute)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

directions:
1. heat oven to 350 F.
2. add all of the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and mix well so that each ingredient is evenly distributed.
3. in another bowl mix the wet ingredietns together (the last time I did it all in one bowl, as you can see in the photo. it was very difficult to stir, so do not skip this step unless you are prepared for a serious arm workout!)
4. slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and whisk together. if you are using a stand up mixer set it to low and slowly add the flour. the batter will be thick (see photos).
5. add the dough to a lined cupcake pan. fill each cupcake well 80-90% to the brim. (coconut flour does not rise like flours that contain gluten).
6. bake for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown on the edges (see photos. gee! the photos are really helpful this time around!) the toothpick inserted in the middle trick does not work with these muffins so go by the color.

Hope you enjoy them. Let me know if you like them in the comments section. I try to reply to all of my comments. And let me know if you have thought of any other uses for them. I actually cut one in half and put some turkey and avocado in there for an afternoon snack, a little sweet but good flavor contrast and it was all I needed to get me to dinner.

-Chelsea