Chocolate Cupcakes

I remember hearing, growing up, that gluten-free baked goods were very dense and so dry. Now that we are gluten-free, I'm learning that doesn't have to be true. It's true, however, that the first couple times we made these chocolate cupcakes, they were rather dry and tasted heavily of stevia. Stevia is great... in moderation.

Elana's Pantry has a recipe for chocolate cupcakes that Katie adapted to use ingredients we had on hand and to meet our limitations since we don't use agave nector. When I made it, sometimes it turned out moist and other times very dry. I suspected it was because I didn't always measure the coconut oil. I read the recipe more carefully this last time and noticed that Elana has more liquid in her recipe than we have in ours. I wondered if adding more oil would make a difference. It did. This last batch seemed, to our regular cupcake deprived minds, to taste very close to their gluten containing counterparts.

I Can't Believe It's A Pork-Free Chocolate Cake/Cupcakes*

1/4 c. Coconut Flour
1/4 c. Cocoa Powder
1/4 tsp. Sea Salt
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda, slightly mounded
3 Eggs
1/2 c. Coconut Oil
6 Medjool Dates, pitted
3/8 tsp. Stevia

1. In a medium bowl, combine coconut flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda.
2. Blend (or juice) dates and coconut oil together and set aside.Taste the darker portions of dates :*)...
3. In a large bowl, whip eggs and slowly drizzle in coconut oil from date/coconut oil mixture till fluffy.
4. Add dates to the eggs and coconut oil and mix well.
5. Blend dry ingredients into wet thoroughly.
6. Line a cupcake tin with paper liners and scoop a scant 1/3 cup into each liner.To make a cake, grease your pan with coconut oil.
7. Bake at 375* (time will vary, see below)
8. Cool, serve and enjoy!

Makes approximately 10 cupcakes

Cupcakes: 20-22 minutes.  9x13(double batch): 28 minutes. Mini Cupcakes: 15 minutes
  This recipe doubles, triples and quadruples easily for our family of 8. A quadruple batch makes 1- 9x13 pan and 4 dozen mini thumbprint cupcakes.

For a special treat, you can make thumbprint cupcakes. I used mini cupcakes, since most of them are for our Christmas Eve dinner. Drop a heaped teaspoon of dough into your paper liners. Dip your thumb in water for each one and make a thumbprint. Add 1/2 tsp. of fruit sweetened jam (St. Dalfour has great jams, spreads and jellies that are fruit sweetened) and place in the oven... When they come out, taste-test one right away. After all, it's a cook's privilege!

♥ Hannah ♥

 *: In honor of Mr. Bill... see below for why.

Stephanie Skelly: Hannah is working on a gluten/grain-free, dairy free, processed sweetener-free, (pork-free ;*)) chocolate cake for dessert tonight. Looks (and smells) so nummy... Can't wait for her to post the recipe and photos. :*) 

Bill Ruck: How can you even think about making a pork-free chocolate cake?! It just won't taste right I tell you.