Ingredients
For pizza crust
( This will make enough for 2 small crusts; cut dough in half and freeze second half for another purpose)
2 or more cups almond or cashew flour
1 1/2 cups tapioca flour or arrowroot powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil
Parchment paper
Pizza stone or cookie sheet

Topping
1 blood orange, peeled and pith removed, sliced horizontally
1 naval or cara cara orange, peeled and pith removed, slice horizontally
2 clementines, peeled with pith removed, segmented
1 banana, sliced
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut chips, lightly toasted in toaster oven

Caramel Sauce
6 Medjool dates, pitted and chopped (if dates are hard, soak for a few minutes in boiling water and then drain)
2/3 cup water
Pinch coarse sea salt

1. Put pizza stone or cookie sheet in oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine dry ingredients for crust in food processor.
3 Add water and olive oil to dry ingredients and blend until dough forms a ball. Add more flour if necessary.
4. Cut dough ball in half and freeze second half for another purpose. Re-form remaining dough into ball.
5. Put dough on large piece of parchment paper and cover with second piece of parchment paper.
6. Roll dough to desired thickness (flatbread  thickness is good for this recipe).
7. Remove top piece of parchment paper and slide bottom piece, with crust, onto pizza stone. Prick crust all over with a fork.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes until crust starts to color and crisp up.
9. Remove crust from oven.
10. Arrange orange slices, clementine segments and banana slices on crust.
11. Bake for 8-10 more minutes until crust is crisp and fruit softens.
12. Meanwhile, make caramel sauce. In food processor or blender, combine chopped dates, water and salt. Blend until it is the consistency of a smooth sauce. Add a little more water if necessary.
13. When pizza is done, remove from oven and sprinkle with toasted coconut chips. Drizzle with caramel sauce. Cut pizza into four slices and serve.
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I adore bread pudding. Pre-Paleo, I ordered it whenever I was lucky enough to find it on a dessert menu. Actually, I adore all of those nursery/comfort food puddings like tapioca, rice, and butterscotch...which gives me an idea for a future post: Paleo Puddings!

Needless to say, bread pudding has not been part of my repertoire lately, but that's about to change. This one is especially easy, because it uses the basic 90-second microwave banana cake  from my birthday cake post of last month (really a banana bread, if you don't frost with coconut whipped cream) as the base.
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Ingredients
For banana bread
1 tsp coconut oil
4 TBS almond or coconut flour
3 tsp coconut flour
1 TBS flax seed meal (ground flax seed)
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch sea salt
1/2 banana, mashed with a fork
1 TBS raw honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 TBS coconut oil, melted in microwave
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind

1. Melt the 1 tsp coconut oil in a 2-cup microwave-safe glass measuring cup. Carefully rotate the cup until the bottom and sides are coated with oil. Pour out and discard the excess.
2. Whisk all dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. Add mashed banana, honey, vanilla, egg, 2 TBS melted coconut oil, and grated lemon rind to the dry ingredients and mix until well-combined.
4. Pour batter into greased measuring cup and microwave for 90 seconds. Check cake, and if top is still wet, microwave in 20 second increments until done. Do not overcook.
5. Let cool in cup for 1-2 minutes, the put small plate over cup and turn over. Banana bread will slide onto plate. Let cool completely.

For pudding
1 recipe Paleo microwave banana bread (above)
2 tsp ghee (clarified butter)
1/2 banana, sliced
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 TBS maple sugar or coconut sugar
1 cup full-fat canned coconut milk
Boiling water
1/2 cup cream from top of canned coconut milk, sweetened to taste with maple syrup for topping pudding, optional
2 four-inch oven-proof ramekins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease ramekins with ghee
3. Slice, then cube banana bread. Gently toast bread cubes until slightly dry, then divide evenly between the ramekins. Top with banana slices.
4. Beat the egg, egg yolk and maple sugar until smooth. Add the 1 cup coconut milk and mix until well-blended. Strain the mix and pour over cubed banana bread.
5. Put the ramekins in a baking dish. Boil water and pour into baking dish, being careful that water does not get into ramekins. Water should reach one inch up the sides of ramekins.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes until custard is set. Serve warm with sweetened coconut cream, if desired.
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Frankly, our Little House matzo was inedible. Probably more like hard tack, which was appropriate, given the Laura Ingalls Wilder thing we were doing. If you want to make your own Paleo matzo, go to Elana Amsterdam's website, www.elanaspantry.com, as she has a really doable recipe which I can vouch for. There is also a matzo recipe in a Paleo book that just came out, The New Yiddish Kitchen,  by Simone Miller and Jennifer Robins, but I haven't tried any of the recipes yet.

I recently learned what the word "hack" means (doing something that demonstrates cleverness or ingenuity; solves a meaningful problem; and is not a common solution to the problem) and I came up with my own. 

Paleo Coconut Wraps (available from www.julianbakery.com), when lightly toasted, make an acceptable matzo substitute. It won't be strictly kosher, as matzo must contain grain, but it will be Paleo and it won't taste like hard tack (and it's square, like real matzo!).

All you have to do is prick the wrap lightly with a fork (so it looks more like, well, matzo) put it on the tray in the toaster oven (don't put directly on the rack, as wrap contains coconut oil which could drip on coils and cause a fire) and toast VERY carefully for about 15 seconds, as it can burn easily. And handle carefully, as it is even more fragile than real matzo.

That's it...easy, right? Pretty good when spread with ghee and sprinkled with coarse sea salt, too!

Since this is even better the next day, heated up, it's a good idea to make it the day before.

Ingredients
3-4 pound beef brisket
2 TBS coconut or grape seed oil
2 large onions, sliced
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock (I use Imagine brand), plus more if needed
1 bay leaf
2 TBS apple cider vinegar
1 TBS coconut sugar
2 TBS Paleo-friendly ketchup (or make your own, just google Paleo ketchup for recipe)
1/3 cup raisins
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a heavy pot or Dutch oven, brown onions in oil, then remove them from pan (leave oil in pot)
2. Brown brisket on all sides in the same pot, then add onions back
3. Add stock and bay leaf
4. Cover tightly and simmer for one hour, adding hot stock from time to time to prevent burning
5. Add vinegar and brown sugar, cover pot, and simmer for another hour.
6. Add ketchup and raisins, cover and cook for another half hour until meat is tender.
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When my cousin Rick brought his fiancée, Flo, to Passover, we knew she would fit right in with the family, because she loved good food, just like the rest of us.
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Over the years, Flo's Kisses, chocolate chip meringues, have been a hit on the dessert table, rivaled only by my Aunt Toby's chocolate mousse (see recipe, below). The little kids, especially, gobble them right up. And they recently became even sweeter when Flo told me that she still has the original recipe card, written in her late mother's handwriting, carefully preserved in plastic wrap, and that in her family they were called Prawny's Kisses, named for a cousin who loved prawns. 

These become Paleo by using coconut sugar (which makes them darker than those used in the original recipe) and Paleo-friendly chocolate.

Do not try to make these on a damp or rainy day. They'll end up really sticky instead of crisp.
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Ingredients
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 cup coconut sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
6 oz. chocolate chips or 4 oz. chocolate medallions (Foods Alive, www.foodsalive.com, makes Paleo friendly chocolate medallions made from cacao beans, coconut sugar and cacao butter; there are several other brands of chips that are made without soy or dairy, although they do contain sugar. Not strictly Paleo, but so much better than commercial brands, that they'll do in a pinch. If you use the medallions, break each one in half)

Parchment paper lined baking tray

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees
2. With hand mixer, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff peaks form
3. Fold in the coconut sugar, salt, vanilla and chocolate chips or medallions
4. Drop by tablespoon full onto parchment lined pan
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until done. Cool for 5 minutes.

What? You don't think chocolate mousse is a traditional Passover food? You would if you attended our family Seders. My Aunt Toby, who is almost 92, has made this luscious dessert for the last 50 years or more. Trust me, if the Israelites had tasted it, it would be part of the Seder plate. And this Paleo version ( which uses coconut milk instead of heavy cream) is kosher for Passover, because there is no dairy in it.
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Note: This recipe contains raw eggs, as do most traditional mousse recipes. Not recommended for young children, pregnant women or those with compromised immune systems.
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​Ingredients
3 eggs, separated; put each egg yolk in a separate small bowl
4 oz. Paleo-friendly chocolate, like Foods Alive Chocolate Medallions
1 1/2 tsp coffee (liquid)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Cream from the top of one can unsweetened organic coconut milk (Native Forest or Natural Value are good brands), refrigerated over night. 
Maple syrup (Note: depending on the sweetness of your chocolate, you may want to add maple syrup to the coconut milk as you whip it, before you add it to the rest of the mousse. Foods Alive Medallions, which I used in this recipe, are 66% cacao, so I added 2 1/2 TBS of maple syrup)

1. Carefully melt the chocolate over hot water in a double boiler, or in a microwave. Stir in the coffee and let cool.
2. Use hand mixer to beat egg whites into stiff peaks.  
3. In a separate bowl, whip coconut milk until fluffy (with maple syrup if you think the  chocolate isn't sweet enough)
4. After chocolate has cooled , beat in egg yolks, one at a time, with an electric beater. When all of the yolks have been incorporated into the chocolate, beat in the vanilla extract.
5. Carefully fold beaten egg whites into the chocolate, then fold in half of the whipped coconut milk into the mixture. Refrigerate until ready to serve (at least two hours).
6. Sweeten the rest of the whipped coconut milk with maple syrup ( if you haven't already sweetened it) and refrigerate. This will be the topping for the mousse.
7. Serve mousse with sweetened whipped coconut milk on top.
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