Angela Gallardo - Bare Root Sweets: 30 Paleo Desserts for the Modern Food Lover

This is a magnificent book and greatly needed. We should all avoid sugar, flour, gluten, and trans fatty acids, which is the typical pro-inflammatory dessert. To create a recipe book that allows for the consumption of desserts that are non-inflammatory is so important and a great accomplishment. Thank you. This is a DeFlame-approved book .

David R. Seaman, DC, MS -- www.deflame.com

A great addition to the kitchen for anyone striving to live th e Paleo lifestyle. The recipes are well thought out and there are a ton of fun and useful choices for any occasion.

Dr. David Crosson, Chiropractic Physician & Owner at ChiroFit - Barrington, IL

This cookbook rocks! These sweet yet healthy recipes contain many of the ingredients I recommend my patients consume when they are trying to reach their health goals to burn fat and reverse disease. The carrot cake, pumpkin cheesecake, and lemon angel food cake are all incredible and use ingredients like coconut flour, almond flour and all natural sweeteners that good options for anyone following a Paleo or vegetarian diet.

If you want to improve your health and to satisfy your sweet tooth I highly recommend you buy this cookbook.

Dr. Josh Axe DC, CNS, Founder of DrAxe.com

Author The Real Food Diet Cookbook

As a mother, I am always looking for ways to incorporate healthy traditions. This book is an excellent resource for nutrient dense comfort foods. I was impressed by the Spiced Peach Buckle, which was not only easy to make but was also a warm and delicious treat. This book has helped me to realize that I do not have to sacrifice familiar flavors and sweet indulgences entirely in order to be true to healthier food options.

Michelle - Tempe, AZ

Although not a strict paleo follower, I am always on the look out for ways to create desserts with little or no sugar, and, as a relative newcomer to the gluten free and grain free lifestyle, I find the recipes in this book to be extremely useful in allowing me to create delicious and healthful desserts which I can enjoy guilt-free. I love these recipes, as I know that I can make them for my family and friends, as they taste just as decadent as regular desserts yet are full of health-giving nutrients. I can honestly say the browned butter pumpkin ice cream is addictive, especially with the candied pecans on top, and has now become my favorite ice cream flavor (move over mint choc chip!). The mint sandwich cookies are tastier than their sugar-laden, processed cousins and the chocolate citrus truffles just melt in the mouth. Angela's mix of her own creations and her healthful reworking of well-known favorites provides a book bursting with recipes you will want to make again and again.

Jacqueline, Tempe, AZ

Table of Contents

Cakes

Pies & Tarts

Candy & Chocolate

Cookies & Bars

Other Stuff

About Bare Root

BareRootGirl.com and the Bare Root cookbooks are an endeavor to unite the modern food lover in me with my primally passionate side .

Id built my cooking knowledge base via a Food Network addiction and struggled for years to reconcile my love of good food with my desire to be health conscious. Id come to believe it was an impossible feat.

My awareness of the Paleo/Primal lifestyle came about slowly. Naturally, at first, I felt it was far too limiting to really let my passion for flavor flourish and I brushed it aside. But I was pulled toward the natural foundations of the diet, the modern application of an ancestral way of life. Eliminating all the processed junk and adapting a more simplistic approach toward eating felt instinctual to me. And it ultimately overruled my desire for what I considered at the time to be fine foods.

Like many others, a number of life circumstances regarding my own suffering health gradually pushed me further down the Paleo/Primal path. I learned that ultimately this lifestyle is really about replacing nutrient poor foods with nutrient dense foods. Its not about subscribing religiously to a Paleo dogma or creating lists of ok and not ok foods. Its about eliminating those foods that research now tells us are harmful to our bodies (like grains, legumes, and sugar) and incorporating foods that our bodies respond well to based on personal experience. I believe whole-heartedly that every individual can find a Paleo model that works for themselves and that it can cure many of the ailments plaguing our society today.

I started BareRootGirl.com to challenge myself to create recipes that were not just delicious but nutrient dense, as well. At times, it can be frustrating to work without so many of the staples I was used to growing up. But its exhilarating, and very rewarding, to create nutritious meals free of disease-causing anti-nutrients.

Introduction to Bare Root Sweets

The positive response Ive received on BareRootGirl.com motivated me to begin a collection of cookbooks (available in both e-copy and paperback) that will serve as inspiration for others to unite a Paleo/Primal diet with modern fine food eating.

Quality ingredients promote maximum flavor in ev ery recipe included here. Everything from investigating the proper handling of raw ingredients to the precisely lowest amount of sweetener a recipe needs to be appealing were given a great deal of consideration. And because food is truly lovely, I tried to let the finished products shine in their natural beauty as much as possible.

It should be addressed that we know our ancestors werent munching on dark chocolate truffles or coconut milk cheesecakes. But the approach Ive taken with the se recipes (and the ingredients they contain) reflects back to my personal approach to the lifestyle, which is focusing on the nutrient density of the ingredients.

Truth be told, d esserts should not be a daily occurrence in a Paleo/Primal diet. For many, not even a weekly occurrence. But an essential part of moving over to this way of eating has been affording myself the occasional treat. And over time, my tastes have changed and Ive learned that I dont need nearly the amount of sweetness I used to think was a requirement in desserts.

Ive made an effort to include many sugar-free dessert options that will still satiate your sweet tooth. My go-to Date Paste recipe works as a great sweetener and is noted in the recipes where it works well as a replacement. Additionally, there are a few recipes that can be made without any sweetener at all if youre on a 21DSD or simply wanting a guilt-free treat!

All recipes are 100% my original creations. And as many of them took quite a number of attempts to perfect, Im extremely excited for you to try them.

Cakes

No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake

A creamy, no-bake dessert with a little fall flavor. Make your own coconut cream cheese for that traditional tang or substitute plain coconut cream. Enjoy this cheesecake with a warmed pumpkin topping or chilled overnight for a more set-up presentation.

Ginger Crust

2 c. raw walnuts

3 dried medjool dates

2 t. ground ginger

t. sea salt

2 T. blackstrap molasses

c. grass-fed butter or organic virgin coconut oil, melted