SCD Strawberry-Filled Blender Pastries

Flakey, buttery pastries in a blender: can life get any easier?! These healthier baked breakfast treat is easily one of my favs…

A Healthier Sweet Breakfast Recipe!

Growing up, Saturday mornings consisted of strawberry pop tarts and Scooby Doo. Both of which I miss dearly.

Even until I changed my diet completely last year to help manage my IBD symptoms, pop tarts remained one of those guilty pleasure foods I would go for every once and awhile.

After I received my IBD diagnosis, I started following an anti-inflammatory diet known as the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). The SCD is very similar to a paleo diet: it removes grains, refined sugar, and inflammatory oils while supporting wholesome, minimally processed ingredients. The only slight difference between a paleo diet and the SCD is that the SCD still “allows” a few dairy products such as butter and no-sugar-added yogurt.

• Link: “SCD Legal/Illegal List”
• Link: “One Year with UC: My Story”

With that said, these SCD-friendly pastries are made with anti-inflammatory ingredients such as almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, butter, strawberries, and an unsweetened coconut butter glaze.

Even though tapioca flour isn’t “legal” on the SCD, its one of the foods I’ve been able to add back into my diet after my symptoms subsided!

Link: “How I Started Adding Non-SCD Foods Back into my Diet”

How to Make a Refined-Sugar-Free Pastry Filling:

I used my favorite SCD Strawberry Syrup mixed with a honey-sweetened local apricot jam to fill the pastries. But I love to switch it up sometimes and get creative!

Link: “SCD Strawberry Jam”

If you can’t find a good refined-sugar-free jam, there are so many options for homemade healthy jam recipes now. Chia seed jam can be made with any fresh or frozen fruits you have on hand and only takes about 10 minutes! My go-to recipe is:

• 2 cups of fruit, fresh or frozen
• 1.5 tbsp. chia seeds
• 1/2 tbsp. lemon juice

After heating the fruit and lemon juice in a stovetop pan until the fruit is soft enough to mash, stir in the chia seeds and let the mixture “set” for 5 minutes. Easy peasy.

BUT my personal favorite refined-sugar-free filling is my strawberry syrup recipe mixed with the local apricot jam I found! Farmers markets are absolute gold mines when it comes to minimally processed homemade treats. I seek them out at every chance I get.

Pastry Dough: Blender Edition

If you’re used to making traditional pastries, you know how delicate the process is. Between cutting in the butter, trying not to over-mix the dough, and keeping everything cool enough as you’re shaping it, making a good flakey pastry is a whole shabang to say the least.

Maybe, just maybe, that’s the silver lining of grain-free/gluten-free baking: there’s no gluten! In other words, over-mixing won’t lead to that bread-like, chewy texture of over-developed gluten in delicate pastry dough.

Naturally, I used this as an excuse to be lazy and throw everything into the blender instead of tediously cutting the cold butter in by hand! Although you still have to be careful to not over-blend the dough (you don’t want to completely pulverize the small pieces of butter!), it’s so much faster and easier this way.

By using a blend of grain-free flours, I also didn’t have to worry about gluten development. You know, the desirable network of gluten you get from kneading bread dough that leads to it’s texture and chewiness that you absolutely DO NOT WANT in a pastry.

In my opinion, grain-free pastries are a zillion times easier to make and usually taste better too! Trust me.

How to Make Grain-Free Strawberry Pastries:

Step 1: Combine the almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, monk fruit, sea salt, and cold butter. Transfer the mixture into a blender and pulse a few times just until a dough forms then add an egg and pulse again.

Step 2: Transfer the dough from the blender to a mixing bowl. Divide in half. Wrap each half and place in the freezer to chill for 30 minutes.

Step 3: Unwrap the first half of dough and roll it out into a rectangle on a flat surface. Use tapioca flour as needed to prevent sticking. It should be about 1/8″ thick. Slice into 8 pieces. Repeat with the other half.

Step 4: Prepare your filling: a used a mixture of my favorite homemade strawberry syrup with a refined-sugar-free apricot jam, but any jam works! I recommend refined-sugar-free or homemade of courseee. Place about 1.5 tbsp. of the jam into the center of each piece.

Step 5: Place the other 8 pieces of dough over the jam filling and pinch down the edges with a fork. Poke the center with a fork to allow steam to escape and bake!

I decorated the top of mine with my SCD strawberry syrup, melted coconut butter, and hemp hearts.

My Other Fav Gut Healthy Breakfasts:

• SCD Banana Pancakes
• Paleo Blueberry Crumb Cake Muffins
• Single-Serve SCD Fig & Goat Cheese Quiche
• Grain-Free Air Fried Donut Holes
• SCD Microwave Muffin

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