dessert Archives | Page 54 of 55

Let me start this post by saying last year at this time, I was just starting to explore gluten free/vegan baking. It was around the time I seriously starting thinking about opening my etsy shop (and eventually a brick & mortar bakery). I also became serious about eating healthier, not just as a fad or a diet, but for life. Since then I have created gluten free, vegan, and sometimes both gluten free & vegan cookies and treats for my shop. In my opinion, it’s become rather easy for me to make a gluten free/vegan cookie. I cannot really say the same for cakes.

Cakes are a whole different beast altogether. Gluten gives baked goods the proper viscosity and rise they need. When you remove this, along with eggs from a cake, you have to make up for it elsewhere. It can be done and is done all the time, however; most recipes call for large amounts of starch or not-so-appealing gluten free flours like white rice and garbanzo bean. The reason for this is that starches (and bean flours) bind well just like gluten. My problem with this is starches in large quantities freak me out. The thought of eating a starch cake doesn’t really make my mouth water. So, I had to figure out a way to make a gluten free/vegan cake without a large amount of starch. This involved a lot of research and recipe reading. And, for this recipe, it involved 3 failed attempts, with sunken in tops and weird oily and crumbly textures. It wasn’t until I finally tried using ratios and measuring out ingredients by weight that I had success. I literally did a happy dance when these came out of the oven merely because they had lovely puffed tops instead of ugly craters.

The wonderful thing about these muffins is that you can use any combination of gluten free flours and starches that you want and still produce a lovely muffin. As long as it’s 70% flour by weight and 30% starches by weight, your muffin will be lovely. As much as I passed right by weighted recipes in the past, they really are more accurate. To make a long story short, although it may be too late for that already, buy an inexpensive kitchen scale and make these muffins. You won’t be sorry and your tummy will thank you for it 🙂

Gluten Free/Vegan Meyer Lemon & Lavender Scented Muffins

Makes 6 to 7 muffins, depending on the size of your muffin or cupcake tins. The easiest way to measure the flour is to put a bowl on the scale, hit tare to bring it down to zero, then add the flours/starches.

175 grams gluten free flour mix (I did 50 grams millet flour, 50 grams sorghum flour, 22 grams amaranth flour, and 53 grams arrowroot)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp baking powder
90 grams organic raw sugar
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
2 good pinches of dried, culinary grade lavender
the zest of 1 meyer lemon
1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water
100 grams rice milk (you can use any type of milk here)
50 grams coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a muffin/cupcake tin with 6 liners. Mix the ground flax seed and water together in a small bowl and set aside to thicken.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, starches, baking soda, baking powder, raw sugar, sea salt, lavender, and lemon zest until well combined. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the thickened flax mixture, the rice milk, and the coconut oil until very well combined and uniform.

Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until everything is mixed in and no flour remains. Fill the lined cups about 3/4 of the way (you may end up have 7 muffins, depending on the size of your tin). Do not overfill the cups or the batter will spill onto the tin and your muffins won’t be too attractive. Bake the muffins at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes until the top springs back when touched and a tester comes out clean. Enjoy!

*Serving Ideas: these are quite delicious plain, but if you want to make them a bit more elegant, you can serve them with a dusting of organic powdered sugar or make a glaze out of about 1/4 cup organic powdered sugar and a couple of teaspoons of meyer lemon juice.

As much as I love the holidays, they tend to make me forget things other than eating sweets, being lazy, eating more sweets, sleeping late, and did I mention eating sweets? Yeah, so I guess it’s pretty obvious I’ve been indulging lately, but that’s what happens when you go home for Christmas and everyone gives you huge boxes of cookies and candies. Gotta love family and the holidays.

Aside from the sugar coma I almost put myself in and the lounging around, I’ve been thinking a lot about goals and the new year. I usually don’t make resolutions, but I think this year I am going to sit down and make a list. I have many thoughts and ideas swimming around in my head concerning this blog and sweet miscellany so the easiest way for me to organize them is to put pen to paper. I have not yet made a cogent list, but I can tell you that I have plans to re-design the layout of my blog. I am also considering making a transition to completely vegan baked goods (with perhaps the only exception being honey). It may sound crazy, but I think it goes with the main theme of making things healthier (and tastier!).

After my spiel about sweets and sugar comas, the last thing you probably want is another dessert, but this is more of a healthy and tasty snack. It’s just sweet enough to be a dessert if you want it to, but it’s definitely healthy and tasty enough to be a snack. Baking the apples brings out their natural and delicious juices while the oat topping laced with chamomile gives them a streusel feel. You may think chamomile and oats sound odd together, but TRUST on this one. It will knock your socks off. Oh, these beauties are not only healthy, they are gluten free and vegan!

Baked Apples with Oats & Chamomile
I used whole dried German chamomile flowers and ground them up. If you can’t find them, a bit of loose chamomile tea will work just as well. These are delicious served with a bit of vegan coconut or vanilla ice cream while still warm.

2 granny smith apples, cut in half and cored
about 1/4 cup whole rolled oats
1 tbsp coconut oil, solid at room temperature (not warmed)
1/4 tsp dried chamomile, ground
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp agave or honey

Preheat your oven to 375F and line a baking dish with foil. In a small bowk, combine the oats, chamomile, and cinnamon. Add the cooconut oil and agave or honey and mash into the oat mixture until everything is sticking together and a streusel type topping forms. Place the 4 apples halves in your baking dish, cut side up. Put 1/4 of the mixture on each of the apple halves, pressing down a bit if needed. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the oat topping is golden and the apples are tender. Can be served warm or at room temperature. Enjoy!