snack Archives | Page 35 of 37

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.

First off, let me wish a very happy birthday to my sister Michelle! I wish I could send you a lovely gluten free layer cake with a lovely ganache dripping down the sides, but maybe this will suffice in the meantime (or at least give you a laugh):

My brother in law Steve, my sister Michelle, and my other sister Dawn trying on my
Great Aunt’s furs on Christmas

I mentioned in a previous post that I was going to make a list of resolutions for this year, but the R word seems to make things a bit daunting so I’m going to call them goals. I have three different sheets of paper with random goals and ideas scribbled on them. I am hoping I can combine them into one list and somehow do it in a way where I wouldn’t mind having it displayed above my desk. That will be a project perfect for this coming weekend. I’ll post some pictures if it ends up looking anything like the jumble of pictures in my head.

In keeping with my goals of being overall healthier and posting more gluten free and vegan foods, I give you honeyed pears with fresh ginger and toasted pecans over greek yogurt. In case you vegans out there were saying, “But that’s not vegan!”, I’ve got the substitutions for you, and they are rather simple. Instead of honey, use a smaller amount of agave or maple syrup. And, instead of greek yogurt, use your favorite dairy-free version. Voila. Or, if you don’t eat any kind of yogurt, you can serve this over oatmeal, ice cream, and anything you can think of because these pears are delicious.

I added some ground flax seed to my yogurt, which is a great source of omega 3s , but you can omit it if you want. And, if you don’t have fresh ginger lying around, you can use a bit of ground ginger (1/4 to 1/2 tsp) or some crystallized ginger (about 1/2 tbsp finely chopped). Any way you make it, the combination of pears, ginger, a bit of lemon, and honey is amazing. It will wake you up in the morning or give you a much needed pick-me-up in the afternoon.

Honeyed Pears with Ginger and Toasted Pecans Over Greek Yogurt
this will serve 2 as a breakfast portion, but you can easily adjust the measurements to make it for 1 or for a full house

about 1/2 of a large red pear, sliced
about 2 1/2 tbsp of honey
1 tsp fresh lemon juice (I used a meyer lemon since they are in season)
about 1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger (I used a microplane)
handful of pecans, chopped and toasted
2 tbsp ground flax seed
2 cups (2 servings) greek yogurt

Mix the flax into the yogurt, divide into 2 bowls, and set aside. In a small sauce pan over low heat, warm the honey, lemon juice, and ginger until combined. Add the pears and continue to cook over low heat, gently tossing the pears to coat them in the honey. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes (this will depend on how ripe your pears are) until the pears soften just a bit but still retain some bite. Put half of the pears in each bowl on top of the yogurt, then drizzle the sauce over both. Sprinkle each with half of the toasted pecans. Enjoy!