New Recipe: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (gluten-free)

My schedule has been very strange to me without the shop to rush off to every morning. I keep finding myself baking first thing in the morning having nothing that I feel pressed to do at any given moment. This will change as I settle in more. I am addicted to schedules and routines and it makes me batty to have no structure to my day.

I did, however, make some yummy pumpkin muffins a few mornings ago. Having roasted too much squash the night before and with nothing planned it seemed I had no other choice than to do more baking.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (gluten-free)

1 1/2 cups sugar, refined or unrefined
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cups roasted pumpkin or winter squash, mashed
5 pastured eggs
1/2 cup water
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups GF flour blend of choice, I used Bob’s Red Mill
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare muffin tins with paper liners.

In a large bowl beat oil and sugar together. Add eggs and squash and combine well, then water and vanilla. In a small bowl add all dry ingredients except chocolate chips. Mix dry ingredients until well-combined. Add a third of mixed dry ingredients to wet batter and beat in until smooth. Add remaining flour mixture and mix until smooth. Add chocolate chips and mix well.

Fill muffin cups at least 3/4 high. Bake for 30 minutes until baked through.

Gluten-Free Almond Blueberry Muffins

This week my daughter’s class had what is known as a “lock-in”. The kids stay at school, eat kooky food, have a fire, watch movies, and, theoretically, sleep at the school. The school had the gluten-free bases covered for the most part except for breakfast so I offered to make muffins. My daughter put in the request for blueberry muffins. I forgot to photograph them as we were so busy eating them, so instead I drew a picture of them.

Gluten-Free Almond Blueberry Muffins illustrated by Erika Rier

Gluten-Free Almond Blueberry Muffins

1 cup gluten-free pancake mix of choice
1 cup corn flour
2 cups almond flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. xanthan gum
a pinch of salt
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
zest of 1 lemon
12 oz. frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients together in a small bowl.

In a large bowl beat eggs and sugar together until thick and well combined. Next beat in olive oil, then milk and lemon zest. Slowly add the dry ingredients until well combined and then mix in blueberries.

Place paper muffin liners in your muffin pan and fill cups up to the top. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool and devour.

Tomorrow I have a big CONTEST announcement so be sure to check back in then!

Almond Cupcakes with Orange Creme Filling & Chocolate Halva Frosting (gluten-free)

In my home I have a bit of a reputation for being to whip up something extravagant with an empty refrigerator and without heading out to the grocery store. These cupcakes are perhaps the best illustration of this strange skill. We had just finished a pretty yummy dinner when my husband mentioned he has a sweet tooth so I headed over to the kitchen area to see what I could possibly whip up. My first thought was that I would make an Almond Sour Cream Loaf Cake, because I thought I could perhaps pull this together. Then I thought it might be fun to make cupcakes with some sort of filling. Wait, if I was going to make cupcake I would need frosting, right?

In the end I came up with these Almond cupcakes, I was actually out of brown rice flour so I ground whole, uncooked brown rice in a blender. The Orange Sour Cream filling was runny so I added some strange ingredients to make it thick enough to fill the cupcakes with. The frosting is actually an idea which I have had for ages and this seemed like the perfect place to try it out.

Almond Cupcakes with Orange Creme Filling & Chocolate Halva Frosting (gluten-free)

cupcake

1 cup almond meal
1 cup brown rice flour
2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
pinch Celtic Sea Salt or Real salt
1/2 cup cold pressed coconut oil
1 cup rapadura or sucanat
2 pastured eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. almond extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prep cupcake pans with paper liners. I find when using coconut oil in baked goods that it is a good idea to make sure that your ingredients are close to room temperature, otherwise the coconut oil is very likely to curdle when added with other ingredients.

In a small bowl combine almond meal, rice flour, gum, baking soda & powder, as well as salt. Mix well.

In a separate, larger bowl combine coconut oil and rapadura and combine until creamy. add eggs and mix well. Add sour cream and almond extract and mix until well combined. Slowly add dry ingredients until well combined. This makes a fairly thick batter.

Spoon batter into cupcake pan. I filled mine up quite high since this is a thick, heavy batter. Place in the oven and bake between 25-30 minutes.

When done baking remove cakes from pan and cool on a rack while you prepare filling & frosting.

filling

1/2 cup sour cream
zest of 1 orange
3 tbs. raw, local honey
3 tsp. psyllium powder
2 tbs. rapadura or sucanat

In a small bowl whisk sour cream, zest & honey until well combined. Next whisk in psyllium powder. In a small blender add 2 tbs. rapadura and blend to a powder. Add the powdered sweetener to the sour cream and combine. Allow mixture to thicken in the refrigerator while you prepare the frosting.

frosting

3 tbs. pastured butter
1/4 cup raw tahini
3 tbs. raw, local honey
1 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
3 tbs. raw cacao
a few drops wheat-free tamari
4 tbs. almond milk

In a food processor add butter, tahini, honey, melted chocolate, tamari and cacao powder. Turn on processor and slowly add almond milk until the frosting is thick in creamy.

assembly

Once the cupcakes are cooled off and the filling and frosting are prepared you can start filling the cupcakes. Take each cupcake and cut out a little circle of cake, on an angle about half way into the cake. Spoon a small amount of the filling in the cake and then replace the circle of cake. For a visual on how to do this part please check out this page.

Once your cupcakes are filled frost each with the chocolate halva frosting and enjoy! These stay good in the refrigerator for a few days and hold together a little better when chilled for a bit.

Banana Nut Corn Bread (gluten-free)

My house seems to be filling up with bananas, perfect for baking over-ripe bananas. I also noticed someone searching for corn bread stumbled upon my blog the other day, I have no cornbread recipe. This is more of a dessert or breakfast bread. You could make the cornbread without the banana nut topping for a sweet, dense cornbread.

Banana Nut Cornbread

Banana Nut Cornbread

Topping
2 tbs. coconut oil
5 very ripe bananas, sliced in rounds
1/4 cup rapadura or sucanat
1/4 cup raw, pastured heavy cream
pinch salt
2 tbs. gluten-free liquor of choice
1 cup of raw brazil nuts

In a saucepan heat coconut oil over medium high heat. Add bananas and cook in oil for a few minutes. Now pour in the cream and sweetener and mix well. Bring to a simmer and add salt & liquor. Simmer, reducing heat as necessary to prevent a rapid boil, for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mixture will thicken and bananas with break down some. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a food processor add brazil nuts and pulse until broken into pieces but with some larger chunks remaining. Mix brazil nuts into banana mixture. Allow to cool further while you prepare the batter.

cornbread

2 cups cornmeal
1 cup almond meal
1 cup brown rice flour
1 tsp. real or celtic salt
4 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsp. baking soda
1cup rapadura
1 cup coconut oil
4 eggs
2 cups of milk of choice
1 tbs. vanilla
juice 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil two loaf pans.

Place corn meal, almond meal, rice flour, salt, xanthan gum and baking soda in a bowl and mix well.

In a separate bowl combine rapadura and coconut oil, mix well. Beat in eggs, then milk, vanilla and finally lemon juice. Add dry ingredients gradually, mixing each addition into the wet ingredients well.

Split batter between 2 bread pans. Using a wooden spoon create a indentation down the middle of each loaf. Scoop the banana nut mixture onto each loaf, mostly in the indentation. Bake each loaf for 45 minutes.

When removed from the oven, run a butter knife around the edge of each loaf to loosen. Then cool the loaves for about 30 minutes before removing. Refrigerate if you are not consuming right away.

Easy Pizza Dough, gluten-free, yeast-free & dairy-free

I love to make pizza but it’s one of my recipes that I never write down. I just throw a bunch of ingredients in a bowl, mix it up and throw it in the oven. I like this dough not because it is super authentic in taste or texture but because it is easy and pretty quick. It is tasty just not going to reproduce your desire for a Brooklyn thin crust pizza.

Easy Pizza Dough

3 cups brown rice flour
2 cups almond meal
1/2 tbs. baking soda
2 tsp. real salt or celtic salt
4 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsp. dried thyme
1/3 cup ground flax
1/2 cup unfiltered olive oil
1 1/2 cup almond milk
3 pastured eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, almond meal, baking soda, salt, xanthan gum, thyme and ground flax in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine olive oil, milk and eggs. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix well until it forms a ball of dough.

Prepare two pizza pans or baking sheets by covering them with parchment paper. With wet hands split the dough into two balls. Making sure to keep your hands wet and clean press the dough out into desired shape and thickness.

Once shaped put dough, without toppings, into the oven for 10-15 minutes until partially cooked.

Remove from oveb and add desired toppings and bake an additional 20 minutes.

Gluten-free Boozy Banana Muffins

I’ve been doing a lot of eating from the pantry lately. Looking in the cupboards and trying to figure out what we can make with minimal or no store purchases to make something for the family to eat. A few evenings ago I realized we had zero breakfast items in the house so decided to bake something. I decided on banana muffins because all I would have to buy were bananas, I even found some perfectly over ripe bananas at the corner market. I channeled my grandmother a bit with this recipe. She used olive oil in everything, even chocolate cupcakes. Seeing as olive oil was the only oil I had in the house I decided to use it in these muffins. These have been a major hit with the husband and the daughter, I’ve been enjoying them as well.

Boozy Banana Muffin

Boozy Banana Muffins

1 cup unfiltered olive oil
1 cup rapadura or sucanat
4 pastured eggs
2 cups mashed banana
1 cup almond milk
1 tbs. vanilla extract
1/3 cup gluten-free hard liquor of choice (I used whiskey which is under debate but Jack Daniels states on their site that it is gluten-free)
2 cups brown rice flour
1 cup almond meal flour
1 tbs. xanthan gum
1 tbs. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup certified gluten-free oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper cupcake liners in muffin tins. I used two trays of small muffins, each with 16 muffins, for a total of 32 small muffins.

In a large bowl combine oil and rapadura. When well combined beat eggs into the mixture. Next mix in bananas and then add almond milk, vanilla extract and alcohol.

In a separate bowl combine flour, almond meal, gum, cinnamon and baking soda. Combine well, being sure to break up any clumps of almond meal.

Slowly add in the dry mixture to the wet mixture. I add a third of the dry materials, mix well and add the rest in two more additions. Once well combined mix in coconut, flax and oats. You coud add other things like chocolate chips, nuts and/or dried fruit.

Next add batter to the muffin cups. I fill my muffins quite high, like to the lip because I like really big muffins. This works as long as you have a thick batter.

Bake for 30-37 minutes until firm to the touch. You could test with a toothpick too.

I’ve left these in a covered bowl in my kitchen and they are staying moist and fluffy, yay.

Gluten-free Peach Clafouti

Most mornings I have a smoothie for breakfast or juice. Sometimes I get a crazy idea of something I want for breakfast in the 30 minutes before I walk my daughter to school. The other day a clafouti was what I decided I needed for breakfast. I did manage to get it done in less than 30 minutes. I don’t suggest trying this in your home, I do think it’s better cooked the typical 35 minutes at 350 degrees rather than the crazy things I did to get it to cook faster. My husband and daughter both went crazy for it though!

GF Peach Clafouti

Peach Clafouti

3 large peaches, sliced in thin wedges
a few tablespoons of pastured, raw butter cut in slices
2 tbs. rapadura or sucanat
3 pastured eggs
1/3 cup rapadura or sucanat
1 tbs. vanilla
1 cup 1/2 and 1/2 (I actually used a 1/2 cup of cream mixed with a 1/2 cup almond milk)
1/4 cup brown rice flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom of a cast iron pan. Spread the peaches evenly on the bottom of the pan. Distribute sliced butter over the fruit and sprinkle with the 2 tbs. rapadura. Place fruit in the oven while you prepare the batter.

Place eggs, rapadura, vanilla, 1/2 & 1/2 and rice flour in a blender and blend until smooth. Remove pan from oven, pour batter over the fruit and put back in the oven. Bake for 35 minutes. You can brown under a broiler if you like a crispier top.

I serve mine for breakfast with a full fat greek yogurt, the tart yogurt is the perfect foil to the sweetness of the clafouti. This tastes like a bread pudding with fruit.

Quiche Pizza? A Gluten-free Recipe

Ok, so quiche pizza might be a stretch but it brings me to a recent dinner conundrum I had recently. I have a list of recipes I would like to work on for the blog and at the top of this list had been quiche for ages. I actually had a very botched attempt to transcribe my quiche recipe a few weeks ago but everything which could of gone wrong went wrong. Including having an empty carton of eggs and no pie dish.

I’m a little compulsive when it comes to my list and though I could have skipped over quiche and come back to it later I just couldn’t do it. This brings me to the other night. I had eggs this time but still not pie dish. I also had an intense craving for pizza. Pizza was a little out of the question as fresh mozzarella is unattainable in my small town and I didn’t have the time or inclination to make my own mozzarella. That is when the disturbing idea of creating a quiche pizza dawned on me.

Really what this is is a very shallow quiche, almost an egg tart really. Lucky for you I wrote down the whole recipe.

Guten-Free Quiche Pizza

Gluten-Free Quiche Pizza

Pastry Crust

1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup arrowroot powder
2 tsp xanthan gum (optional but is quite crumbly without)
1 tbs. rapadura or sucanat
1 tsp. rosemary fresh or dried
1/2 tsp real salt or celtic sea salt
1/2 lb. pastured, raw butter, cold & cut in little chunks
1 pastured egg

Place rice and almond flour, arrowroot powder, xanthan gum, sugar, salt and rosemary into a food processor. Turn food processor on and add chunks of butter one at a time. Once the butter is added break the egg in and process until well combined. This may look more like a batter than a dough. I find most gluten-free baked goods to taste better when made with a moister batter than you would find in traditional baked goods.

I suggest using a rectangular tart pan with a removable bottom for this. I, of course, do not have that type of pan so I made this free form on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Though the final product came out lovely it was a harrowing baking a experience and I do not recommend it. Whichever pan you use I suggest oiling it and covering the bottom with parchment paper.

I choose to shape the dough before I chilled it. You could probably chill it and roll it out with a rolling pin as well. With wet hands turn dough batter out onto your pan of choice. Being sure to keep your hands wet and clean press the batter out into your pan, trying to maintain an even thickness.

Place pan in refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.

Tart Filling

1 sweet onion
1 tbs. unfiltered olive oil
1/2 cup salsa
5 pastured eggs
1/2 cup cream
salt/pepper
1/4 pound grassfed cheddar, sliced into little square slices

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

While the pastry crust is chilling sautee onions in the olive oil. I sauteed them until caramelized, I leave it up to you to decide how long to cook them.

In a bowl beat eggs, cream, salt and pepper.

Assembly

Remove pastry crust from refrigerator and prick the bottom all over with a fork. Place crust in the oven for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes remove the pastry crust and spread the salsa all over the bottom of the crust. Carefully pour the egg mixture on the crust, go slow so as not to overflow. Sprinkle the cooked onions over the egg and place the slices of cheese all over the top. Place back in the oven for about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes the eggs should be set, jiggle the pan a bit, if the eggs move a lot cook it until set. I place mine under the broiler for a few minutes to brown it further. This is delicious straight out of the oven or the following day chilled in a lunch box.

Can you tell which egg is from my chicken?

Red Wine Plum & Strawberry Crumble

Last night we were invited to a potluck birthday party. I worked all day sewing custom orders, tweaking wording on my website and helping customers try on dresses. In the back of my mind I was planning a fruit crumble for the potluck, I’ve had fruit crumble on my mind as of late. After work we ran over to the grocery store and then I dropped off a custom sewing order, picked up fabric for another (all during a huge rainstorm with the most gorgeous double rainbow overhead). By the time I got home I only had 45 minutes until the start of the party!

So I ransacked the kitchen and suddenly had the recipe gel in my head, a good enough recipe I thought to share here, but who had time to write down a recipe right now? I decided to enlist my daughter and had her transcribe the recipe as I made a mad dash about the kitchen trying to get this thing together. It came together deliciously in the end.

Red Wine Plum & Strawberry Crumble

8 plums, pitted and cut into thin wedges
1 pound strawberries, sliced
1/2 cup sweetener of choice
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup pastured butter or coconut oil, solidified

Pre-heat oven to 400º. Place fruit in a bowl and toss with sweetener and wine. Spread fruit in the bottom of a baking dish and place bits of the butter or coconut oil over the fruit. Place fruit in the oven for about 10 minutes while you make the crumble topping.

1/2 cup pastured butter or coconut oil, softened
1/2 cup sweetener of choice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
pinch of real salt or celtic sea salt
1/2 pound raw pecans
2 cups of old fashioned oats, certified gluten-free

Place butter, sweetener, vanilla & salt in a food processor and process until well combined and creamy. Add pecans and pulse until the pecans are well combined but some larger pieces still visible. Place oats in a bowl and pour contents of food processor over the oats. Toss together until oats are well combined.

Remove fruit from the oven and carefully crumble the topping mixture over the fruit until evenly distributed. Put the baking dish back in the oven and cook for 25 additional minutes.

This is excellent hot out of the oven but equally delicious chilled for breakfast the next morning with a healthy dollop of greek yogurt on top.

Part 1: GF Biscuits w/Nectarine Compote and Lemon Honey Ice Cream

A few weeks ago I was sitting in my office contemplating future blog posts when the idea for this recipe hit me like a ton of bricks. People around me had been discussing biscuits a lot and strawberry shortcake. Mind you, I love strawberry shortcake but felt like I wanted to create something a little different. The nectarines have been divine this year so they seemed obvious to feature. I also have had some theories on creating a new, low nut and low coconut raw ice cream so this seemed like the perfect time to test out that idea as well.

I have to say, this might be one of the most successful recipes I have ever developed. The day I chose to make it I had two 8 year old girls at the house and they were my happy taste testers. They both managed to eat two entire servings of this.

I’ve decided to split the recipe up over three days. So today I’m going to share with you the biscuit recipe. In the past, when I could still bake with gluten, my biscuits were always a nightmare. I don’t think I ever had a successful batch of biscuits. When I decided that I would make a biscuit for this recipe there was a little fear but I was pretty sure I could pull it off. Boy, did I ever pull it off! This biscuits were delicious and highly addictive. Make sure to have company when you make them so you don’t eat as many as I did!

Gluten-free Biscuits

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup arrowroot starch
2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tbs. baking powder
1/2 tsp. real salt or celtic sea salt
8 tbs. cold pastured butter
1 cup rich brazil nut milk*
2 pastured eggs
1/4 cup Rapadura Sugar Cane
Unbleached Parchment Paper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a food processor combine dry ingredients: flour, starch, gum, baking powder, sugar and salt. Pulse until well combined.

Cut cold butter into chunks. With the food processor running drop in butter chunks one at a time. Turn off food processor. In separate bowl whisk together milk and eggs. Turn food processor back on and pour the milk and egg mixture into the flour mixture. You will have a thick batter not a dough. Gluten-free baked goods have a better final texture with a batter.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Wet your hands and grab around a 1/4 cup of batter and gently shape it in a biscuit like disk. Try not to compress the dough too much. Make sure to rinse your hands between each biscuit and keep your hands wet.

Once all of the biscuits are shaped bake for 22-27 minutes. These are excellent served with just about anything but truly profound when combined with the Raw Peach Compote and Raw Lemon Honey Ice Cream. I’ll be sharing those two recipes with you next!

*Rich Brazil Nut Milk

2 cups brazil nuts, soaked in water overnight
6 cups water
Nut Milk Bag

Drain and rinse brazil nuts. Then combine nuts and water in a blender and process on high. Place your nut milk bag in a bowl and pour nut and water mixture into it. Squeeze the bag until you only have the solids left and all of the liquid has been expressed. Save the extra mixture for the ice cream recipe I’m sharing tomorrow!