Gluten Free Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Tis the season of apples, pumpkins and earthy spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.  I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin; although the rest of the family is; so I do bake with it on occasion.  However, not today!

Apples were a plenty on my counter this morning but they were getting close to being over ripe and I do so hate to waste.  What to bake?  What to bake????  I had a strong craving for a really good muffin.  Sometimes there is nothing better than a really good muffin.  Now that Rob has gone gluten free, I decided I’d make these so he could eat them too.

Along with the apples, I also had apple cider in the fridge since I made Firefly Confections Apple Pie Caramels on the weekend.  I wanted to make sure the muffins had the full apple flavour and incorporated both into the recipe.  I had some coconut oil in the pantry that I had originally bought to make homemade chocolate magic shell but never got around to it so I thought I’d give it a go in this recipe.  Don’t worry, there isn’t a strong coconut flavour.  I also used buttermilk because I had some in the fridge but you could totally use regular milk.  The rest seemed like regular muffin ingredients.  The topping doesn’t need to be added if you don’t want to add the extra sugar, but it does make them really tasty.

Recipe: GF Apple Cinnamon Muffins

• 1/2 cup coconut oil melted
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups gluten free flour (I use Cup4Cup)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp apple pie spice (just mix cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice if you don’t have)
• 2 cups chopped apples skin on. (2 medium sized Gala apples)
• 1/2 cup apple cider
• 4 tbsp melted butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat coconut oil until a liquid.  Warm milk in microwave for 30 seconds.  If the milk is cold, it will solidify the coconut oil.  Wisk together.
3. Wisk in the egg and vanilla.
4. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
5. Add in apples and apple cider until just mixed.
6. Using a ice-cream scoop, scoop into prepared muffin pan.
7. Mix together the melted butter, cinnamon and sugar together.  Top each muffin with a tablespoon of the mixture.
8. Bake until knife inserted comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
9. Cool and enjoy!

The subtle apple flavours in the batter plus the big pieces of apple make this a really lovely treat.  The GF flour doesn’t change the consistency/texture of the muffin and it makes me happy that I can make treats for my hubby and my best friend, who is also GF.

If you don’t want to make these GF you don’t have too.  You can just replace the flour with all-purpose flour.  You could even split it with whole wheat flour for something completely different.

Now don’t worry, I won’t make all my treat’s gluten free but I will let you know if you can

Thank for looking!

Gluten Free Waffles, Guest Post: Melissa from The Baked Equation.

I have a special treat today, literally! My good friend Melissa from The Baked Equation is here to share a wonderful little recipe.  If you haven’t visited her website you really should.  So many yummy recipes to choose from that are beautifully photographed you may want to lick the screen :).  I give you Melissa!

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We love waffles. We love waffles so much we served them at our wedding. Yes, that is right, we had a waffle bar. But I have not had waffles in a really long time. We try to limit the amount of gluten that we eat due to my son’s eczema. Many times I don’t eat my favorite foods anymore because I prefer the “real” thing. But I have been craving waffles. Can I have gluten-free waffles with the same great flavor? Oh yes, you can! Whether you like them soft or crispy this gluten free buttermilk waffle recipe will not disappoint.

You might be wondering who is this “we” that she talking about? My name is Melissa, and I blog over at The Baked Equation. Karen and I decided to swap gluten free blog posts. You will have to head over to my blog to read about her gluten free quinoa brownies and yummy veggies that are perfect for dinner.

Gluten Free Waffle Recipe

• 2 Cups Cup4Cup Gluten Free flour mixture
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• 1 ½ tsp. baking soda
• 2 tablespoon malt powder **optional
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 ¾ cup buttermilk, at room temp.
• 2 eggs, separated, at room temp.
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
• 1 tsp. vanilla

**NOTE: In my research, some GF eaters don’t mind and some do. Malt comes from barely so you can just omit it if you do not eat it. But I love the slight malted flavor that it adds.

Directions:

1. Preheat waffle iron.
2. Combine dry ingredients together. Mix together buttermilk, egg yolks and vanilla with a large spoon and combine with the dry ingredients. You don’t want to over stir a gluten free mixture that has xanthan gum in it.
3. Whisk in the egg whites till mixture comes together
4. Spoon batter on to you waffle iron. I used an ice cream scoop. Gluten free mixtures can have a gummy texture. The scoops helps it come out easily My iron beeps when the waffle is ready. Approximately, 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Serve immediately. Or you can freeze leftover waffles in a freezer bag.

Any time I write a gluten free blog post I receive many questions about Cup4Cup gluten free flour blend. In fact, I am pretty sure I sound like a spokesperson. While I am not a spokesperson for Cup4Cup, I love it. When I first started delving into the world of gluten free foods, I felt overwhelmed. There are so many ingredients that you need to go buy to make a gluten free flour blend from home. Then to only buy all the ingredients with lack luster results. Cup4Cup was my happy alternative. I could use my same recipes and just swap their flour. What a relief? I didn’t have time to start developing new recipes and I definitely didn’t like spending all the money to have mediocre gluten free treats.

My favorite syrup is Nature’s Hallow Sugar Free Syrup. Many people who are gluten free also watch their sugar intake. I love Nature’s Hallow products. Their sugar free syrup plus gluten free waffles make the best partnership.

Karen, thank you so much for letting me guest post on your blog today. I hope you enjoy the waffles!

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Thanks Melissa, I can’t wait to try these!!!

And Thank you for looking!

Gluten Free Banana Nut Bread

I’m on a GF kick.  Not because anyone in our house requires GF but because my best friend, who is, challenged me to make a good GF Banana Nut Bread.  And I love a good challenge. 

When I first started baking as a teen, I used to love making banana bread.  My only problem was that I could never get the bread to have the little brown flecks synonymous with banana bread.  Mine usually came out of the oven and white as snow.  It tasted great but most people would say it looked nothing like traditional banana bread.  It took me almost 10 years to finally get it with the flecks.  Now I have a great banana bread recipe but decided to tweak it with the request for gluten free.

I took out the butter and buttermilk and replaced with apple sauce and Greek yogurt. So if you take out the walnuts and chocolate chips, this truly would be a non-fat bread.  As it stands now it’s low fat! You could also use stevia or honey in place of the white sugar.

Recipe:

• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 very ripe bananas
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
• 2 cups GF flour (my fav is Cup 4 Cup)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Prepare two loaf pans and set aside.
3. In bowl of a stand mixer, combine all ingredients excluding walnuts and chocolate chips.
4. When just combined, remove paddle and fold in walnuts and chips.  If you mix too much, the bread gets a bit chewy.
5. Divide batter into two and bake for 30-40 minutes. Or until toothpick comes out clean.
6. Let stand 10 minutes and then remove from pan.
7. Cool.  Keeps wrapped for 4-5 days, or in freezer 3-4 weeks.
8. Enjoy!

This bread is fabulous! I gave one loaf to a friend who just had a baby and ate the other.  Yup all by myself.  Rob doesn’t like nuts baked into things plus he wasn’t here to complain about it :)

You could also use regular all-purpose flour but when Sapna gave me the challenge I was all over it!  So if you have a bakers challenge for me, I’m always up for it!

Thanks for looking!

Gluten Free Brownies!

I love brownies!  I know you know that.  But I’ve just discovered the more dense fudgy kind, thanks to my friends Jill and TJ.  TJ is a chef and caterer at Donovan’s Dish.  He makes amazing fudgy brownies and when I was injured he kept me in chocolate awesomeness.  Well I can’t keep asking them to support my habit, so I decided to try and recreate them.  There have been lots of failures and then yesterday it was so dreary out, I needed my hit!  As I started pulling out ingredients I realized I was low on unbleached flour and had some Cup 4 Cup gluten free.  Since it’s interchangeable, I interchanged!  It’s a bit more expensive because you can only purchase it at William Sonoma around here.  If you go to their website you can see if there is another spot closer to you.

So how did I do????

Oh yeah baby.  TJ’s are still the bomb but these are pretty darn close. Yay me :)  And now I can make them for my best friend, Sapna, who is also gluten free.

So how do they differ from my chewy brownies?

Here’s the recipe:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 6 oz dark chocolate
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup gluten free flour (I used Cup 4 Cup but you could use your favourite GF flour)

1. Melt butter and chocolate over a double boiler.
2. Remove from heat and stir in sugar.
3. Add eggs one at a time with continuous stirring.  Add vanilla.
4. Finally combine with GF flour and pour into prepared baking sheet.
5. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes in a 8” square pan.
6. Let cool completely. 
7. Enjoy

Although there were pretty good with a bit of warmth out of the oven, I think they rocked it cold.  I put mine in the fridge and waited an extra 20 minutes to try them that way and that’s they way I like them (a-huh a-huh) :)

So try these, you won’t regret it!

Thanks for looking!

*This is not a sponsored post, I used Cup 4 Cup on my own accord and loved how it tasted.

Gluten Free Vanilla Custard Bars

I know what you are thinking.  Ugh! Gluten Free equals gritty texture right? Or it goes in the opposite and is very cakey with a gritty after bite.  Basically if you don’t have to put yourself in the world of gluten free, you don’t.

This isn’t my first foray into the gluten free world.  I made a cake for a friend many moons ago and last year I made my best friend sugar cookies for her birthday.  Both turned out pretty good, at least that’s what I was told but I still wasn’t happy.  This past weekend Rowan has a play date with two friends, sisters who were gluten free.  So I decided to have the girls decorate cookies, it’s kind of my standard play date activity for the first time visit (you know hop them up on sugar and send them home LOL).

I’ve also wanted to try the new Cup4Cup Gluten Free flour. As the name indicates, you just substitute this flour for whatever amount flour in any recipe.  Now save your pennies, it ain’t cheap.  It’s $19.95 for 3lbs and can only be found at Williams Sonoma, hence the price.  You can also buy in wholesale in 25lb bags but until you are sure you want to make a lot of gluten free cookies or desserts, I’d go with the small bag first.

The girls loved the cookies and made some pretty awesome cookies! 

But now what to do with the rest.  I know make a cookie bar!

I was cleaning out the pantry and found my Birds Custard Powder and I knew right there what I was going to make.

As a Canadian a common holiday treat is the traditional Nanaimo Bar, so I basically took that idea but used the GF cookie dough as the base et voila!  OH SO GOOD!

Recipe:

• Cookie Dough – use my basic sugar cookie recipe and replace the flour with Cup4Cup flour or use my GF sugar cookie recipe:
• Custard – blend together 1/2 cup softened butter, 2 cups confectioners sugar, 2 tbsp Birds Custard powder (yes it’s GF), 1/4 cup milk
• Chocolate – 1 1/2 cup chopped chocolate and 1/4 cream.  Boil cream and melt chocolate to make ganache.  1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. Bake off cookie dough in 8” square pan lined with parchment for 9mins.  Let cool.
3. Layer custard on top of cookie dough crust.  Chill for 30 mins.
4. Make ganache and cover chilled custard.  Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips.  Chill for an hour.
5. Cut and serve
6. Enjoy!

Now you can totally make this with regular flour.  You could totally just eat the custard with a spoon, OH SO GOOD.  And mini chocolate chips always make treats fun!

Thanks for looking!

Happy Earth Day 2012

I made some fun cookies and had planned to fill them with colour but then decided to leave them black and white.

These are the gluten free cookies, I had some left over dough.  Recipe can be found here.

Thanks for looking!