Saturday, 12 July 2014

Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins - Almond Flour

Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins with Almond Flour

Recipe for gluten-free blueberry muffins made with almond flour


Tender almond flour muffins bursting with fresh blueberries.

Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffin Recipe with Almond Flour

Originally published July 2010.

I used Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour in this new muffin recipe. Finely ground almonds create a delicate, soft gluten-free flour that is light and subtly sweet.

First: 


Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line a 12-muffin tin with paper liners.

Ingredients:

Whisk together:

1 1/3 cups almond meal
1 cup sorghum flour or certified GF oat flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch or potato starch (not potato flour)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 teaspoons Bourbon vanilla extract

Beat in:

1 1/3 cups organic light brown sugar
2 tablespoons light olive oil
1 tablespoon Ener-G Egg Replacer whisked with 1/4 cup warm water till frothy
1/2 cup warm water, more as needed, up to 3/4 cup
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Beat the batter until it is smooth, like a slightly thickened cake batter. I found this batter a bit thinner than I'm used to (I haven't baked with almond flour in several years).

Add in:

1 pint fresh blueberries, washed and patted dry

Stir gently and briefly.

Baking instructions:

Plop the blueberry muffin batter into the twelve lined cups. You'll probably have some xtra- for a baker's dozen. We made tiny mini-muffins with our extra better. Too cute.

Bake in the center of a preheated oven for 23 to 25 minutes, until golden and firm to the touch. A wooden pick inserted into the center should emerge clean.

Cool the muffin pan on a wire rack for five minutes. Gently pop the muffins out to continue cooling on the rack (don't cool them in the hot pan- they'll get soggy).

If by some chance, Babycakes, your muffins are soggy or slightly underdone-- due to unforeseen oven temperature variations-- place them back into the warm oven directly on the center rack for five minutes or so.

These are simply divine warm from the oven. 
Enjoy every bite.

Wrap and freeze cooled muffins for future breakfast treats.

Makes a baker's dozen.

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Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

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Karina's notes:


If you prefer using eggs in your gluten-free baking, I recommend using two to three organic free-range eggs in this recipe.


*As always, follow your own doctor's medical advice regarding food allergies. Consult with her/him before even contemplating a food challenge- and obviously do not attempt a food challenge without medical advice and supervision.



Almond blueberry muffins on a plate
Gluten-free blueberry muffins. Um. Yes.





Friday, 11 July 2014

Summer Recipes for a Gluten-Free Diet

My Favorite Gluten-Free Diet Summer Recipes - index image

Cook Up a Gluten-Free Wheat-Free Summer


Make your gluten-free diet fresh, fast, and light. These hand-picked Gluten-Free Goddess® recipes celebrate the abundance of local ingredients and garden-glorious taste. Kick up your warm weather meals with local fresh herbs, tender greens, lime infused guacamole,  protein rich hummus, and bright basil pesto. Simple grilled fish, colorful stir-fries, and brilliant quinoa salads  make for light and easy meals, perfect for picnic style get-togethers. Strawberries, blueberries and peaches inspire easy crisps and cobblers, cakes, muffins, and dairy-free ice creams everyone will enjoy. Eating gluten-free and wheat-free couldn't be simpler. 

Or more fabulous.


READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Saturday, 5 July 2014

Coconut Milk Ice Cream Berry Parfaits

Creamy coconut ice cream and fresh summer berries make a luscious gluten-free dairy-free parfait.


Easy elegance. Coconut ice cream. Berries. Boom. Parfait!

We are slowly melting here in the usually friendlier, temperate wedge of Northwest Connecticut. This heat wave has not been fun. Yesterday we hit 87º degrees. Inside the barn. In the kitchen (if you can call it that), where I am not cooking. I am painting. Very slowly. And sweating. Profusely. The studio air smelled like a West Hollywood muffler shop (if I was a betting soul I'd wager greenbacks on the landlord lying when he assured us the barn was insulated). Yours truly may be suffering quasi-serious brain damage due to these cranium-baking temperatures. I cannot form a cohesive thought. Neither can my iMac which gets dangerously hot (I am writing this post early, while the room temperature is a balmy 78º).

Obviously I am unable to muster any enthusiasm for cooking.

I've been living on gluten-free peanut butter toast. And ice cream. Yes, I know. I am a poor, sad, sad role model. What kind of food blogger doesn't rise to the challenge and cheer-lead you to whip up kale salads and raw peach smoothies? What kind of food blogger would simply give in to her sticky, damp fatigue and general overall crankiness and not create some inspiring, nutritious, bunny food slaw for you?

This one.

She who is about to share a no-cook recipe she actually DID make last night, standing directly in front of her three-speed fan, silver streaked hair pinned wantonly (fashionably!) askew atop her itchy, sweaty head.

Sweet and cold and creamy. Coconut milk ice cream.

It's what's for dinner.


READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Saturday, 28 June 2014

Grilled Vegetable Stack + Lemon Hummus

Grilled Vegetable Stack with Homemade Lemon Hummus - Gluten-Free and Vegan
Smoky grilled vegetable stack with homemade lemon hummus.

Grilling Vegetarian


Beneath the hot sapphire skies of an all too brief July, backyard grills will be smokin' as savvy cooks keep the kitchen cool by stoking briquettes al fresco. Cooking and dining in the open air- even if your outdoorsy territory is merely a closet-sized urban balcony hanging off a sun-kissed wall of brick and mortar- is an enduring, classic, summer pleasure. 

The smoky sweet heat of barbeque spices, chipotle, and hickory laced sauces slathered on everything from burgers to shrimp and meaty portobellos is intoxicating- and hunger pang inducing.

So to further feed the flames of desire, I'm sharing one of my all time favorite grilling recipes.

And this one's for the gluten-free vegan crowd.

Over the weekend we grilled some of our favorite farm fresh veggies and made these rustic grilled vegetable stacks layered with a light and creamy homemade lemon hummus.

Deliciousness was the word.


READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Monday, 12 May 2014

Gluten-Free Whole Grain Strawberry Muffins

Gluten-free Goddess Whole Grain Strawberry Muffins
Gluten-free low sugar whole grain strawberry muffins.

Whole Grain Wheat-Free Muffins with Love


From the archives- as we move back to the West Coast- a favorite muffin recipe, perfect for strawberry season...

With all the recent news about sugar, I've been thinking about muffins. And not just any ordinary, ho-hum, run-of-the-mill, starchy, gluten-free muffins. Nope. A tender, whole grain, lower sugar, vanilla scented muffin that bursts with fresh strawberry flavor. Warm from the oven, these pleasantly grainy breakfast treats are pull-apart soft with juicy bites of strawberry. Sweet- but not too sweet.

I used pure maple syrup for the primary sweetener, and a mere two tablespoons of organic brown sugar. And now for the interesting part. I also experimented with no xanthan gum. This is highly unusual for me. I've usually rely on xanthan gum to give my gluten-free batter and dough the stretchability factor- a trait removed when I booted gluten from my kitchen and wished it vaya con dios. But inspired by Lauren, the Celiac Teen, I decided to try baking without it.

But here's the thing.

Shunning gluten is a complicated issue. Gluten imparts a flexibility to batter and dough, and baking without it can lead you to crumbly, gritty ruin if you're not careful. You're giving up protein. And you're giving up elasticity. And not only that, you're saying buh-bye to the toothsome texture you are accustomed to.

Reaching for xanthan gum was a quick fix, an immediate solution to this lack of flexibility problem. But many of you now report you don't want to use it. For some it's a price issue (xanthan gum ain't cheap, Darling). For others it's a digestive issue (xanthan gum or its alternative, guar gum, can be hard on sensitive digestion). And for some, it's an allergy issue (to mold or the growth medium, most often cornstarch).

Gluten-free baking without gums is tricky. This, I know. So my first foray into this venture is not vegan. I used two free-range organic eggs. Egg whites help give gluten-free batter that precious stretchability factor. And the protein factor. They bind, and they leaven.

My choice of flours reflects two things- what I had on hand this morning, and my desire to use whole grains (I am liking starches less and less). I picked hazelnut flour for the delightful nutty flavor and protein; millet, brown rice, and sorghum flour because they are whole grain and higher protein than white rice flour or potato starch; and I used coconut flour because it attracts moisture and adds a lovely texture to gluten-free baked goods (not to mention, for its high fiber status).

The result? A tasty, blog worthy success. I absolutely love these strawberry muffins.

And I hope you do, too!

READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Tuesday, 6 May 2014

Multigrain Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Multigrain gluten-free lemon poppy seed muffins


Multigrain gluten-free lemon poppy seed muffins.

I usually don't bake in the summer. I mean. Do you? Who in their right mind likes to crank up the oven when it's hot and steamy outside? At my age darling, I'm sticky enough as it is. Hot flashing and fanning myself with the latest issue of AARP as I bounce and waggle on one of those bubblegum hued balance balls, lurching at my desk like a pear-bottomed yoga reject seeking not enlightenment, I am sorry to tell you, but the promise of burning three hundred extra calories as I sit and write. Apparently using one's sacred core (or is it sacroiliac?) to perch atop a ridiculously big ball with a penchant for rolling sideways requires fuel.

More fuel than say, slumping.

Or lying on the sofa reading a book. With the oscillating fan on high.

Which is what I'd rather be doing.

Preferably with a bar of organic dark chocolate.

I would rather keep the kitchen cool. By not cooking (that's why the Goddess- in her infinite wisdom- invented tomato sandwiches).

But a certain husband had a craving. For a lemon poppy seed muffin. Our son planted this idea in his head last week, during an impromptu visit. Said son was blithely munching on a lovely looking gluten-free lemon poppy seed muffin. Freshly baked. Adapted from one of my muffin recipes. He mentioned, in passing, it was fabulous.

His secret?

I used a little cornmeal, he told us.

And thus the muffin craving was born.

And who am I to deny my husband.

He buys me dark chocolate after all.

And turns on the fan. So that I don't have to get up from the sofa.

READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Thursday, 1 May 2014

Recipes for a Vegan Cinco de Mayo

Gluten-free vegan guac with tomatillos and lime #guac #vegan #glutenfree
Best guac ever. Gluten-free and vegan.

Gluten-Free Cinco de Mayo, Baby


In the spirit of fiesta, I thought I would gather some of my favorite New Mexican inspired vegan recipes to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Because if you're looking for a carnitas recipe, or how to stuff a spicy beef burrito, there are food blogs galore that feature carne autentico.

But if you're a vegetarian or a gluten-free vegan, have I got some recipes for you, Babycakes.


READ MORE and get the recipe ...