Friday, January 20, 2012

Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free Brownie Muffins


These turned out delicious!  They do not appear to have a brownie texture to them until you start chewing.  I really liked that.

I was asked recently why I make so many chocolate muffin type recipes and the answer is simple.  Shawn loves chocolate.  Each recipe is completely different in texture and taste too, this one is definitely a brownie in muffin form.  Yummy!

No eggs.  No dairy.  No gluten.

Ingredients


  • 1 cup cocoa
  • 1 cup certified gluten free oat flour
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch (or arrowroot)
  • 1/4 cup tapioca flour
  • 2/3 cup sweet white sorghum flour
  • 1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill gluten free flour blend
  • 2 tablespoons inulin
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons golden flaxseed meal
  • 6 tablespoons hot water
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2/3 cup carbonated water
  • 1/4 cup brewed coffee
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar


Step 1:
Whisk all the dry ingredients including the sugars but not the flaxseed meal together in a large bowl. Set this aside.

Step 2:
Whisk the flaxseed meal and the 6 tablespoons hot water together and set this aside to get "goopy".

Step 3:
Mix the almond milk, olive oil, coffee, vanilla extract, and carbonated water into the flaxseed meal mixture.  Mix the liquids into the bowl of flour mixture.

Step 4:
Line a muffin pan with paper liners and spray the liners with a nonstick cooking spray, this makes the paper peel off easier.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill the lined muffin cups with 1/4 cup of batter.

Step 5:
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  Test with a toothpick in the center of the brownie muffins to see if they're done. Cool them out of the muffin pan on a wire rack.

Step 6:
When cooled completely you can add frosting if desired, the fudgier the better.

Makes 21 brownie muffins.

Enjoy!

Monday, January 2, 2012

Gluten Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free Oatmeal Cinnamon Cookies (using Avocado)


Sometimes I just play around in the kitchen using whatever I have on hand to try to make something delicious.  Sometimes these experiments are a learning experience in what "not" to try again.  Other times, like today, it yields a delicious new cookie that I can share with you.

This particular day I felt like baking a cookie.  An oatmeal cookie to be exact.  I was out of eggs.  I was out of butter.  I had no milk.  You might think, why didn't I just give up. LOL.  Well I'm not so easily defeated.  Some might even call me stubborn.  I had a suitable egg substitute of golden flax seed meal and water.  I also knew I could do without milk.  But butter, what did I have on hand to substitute the butter with?  A quick search of my kitchen left me with one option.

Avocado.


Yes.  Avocado makes a suitable substitute for butter in baking .

These turned out surprisingly cake-like and delicious.  I was expecting them to spread out and flatten like most of my cookies of this type do when using butter, but these remained in a ball.  A delicious cake-like ball.  It appears that avocado is a suitable substitute for butter in baking but does not melt at high temps like butter would, thus the cookies not flattening out and being so cake-like.

Here is an interior picture.


Try these!

Ingredients


  • 1 avocado
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch (or arrowroot)
  • 1/4 cup tapioca flour
  • 1/4 cup sweet white sorghum flour
  • 1 tablespoon inulin
  • 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 cups gluten-free rolled oats (blended slightly in a food processor)
  • 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons golden flaxseed meal
  • 6 tablespoons hot water
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil


Icing Glaze


  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 and 1/2  teaspoons water
  • splash of pure vanilla extract
  • dash of ground cinnamon


Step 1:
Whisk the starches, flours, salt, inulin, cinnamon, xanthan gum, and baking soda in a separate bowl and set this aside.

Step 2:
Mix the hot water, flaxseed meal, and olive oil together and set this aside to get "goopy", this is your egg replacement.

Step 3:
Add the brown sugar, avocado, vanilla, and flaxseed/olive oil mixture to your stand mixer and cream together thoroughly.


Step 4:
Add the flour mixture and the oatmeal to the stand mixer bowl and blend it all together thoroughly.  This will take awhile and becomes very sticky. (You could add add-ins like chocolate chips, raisins, etc. at this point if you desire.)

Step 5:
Using a spoon drop balls of cookie dough onto an ungreased nonstick baking sheet about 2 inches apart. (They should not flatten or spread) Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Step 6:
Remove from oven and gently remove from cookie sheet with a spatula.  Cool on a wire rack completely before adding iced glaze.

Step 7:
Glazing was easy.  I whisked up the glaze using a fork, then laying the cookies out on a mat, I drizzled glaze onto the cookies in a zig-zag pattern using the same fork.

Enjoy!