Cinnamon Raisin Muffin Cake

I've been brewing a mock cornbread recipe in my brain for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately I haven't been able to coordinate time, energy, and supplies to actually make some. I set out to make the recipe this morning only to find I didn't have what I needed. There I stood with a greased cake pan waiting for mock cornbread. Okay, what I need now is to employ my free styling tendencies. I'll make muffin cake instead, because I have muffin supplies and I have to put something in that pan before I wash it.

Starting with my Anything You Need Muffins recipe I put together the following.


1 ¼ cup brown rice flour
¼ cup millet flour
¼ cup garbanzo bean flour
¼ cup almond meal
1 tsp. guar gum
3 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup raisins
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup soy milk

To make muffins, combine dry ingredients, then mix in wet ingredients until moist. Grease and flour a muffin tin and fill the cups full or pour into a greased 9x9 inch cake pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 400° for 20 minutes for muffins, 30 minutes for cake.

A Good Website to Check Often

I have mentioned Cain Credicott's website The Celiac Maniac before and I just have to mention it again. His recipes are very good. I just made myself some of his Sweet Potato Breakfast and it was heavenly.

Yes, it was meant for breakfast, but I love to eat breakfast at any meal. I'm quite fond of breakfast type foods.

Some thing's Got to Give

Last week was Labor Day, so I posted on Tuesday instead of my usual Monday. This week I thought I was going to clean my couch and maybe post again on Tuesday, but I am going to the lab for blood work. Next Monday I'm going with my Daughter-in-law to her prenatal in Grand Rapids. This all makes me think I should switch my blogging day to Tuesday or Wednesday. At this point my guess is I will be posting a copy of my mock cornbread this week and how I make my own almond meal next week. I just decided I will post on Wednesdays.

I would like to take this moment to mention that the Honey Cake recipe I posted on Saturday turned out tough. If you substitute ¼ cup of almond meal for a ¼ of rice flour you should a better cake. If you can't have almond meal try a ½ cup of tapioca flour for a ½ cup of rice flour. Let me know how it works for you.

Take care and May God bless you.
Colleen

Gluten-free Honey Cake

I don't have time to chat. I just made some honey cake in honor of Rosh Hashanah. It's quick and easy, so I wanted to share it.



Gluten-free Honey Cake
Dry ingredients:
3 c. brown rice flour
1 c. millet flour
1 c. sugar
6 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Baking soda
2 tsp. Guar gum
1 tsp. cinnamon

Moist ingredients:
2 Tbs. Smart Balance Light
2 eggs
1 c. strong black coffee


Mix all the dry ingredient together.
Add the moist ingredients.
Mix well.
Preheat oven to 325°
Grease 2 9x9 cake pans
Pour in batter and let rise in cake pans until the oven is ready.
Bake for 55 minutes.

How Fat Affects Your Gluten-free Cooking

The house is quiet. Lisa and Ken really should get out of bed, but school is out for her and he is laid off. I often don't have the time or inclination for their type of luxuries.

Although I have a skirt to let out for Lisa, some cooking, cleaning, and editing to do; I wanted to take the time to talk to you about fat. I'm not talking about the polyunsaturated, mono-saturated kind, nor how we all eat far more fat than we think we do. I wanted to share how fat affects your gluten-free cooking.

Each ingredient in a recipe has a job to do. Understanding the role of each item brings a balance to the whole recipe. Then converting recipes to suit your health needs and taste preferences become a joy, not an overwhelming task. You will be set free to engage in freestyle cooking.

Fat can be a great flavor enhancer to regular baking, however it has another job. Fats such as shortening, and butter in gluten baking reduces moisture's ability to form gluten protein chains. These chains bring strength and elasticity to bread. Without these chains fat helps to produce a more tender cake.

Non-gluten flours are bulk and flavor. Without the gluten proteins fat becomes unnecessary to produce a moist, tender cake. It's use in a gluten-free recipe can be a flavor enhancer, but in the case of rice flour it tends to create a mushy mess that does not rise.

To summarize, when converting a recipe consider the purpose of the fat in the recipe. If it is to make a tender cake-like item such as pancakes, muffins, quick breads, or cakes you may be able to eliminate the fat altogether. If fat is in the recipe as a flavor enhancer cut the amount in half (or more)and use butter or a butter substitute. If the recipe calls for applesauce or other fruit puree leave out the fat, altogether.

Since I have posted breads, banana bread, and muffins previously, I will provide you with my fat-free apple cake. I use chopped apples instead of applesauce, because applesauce tends to sink to the bottom of the pan before the cake is cooked.

Gluten-free low-fat
Apple Cake">

1 cup rice flour

1 tsp guar gum

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1½ cups sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

1 cup chopped apples

1/3 cup apple juice

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all dry ingredients.

Add all the wet ingredients and mix just until uniformly moist.

Pour into a greased and floured 9 x 9 cake pan*.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

*I have doubled this recipe and baked it in a 9 x 13 pan, but I like the results best in smaller pans.

Yeast-free Bread

After achieving “success” with bread I learned that yeast can, not only give me a headache, it causes me to become faint. I needed a yeast-free bread. For the most part Lisa and I have been using pancakes for bread, it works, but it just isn't bread.

One day I decided to exchange one tablespoon of yeast for one tablespoon of baking powder. My previous bread recipe called for starch. Without the yeast I could feel the starch in my mouth. It was unpleasant. I could taste it too. I started over, lowering the starch amount and worked on a multi-grain bread. Let's face it without the yeast it looses an important flavor. So those who can have yeast tend to miss it in this bread, however it does have a good bread texture and it's flavor is closer to bread than pancakes.

While this recipe is not vegan, because of the gelatin, in an effort to move my bread recipe towards vegan, I'm using flax seed and water as an egg substitute. Feel free to substitute the flax and water for two large eggs.


I am not having great success with flax seed. Starting at the top of this blog are the first picture is this bread recipe using eggs, the second picture is using flax seed, and the third picture is a previous time I used flax seed. This third picture tells me that I can get a good bread using flax.

Give this bread a try and let me know how it worked for you.


Multi-grain Gluten Free Bread
Grease and flour a bread pan.
Preheat oven to 350°

Whip together in a small bowl and set aside:
2 tbs flax seed
6 tbs water

In a separate bowl mix together:
¾ c. brown rice flour
½ c. almond meal
½ c. millet flour
½ c. teff
½ c. quinoa flakes
1 package of unflavored gelatin
2 tsp. guar gum
1 tsp. sea salt
1 Tbs. corn-free baking powder

Add the flax seed mixture,
2 Tbs. honey
1 Tbs. olive oil
Mix together and add to the above ingredients:
1 ¾ c. warm water
1 tsp. Fleischman's apple cider vinegar


Mix until all dry ingredients are moist. Pour into loaf pan.
Bake for 70 minutes.
Remove from pan right away.
Let cool before cutting.

Next I'm going to learn how to make sourdough bread.

Pancake Varation

½ c. brown rice flour
¼ c. almond meal
¼ c. garbanzo bean flour
¼ c. millet flour
¾ tsp. Guar gum
2 tsp. Baking powder
2 Tbs. Brown sugar
1 egg
1 c. water

Mix the dry ingredients together, then add in the wet ingredients and stir until moist. Pour ¼ cup amounts on a hot griddle. Cook first side until bubbles appear in the surface. Flip and cook until golden brown on the second side.


Try topping your pancakes with homemade apple pie filling.

Peel, core, and chop 4 apples. Place in a sauce pan with:
¼ water
½ tsp. Cinnamon
¼ tsp. Nutmeg
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 Tbs. Lemon juice
2 Tbs. Brown sugar

Stir and cook on medium heat until tender.

Place 2 tsp. Arrowroot starch and a tablespoon of cold water in a cup. Stir until starch is dissolved, then pour into apple mixture. Stir quickly, then pull off heat when thick.

Top pancakes and enjoy.