The perfect dozen
Finally after 6 months of attempting a gluten-free, vegan muffin, I have concocted the tastiest, moistest muffin a girl could ask for! After some very awful tasting mistakes, my persistence has paid off. These muffins even remind me of oatmeal ones since I used some quinoa flakes which give it a slightly oatmeal-ish texture.
Because pumpkin is just that amazing….
Don’t know what to do with all the leftover pumpkin you have after making those cookies?
After cleaning up after my cookie making mess I realized I had a good cup and a half of pumpkin puree left (granted I only buy pumpkin in bulk despite my constant problem of being left with a mass amount of pumpkin). So I decided to try out yet another pumpkin recipe. This recipe is also adapted from the internet (http://www.cok.net/lit/recipes/) …yes…. cok.net. Let’s all be mature now can we?
From this website I picked out the cranberry pumpkin bread recipe and easily made it sugar and gluten free :)
Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
Ingredients:
2 cups raw cranberries (fresh or from frozen)
1 cup chickpea flour (or corn flour)
1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup maple syrup (it would actually taste pretty good with a little less…maybe a 1/2 cup?) OR stevia
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp clove (I omitted this because I am allergic to cloves and I don’t like the taste)
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
5 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp orange zest (Don’t skip this part, it’s worth it!)
3 tbsp water
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Chop the cranberries into quarters or halves (however you like) and set aside.
Mix the flours, cornmeal, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, in a bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, mix the remaining ingredients. Gently pour the wet into the dry and mix. Gently stir or fold in the cranberries. (If using chickpea flower don’t eat the batter, it’s very disheartening. I assure you it will taste better when it’s cooked).
Pour mixture into a greased 9×9 inch pan and bake for 40-50 minutes. Make sure to stick a fork or a knife in to see if it comes out clean.
Pumpkin cookies
Who doesn’t like pumpkin? Ok well I’m sure there are a lot of hands raised throughout the world, but I happen to love pumpkin and love cookies so naturally I put the two together to create heaven. This recipe has been greatly adapted from a recipe I found many years ago off the internet which contained margarine, wheat and sugar. I replaced the margarine with vegetable oil since vegan margarine is horribly expenisive and I replaced the wheat with a mix of corn and rice flour. I kept the sugar since everytime I use pumpkin in a recipe it comes out uncooked and adding maple syrup would only make it harder for me. However I am not supposed to have sugar and I suppose this is a bit of an experiment since I’ve been doing bio-feedback for 5 months or so for food allergies. I guess you could say I’m testing the waters again and if it turns out I pay for it, I know to re-arrange this recipe once again.
Onto the recipe!!!…
Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups of canned pumpkin puree
1 cup vegan sugar (I use President’s choice organic cane)
Ener-G egg replacer (Equal to one egg) or other egg replacer
1 cup rice flour
1 1/4 cup corn flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
*optional 1/2 cup walnuts, chocolate chips, raisins (anything you want to put in)
Directions:
Mix the pumpkin, sugar and oil together. Add the egg replacer and mix. Sift in dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. This batter should have a thick enough consistancy to scoop into a spoon, plop on a cookie sheet and flatten down. If it isn’t add a touch more corn flour until you have to right consistancy. Let’s say you screw up and add too much, add a little more pumpkin. Now stop messing with it! :P
Bake at 375 degrees F for about 20-30 minutes depending on how you like your cookies.
Coconut Brownies
As I was checking out food blogs today I came across a recipe for black bean brownies. I was just dying to try them out but I had only about two of the required ingredients. As sad as I was to have to pass up such an intriguing dish I still had a craving for brownies. I have never made vegan brownies let alone gluten free and sugar free so I was pretty nervous. My main concern was the consistency and staving off bitterness. Feeling a little daring and wanting so bad to make a “healthy” brownie with bean somehow involved in the mix, I came up with this recipe…
Ingredients:
1 cup chickpea flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1 Tbsp arrowroot flour
1 Enrg egg replacer (or egg replacer of your choice for one egg)
5 Tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup agave nectar or maple syrup (I used agave)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
Directions:
Sift the chickpea flour and the rice flour together in a bowl. Add the arrowroot, egg replacer (minus the water), and cocoa powder. Mix well. Mix in the agave, vanilla and oil until nice and smooth. Gently add in the coconut or any nuts you would like.
Pour into a well greased baking pan and bake at 350 Degrees Celcius for 35-40 minutes.
* IMPORTANT NOTE
For a moister brownie, either pop these in the fridge overnight and wait (you should store them in your fridge anyways) OR Add:
2-3 tbsp of Coconut butter/oil
1/4 cup “milk”
Omit the arrowroot powder
and add about 2/3 cup more of maple syrup or agava nectar
Bed time snack
What’s better than a plate of traditional chocolate chip cookies with a big glass of milk? A plate of gluten-free, sugar-free, VEGAN cookies with a tall glass of ice cold soy milk of course!
Now I honestly didn’t think this was possible at first. At best I figured I would have myself a plate of overly moist, hideously grainy and pathetic looking lumps of half baked dough, but for a first attempt I would have to say this recipe has turned out to be quite lovely! The cookies were slightly grainy but had the right amount of moistness and biting into them took me back to childhood memories of a familiar bed time snack. After washing these lovelies down with a glass of cold soy milk I would have to say my cookie craving was satisfied!
And now for the recipe!
Ingredients:
2 & 3/4 cups White rice flour
1 cup soya flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Baking soda
1 Cup Vegan Margarine (I used Earth Balance)
1 & 1/2 cups pure maple syrup OR 1/4-1/2 cup of stevia powder
1 tsp Vanilla extract
Ener-G-eggreplacer equal to one egg
1/2 – 1 cup chocolate chips of your choice
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.
Sift together the dry ingredients. In a seperate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix it up!
Now fold in those chocolate chips then drop spoonfulls of dough onto greased cookie sheets and flatten them down with the palm of your hand. Be gentle.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.
*Add a slice of fresh apple to your cookie jar to keep those cookies moist!
