You Want Me to Eat That?!

Peach Cobbler

We just love peach cobbler! This is more of a peach bread pudding, but it is fabulous! I got the original recipe here, but I make it gluten free now.

***This recipe can be made with spelt (or white flour) by omitting the xanthum gum,sorghum and millet flour and using 1 cup spelt instead.

3/4 cup sorghum flour

1/4 cup millet flour

1/2 tsp xanthum gum

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup baker's sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup melted butter (or Earth Balance)

1/2 cup vanilla rice milk

2 (15 oz cans) peaches in lite syrup

Cinnamon

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 9X13 pan. Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl; set aside. Mix wet ingredients in large bowl; add in dry ingredients. Pour batter into a pan. Layer peaches over batter and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake about 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Banana Bread (Gluten Free)

I love to play around with recipes and see what I can come up with! This is similar to an old favorite of mine. When using spelt flour, I can easily omit the egg and add 1 heaping tsp Energy Egg Replacer. I decided to play with it and see if I couldn't make a delicious gluten free banana bread for my son. Gluten free flours break apart easier, so I did use an egg. Wonderful texture! He loved it and ate half the loaf right out of the oven! (Next time, I may omit the egg and add Energy Egg Replacer and make it Vegan so that my daughter can have some, too!)

***If you do not need it to be gluten free, then just use 1 1/2 cups spelt (or white flour) and omit the sorhum, potato starch, millet flour and xantum gum.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup Sorghum flour

1/2 cup Potato starch

1/2 cup Millet flour

1/2 tsp Xanthum gum

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp  sea salt

1 egg (or 1 1/2 tsp Energy Egg Replacer mixed with 2-3 tbsp warm water. Mix until foamy)

1/2 cup baker's sugar

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/3 cup melted butter (or Earth Balance for dairy free)

3 large or 4 medium very ripe bananas

chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. Beat bananas in Kitchen Aid (or separate bowl). Add in egg, sugar, melted butter.  Once mixed thoroughly, add in dry ingredients. Mix together thoroughly. Pour into greased bread pan (I use stoneware; works wonderfully!) and sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Bake for about 40 min or until golden brown and knife comes out clean.

Will also make about 12 muffins instead. Bake muffins for about 20-25 minutes.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

I love pumpkin bread. I also love to bake. Going gluten free in our family has caused some serious disappointment as it is so hard to make a good, gluten free bread! I've been playing around a LOT with flours and have come up with a pretty decent mixture.

The other day, a friend gave me some amazing pumpkin bread (Recipe was from Gooseberry Patch). It was so good! I asked her to give me the recipe so I could play around with it, have a base to start from and figure out how to make a good gluten free pumpkin bread. And by golly, I did it! This bread is soooo good!

I made it with eggs and dairy, but it can be vegan; egg free, dairy free, too, if needed. I made a separate loaf for my daughter without the eggs or dairy. I also have learned to appreciate grape seed oil. It makes gluten free bread so much more moist!

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese, softened (can substitute tofutii cream cheese)

1/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp potato starch

*1 tbsp gluten free flour mix

1 egg (or substitute 1 tsp energy egg replacer with 4 tbsp warm water whipped until frothy)

2 tsp grated orange peel

 

Bread:

1 15 oz can cooked pumpkin

1 cup grape seed oil

2 eggs (or substitute 1 tbsp energy egg replacer with 10 tbsp warm water)

1 ½ cups sugar

1 ½ cups agave nectar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp baking soda

1 tsp xanthum gum

*3 cups gluten free flour mix

1/3 cup amaranth flour

 

*(1 c tapioca starch, 1 cup sweet sorghum flour, 1 cup sweet rice flour, ½ potato starch, ½ cup arrowroot starch-mix together store in air tight container)

 

Mix filling ingredients together and set aside.

 

Mix pumpkin, grape seed oil, eggs, sugar and agave nectar together.  Add in the remaining dry ingredients and mix until well blended.

 

Cover bottom of bread pan with pumpkin mix. Spread filling over pumpkin mix, then pumpkin mix over the filling. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 ½ hours or until done. Makes 2 loaves of bread.

Banana Muffins

I've been trying hard to come up with a great banana muffin recipe that is everything free; no substitutions. I don't want it to be grainy or sandy or dry and crumbly. I'd like someone to bite into and not know that it's gluten free. I've been playing around, and by golly, today, I got! And it cooked up perfectly in muffin tins and in a loaf pan! It was so good that my son literally ate HALF THE LOAF in one setting! I'm going to have to go get some more bananas and let them turn brown!

*2 ½ cups gluten free flour mix

½ cup amaranth flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp xanthum gum

6 medium to large  very ripe bananas

1 ½ cups fine baking sugar

2/3 cup grapeseed oil

2 rounded tsp energy egg replacer mixed with 3 tbsp warm water

 

*(1 c tapioca starch, 1 cup sweet sorghum flour, 1 cup sweet rice flour, ½ potato starch, ½ cup arrowroot starch-mix together store in air tight container)

 

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in bowl.  Mix bananas, sugar, grapeseed oil and energy egg mixture together until well blended. Add in flour mixture. Pour into muffin cups and bake until golden brown (about 15 minutes). Also makes good banana bread.

 

Yields 2 dozen muffins or 2 loaves bread.

Tangelo Cupcakes

Photo taken by B-Boo

I found this recipe on Karina's a few days ago and have wanted to try it. It was my friend's birthday today, so I thought this would be the perfect occasion. I did double the recipe and slightly changed the frosting (I like a butter cream frosting so used more butter) and these were very good! Oh...and I didn't have any oranges, so I juiced some tangelos instead. Yum! Even my nephews liked them! The only bad thing? I managed to break yet another hand mixer...one more reason to invest in a Kitchen Aid! I have yet to find a recipe from Karina that I don't like, so I encourage you to check out her site!

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients:

3/4 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup potato starch
3/4 cup organic cane sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
2-3 teaspoons fresh orange zest

Add in:

2 tablespoons light olive oil or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon agave or honey
1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (using fresh juice really gives the batter a fresh, bright taste)
Ener-G Egg Replacer for 2 eggs whisked with warm water (makes 1/4 cup)
2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla

Beat on medium speed for several minutes until the batter is smooth and fluffy. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until done.

Frosting:

In a mixing bowl beat:

1/4 cup Spectrum Organic Shortening (I used Earth Balance)
2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla
Juice from one fresh orange
3 cups organic powdered sugar

Beat shortening until smooth. Add in vanilla, powdered sugar and just enough orange juice to moisten. Beat until creamy. Frost cupcakes, chill and serve.

Apple Crisp Cobbler

Apples have been on sale around here, so we've had an abundance. This morning I was in the mood to bake and came up with this apple crisp cobbler thing. It was a huge hit at bible study this morning and with my kids!

Ingredients:

1 cup Sweet Sorghum flour
3/4 cup Potato Flour (NOT potato starch)
3/4 cup whole oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/2 softened butter (or earth balance)
1/2 Hemp milk
1 1/2 cups apple juice
4 small to medium red delicious apples, peeled and thinly sliced
4 small to  medium granny apples, peeled and thinly sliced
Cinnamon

Place apple slices in a 13X9 inch pan. Pour apple juice over the apples. Sprinkle cinnamon over the apples. In a separate bowl, combine flours, brown sugar and white sugar. Cut in butter. Add in oats and hemp milk. Mix thoroughly. Drop dough over the apples by the teaspoon. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until dough is a golden brown and apples are soft. Enjoy!

Pancakes and Muffins the new way

Living with a child with food allergies is not always easy. Living with two children with opposite food allergies can be even more of a challenge! Throw in two more teenagers who have no food allergies and you can only imagine the requests that I get!

For the most part, I try and make a meal that will accommodate everyone. When the drama queen was very young and the only one with allergies, I'd usually make myself and her a smaller meal and the rest of the family something else. That got old quick though! Once she started outgrowing some of her food allergies, I started converting the rest of the family to our way of living! My oldest son once told me that the reason he is so short is because he stopped growing when I made him start eating healthy!  He does have a point, but he was also just at the stop growing age!

Anyway, this brings us to this past weekend. It was B-Boo's birthday and she had a slumber party. Ten girls wanted pancakes for breakfast and me trying to come up with a great recipe that was safe for the man on top of that was a bit overwhelming! I"ll admit that although I seem to have a grasp on the allergies for the most part, sometimes I do take the easy way out!  That meant that the girls got the cheap Bisquick pancakes (ok, I do spice them up to make it better). The drama queen can have them since I do not put eggs in my pancakes, but it left out the man who is allergic to wheat and follows a gluten free diet. Hmmmm...

One of my new favorite places to be is on Karina's Gluten Free Goddess! She's a fun read and her recipes are divine! She is actually one of those people who can say that her recipes are great and be truthful! (Those of you who have created the allergy free recipes that end up in the wastebasket know what I'm talking about!) Anyway, off to search her site I went. She has some great ideas, but I couldn't find any sweet pancakes. She admits on her site that she just isn't in to them, but rather has some rather scrumptious looking veggie pancakes. I'll have to try them someday, but for now I needed something fabulous that the man could eat for breakfast that was special, too!

I'd read one of her posts on some blueberry vegan cakes that I'd put in the back of my mind to try someday. Since I actually had most of the ingredients and this seemed like the perfect occasion, I decided to give them a whirl.  I was missing buckwheat flour, so substituted bean flour instead, used organic butter since he's allergic to soy, and added in two organic brown eggs since the drama queen had her pancakes. I have to say, these were a hit! They are by far one of the best muffins I've made! Even some of the girls ate them not realizing they were gluten free! I'm going to have to try them again, this time vegan style as Karina suggests, but at least for the day, the man was a happy camper!

Allergy free banana bread that tastes good?

For those of you who don't know me yet, I bake a lot! Why? Well, I like to bake, which is a good thing, because I have two children with severe food allergies. It started out with my youngest daughter, the drama queen. That's for another story, but I will say that now that she is 8 years old, she is down to being allergic to only four food groups: dairy, eggs, tree nuts and peanuts. (I say only, because the list used to be MUCH longer!) I'd grown accustomed to cooking for the whole family keeping these ingredients out of our meals when God decided to throw another one at me! Turns out (again, another story for another day) that my youngest son also suffers from food allergies. He's allergic to wheat, gluten, soy, peanuts and tree nuts.

Ok, so let me get this straight? I now have to cook/bake with out any eggs, wheat, gluten, soy, dairy or any kind of nut and it STILL has to taste good? Yeah, right!

Actually, we're making it! I'm not afraid to throw out something that tastes awful and I'm not afraid to try something new. Which is what brings me to our recent attempt at banana bread.

After much research, I decided to try out Karina's recipe from Gluten Free Goddess . I only made two changes; I had run out of olive oil so used grapeseed oil instead and I added in more chocolate chips. It's true...she really is a gluten free goddess...and dairy and egg free at that! Wow. Everyone in my family loved the recipe. .

Ok, except for me, I'll be honest. But honestly, the only reason was that I put too many chocolate chips in...I love chocolate and decided to add more...BIG mistake. Even the chocolate lover in me screamed it was too much!  Mission was accomplished though; even the wheat lovers in the family couldn't tell the difference!