I’m sure y’all know how my first experience with the gluten free baking. But I was determined, I just couldn’t let go of it. What can I say? I don’t like failure!
Friday night, I was upset and stressed, and I decided screw it, I’m baking.
I decided on two sets of muffins and a pan of blondies and was relatively successful on two out of three of the recipes!
Banana and Flax Seed Muffins
Ingredients
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup agave nectar
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana
2 tbsps freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 tsps ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmet
3/4 golden flaxseed meal
2 1/2 gluten-free flour
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsps baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup raisins (I omitted)
Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin pan with 12 liners.
Combine canola oil and agave nectar, mixing on medium speed for about 20 seconds.
Add the mashed banana, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmet and mix for about 20seconds. Add the flax meal and mix until combined, about 10 seconds.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour mix, xanthan gum, baking soda and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix on low until just combined, about 20 seconds.
Turn off mixer and fold in raisins.
Fill liners to the brim with batter – they will be heaping.
Bake in the center of the oven for about 25 minutes or until lovely golden brown on top, totating in the pan halfway through. Transfer the muffins to a cooling rack.
Orange Cranberry Muffins
Ingredients – makes 12
2 cups granulated sugar, plus 2 tsps for sprinkling (optional)
1 tbsp Ener-G egg replacer mixed with 1/4 cup rice milk (Ener-G is powder, something I didn’t know before shopping for it!)
1 cup orange juice
2 tsps orange zest
3 tbsps canola oil
3 cups gluten free flour
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
4 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries (I used craisins)
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin pan with 12 muffin liners.
Combine 2 cups of the sugar and the egg replace, mixing on medium speed for about 30 seconds.
Add the orange juice, zest and canola oil. Mix for about 30 seconds.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Turn off the mixer and fold in the cranberries.
Fill the liners to the rim with batter. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the remaining two tsps of sugar.
Bake in the center of the oven 35-40 minutes, rotating the pan halway through. Bake until lovely golden brown on top and a skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Chocolate Chunk blondie bars
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups plus 2 tbsps gluten free flour
1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sairy free, soy-free vegetable shortening
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsps firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsps Ener-G egg replacer mixed with 2 tbsps rice milk
1/4 cup plus 1 tsp rice milk
6 oz of vegan chocolate – chopped into centimeter size chunks (I used Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips)
Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9×9 inch pan.
Whisk together the flour mix, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Combine the shortening, granulated sugar, and brown sugar, beating on medium speed until light and fluffy – about 2 minutes.
Add the vanilla and egg replacer, mix for 20 seconds.
Add the flour, mix in three batches, mixing on low speed, alternating with the rice milk, and beginning and ending with the flour mix.
Fold in the chocolate chunks.
Spread the batter evenly across the bottom of the baking pan.
Bake in the center of the oven for 35 minutes, or until lightly golden, rotating the pan halfway through.
Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan on a cooling rack for about 15 minutes. Cut into 16 squares – let cool.
The banana flax muffins were nice, the very top of them tasted a little gritty, but, aside from that, they were pretty tasty. You could taste they were G.F, or at least something was ‘odd’ about them.
The orange cranberry muffins were major fails, they didn’t rise, they congealed to the side of the baking tins and though they tasted good, they broke, cracked and were a total eye-sore!
The biggest success story of the evening was, by far, the blondies. Firstly, I amended the recipe, I added more milk than the recipe called for. When I added the recommended amount, it didn’t in any way appear to be ‘batter’. So, I added a few sloshes more until the mixture was bound, and had a cookie-dough consistency.
With the blondies, I used soy flour and soy milk, the soy flour is definitely very ‘cloudy’, and there’s lots of plumes of dust when you pour it, but, it was a lot nicer tasting than the Organic Millet Whole grain flour I’ve used in all my other gluten free recipes to date. It was lighter, fluffier and a hellova lot less gritty tasting.
When I asked Col to try them, he said, ‘yay gluten’, to which I replied, ‘nope, still gluten free’. He was surprised, said he’d never have guessed, it tasted like a regular baked goodie. The Enjoy Life chocolate that I used, was delicious, I’d never have guessed it was dairy free or in anyway different to ‘regular’ chocolate. It was really tasty!! I’d definitely use the chocolate again and can’t recommend it enough!
I definitely feel like this round of allergen-free baking was a lot more successful than the last round – which, I think we can safely say, was an utter disaster!
I’m still not done with this allergen-free baking. It’s not beating me!! (plus, I have a boxful of allergen-free ingredients to play with.)
I’d happily take recipe recommendations from any gluten free, lactose free, vegan friendly readers out there…or any tips on how to improve my allergen-free baking!