“I am going to bake some muffins” I announced last night. There was a stunned silence followed by a delighted and slightly incredulous “Really? That’s fantastic” from my husband. “Yep and they are going to be gluten and dairy free” I replied. “Excellent, sounds delicious” he muttered through gritted teeth with much less excitement.

But I showed him!

These little beauties really are delicious, and so quick to make. Muffins have always been something I avoided baking, especially fruit muffins as catering to dairy free diets and now gluten free as well seemed a bit tricky. Add to that the fact that the only person in the family who doesn’t have a food allergy has a hatred of cooked fruit, and it all seemed to hard.
However yesteday as I was cleaning out my desperately in need of a throw out fridge I found a jar of applesauce. Eureka!

With a bit of trepidation in spite of my bravado I started concocting. And here is the result – really tasty gluten free, dairy free and chunky cooked fruit free muffins. Enjoy.

You will need
2 cups gluten free flour
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup soy or almond milk. (I used soy)
1/2 cup Applesauce
1/3 cup Maple syrup
1/4 cup golden syrup
1 egg. ( I made this for my children who are not vegan. You could of course use an egg replacer to veganise)

Directions
1. Mix your dry ingredients into a bowl
2. Mix your wet ingredients into a seperate bowl
3. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well. I like to leave the batter a tiny bit lumpy.
4.Grease a muffin tray. (I used vegan spread )
5. Dollop (my favourite word) your mixture into the muffin tray
Bake at 170 degrees celcius for 20 mins
6. Gloat because your muffins are dairy free, gluten free and really tasty.

Question: What is your favourite gluten and dairy free baking recipe. Do send a link if you have one.

cheers
Ali

Today I was heading towards extremegrumpiness (Is there such a word?). There was only one thing for it, and itneeded to be chocolate. Add to that of course it needed to be vegan andgluten free. And lets just finish that off with a dose of I can’t be bothered cooking.

If that sounds familiar – I have the easy,quick and delicious solution for you.

Ingredients
1/2 cup vegan margarine
3 tbsp soy or almond milk (I used almond)
1 cup sugar
200 grams dairy free chocolate
2 cups rice bubbles
3 cups gluten free oats

(Simple huh? But that is what the blog is about)

Directions

Set your element to a low to medium heat, and in a large saucepan bring the margarine, milk, chocolate and sugar to the boil stirring constantly.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the oats and rice bubbles, mix well.

Drop the mixture using a Tablespoon onto the paper – quickly!

Refrigerate until at the consistency you prefer.

I have one little confession:  they need to sit in the fridge to harden so you can’t eat them straight away, and when you are desperate for chocolate relief that feels like ages. My solution? Save some mixture and eat it directly from the pan while you are waiting………………..

Question: What is your favourite quick emergency treat