Showing posts tagged: : gluten free
Monday, 20 February 2012

Applesauce Muffins

“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

 

Saturday, 4 February 2012

Raw Organic Goodness

Little Bird Chocolate Macaroons
I have said it once, and I will say it again, a girl has got to have treats. Even if you are striving for the healthiest diet in the world, forgoing treats is in my mind the quickest way to fail. I find that when I deny myself the small pleasures in life, I really want to rebel.

So with this in mind I wandered into our local organic shop, and found these – Chocolate Macaroons. These babies are quite simply heavenly, and not only that they are raw, organic, sugar, dairy and gluten free. As usual my co-taste tester was my non – vegan husband, and he adored these!

One of the primary ingredients in these is Raw Cacao. Cacao is a superfood, containing the mood-enhancing ( natural!) chemicals Phenylethylamine and Theobroma. No wonder they taste so good.

All of the other ingredients are clearly labelled on the pack and include Coconut, Coconut Oil, Vanilla Bean, Vanilla Extract, Agave, Maple Syrup and  Himalayan crystal salt.

Little Bird make 4 types of macaroons, my other favourite flavour being Passion fruit and Macadamia. They also have a variety of other products.
Now I have to be honest and say these macaroons are not the cheapest on the shelf at $8.90 NZD for a packet of 5, but less than $2.00 a macaroon is a pretty good deal in my opinion for pure organic deliciousness!

You can order via the website www.littlebirdorganics.co.nz  and Little Bird does deliver overseas.
Note – Little Bird did not ask me to review this product. I just really really like them!

Question for today: What is your favourite store bought treat?