Vegan Gluten Free Lemon Blueberry Scones

VG, GF, Grain free

This afternoon I needed something nice and simple for afternoon tea so I thought I'd research some scone recipes. I've made scones using pumpkin or sweet potato before but today I felt like something sweet. This vegan GF lemon blueberry recipe hit the spot.

Ingredients:

2C almond meal
1C coconut flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 tsp mixed spice
1 teabag of herbal tea (the original recipe suggests chamomile, I used ginger and lemon)
1 heaped Tbsp coconut oil (solid, not melted)
1/2C brown sugar
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
1 1/3C unsweetened milk of your choice (we used almond)
3/4C frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 205 degrees C or 400 degrees F. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

In a food processor combine almond meal, coconut flour, baking powder, salt, mixed spice and tea. Whiz a few times until combined. Add the coconut oil and pulse until it has a crumbly texture.

In a separate bowl mix brown sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice then add to the flour mix. Combine well.

Add the milk and pulse until a dough comes together.  Carefully fold in the blueberries. Form into whatever shape you like and place on the tray. Bake for 19 - 22 minutes (mine took 22).

Here's a photo of the dough before it's cooked. I always find it useful to see the before photos of GF baking because sometimes it's difficult to believe that it really does work into a manageable dough. Here's the proof:

These are nice and crispy on the top and soft in the centre. The coconut flour does have quite a strong taste and if I make these again I'd consider substituting it for 1/2 C coconut flour and 1/2 C brown rice flour or tapioca starch. As usual with GF baking they're quite crumbly to eat - but yummy. Enjoy.

The original recipe came from www.thekitchn.com and I have made some changes which are reflected in the ingredients list above.

Gluten Free Vegan Seed Crackers

Anyone else totally sick of rice crackers?? I may have just the thing for you.

These seed crackers were a pleasant surprise. I've always shied away from making crackers because I don't have the best history with rolling out GF doughs. I imagined everything sticking and the crackers not holding together at the end. Amazingly, these crackers are so simple to make and they're just about fool proof. It's hard to find a good GF cracker especially if you're also needing them to be egg free.  We had these with cheese and chutney last night and then the kids had some in their lunches today with some homemade hummus. My kids aren't huge fans of seeds so the fact that they loved these felt a bit like a victory.

The recipe is from Wholefood Simply and I made it exactly as the recipe suggested, except that I omitted the vanilla and found I had to cook mine for longer to get them to go crispy. I think it was due to my tray not being large enough so they were a bit too thick.

Here's the recipe:

Preheat an oven to 175 degrees C or 350 degrees F

In a food processor put:

1/2 C chia seeds
1/2 C flax seeds
1/2 C pumpkin seeds
1/2 C sunflower seeds
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Pulse a few times to break up the seeds then add 1 C water.

Keep blending on a slow speed until the mix thickens up.

Line a tray with baking paper, spread the mix over the top thinly using a spatula. The recipe suggests using another piece of baking paper on top so you can roll it out but I didn't need to, I just used a spatula to spread it evenly.

Place in the oven for 30 mins and check if they're crispy. If they need more time put them back and check every 10 mins until they're nice and hard. Mine took 50 mins total. Cut into squares or break into pieces.

Enjoy with your favourite topping or on their own. They'll last in airtight container for a week (but they'll be long gone by then!)

Oat and Quinoa Blender Pancakes

GF, VG

This week I tried out a new food on my Benny with great success. A friend with coeliac disease suggested Freedom Foods Oats and since she can tolerate them I thought - why not?

Freedom Oats are grown in fields separate from crops containing gluten and they're tested before being sold. Apparently 4 in 5 people with coeliac disease can eat them - I haven't been able to find any research to support this however.  I started with a humble bowl of porridge and that went well. Both my husband and Benny seem to be able to tolerate these oats just fine.  As far as additions to a restricted diet go, this one is pretty huge. Anzac cookies! Home made muesli bars! So many baking opportunities have opened up.

This morning I decided to try out an easy pancake recipe where everything is added to a blender or food processor. I've adapted it from a few recipes I've found online to make it GF and EF. These are light and fluffy and full of good things. There are no refined sugars in them either.

Ingredients

1 C rolled oats (gluten free if you need them to be)
1 C quinoa flakes
1 1/4 C rice or almond milk
1 large ripe banana or 2 small ones
1 Tbsp maple syrup or honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder - I like Bob's Red Mill because it's GF and aluminium free
2 tsp chia seeds
1/4 C water

Method

Put the chia seeds in the 1/4 C water and leave to gel for a few minutes. This will be your "egg" and it's a nice way to get some chia into children without them realising it.

In a food processor or blender add all ingredients except the chia and water and blend until combined. Add the chia gel and pulse a few times until combined.

Cook in a hot pan with a little coconut oil or butter if you can eat it. I make these as little mini pikelets rather than big pancakes because they're easier for the kids to eat and fit nicely into their lunch boxes. I serve them without any toppings but they'd be lovely with maple syrup too.

If you can't find quinoa flakes you can use 2 C of rolled oats instead. These would also be yummy with some blueberries, sultanas or choc chips stirred through just before cooking.

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Vegan Brownies

GF, VG, NF (optional)

The other day I was tempted by a gluten free brownie recipe that popped up on my Facebook newsfeed. It was for peppermint chocolate brownies and since my husband loves a mint and chocolate combo I thought I'd give it a try. Until I looked at the recipe that is. It had no less that three mini recipes in one, and each one required a long list of ingredients. I have a pretty good set up of raw ingredients here including the weird ones like xanthem gum and buckwheat flour but I would still need to spend around $50 to make that brownie. Isn't that ridiculous?

This brownie recipe is so simple, everything is made in a food processor and it has simple ingredients. It's even pretty healthy due to it's secret ingredient... black beans. I know - a bit strange, but if you think about it - they're neutral in taste and they give you that moist binding action that you're missing without eggs and gluten.

Here we go!

Ingredients

1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
2 flax seed eggs (2.5 Tbsp flaxseed meal and 6 Tbsp water)
3 Tbsp coconut oil or other neutral oil like canola if you can't use coconut
3/4 C cocoa powder - use raw cacao if you can, the higher the quality the better
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C sugar - I used raw
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Nuts (optional) - I used pecans

Method

Preheat an oven to 175 degrees C or 350 degrees F. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin (not mini muffins, the standard size).

In a food processor add the flaxseed meal and the water and leave to sit for a few minutes to gel. You can use either whole flaxseeds and grind them or you can use ready ground meal.

Add the other ingredients except for the nuts and blend until smooth. Check the consistency and add more water if you need to - it should be thick, but not dry.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin tin and sprinkle with nuts. Cook for 20 minutes, the brownies should be pulling away from the sides of the pans. They will still be fudgey in the centre, which is just how I like them!

Enjoy!

Thanks to Minimalist Baker for the recipe, it's a great site by the way - vegan gluten free recipes without the long list of ingredients!

Lazy Sushi for School Mornings

My kids love sushi and it works for me because it's naturally GF, filling and nice and healthy. But when I think about making it, it seems way too hard - especially on a school morning. I know, I know, it's not really that hard. But on a school morning it never hurts to make things just that little bit easier - yes?

So this is my lazy sushi. I'm pretty excited about this because it's so fast and my kids love it. When Ben in particular brings home an empty lunch box I'm always happy.

Firstly, the rice. Buy your sushi rice (has to be sushi rice) from an asian supermarket not a normal supermarket. It's much much cheaper that way. I cooked mine in a pressure cooker - 2 C rice with 2 C water for 7 mins on low. Then I mixed in 3 Tbsp of rice wine vinegar (check for GF status) with a fork and left it to cool.  This was enough for two lunches for two kids, with some left over which I froze for next time.

The next thing you'll need is a rice mould. I bought mine for $2.80 from a Japanese shop but I bet there are loads of them online too. If you don't have one you could also just make balls from the rice or try to make the rolls with your hands.

These two halves fit inside a plastic frame  - so you put one half in the frame, fill it to the top with rice (pressing down firmly) then put the other half on top face down and squeeze. The frame slides off and you remove the two halves of the mould to reveal three rolls like this:

Then all I do is cut or rip a piece of nori and wrap it around the outside. I've also seen them with sesame seeds sprinkled over the top but my little guy wasn't so keen on that. The whole thing takes less than a minute.

My daughter likes filling in her sushi and it didn't work too well when I tried to do layer of vegetables in the rice mould. So instead I made her a sushi salad. Just add whatever you like to your sushi rice, rip up some nori and dribble over some GF soy sauce.

There we go - lazy sushi. No rolling, no bamboo mats! Have a great day everyone.

Vegan Gluten Free Carrot Applesauce Muffins

GF, VG, EF, DF, NF

I had a request for this recipe so I'm posting it now, but the photo above isn't mine. It's taken from yummly.com and it's of the muffins that I used as my starting point. The original recipe is far far too long for me to bother with. I need quick simple recipes that are easy to remember so I've taken bits out and made it much less work. I'll try and make these this weekend so I can post you a photo of the real thing, they look pretty similar.

The first step is to make some applesauce. You can buy it of course, but it's so cheap and simple to make and you can store it in the freezer for months. I use applesauce like you would use an egg in baking, it's so adaptable too - porridge, desserts, cakes, muffins, pancakes... you can use applesauce just about everywhere.

To make the sauce I de-stalk then chop up as many apples as I have on hand. I don't peel them or deseed them, I just make sure they're washed well. I try to only get organic apples but if they're not then I will add some white vinegar (about 1/4C) to a sink full of water and let the apples soak in there for about 30 mins before cooking with them.

Once they're chopped up into chunks I put them into my pressure cooker and add 2 tsp of cinnamon and 1 C of water. Then I cook on medium pressure for 10 minutes. I allow them to cool a little and then I blend everything up using a stick blender.  That's it - couldn't be simpler. I do this when apples are in season and defrost a container of it as I need it.

If you don't have a pressure cooker then boiling them up in a big stock pot would work, a slow cooker would be just as good too.

Now on to the muffins!

Ingredients:

1 C GF flour (I tend to use 1/2 C brown rice flour, 1/4 C buckwheat and 1/4 C tapioca starch but you can use a store bought blend).

1/2 C cane sugar or maple syrup

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

1 C grated carrot

1/2 C applesauce

1/2 C non dairy milk such as rice or soy milk

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, mixed spice and carrot in a bowl. Add the applesauce then add the milk slowly. Depending on your flour you may need more or less milk so add it slowly and stop when it reaches a good thick batter consistency. If you like you can add raisins or nuts at this stage.  Spoon into a greased muffin pan and bake at 180 degrees C for around 20 mins but keep checking as it will depend on your oven and muffin pan.

Although I don't really like baking in silicone pans I do use one for GF muffins. They never stick and it's easy to get any kind of muffin out of the pan. If you use a metal pan make sure it's very well greased or use muffin papers. I get 8 big muffins or 12 smaller ones from this mix.

Vegan Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

GF, VG, DF, EF, NF
(Photos will be added this weekend!)

This is my never fail cookie recipe. It's an adaptation of an Apricot Thumbprint recipe from Flying Apron and I have added all sorts of things to it - mixed spice, cacao powder, jam topping, nuts and chocolate chips.


Ingredients

1 2/3 C brown rice flour
3/4 chickpea or garbanzo flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
small pinch sea salt
1/2 C vegan chocolate chips (dark chocolate is often dairy free, otherwise there are specialty allergy brands like Sweet William)
1/2 C canola oil or other neutral oil
1/2 C cane sugar
1/2 C rice, soy or almond milk

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C or 375 degrees F.

Combine the brown rice flour, chickpea flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt in a bowl with a whisk.

In another bowl combine the oil, sugar and milk and stir until everything is mixed well and thick.

Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix well, then add the chocolate chips.

Form small balls and bake on a tray lined with baking paper for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them to make sure they don't get too dark.

Makes about 20 cookies.

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