Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Some recipes for Nicola...

These are especially for Nicola, who's older boy has recently gone gluten-free. 
All these ingredients are available at Rainbow. Some of them are at Whole Foods.
One of my favorite books for allergy-free baking is the Food Allergy Survival Guide by Vesanto Melina, Jo Stepaniak and Dina Aronson. My only complaint is that there's too much sugar and the recipes are too sweet, so I cut them down quite a bit and add more liquid to compensate if it's honey or maple syrup.

Flour Mix from Food Allergy Survival Guide:

3 cups potato or tapioca starch
2 cups chickpea/garbanzo flour
2 cups brown or white rice flour
1 cup arrowroot starch

This can be kept in a jar or airtight container for months. It seems to almost behave like wheat flour, which makes it nice for substitutions. FYI, though, the potato flour is SUPER absorbent. I much prefer the tapioca starch for consistency.


Super-easy one bowl muffins:

12 muffins

2 cups flour mix
1/3 cup honey or maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon guar gum or 1 egg, beaten
large pinch of salt
2 cups nondairy milk or water
1/2 cup coconut oil, grapeseed oil or ghee, softened

Preheat the oven to 375F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with baking cups. Blend together all dry ingredients: flour mix, guar gum (if using it), salt, in large bowl. Whisk in milk or water, oil and blend until smooth. (Add egg here if you're using it instead of guar gum.) 

Spoon into cups being careful not to overfill. Bake until lightly browned, and when cake tester or toothpick comes out smooth from middle of a muffin, about 25 minutes. Cool on a rack. 

These will be best the same day and still tasty the next am. After that, freeze them and they'll keep a long while. 

The muffins can be varied with just about any blend of fruit, nuts, spices, etc.