And Now Cupcakes!

I figured that if I had so much success with the muffins I had to try cupcakes. I found a good carrot cake recipe and started adapting it. Usually carrot cake calls for soda and buttermilk, but when I used that the chickpea flour mixture tended to puff up, spread and then sink. I tried to make powdered sugar in my Ninja but only with moderate success. The frosting was slightly grainy and dense. But when I served the cupcakes at a family gathering Saturday they raved about them, even liked the dip in the middle-a good well for extra frosting they said.

But I was out for perfection so I tried again today. I added a little more flour and subbed baking powder and milk for the soda and buttermilk. Got pretty close!

So here is my altered recipe:

Carrot Cupcakes

1 3/4 C sugar
3/4 C light cooking oil (I use safflower)
3 eggs
1 tsp almond extract (can use vanilla but almond is better)
3/4 C milk
2 C grated carrots
2 1/2 C chickpea flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp guar gum (I use it instead of xanthan gum, tummy doesn't like xanthan)
1 C sunflower nuts (if you can tolerate, you can use pecans or walnuts)

Blend sugar, oil, eggs, almond, and milk until smooth. Stir in carrots. Whisk or sift together chickpea flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Mix into carrot mixture. Stir in sunflower nuts. Scoop into paper lined muffin tins, it makes 27 so I had to improvise with three of my ramekins. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until top springs back with gentle pressure. Cool and frost.

And now for the frosting, which I am very proud of. I can't do any commercially prepared powdered sugar because they either have cornstarch or tapioca starch, and I can't have either. Grandson says the frosting is "amazing!"

Granulated Sugar Frosting

1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 C granulated sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
Milk

Cream sugar and cream cheese, beat in almond. Beat in enough milk to make a spreadable frosting, probably 2-3 tablespoons. Beat the heck out of it. Frost the cupcakes. Pour a cup of coffee and try not to eat more than a couple. Oh heck, eat what you want, how often do super-allergics get a safe delicious treat like this? Not often enough, that's what I say!

Next I'm going to try the knock-off Starbucks lemon cake in cupcakes, I can feel my jeans getting tight!

Remember to check your sources, read your labels and use safe for you ingredients.

The Muffin!

I'm always looking for ways to use my limited ingredients to make something that might be a change from the routine. This is the fourth time I've made my made-up recipe and I think I have a winner! One of the tricks is using guar gum. I had dismissed it because I cannot tolerate xanthan gum at all and judged them to be in the same category. But I put down my prejudices and did some research, xanthan gum is a mold grown on corn while guar is made from guar beans. So I gave it a shot. I now have happy little muffins tucked in the freezer waiting for me.

Pretty cute, don't you think?

So here's my recipe. If course check out your ingredients to make sure they're safe for you:

Marty's Muffins

Basic recipe:
1 3/4 C chickpea flour (garbanzo)
4 T sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp guar gum
2 eggs
1/3 C oil
3/4 C milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, butter or spray 12 muffin cups. You can use cupcake liners if you like. Mix dry ingredients. Beat eggs, oil and milk, stir into dry mixture. Mix til smooth-ignore the rule that says you can't stir muffin batter too much or it will get tough. That only applies if your flour has gluten. Scoop into muffin pans, a small ice cream scoop works great for this. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 minutes until brown.

I like to add sunflower nuts to mine, a half cup or so, and this morning I added a little more sugar and swirled a little cinnamon sugar into them. They tasted like a much-missed cinnamon roll! Chocolate chips are good as well. Then at lunch I made another batch and stirred in 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese and 1 1/2 tsp dried chives. Now I don't know which are my favorites!

My Mom's Ginger Cookies (Gluten-Free)

After the success using chickpea flour for the chocolate chip cookies, I moved on to the ginger cookies my mom used to make.  Stan and I have both made the recipe and people just go nuts over them.  So now the challenge-would they still drive people nuts if there was no wheat in them?  That would be a big affirmative!  We were coffee hosts at church this morning and we heard comments like, "These cookies are so good!" and "You're kidding me-these aren't gluten-free!"  Yay!

So here is my recipe:

My Mom's Ginger Cookies

1 cup softened butter

1 2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

2 eggs

2 cups chickpea flour

1 1/3 cup tapioca flour

2/3 cup potato starch

4 tsp soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp salt

Of course use safe-for-you ingredients.  Preheat oven to 375.  Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and molasses.  Beat til fluffy.  Stir together the rest of the ingredients and stir into butter mixture.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment.  (Don't skip the parchment, makes all the difference)  Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.  Check, if cookies need a bit more browning turn pan and give it one more minute.  Remove from pans and cool.  Makes about four dozen.

Muffins

Decided to try adding more eggs to my muffin recipe.  It worked pretty well.  I waited to see if they were still good to eat the next day, and they're not bad so here is the recipe:

Eggy Muffins

1 3/4 cups flour  (my current mix is 3/4 cup tapioca and 1/2 cup each potato starch and sorghum)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 stick butter, melted and slightly cooled

Stir together flours, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Beat eggs and milk, stir into dry mixture.  Whisk til smooth, stir in butter a bit at a time.  Pour into paper lined muffin cups and bake at 450 for 20-25 minutes.  Makes 12.

The extra eggs cause a cute little peak at the top.

Let me know how you like them.  Of course if you can eat rice I would use it along with a little of the other flours.  It's hard to get a good product without being able to use the rice-I have a lot of throwaways!  I eat a lot of mediocre stuff, too!

A Nice Fall Soup

Hubby and I were thinking a nice hearty soup would be tasty at this time of year. I said we needed to use some of the cabbage left from the garden, but didn't know what to put with it. We started hauling things out of the freezer and the garden and this is what we came up with. The pork roast I used was left from a huge one we had cut up to barbecue and serve for my DIL's 40th birthday. (It was raw when we started the soup process.)

1 1/2 pounds pork roast, any kind, cubed
Salt and Pepper
1/2 tsp celery seed
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound Applegate Farms organic smoked pork sausage, cubed
6 big carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 head of cabbage, chopped
3 medium potatoes, cubed

Coat pork in salt, pepper and celery seed. Heat a big soup pot with olive oil, add pork and brown. Cook it until the liquid boils off and the meat really starts to brown and coats the bottom of the pan. (This is where you get all the good flavor, since I can't use most of the meat flavor enhancers.) Add 2 quarts of water and a bit more salt to taste. Bring to a boil, turn heat down to a simmer and cook for 3-4 hours, adding more water if necessary.

Add the rest of the ingredients and cook til tender, adding more water if needed. I cooked mine early in the day and put it back on the stove to warm while the biscuits baked. I thickened it with a small amount of instant potatoes-just enough so that the soup wasn't really runny.

Enjoy!