Gluten-Free Almond Zucchini Mini-Muffins

Just sweet enough, gluten-free zucchini mini-muffins.

Temptation. A to Z. Almond flour and zucchini mini-muffins sweetened only with pure maple syrup. That's right. No cane sugar. Almond flour and bourbon vanilla bring their subtle, natural sweetness to gluten-free muffin recipes, so why cloak it with a heavy dose of sugar? And adding a lip-smacking kiss of ginger wakes up the zucchini (which tends to fall asleep in baking recipes, due to utter lack of commitment and verve).

I've added quinoa flakes for extra protein, and brown rice flour to round out the whole grains. And a small bit of tapioca starch- to give these whole grain based muffins some lift. Now the only hitch is, don't eat all twenty-four at once, Darling.

Tell yourself you're only going to eat one.

Well, maybe two.

Don't think about three.

Or imagine four.

Because that fourth delectable bite of nary a muffin- really, it's only a tease of a muffin- might stir your desire for a fifth. And the next thing you know, half the mini-muffin pan is empty. And you are standing, wide-eyed and innocent, brushing baby sized crumbs off your chin, when your husband swings around the corner into the sunlit kitchen and inhales, declaring, Sweet Tapdancing Buddha, it smells good in here! What did you bake?

And thinking lickity-split fast you tell him, I made a dozen almond flour zucchini mini-muffins.

Want to try one?


READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Gluten-Free Pineapple Coconut Muffins

Tender pineapple muffins with toasted coconut.

A famous food blogger-turned-author whose foodie envied blog-to-movie deal has apparently not cultivated much compassion for those of us stricken with gluten sensitivity recently barked on Facebook, "If I have to read one more thing about going gluten free I'm going to stomp on someone's face." And more than one person agreed with her. One of her fans (also a food blogger) added, it's "too precious".

Strap on your helmets, Campers. There's not a lot of love out there.

I know this. You know this. Some of you have even shared stories with me- about not only eye-rolling waiters and could-care-less food preparers, but family members sneaking gluten into what they feed you, just to "see what happens". Just to test you.

Let me repeat that.

Family. Feeding you gluten. On purpose.

No wonder strangers feel they can openly spout contempt. If we are not respected within the bosom of our own clan, our flesh and blood, how can we expect random strangers to care?

The truth is, they don't.


Until their child gets anemic for no apparent reason. Or their young wife breaks a hip. Or their mother shrinks to skin and bones before their very eyes. Then it becomes interesting. Then the mystery becomes worthy of their attention. And they start asking questions. What is that disease called, you know the one where you can't eat bread?

Celiac disease is sadly under diagnosed. Millions have it and don't know it. And that translates to an epidemic of silent suffering- a lot of mysterious malnourishment, anemia, and osteoporosis. A lot of migraines, depression, infertility, and blistery skin rashes in unmentionable locations. A lot of bloating and Pepto Bismol chugging. But hey.

We know you don't want to hear about it.

So forgive us, please.

Forgive us for living with a autoimmune disease whose only cure is a gluten-free diet. Forgive us for focusing so much on food- our only medicine. Our breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Our daily bread. Forgive us for asking questions in restaurants. Forgive us for feeling awkward at social events where food is ubiquitous, and family parties, where your disbelief and denial can make us sick for three days.

Forgive us for getting excited when a new recipe works, and our daughter can eat a chocolate chip cookie that isn't going to make her ill. Forgive us for sending our son to school with gluten-free vegan cupcakes for the class. Forgive us for wanting our children to feel like they belong and contribute.

Forgive us our passion for gluten-free food that fills our bellies and lightens our souls. Just a little.

Because to those of us who must live gluten-free- every day of our life- food is no small thing.

Food is precious.



READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Gluten-Free Cherry Almond Muffins

Whole grain, gluten-free, dairy-free... and luscious.

Cherry Cherry Bo Berry

It hit me today as I was walking my morning walk. I've been sugar-free for two months (I even looked it up, just be sure). Eight weeks without sugar. Eight! Ocho. Huit. Osiem. The first week was the toughest. Sugar detox is not for wimps, darling.

First, there is the headache. The roughshod gallop pummeling the interior of your tender, childlike skull, leaving you feeling cracked, and squinting, dodging sunlight like the unholy spawn of Dracula, begging for mercy.

Or at least a tiny, hummingbird nibble of chocolate.

Then there is The Craving. The Craving outlasts the headache (which finally bids you vaya con Dios at the end of day four). The Craving lasts for a week. Maybe two. Or three, now that I think of it. I'm not exactly sure. I stopped counting the days when it all became one big itchy wall-climbing pantry-rifling prowl for something to fill the hole. The hole that is one big long gnawing hunger for something sweet.

Then one blue-sky day I tasted almond butter right out of the jar.

And it knocked my fuzzy pink socks off.

Almond butter! Incredibly sweet and creamy. It tasted like dessert.

And I knew I was home free.

My taste buds had changed. And everything from bananas to cherry tomatoes tasted intensely, deliciously new.

Like candy.

So if you are tempted to try a sugar detox, I am here to encourage you. I did it. I survived. And I even lost a few pounds (I also gave up white starches, like white rice, tapioca starch, and white potatoes). Tenacious Doris is eight pounds lighter. And more importantly, my disagreeable tummy has settled into a more friendly relationship with yours truly.

Sugar Detox Tips: Fats can save your butt, honey. When giving up white starches and sugar, healthy fats can rescue you from intense cravings and general, no good, low sugar feebleness. Whenever I felt hungry and shaky I ate a handful of almonds or pecans, or dabbed almond butter on banana slices. I munched on olives. Avocado spritzed with lime juice was a rich and silky treat. I hard-boiled organic free-range eggs to have on hand for high protein snacks.

Now that my cravings have stabilized, I don't eat as many pick-me-ups.

As you may have noticed with my Blueberry Scone recipe, I've started to bake without sugar, using the same powdered stevia I add to my morning chai, and my ginger root tea. A tiny little bit of stevia goes a long way. (Read more about stevia and other sugar substitutes here.)

I'm pleasantly surprised at how downright killer my sugar-free treats are! Even the sugar indulging men in the house agree. These are darn tasty.

Sweet cherries and almond flour make lovely muffins.

Today's baking adventure involves cherries (why not?). And I did add two tablespoons of pure maple syrup to the batter this time, for taste, texture and sweetness. But if you need (or want) to avoid maple syrup, just sub almond milk instead.

Summer goodness: whole grain cherry almond muffins.

Gluten-Free Cherry Almond Muffins Recipe

By Karina Allrich

Cherries and almonds are a match made in heaven. So fragrant and naturally sweet. I used only a touch of stevia and a small amount of pure maple syrup to sweeten these lovely breakfast treats. If you prefer a traditionally sweeter muffin, feel free to add sugar. A half cup should do it.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups almond flour
1 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup GF millet flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon powdered stevia, to taste* see notes
3 large organic free-range eggs
2 tablespoons light olive oil
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 teaspoons pure almond extract
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk, as needed
1 cup packed pitted, chopped sweet cherries

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Line a twelve-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (almond flour through stevia).

Add in the eggs, oil, maple syrup, and almond extract, beating until the ingredients stick together. Continue to beat as you add the almond milk, a little at a time, beating until the batter loosens and becomes smooth and slightly sticky. It should look like a thick- but smooth- muffin batter. I added a half cup of almond milk to mine.

Add in the chopped cherries by hand and stir to distribute, saving a few to add to the muffin tops.

Set the batter aside to rest for a few minutes. I like to do this with gluten-free batters. It seems to help the rise.

Spoon the batter evenly into the twelve muffin cups. Stud the tops with a few cherry pieces.

Bake in the center of a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes or so, until domed and golden. The muffins should be firm to the touch.

Little cherry studded gems of deliciousness.

Set the muffin pan on a cooling rack for five minutes. Then gently remove the muffins and place them directly on the rack to cool (this keeps the bottoms from getting soggy), or serve immediately.

These cherry almond gems are heavenly warm and tender from the oven.

Cook time: 20 minutes

Yield: 12 muffins

Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

All images & content are copyright protected, all rights reserved. Please do not use our images or content without prior permission. Thank you. 

Tender and not too sweet, this muffin is the perfect summer treat.

Notes:

The stevia I used is concentrated, and a little goes a long way. Taste test and judge for yourself how much you'd prefer to add to the batter. Remember that too much powdered stevia can taste bitter in baked goods. I plan on trying some of the stevia that is crystallized for baking purposes.

As mentioned above, if you prefer using sugar in your gluten-free baking, by all means use a half cup of sugar and skip the stevia.

For those baking vegan, I have made wonderful almond flour muffins without eggs. Check my Blueberry Almond Flour Muffins recipe and replace the blueberries with chopped sweet cherries, and the vanilla powder with two teaspoons almond extract. Or follow this recipe above using your favorite egg replacer.

As always, I urge you to add the liquid slowly as you beat the batter, using only the amount you need to achieve a smooth, slightly sticky batter- not too thick, not too thin. You may need slightly less (or slightly more) liquid, depending upon your climate. Humidity influences flours and their moisture content.

For easy on-the-go treats, wrap leftover muffins in foil, bag, and freeze.

Wheat-Free Gluten-Free Anise Biscotti

Sugar-free vegan biscotti infused with anise. Start dunking.

Not Too Sweet Biscotti

Sugar is taking a beating these days. Have you noticed? Studies left and right are accusing this sweet-talking Romeo of seducing us to a life of ruin and heartache. They've applied the words toxic, and poison. Is it really as bad they say? I'm not certain (and I'm not convinced they are, either; my sugar loving grandmother lived to the ripe old age of 93). But this I do know. Super refined corn sugar (aka HFCS) scares me. Not only because it cajoles our livers to convert the fructose to belly fat, but because it doesn't agree with me. Period.

I knew this the first time I drank a margarita that made me balloon and bloat like a pregnant Demi Moore (and while I concur that Demi was superbly gorgeous in all her fecund glory, in all honesty, I do not desire to emulate such a look- or frankly, such a fertile state- at my tender age of post- let's say- fifty). So I took a gander at the label of margarita mix to be sure it was gluten-free. It was.

But the second ingredient?

High fructose corn syrup.


READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Peanut Butter Banana Cake

My gluten-free peanut butter banana cake was inspired by a sandwich.

Karina's Peanut Butter Banana Cake Recipe- Low sugar

Recipe originally posted recipe May 2007.

I decided to experiment with a recipe that would be naturally sweet. Bananas came to mind. And then peanut butter. The classic combo makes for a tender, slightly sweet cake. Perfect with tea. Or a glass of ice cold rice milk. I even eat it for breakfast. It reminds me of the peanut butter-banana sandwiches I used to love.

Ingredients:

4 ripe medium bananas, mashed 
1/2 cup organic natural peanut butter or sunflower seed butter
1/4 to 1/3 cup or honey
2 organic free-range large eggs (or Ener-G egg replacer)
2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla extract

1/2 cup coconut flour
1 cup fine almond meal
Dash of stevia powder
Dash of cinnamon or nutmeg, to taste
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt [if using salt-free peanut butter]

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 350ºF. Line a 8 or 9-inch cake pan with greased parchment.

Mix the wet ingredients in a bowl: bananas through vanilla. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk the dry ingredients. Beat the dry ingredients into the wet mixture till smooth and sticky.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and place in the center of the pre-heated oven.

Bake until done - about 35 to 40 minutes - and a wooden pick inserted into the center emerges clean.

Cool on a wire rack before slicing and serving.

Cook time: 35 min

Yield: 8 slices

Freezes well, pieces wrapped individually. Yummy cold.

Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

All images & content are copyright protected, all rights reserved. Please do not use our images or content without prior permission. Thank you. 

Notes:

Seed butters and other nut butters will work in this recipe as a sub for peanut butter.

For those of you who prefer sugar, you can sub 1/2 cup of packed golden brown sugar in place of stevia.

Ener-G brand egg-replacer is suitable for Passover; use in place of the baking soda/powder leavening.

Not only is the cake gluten-free and cane sugar free, Babycakes, it's grain-free and casein free, which makes it a suitable treat for all those autistic and Aspie angels out there.

Choose smooth peanut butter and finely ground blanched almond flour for the texture sensitive.

Cranberry-Apricot Muffins (Gluten, Dairy and Sugar Free)

Cranberry muffins with apricot jam.

By the time you read this post, Dear Reader, I'll be walking Venice Beach. And sighing a long slow sigh. At last. A long overdue getaway- the first vacation since our last visit to the City of Angels- way back in the fall of 2007. Which, considering the roller coaster ride of a year we've all had- personally and collectively- feels like a virtual lifetime ago.

I'll be away for a week. But don't worry. You know I couldn't leave you on your own without a new recipe to tempt you into the kitchen. So I stirred up a new batter for you- some tender breakfast muffins. A fresh combination of tart cranberries and golden apricot preserves in a flour base that features buckwheat, sorghum and quinoa flours- yielding a higher protein profile than your average gluten-free muffin. And, as a bonus to those of you eschewing sugar cane, this recipe has no added sugar. (I didn't add nuts this time, but if you like a little nutty crunch in your muffins these would be lovely with chopped pecans, or toasted almonds.)

READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Gluten-Free Chocolate Biscotti

Gluten-free sugar-free chocolate biscotti.

A Cookie for Grown Ups


I was seriously jonesing for a crunchy coffee treat this week. But what could I make? Eating lower carb and lower glycemic means I'm eating no sugar, white flour or starches. The sweetest thing I've eaten in a month was the half of a frozen banana I tossed yesterday into a berry breakfast smoothie. Tasty, yes. But not exactly the chocolaty crisp indulgence I was daydreaming about.

As a side note to those of you following my posts on lower glycemic eating and wondering about sugar cravings and the South Beach Diet, I can report that Phase 1 is worth the two week tough love/low carb approach because it does reset your sweet tooth and diminish your gotta-have-it-now cravings for refined carbohydrates. And that's a big plus. It also banishes the carbohydrate bloat that many of us with celiac disease experience when we eat gluten-free starches. And that is a big plus. Pulling on a pair of jeans with a little room and give in the waist feels kick-ass great.

It is, however, very difficult to manage Phase 1 with multiple food allergies.

Where the unencumbered soul might eat one of Kalyn's delicious mini-quiche muffins or eggy casseroles for breakfast and Slow Roasted Tomato Hummus for a mid-afternoon snack, this intrepid gluten-free goddess was stuck popping cherry tomatoes. I admit up front- it was a humbling and hungry two weeks on a program where you are not supposed to go hungry.

My other disappointment was not losing as much weight as I had hoped to shed on the strict Phase 1. I lost two pounds. Upon deeper investigation I discovered that the stringency of Phase 1 works most dramatically on a different body type than I happen to inhabit (I'm a tall pear shape; if you're an apple body style you'll see more dramatic results in Phase 1).

So I've switched to Plan B.

A hybrid. I'm still eschewing- not chewing- refined carbs, high glycemic starches and sugar. But I'm also keeping an eye on calories and switching food choices to a more Mediterranaen Diet approach (less meat, more fruit and a wider range of vegetables- like SB off-limits carrots and butternut squash).

I discovered- to my pie-roll horror- I was eating way more fat calories on the South Beach plan because of my limited food choices. Too much high calorie beef and pork and salmon- for protein. And way too much olive oil. The olive oil problem is totally my bad. I never measure. I just pour from a handy little spout. Usually while chatting about how impressive Michelle Obama is or how sad I am that HBO cancelled John From Cincinnati and now we only have the first season on DVD to ponder and decipher- with all it's tantalizing clues and unfinished story lines. I don't know Butchie, instead.

When I started adding up the daily glugs of olive oil- Holy Mother of Fat Grams! Talk about hidden calories. I was eating 500 to 600 calories a day I never thought twice about. I gotta get one of those nifty olive oil sprayers.

Words of wisdom from my smart and trim-waisted husband? Don't limit your food choices so much that you deprive yourself, Babycakes, or you'll feel discouraged and cranky (Cranky? Moi?) and you'll reach for a bucket of popcorn or a fistful of fudge brownies because you've starved yourself into a low blood sugar feeding frenzy.

He has a point.

And so I've added fruit smoothies back into my menu- lower carb fruits like frozen wild blueberries and organic strawberries whipped with a cup of hemp milk- and I'm eating carrot sticks and sweet potatoes and butternut squash and apples (no one ever got fat eating carrots and apples, he tells me). So it's not exactly South Beach any more. But it is sugar free and refined starch free. I'm lower glycemic instead of low carb, I suppose. And I calculated my calorie output with my calorie input and my height and weight and all that numbers stuff to lose my extra pounds the old fashioned way- slow but sure. No magic pill or instant fix. Just common sense and an olive oil sprayer.

So back to my biscotti.

I decided to try a new mix of high protein lower carb flours and agave to make a lower glycemic cookie. Not an all-you-can-eat cookie. But a smarter cookie choice. A less sweet sugarless cookie for grown-ups. And guess what? If you're looking for a sugar-free treat that is chocolaty and crisp and dunk worthy- and if you've tamed your sweet tooth and don't expect a sugar high sexy explosion- this recipe just might tickle your fancy.

READ MORE and get the recipe ...