Pumpkin seed yeast Bread

 

I saw this Gluten-free, vegan yeast bread here:  http://glutenfreevegan.wordpress.com/2007/05/29/yeast-bread-v10/ 

She also has a yeast free version!

It looked so delicious I decided to try it.  

 

Here are some pictures:

 

 

And now for the rundown:

I used the two and a half cups of water in the beginning which was a big mistake because I had to keep adding more flour later to make it thick enough.  I didn’t follow the instructions so well..woops.  It did rise beautifully though!  

Once baked and pulled out of the oven, the texture was wonderful.  Light and slightly chewy but soft with bubbles inside!  It has quite a hard crust which I wasn’t fond of but some might like this.  The taste was rather bland so I would recommend adding some seasonings or just more nutritional yeast before baking.  The one good thing about it being somewhat bland though, is that it’s neutral enough for it to have so many topping possibilities.  And OH! the possibilities.  This bread is good enough for a sandwhich, and you don’t hear that very often (or ever) with gluten free bread.  How about some “cream cheese” with jam?  Or peanut butter and jam?  Or chickpea salad!  Avocados and olives and spinach with dressing…..mmmmm.

One thing to note also is that I put it in my fridge overnight and in the morning it felt like dry crumbs, but as soon as I micro-waved it for a few seconds (about 30), it felt like it was fresh out of the oven again.  Wonderful!

Blueberry muffins

Finally after 6 months of attempting a gluten-free, vegan muffin, I have concocted the tastiest, moistest muffin a girl could ask for!  After some very awful tasting mistakes, my persistence has paid off.  These muffins even remind me of oatmeal ones since I used some quinoa flakes which give it a slightly oatmeal-ish texture.

 

Cardamon date balls

Seemingly sweet, these little desserts may not actually satisfy a sweet tooth.  My family gave them the go-ahead but I wasn’t too impressed.  Not bad for an experiment though and filled with fiber and nutrients.  They certainly weren’t unagreeable.

 

 

Ingredients:

1 cup dates (soaked for an hour or so)

2 ripe bananas

1/3 cup shredded coconut (plus extra for rolling)

3 tbsp psyllium husk

1 heaping tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp cinnamon

2-3 dashes of fine sea salt

 

Directions:

Drain the dates and in a food processor blend them up to the consistency you desire.  In a medium sized bowl mash the bananas, coconut, cinnamon, cardamom, psyllium husk.  Add in the dates and a few pinches of salt. 

In another bowl put some extra coconut for rolling (about a half cup).  Roll the mixture into balls as best you can and roll into the coconut.  

Place on a rack in your food dehydrator or eat them raw!

Because Pumpkin is just that amazing…

 

Don’t know what to do with all the leftover pumpkin you have after making those cookies?  

After cleaning up after my cookie making mess I realized I had a good cup and a half of pumpkin puree left (granted I only buy pumpkin in bulk despite my constant problem of being left with a mass amount of pumpkin).  So I decided to try out yet another pumpkin recipe.  This recipe is also adapted from the internet (http://www.cok.net/lit/recipes/) …yes…. cok.net.  Let’s all be mature now can we?    

From this website I picked out the cranberry pumpkin bread recipe and easily made it sugar and gluten free.

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups raw cranberries (fresh or from frozen)

1 cup chickpea flour (or corn flour)

1/2 cup rice flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

3/4 cup maple syrup (it would actually taste pretty good with a little less…maybe a 1/2 cup?)  OR stevia

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp clove (I omitted this because I am allergic to cloves and I don’t like the taste)

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

5 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tsp orange zest (Don’t skip this part, it’s worth it!)

3 tbsp water

 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

 

Chop the cranberries into quarters or halves (however you like) and set aside.

 

Mix the flours, cornmeal, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, in a bowl and set aside.

 

In a large bowl, mix the remaining ingredients.  Gently pour the wet into the dry and mix.  Gently stir or fold in the cranberries.  (If using chickpea flower don’t eat the batter, it’s very disheartening.  I assure you it will taste better when it’s cooked).

 

Pour mixture into a greased 9×9 inch pan and bake for 40-50 minutes.  Make sure to stick a fork or a knife in to see if it comes out clean.  For a bread that is less moist, bake for a little longer.

Pumpkin cookies

Who doesn’t like pumpkin?  Ok well I’m sure there are a lot of hands raised throughout the world, but I happen to love pumpkin and love cookies so naturally I put the two together to create heaven.  This recipe has been greatly adapted from a recipe I found many years ago off the internet which contained margarine, wheat and sugar.  I replaced the margarine with vegetable oil since vegan margarine is horribly expenisive and I replaced the wheat with a mix of corn and rice flour.  I kept the sugar since everytime I use pumpkin in a recipe it comes out uncooked and adding maple syrup would only make it harder for me.  However I am not supposed to have sugar and I suppose this is a bit of an experiment since I’ve been doing bio-feedback for 5 months or so for food allergies.  I guess you could say I’m testing the waters again and if it turns out I pay for it, I know to re-arrange this recipe once again.

 

Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients: 

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups of canned pumpkin puree

1 cup vegan sugar (I use President’s choice organic cane)

Ener-G egg replacer (Equal to one egg) or other egg replacer

1 cup rice flour

1 1/4 cup corn flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

*optional 1/2 cup walnuts, chocolate chips, raisins (anything you want to put in)

 

Directions:

Mix the pumpkin, sugar and oil together.  Add the egg replacer and mix.  Sift in dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.  This batter should have a thick enough consistancy to scoop into a spoon, plop on a cookie sheet and flatten down.  If it isn’t add a touch more corn flour until you have to right consistancy.  Let’s say you screw up and add too much, add a little more pumpkin.  Now stop messing with it! 😛

 

Bake at 375 degrees F for about 20-30 minutes depending on how you like your cookies.

Coconut Brownies

 

As I was checking out food blogs today I came across a recipe for black bean brownies.  I was just dying to try them out but I had only about two of the required ingredients.  As sad as I was to have to pass up such an intriguing dish I still had a craving for brownies.  I have never made vegan brownies let alone gluten free and sugar free so I was pretty nervous.  My main concern was the consistency and staving off bitterness.  Feeling a little daring and wanting so bad to make a “healthy” brownie with bean somehow involved in the mix, I came up with this recipe…

 

Ingredients:

2 cups chickpea flour

1/2 cup rice flour

2 Tbsp arrowroot flour

2 Tbsp ground flaxseed with 6 Tbsp water

10 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I use cocoa camino brand)  

1/2 cup shredded coconut (optional)

1/2 cup agave nectar 

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 tsps vanilla extract

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

6 generous Tbsp vegetable oil 

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix together the flaxseeds and water.  Whisk briskly to get it a little thick.  Set aside.

Sift the chickpea flour and the rice flour together in a bowl.  Add the arrowroot,  and cocoa powder.  Whisk together.  

In a seperate bowl mix together the rest of the ingredients until nice and smooth.

Gently add in the coconut or any nuts you would like.  Try adding in a few handfuls of chocolate or carob chips/chunks!  

Pour into a well greased baking pan and bake at 350 Degrees Celcius for 35-40 minutes. Watch carefully after twenty minutes!

 

* IMPORTANT NOTE

For a moister brownie, either pop these in the fridge overnight and wait (you should store them in your fridge anyways) OR  try adding:

2-3 tbsp of Coconut butter/oil (premelted)

DO NOT LICK THE BATTER YOU WILL SORELY REGRET IT!

 

Garnish with coconut, nuts, fruit or icing.  I used an icing from “dining in the raw” that’s made from carob powder, braggs, tahini, agave, vanilla extract and brown rice syrup.

 

 

What’s better than a plate of traditional chocolate chip cookies with a big glass of milk?  A plate of gluten-free, VEGAN cookies with a tall glass of ice cold soy milk of course!

Now I honestly didn’t think this was possible at first.  At best I figured I would have myself a plate of overly moist, hideously grainy and pathetic looking lumps of half baked dough, but for a first attempt I would have to say this recipe has turned out to be quite lovely!  The cookies were slightly grainy but had the right amount of moistness when biting into them.  The soy flour can make them dry if you bake this too long and if you don’t bake them long enough they will fall apart in your hands but when you do it juuust right, they are heaven!

 

Chocolate chip cookies

 

 

And now for the recipe!

 

Ingredients:

2 & 3/4 cups White rice flour

1 cup soya flour (you can try corn flour if allergic to soy)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp Baking soda

1 Cup Vegan Margarine (I used Earth Balance)

1 & 1/2 cups pure maple syrup  OR  1/4-1/2 cup of stevia powder 

1 tsp Vanilla extract

Ener-G-eggreplacer equal to one egg (for deadly nightshade free use 1 tbsp corn starch)

1/2 – 1 cup chocolate chips of your choice (I use cocoa camino but you can try and find grain sweetened ones)

 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.

Sift together the dry ingredients.  In a seperate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix it up!

Now fold in those chocolate chips then drop spoonfulls of dough onto greased cookie sheets and flatten them down with the palm of your hand.  Be gentle.  

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.  

*Add a slice of fresh apple to your cookie jar to keep those cookies moist!