My Favorite 5 of 2011

Last year on New Year's Eve I posted my top 5 favorite recipes I made in 2010, and I'd like to do the same for 2011. I actually intended to share more recipes this year, and more regularly, so I apologize for the lapses in blog posts here and there. Often I make something new, really like it and want to post the recipe, but then I never quite get around to making the same thing again or don't have time to take all the pictures. Then there are times when I decide to make a recipe specifically for a blog post, and it's disappointing. Sometimes I go ahead and share the recipe anyway, especially if I think I did something wrong or I feel like I'm long overdue for a post. Maybe in 2012 I'll have enough to do a top 10, but this year I'm sticking with just 5.

I would like to point out that the gluten free chocolate chip cookies from Elana Amsterdam's Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook is a recipe I featured this year, and it's without a doubt a favorite and possibly the recipe I make most often, but I've been making it since 2010, so I didn't consider it for the top 5 of this year. Also, I didn't consider any recipes that aren't gluten-free. These are MY favorite recipes, after all; I have to be able to eat them. So, without any more rambling, here's the countdown of my 5 favorite recipes of 2011.

Number 5 is the gluten-free Strawberry Shortcake I made for the Driscoll's Strawberry Shortcake Day promotion. These are definitely best consumed the same day they're baked. They get stale very quickly. I did more than just top them with strawberries, though. I also enjoyed them with lemon curd and raspberries, and they're also pretty dang yummy smeared with Nutella.

5. Strawberry Shortcake

The gluten free Mud Pie was really an experiment, and I was pleased enough with the results to consider it number 4. I know it doesn't look all that appetizing, and I do want to make this recipe again, just to see if I can improve its appearance. The crust is yummy and works with any kind of filling, so it's a great recipe to know.

4. Mud Pie

The Carrot Date Muffins recipe I made in November is my 3rd favorite, only I like the way I made them better than the original recipe. They're delicious naked, but when topped with some cream cheese frosting you'll swear you're eating carrot cake.

3. Carrot Date Muffins

In 2nd place is the Nutty Crust Peach Pie. Here's an example of a recipe that didn't come out very well, due to the burnt crust edges, and me subbing some pecans for almonds didn't work out quite as well as I'd hoped. Peaches and pecans go together fine, but this crust got soggy on me, and it that's not been an issue when I use all almonds. Still, it was delicious.

2. Nutty Crust Peach Pie

There's a reason I went ahead and posted that cornbread recipe yesterday, even though I didn't have step-by-step photos, or really any decent pictures of the cornbread muffins. I had to get that recipe up because it's my top number 1 favorite of 2011. Here again, I like the way I made it better, but I'm not all that fond of sweet cornbread, especially when I want to make stuffing with it.

1. Cornbread

I want to know about other great recipes people made this year, gluten-free or not. Do you have a list of favorites? Please comment and let me know.

Happy New Year everybody!

Zucchini Muffins

Based on the contents of my past few CSA boxes, zucchini is doing really well this year. Or at least there's a lot of it growing. It's a veggie that you can easily add to just about anything, and that's pretty much what I've been doing with it. Grated, it makes a wonderful "raw" pasta substitute, I love it lightly stir-fried with other veggies, it's delicious sauteed and added to salads, omelets, or whatever else is cooking, and then of course there's always zucchini bread. My grandmother used to make it every summer. She would bake it in loaves, and then sandwich softened cream cheese between thin slices. It tasted like cake, and I suppose it practically was the way she made it. YUM.

I started looking online for gluten free zucchini bread recipes, and I came across some zucchini mini muffins with chocolate chips over on Elana's Pantry. I love that website, and I have her Gluten Free Almond Flour cookbook, which I use regularly. She now also has a Gluten-Free Cupcakes book, which is now on my wish list, if anyone is feeling generous.

But I digress. Here is the Gluten Free Zucchini Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins recipe, and the only things I changed were my typical substitutions of using coconut oil for the grapeseed oil and maple syrup for the agave nectar. Oh, and I doubled the recipe because these muffins haven't been lasting any time around our house.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Mini-Muffins
¼ cup coconut flour
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
¼ cup coconut oil
¼ cup maple syrup
1 ½ cups grated zucchini (do not pack down when measuring)
½ cup dark chocolate chips

Combine coconut flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Set aside.

 

Combine eggs, oil, agave and zucchini. This bowl was plenty big enough the last few times I made this recipe, but I neglected to consider that this is a double recipe, and therefore required twice the space. I needed a bigger bowl.

 

Thoroughly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Then stir in the chocolate chips.

  

The recipe says to grease and flour the muffin tin, but I just used nonstick cooking spray. The first time I made this recipe, I lined the cavities with mini muffin cups, but the batter (and chocolate chips) then stuck to the paper, so this is one of those recipes that works better in a naked pan.

 

For mini muffins, spoon a tablespoon of batter into each cavity. I thought I'd have enough batter to make 12 standard size muffins as well since I doubled the recipe, but I only got seven. Bake at 350° for 18-22 minutes.

 

Some recipes work best if you make them as intended, and I think this one might fall into that category because the standard size muffins didn't come out as well, quite literally.

  

Once the muffins have cooled a few minutes, run a knife along the sides, and the minis pop right out. A few of the bigger ones weren't so cooperative. But they still taste delicious!

 

Do you have a favorite zucchini bread recipe? If so, leave a comment letting me know, and I might just try it--or attempt to make a gluten-free version of it.

Cranberry Banana Quinoa Muffins

I discovered this recipe on my Whole Foods Recipe iPhone app, which is probably my favorite app, and definitely the cooking-related one I use the most. The recipe is actually for Cranberry Banana Quinoa Bread. I decided to make muffins because this way I don't have to actually slice a loaf of bread--yes, I'm that lazy. Also, muffins don't take as long to bake or cool.

Of course, I had to change a few things. I didn't have any quinoa flakes, so I used quinoa flour, hoping they're similar enough to not matter. Also, I didn't have any garbanzo bean flour, so I used up what was left of another all-purpose gluten-free flour I had in the pantry. The only other item I subbed was using unrefined cane sugar in place of regular granulated, so my batter and muffins have a brownish tint. Oh, and I accidentally bought the extra large eggs instead of large ones the last time I went grocery shopping, but I couldn't tell that it made any difference.

Ingredients

3/4 cup quinoa flakes (I used quinoa flour)
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour (I used what was left in my box of Gluten Free Pantry All Purpose Flour)
1/3 cup potato starch (make sure you use potato starch and not potato flour, BIG difference)
1/3 cup tapioca flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 1/4 cups (about 3) ripe mashed bananas
2 large eggs
1/3 cup non-hydrogenated, non-dairy margarine that has been melted and cooled (I used Earth Balance)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a loaf pan (or muffin tin). Combine quinoa flakes, bean flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum in a medium bowl and use a wire whisk to mix everything together. Set aside. (I forgot to get a photo of that step.)

Mix mashed bananas, eggs, and margarine together in a separate bowl until well combined. Add sugar, cranberries and lemon juice and mix until blended.

 

Gently stir in dry ingredients until just combined. Do not over mix batter. Pour into loaf pan/muffin tin and bake until lightly browned, about 40 minutes for loaves and 25 minutes for muffins.

  

Allow to cool completely before serving.

 

I was very pleased with how these came out. I taste the banana more than the cranberries, but the mouthfeel is very pleasant. They do smell and taste slightly of quinoa, but that may be better balanced out when used with garbanzo bean flour as per the recipe, and they still taste good. In fact, I've eaten 3 so far. The rest are in the freezer. I can defrost them as needed for breakfast or a snack, and I'm less likely to eat more than 1 at a time that way.

  

I didn't mention it earlier, but these muffins are also dairy free. There is sugar in them, but the bananas replace a good deal of the fat, so they're also a tiny bit healthy. I'm thinking about trying these again only with applesauce instead of bananas, since not everybody likes banana bread.

Blueberry Picking Time

Probably one of my favorite things to do in summer is to get fresh local berries. This morning we went to the pick-your-own blueberry farm and brought home just over 6 pounds of yummy summer goodness. Want to see our bounty?

Actually, that's only about half of our haul. I had to use two colanders to wash them all. So then I just needed to decide what to do with all those berries, while enjoying some as a snack, of course. I really wanted to try a gluten-free almond pie crust recipe I stumbled across several months ago, and the blueberry farm gave me a recipe for "Double Good Blueberry Pie" so I used that recipe for the filling.

All nut crumb crust (from my Whole Foods Recipe iPhone app):

2 1/4 cups finely ground blanched almonds

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup melted butter

2 TBSP pure maple syrup

All you do is mix everything together well and then press into a 9-inch pie plate. 

This pie required a pre-baked shell, so I baked it at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. I don't know exactly how long because I forgot to set the oven timer when I first put the pie in, but it was more than 15 and less than 20. Once the shell is cool, then add the pie filling.

For the filling:

1/2 cup sugar (the recipe called for 3/4 cup, but these berries are plump and sweet)

3 TBSP cornstarch

1/8 tsp salt

4 cups blueberries (1 1/2 pounds), divided

1/4 cup water

1 TBSP butter

1 TBSP lemon juice

Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in saucepan. Add water and 2 cups of the blueberries. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and butter. Set aside to cool.

To assemble pie, Place remaining 2 cups of berries in cooled pie shell. 

Top with cooled cooked berries. Chill. Eat and rejoice!

Oh, and I also made some gluten-free blueberry mini muffins, but I'm not at all happy with how those came out. That recipe is going to need a bit more work, or perhaps I should just look for a better one.

Don't worry, I have plans for raw, or at least slightly more healthy, blueberry treats to share!

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Chocolate Muffins

Since going gluten-free a year ago, I have developed a keen interest in experimenting with recipes and trying to make healthier versions. Inspired partially by this Whole Foods blog entry and a healthy cookie recipe from the Holistic Nutrition Bytes blog, I recently made some chocolate muffins. Here is a picture of one:

Isn't it cute? Too bad it didn't last long in my hands. Can you see the yummy dark chocolate chips, or at least the spaces left where they used to be?

Now, like most gluten-free baked goods, these have a slightly different crumb texture and mouthfeel, but they still taste awesome. Especially when served with some coconut milk ice cream (that stuff improves just about anything I serve it with). These muffins would be divine topped with some ganache made from melted chocolate and coconut milk, but that might make them chocolate cupcakes, which would not be a bad thing. I did post a blog entry about the wonders of coconut milk and how to make awesome ganache with it, right? No? Well, then shame on me, and I will put that on my list of things to share!

So here is the recipe for these chocolate muffins.

1/3 cup almond butter

2 TBSP coconut oil

2 large pink lady apples

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark, only because that's what I had on hand)

1/4 tsp salt

1 (15 ounce) can no salt added black beans, drained, rinsed, and pureed

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1 cup chocolate chips (I like the dark chocolate chips)

1/4 cup agave nectar

Grease cavities of muffin pan or use baking cups and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Chop apples into small chunks (I didn't bother to peel mine) and puree in blender with almond butter, coconut oil, agave nectar, and eggs. Add black bean puree.

In mixing bowl combine the brown rice flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt. Mix well and add chocolate chips. Add the puree mixture to the dry ingredients, and stir just until blended.

Fill muffin pan cavities and bake about 20 minutes or until done. I made these as standard muffins and mini-muffins, and both turned out great. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to how much longer the standard muffins took to bake, so I apologize for not having a more precise baking time.