pumpkin
Mini Pumpkin Dairy Free Muffins
10/27/09 Filed in: Muffins
Meatless Mondays posted a pumpkin muffin recipe yesterday from A Life Less Sweet and I have twisted it around to meet my twisted needs: dairy free, egg free, and refined sugar free. I have eliminated dairy from my diet. I am experiementing with an eggless existance, and I do not buy refined sugar in any form. I made a batch yesterday using stevia, but I was not in love with the after taste of the stevia (probably used too much.) Today I mixed it up again and I really like these so I thought I'd post them up for you!
I am also experimenting with flours these days so I made mine with a combination of gluten free four and spelt flour. The original recipe uses whole wheat flour and all purpose flour. Which ever you prefer.......
I also experiment with spices all the time. The first batch I used the pumkin pie spice that the recipe calls for and that was good, but this batch I used five spice, a chinese spice blend, and I liked it even better. I think it is the star anise in the five spice. If you do not have either blend use cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, etc to your taste.
Ground flaxseed and the applesauce are the egg replacer.
The dry ingredients:
1 cup gluten free flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2-3 teaspoons five spice powder or pumpkin pie spice
2 tablespoons flaxseed
1/2 teaspoon salt
The wet ingredients:
1 can pumpkin (do not substitute pumpkin pie filling)
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup applesauce (natural and unsweetened)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 24 mini muffin pan or something comparable. You can use an olive oil mister or use a small slice of vegan butter and rub in the cups.
Blend these two groups seperately. Then blend them together until the flour is all mixed in. Spoon into the muffin cups until full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool on a wire rake and enjoy!!
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
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First Signs of Fall
10/13/09 Filed in: Muffins
Having lived in Florida for the last 20+ years, I no longer have the visual cues that Fall has arrived. In fact, our five day fall season can be easily missed if you are not paying attention. Unfortunately, it has not arrived im Miami yet because we are still having days in the 90's and the humidity has not dropped. (Sigh.) Maybe it will get here soon.....
One great sign I have developed, that tells me fall is here (besides the on-slaught of fall catalogs and Halloween merchandise in the stores) is the itch to bake. Well I must have been jonesing today because I baked and balked and baked!
In honor of Vegan Mofo, I made recipes from my two new cookbooks, Vegan Yum Yum, by Lauren Ulm and Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. These ladies also happen to write two of my favorite cooking blogs. I have used many of their recipes sucessfully so I tried out several of their muffins today. These are dairy-free, egg-free, and wheat-free. Also, I use spelt flour versus whole wheat flour in all these recipes.Here's a little food porn......
Lemon Cranberry Muffins from Vegan Yum Yum. Here I replaced the sugar with stevia as well as the vegetable oil with coconut oil. Otherwise, the recipe stood as written. The stevia cuts back on the sugar and calories and the coconut oil adds more health and goodness.
Almond Quinoa Muffins from Veganomicon. This one is my favorite. I made one batch with coconut oil and one with canola oil and in this recipe the canola oil did a better job. I also played with the spices in the second batch. I used chinese five spice instead of the cinnamon and cardomon, and the result was yummy. And, because I never leave anything sacred, I also played with the dried fruit. I had some dried mandarin oranges that I put in the first batch intsead of the apricots and that added some real sweetness. Isa and Terry give the reader two suggestions for sweeteners, agave and maple syrup, and I tried both (of course.) The maple syrup gave more depth to the flavor of the muffin and was the clear winner.
Pumpkin-Cranberry Scones from Veganomicon. These scones are perfect to herald in the fall season. They are spicy, moist, and hmmm hmmm good. I did not have any pastry flour so I substituted brown rice flour to keep it light and it seemed to work out perfectly.
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.