Gluten Free Banana Bread

During these cold winter days I have been trying to find a way to occupy the time spent in the house with my two preschool girls. This morning one of the girls, Olivia spotted some very ripe bananas. She wanted to throw them away but I stopped her and explained that those are super yummy and sweet and we put the in banana bread. Olivia's response was that of a kid, "We'll mama, why don't we make some now?" I agreed with her and they climbed up on the stools and we got to baking. 

The recipe that I used was my mom's. I was a little afraid to take a recipe that I so loved and turn it gluten free afraid that it would taste terrible, but I was bound to adventure out of my comfort zone. I am so glad I did. The banana bread turned out so well. It did have slightly different taste than the wheat version, but it still passed the kid test. In fact, the girls had three pieces each! (Not all at once...lol) I felt that this would be a great one to share, especially for those who are gluten free. Please enjoy.

Gluten Free Banana Bread

Ingredients:

1/2 c. Crisco shortening

3 mashed ripe bananas

3 c. Sifted GF All-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. Xanthan 

3 eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 c. Sugar

*1/2 c. Sour milk (1TBS vinegar to 1/2 c. Milk) 

1 tsp. baking soda (put in milk)

3/4 c. Walnuts (optional) - my girls would not let me put them in.

Method:

1) Cream shortening, sugar, salt.

2) Add eggs, bananas, milk, and baking soda. Mix until well combined. 

3) Slowly add flour and nuts. Spray two bread pans.

4) Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until firm to touch. 

- I baked mine for 1 hour and it was perfect. Soft and moist on the inside.

Notes:

* I used rice milk

Gluten Free Tortillas

It is amazing how much better my daughter feels after being off gluten for about two months. Since changing her diet to gluten free, we have found that there are many products out there for her, but in reality they don't taste very good or totally different from what she was used to. One of her favorite things to eat were tortillas. She would run to the snack drawer and pull out a tortilla just to eat. We tried the Udi's tortilla, even though they were similar consistency, she found they smelled funny. She refused to eat them. I was then in a bind. Being vegetarian we eat a lot of beans and usually use them in burritos and taco salads. I had to find an option for her that she could eat when the rest of the family had tortillas. Not fun to watch your baby upset because she can't have what everyone else is eating. I then decided to venture out and look for a tortilla recipe. I have tried two recipes and both were a flop not to mention very detailed and time consuming just to make two tortillas. I recently found one that looked much more simple on Yammie's Gluten Freedom blog. After making these, I made plenty and it took half the time. The taste? Super good. I would say they are pretty similar to the gluten ones and the consistency is the same. An A+ in my book. This will become a regular recipe in our family. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Gluten Free Tortillas

Ingreditents:

1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1 cup tapioca flour
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt 
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
2 tablespoons shortening 
3/4 cup water

Method:

1) Mix together the rice flours, tapioca flour, white sugar, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum.

2) Mix in the shortening with your fingers until well combined. Add the water and mix well. If the mixture is still dry, add a little more water.

3) Heat an ungreased skilled on medium-high heat. Roll out tortillas and cook each one on the hot pan until it begins to bubble. Then flip it and cook until the bottom has some brown spots. They're the best if you stack them on top of each other as they come out (this softens them up a bit). 

4) You can also throw a slightly damp towel over the top one. These keep pretty well in a plastic bag in the cupboard. 

Whole Grain Gluten Free Bread

I would say that gluten free cooking is a whole new world for me. I recently started cooking and baking GF for my daughter, who is 3. She was expreiencing some GI problems and we decieded to take her off of gluten to see if this was the problem. Since then she quit complaining that her tummy hurt and eats all her food at each meal (which she wouldn't finish before.) It's great that she is feeling better, but this way of living is tough for a Mama who has cooked gluten/wheat for everything. I was even told that wheat was so good for you that everything should be 100% stone ground wheat. So as you can imagine, I baked and cooked that way for a very long time and have become frustrated at starting something basically from scratch. 

So, my current mission was to find a bread that wasn't hard around the edges (Udi's) and tasted similar to gluten bread with the same kind of texture. I didn't think it was possible. I started researching the internet and after a few days I found a recipe that I wanted to try. It came from gfrealfood.com. The author of this recipe (Kim) has made this bread amazing. I made it for the first time by her instructions exactly and the bread came out perfectly. It tastes great, texture is unbelievable, its bigger than the store bought brands and its whole grain. My husband who is a very particular about texture said it was pretty close to gluten bread. He didn't want to compare taste as there are different breads out there. His response was, "it tasted like bread." Great! Now its time to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 

Whole Grain Gluten Free Bread

Ingredients:

3 large eggs lightly beaten
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup oil of choice (canola, olive, corn, coconut, grapeseed etc)
1 1/3 cup milk of choice – unsweetened (rice, hemp, almond, cows) warmed to about body temperature
1T +1 t honey
3 T brown sugar
1/2 cup millet,sorghum, quinoa, amaranth or buckwheat flour  (choose one)
1/2 cup second choice of flour – millet, sorghum, quinoa, amaranth or buckwheat flour (choose one)
1 cup multi grain rice flour, brown rice flour or my favorite teff flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup corn starch (potato starch works too)
3 t xanthan gum
1 1/2 t salt
2 1/4 t dry active yeast
optional add ins:
flax seeds
sesame seeds
sunflower seeds
add in a total of about a 1/4 cup

Method:

1) Put the first 6 ingredients in a kitchen aid mixer. Mix on low speed for a few seconds just until it was all mixed. 

All the dry ingredients combined and then added to the mixer.

2) Add everything else with the exception of the flax seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and yeast. 

3) Mix for 2 minutes on medium speed.

4) Add the remaining ingredients and mixed for another 2 minutes while occasionally scraped down the sides. 

5) Spray a glass bread pan and let it rise in the oven with the oven off but the oven light on. 

6) Let it rise for 40 minutes.

7) Take it out of the oven and preheat the oven while it continued to rise.

8) Bake it for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. 

I chose to leave the seeds out this time to make sure my kids liked the taste first. LOL

Super Yummy. 

Mini-Loaf Zucchini Bread

It has been awhile since I posted anything on this blog. I have been really busy this summer with my ever growing twin girls. Today, they wanted to make bread for Daddy's office, but fell asleep before they could help me make it. I found the recipe for the bread on Miss Laura's Kitchen website. I did adapt it to fit my needs as I am vegan now and have chosen to bake and cook without eggs.

Zucchini Bread Mini-Loaves

Ingredients

• 1 egg ( I used 1 TBS of flaxseed to 3TBS of Water)
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• ⅔ cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup grated raw unpeeled zucchini
• ¼ cup nuts (optional)- I omitted these. Not sure if anyone had an allergy.
• 1 cup flour
• ¼ tsp. baking soda
• ¼ tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. baking powder

Method

1) Preheat oven to 350°

2) Grease loaf pan(s).

3) Sift all ingredients from flour down and set aside.

4) Using hand mixer beat egg until foamy (I mixed the flaxseed and let sit until gel like.); add sugar oil and vanilla mix well. Add zucchini, stir in set aside dry ingredients mix until all flour is incorporated.

5) Add nuts; pour into prepared pan

6) Bake for 45-50 minutes until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool for about 10 minutes then remove from pan & allow to cool completely on rack.

7) Wrap in foil and for best results allow loaf to sit at least 8 hours before slicing. ( I wrapped mine in wax paper.)

Flaxseed Bread

Our family loves bread. We tend to go through two loaves in a week. I needed something a little healthier. I was told that flaxseed has good benefits to it. According to WebMD there have been preliminary studies that have shown that flaxseed may help fight against heart disease, diabetes, and breast cancer. You can check out that link here.

The recipe I found was, of course, on Pinterest. The author is Vegan Feast Catering on Flickr.com. She says its about 40 calories per slice. This bread was much more light than any other I have made. It also has a distinct taste, which matches perfectly with peanut butter.

So without anymore delay, here is the recipe for flaxseed bread, enjoy.

Flaxseed Bread

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1 3/4 cups of warm water

1/8 cup raw sugar

1 tablespoon canola oil

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup flaxseed meal

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

Method:

1) Dissolve your yeast in the warm water. This takes about 5 minutes -- the water will become creamy-looking. - I used the instant yeast so I didn't have to dissolve it.

2) Add to this the sugar, oil, salt, flaxseed meal and one cup of whole wheat flour.

3) Mix this with your spoon till it's incorporated. Add in the other cup of whole wheat flour and stir... then add in your one cup of all-purpose flour. Mix till it holds together. Attach the dough hook and let the mixer knead this dough for AT LEAST 10 minutes. If you don't have a stand mixer, then knead by hand on a floured countertop for about 10 - 15 minutes.

4) Spray a large bowl with cooking spray and put the dough into it, then spray the top of it. You just want to moisten the outside of it so it won't stick to the bowl.

5) Let it rise till it has FULLY DOUBLED. Depending on the temperature, this could happen in about an hour, or upwards of two hours.

6) Spray a bread pan (9" X 5") with cooking spray. Punch down your dough and put it into your bread pan. Shape it with your oil-covered hands so it fits snugly into the pan. Let the bread rise till it has come up about 1 1/2 inches above the top of the pan. (I used two 8.5x4.5 glass pans and it worked perfectly.)

7) Preheat the oven to 350F -- bake the bread for about 40 - 45 minutes. Cool then slice.

Peach Pecan Muffins

Alright folks! Unfortunately this recipe was made while my dear little angels were napping, but Olivia sits on my lap now as I type. I bought some peaches from the store today that were on sale because they were getting really soft. I knew that I could make something really yummy so I decided to pick them up. I found a recipe on yummly.com for Almond Peach muffins. Since I didn't have any almonds, I decided to use pecans. WOW! These muffins are super good. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Ingredients

112 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup sugar 34 tsp salt 1 cup brown sugar 12 tsp baking soda 2 eggs 12 cup vegetable oil

12 tsp vanilla extract 114 cups peaches (chopped peeled fresh) 12 cup chopped almonds (I used pecans)

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugars, salt and baking soda.

2. In another bowl, beat eggs, oil and extracts; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in peaches and almonds (pecans).

3. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Blueberry Muffins

As I prepare to go on vacation, we are trying to finish eating everything in the fridge. In our house, the bread was the first to go, as this is the girls' favorite. I usually make our own as it is cheaper and dairy free. I looked in the flour bin to see if I have enough to make more bread, nope, I have about 2 cups. What can I do with 2 cups, dairy free, and something similar to bread? Muffins, or as my daughters would call them, "fuffins!" I had some left over frozen blueberries, so this was going to be great. I found my recipe online at www.egglesscooking.com. So, without anymore delay, here are vegan blueberry muffins. Enjoy!

VEGAN BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 2 Lemons For Lemon Zest
• 3/4 to 1 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Milk, any (I used Soy Milk)
• 1/3 cup Canola Oil
• 1 teaspoon Lemon Extract (I did not use it)
• 1 tablespoon White Vinegar (I used Apple Cider Vinegar)
• 1 and 1/2 cups Fresh OR Frozen Blueberries

Method:

Preheat the oven to 375F for 15 minutes. Lightly grease a muffin tin. 

In a medium bowl, combine together flour, baking soda, salt and lemon zest

 Opps, Olivia got the salt on her foot.

 

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, milk, oil, extract, and vinegar. Mix well.

 Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stir until just combined. Don’t over stir.

Gently fold in the berries using a rubber spatula.

Fill the muffin tins about 2/3rds full.

Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, about 22 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes. After that remove the muffins from the tins and cool on a wire rack.