Tag: Breakfast

How To Get A Pan Super Clean

Baking soda pan 1

Baking soda and vinegar can be your best friends in the kitchen. They help muffins to rise, can make a sink squeaky clean, or help you scrub out a pan without damaging the finish.

Here’s how I like to clean my pots and pans (if they need a little more help to get clean than the dishwasher can handle by itself).

(This is a pan that I used to sauté some baby spinach with garlic and olive oil.)

Start by sprinkling a generous amount of baking soda into your pan to absorb any leftover oil.

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Add a splash of plain white vinegar, and use a sponge to give the pan a good scrub.

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Rinse the pan out, then wash with soap and water as usual.

Ta da! A super clean pan, ready to make your next delicious dish.

sunshine smoothie

Good Morning Sunshine Smoothie – (Strawberry, Apple, Pineapple) – Easy, Vegan, Dairy Free, Delicious

Sunshine smoothie

This super pretty smoothie looks like sunshine in a cup. It’s a snap to make and is not only delicious, but also full of healthy and anti-inflammatory ingredients.

Chia seeds provide omega-3 fatty acids, and avocado oil is a monounsaturated fat that helps to increase the absorption of the beta carotene from the carrots. The pineapple adds sweetness (if you use fresh pineapple then you get the benefit of an added anti-inflammatory enzyme called bromelain which helps with pain) and the strawberries add anthocyanins (the compounds that give the strawberries their color) which can help boost neurogenesis (helping your brain to produce new brain cells).

What I’ll sometimes do is pour one serving of the smoothie into a screw top jar (just an empty jar of coconut oil that I’ve washed and cleaned out) and keep it in the fridge to drink later in the day. It’s a filling smoothie and drinking this is usually satisfying enough that I can walk by the wall of chocolate candy at the grocery store and not crave any of it.

The apples, strawberries and pineapple give the smoothie a lovely sweetness, but if you want the smoothie a little sweeter, you can squeeze in a little honey to taste.

Good Morning Sunshine Smoothie

Makes 2 generous servings

Ingredients

1 1/2 fuji apples, roughly chopped

1 large carrot, but into 1/2 inch slices (about 1 cup)

1/4 cup canned pineapple + 1/4 cup of the pineapple juice*

8 strawberries (fresh or frozen) about a scant 1 cup

1 1/2 tbsp chia seeds

1/2 – 1 tbsp avocado oil (or any neutral flavored oil)

1 1/2 cups water

Squeeze of honey (optional)

*If you don’t want to use canned pineapple, Trader Joe’s sells pineapple juice in a carton which tastes great. You can just add a few splashes of that to the smoothie instead of the canned pineapple for sweetness.

Instructions

Add all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into cups and serve.

If your blender isn’t that great at blending frozen things, you can let the strawberries thaw for 15-20 minutes before blending.

I hope that this colorful smoothie brings a little joy and sunshine to your day!

Oat Flour Tortillas

Gluten Free Oat Flour Tortilla Recipe – Super Easy, Cheap and Cheerful, Vegan Friendly

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Some people say “I love you” with diamonds, but personally, I’d rather have tacos for Valentine’s Day.

Nothing says “I love you” quite like a taco (and everyone loves tacos). So this Valentine’s Day, make your loved one some amazing tacos with these gluten free oat flour tortillas.

Store bought tortillas can have all kinds of fillers, and the gluten free ones can be particularly expensive. These tortillas are incredibly cheap and easy to make, and taste amazing too. Perfect for anyone who wants to eat well on a budget.

These tortillas are super flexible. Unlike normal wheat tortillas, these tortillas are actually more flexible when they aren’t piping hot, so it’s a good idea to give them a minute or two to cool once you take them out of the pan before you fill them with anything. They are also still very flexible when cold, which makes them great for packed lunches.

The dough is sturdy enough that you can make the tortillas as large as you want, and as long as you have a griddle big enough, you can make a burrito sized tortilla if you like (but you may have to adjust the cooking time).

 

Gluten Free Oat Flour Tortillas

Makes six 6 inch tortillas (about 2 servings)

Ingredients

1 1/4 level tsp psyllium husk powder*

1/3 cup water

1/2 tsp honey**

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup oat flour***

1/8 tsp sea salt

 

Notes – *Psyllium husk powder gels like nothing else, and there’s no great substitute for it. I found mine in the bulk spice section of the local Fred Meyer, but Whole Foods, Trader Joes have been known to carry it as well. If it’s not in the natural foods, or bulk spice section, check the dietary supplement/ digestive health (where the Metamucil is) section of the store or pharmacy as it’s sometimes sold there as well.

** You can leave out the honey if you’re vegan. The tortillas will still be good, they just wont have the little brown spots when you cook them.

*** I grind oats into oat flour using a blender. Don’t grind the oats in a food processor because the flour won’t be fine enough.

Any extra oat flour I don’t use in the recipe goes into an airtight container and I use it for another recipe.

If you’re making the tortillas for someone who has celiac disease, use certified gluten free oats, as the oats from the bulk bins can sometimes be processed on the same equipment as wheat.

 

Instructions

1. Slowly add the water to the psyllium husk powder. Stir to combine, and don’t worry to much if it’s super clumpy. Let sit for 5 minutes

2. Add in the rest of the ingredients and stir together until a shaggy dough is formed. Knead the dough for about 1–2 minutes until the dough is fairly smooth, making sure to smush in all the little bits of psyllium husk into the dough until well combined.

The dough should look like this when you’re done kneading –

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Cover the dough with plastic wrap (or cover the bowl with a small plate) and allow the dough to sit at room temperature for 1 hour.

You can also make this dough ahead of time and keep it in the fridge for 1-2 days until you’re ready to cook the tortillas.

3. Cut the top and sides off of a gallon size Ziploc bag and open it and lay it flat to form a long rectangle.

Dip a paper towel in a little bit of oil (avocado oil, vegetable oil, or olive oil will work for this) and oil the inside of the plastic. Don’t use the coconut oil for this, it solidifies too quickly and the dough ends up sticking to it.

Cut the tortilla dough into 6 equal pieces, and keep the pieces of dough that you’re not working with covered so that they don’t dry out. If the dough is too sticky, add a little oat flour, if the dough is too dry then knead in a few drops of water into the dough. The dough should be elastic, on the firmer side, and smooth. Roll the dough into a 6 inch circle between the pieces of oiled plastic.

Peel the tortillas off the plastic and lay them on a plate. You can roll the tortillas out and overlap them on a plate as they won’t stick together, but kind of shingle them so that there are bits of each tortilla sticking out from the pile so that each tortilla will be easier to pick up when you cook them.

4. Make your pan non-stick. Cook your tortillas over medium heat. I let them cook for 1 min and 15 seconds on the first side, then flip them over and let them cook 30 seconds on the other side. They get the little brown spots this way, and are slightly crispy around the edges. If you don’t want them crispy around the edges, you can cook them for a shorter amount of time and they will still be good.

5. Stack the tortillas on a plate and fill them with whatever your heart desires. I topped mine with tomatoes, lettuce, and minced mushrooms that I’d cooked down with taco seasoning to make a vegan taco filling.

They keep great in the fridge, so you can make them ahead of time and keep them on hand for all your taco cravings.

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Enjoy!

Kitchen Tip – How to Regrow Green Onions

green onions

Green onions are used in lots of Asian recipes, and they are actually super simple to regrow on your windowsill from the trimmings that you would normally compost.

I cut the green part off the green onions so that there’s about  1.5 – 2 inches of the white part attached to the roots.  Then put the green onion roots in a little jar (old spice jars seem to work well for this) and add about 1.5 inches of cool water into the jar. I put a little piece of folded paper towel under the jar when I put it in the windowsill so that no watermarks stain the wood.

Replace the water everyday (that way the water doesn’t get slimy as quickly). I’ve been able to successfully regrow a trimmed green onion root about 2-3 times.  After that, they get a little too slimy around the roots and it’s time to compost them and wash out the jar.

The picture shows about a week of growth, and you can trim off what you need to add to dishes.

You can also plant the trimmed green onion roots in some soil, and they should regrow a few more times than if they were simply regrown in water.

I hope that this tip helps you save a little money! Let me know how this trick works for you. What would you make with your regrown green onions?

Kitchen Tips – How To Use Every Drop Of Olive Oil

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One ingredient that I use almost everyday is olive oil.

I use it in salad dressings for it’s peppery bite, drizzle it over soups and pasta sauces to give them richness, and add it to hummus for a smooth and silky texture.

Inevitably, at some point, the bottle runs empty save for a few teaspoons of that beautiful green oil that you can never seem to shake out of the bottle.

If you too can’t stand the thought of letting any food go to waste, this is my solution for getting every last drop of precious oil from the bottle.

Take a wide mouth mason jar and put it inside of a 1 quart measuring cup. Then turn the bottle of oil upside down and place the mouth of the bottle inside of the mason jar. Leave this to sit in an area where it won’t be disturbed for a day or two and all of the oil that’s left over in the bottle should drain into the mason jar.

(Putting the mason jar inside of the big measuring cup makes the bottle of oil and mason jar less likely to tip over.)

Use this reclaimed oil within a day or two, as it has been exposed to air and light and won’t keep for too long before oxidizing.

Thanks for reading!

Happy Cooking!

Vanilla Extract

Kitchen Tip – Easy Way To Get The Cap Off A Vanilla Extract Bottle

vanilla

 

If you’ve ever known the struggle of baking cookies and not being able to get the little cap off of the vanilla extract bottle, this one’s for you.

Here’s the secret –

Wrap a few thin rubber bands around the cap of the vanilla extract. The rubber bands make the smooth metal of the cap easier to grip. The bottle of extract should be a breeze to open after that.

I use the rubber bands that come wrapped around vegetables like kale, or green onions, or bunches of cilantro or parsley. It’s a thrifty solution, and makes baking with vanilla extract much much easier.

This idea for this came to me when I was testing the recipe for the maple vanilla sugar cookies. For a moment I was concerned that I was not going to be able to get the cap off of the bottle of extract, and I actually thought for a second “Do I really need vanilla in this recipe?”

The answer was “Yes. You do need vanilla in maple vanilla sugar cookies.” So I had to come up with a solution pretty quickly, and here we are!

I hope that this kitchen tip helps you to never again be held back from your baking dreams by another difficult to open vanilla extract cap!

Happy Baking!

 

blueberry muffins

The Best Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins Recipe – Made with Oat Flour – Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Refined Sugar Free

I love blueberries, and I also love blueberry muffins. It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t love them.

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Lots of us have fond memories of baking them with our families, and there is just something incredibly comforting and nostalgic about them.

A good blueberry muffin is one of the things that I most wanted to eat when I went gluten free, and I’m so glad that I finally came up with a recipe for them!

These delicious blueberry muffins are made with oat flour, and taste just like the muffins that you remember eating when you were a kid.

They are such a treat, and there’s nothing like biting into a freshly baked blueberry muffin on a cold morning with a hot cup of tea.

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Heaven.

These blueberry muffins taste amazing, and are so good that you won’t believe that they are gluten free, refined sugar free, and dairy free.

They have a really great texture, just like a normal muffin, and aren’t gummy or funny textured at all.

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They use coconut oil instead of butter, but they don’t taste like coconut at all. They are perfectly sweet, and the bright flavor of the blueberries really shines through each delicious bite.

You won’t miss gluten / dairy muffins after you eat one of these, promise.

I hope that you give them a try!

 

The Best Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins

Makes 8 muffins

 

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup of oat flour (135g) *

½ level tsp of baking soda

1 ½ tbsp ground flax seed (6g)

tiny pinch of salt

 

¼ cup water

1/8 level tsp of psyllium husk powder**

 

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp maple syrup

2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup melted coconut oil***

1 egg

 

1 cup of blueberries – I used frozen, but fresh will work too.

 

* For the best results, measure out the oat flour and ground flax seed by weight on a digital scale.

I grind rolled oats in a blender until I have a pretty fine flour. Don’t use a food processor for this as the flour won’t be fine enough. If I have any extra flour, I just put in into an airtight container to use for another recipe. I grind the flax seeds using the same method.

** If you don’t have the psyllium husk powder, you can just omit it. Just add the water in with the rest of the liquid ingredients. The muffins will still turn out well, just slightly more crumbly.

*** The coconut oil makes the muffins more solid at temperatures below 76 degrees, but you can heat them up in a toaster oven at a low temperature and they will become soft again. If you want the muffins to be soft all the time, you can probably substitute a neutral flavored oil that’s liquid at room temperature for the coconut oil.

 

Instructions

1. Grease and flour 8 of the wells in your muffin pan with some coconut oil and oat flour, or you can skip this step and just pop 8 muffin liners into the muffin pan.

2. Mix together the water and psyllium husk powder in a small bowl, and set aside the bowl aside for 5 minutes to allow the psyllium husk to gel.

3. In a large bowl sift together the oat flour, baking soda, salt, and ground flax seed.

4. In a separate medium sized bowl beat the egg, and add in the maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, and the psyllium husk mixture and stir until well combined.

5. Add the melted coconut oil to the flour mixture and give it a good stir. Add in rest of the liquid ingredients to the muffin batter and stir until well combined.

6. Set a timer for 15 minutes and let your muffin mixture rest.

7. Preheat your oven to 350.

8. When the timer goes off, put your blueberries into a sieve and using your snap mesh tea strainer (or you can use another sieve or even a tablespoon) to sift oat flour over your blueberries until they are well coated in the oat flour. Shake the berries in the sieve to get any excess oat flour off of them.

Coating the berries in the oat flour makes it so that the berries don’t sink to the bottom of the muffins while as they bake.

9. Fold the blueberries through your batter (try not to stir the mixture too much, as too much mixing will cause the frozen blueberries to turn the muffin batter purple), and divide the batter equally amongst the 8 muffin wells.

One note about this, because we’re using coconut oil and the berries are frozen, the batter will seize up on you because coconut oil turns solid under 76 degrees F (24 C). If the berries are fresh you shouldn’t have this problem, but it’s fine.

Just do the best you can to divide the batter up as equally as possible, and don’t worry if the mixture looks lumpy when you put the muffins into the oven. The muffins will smooth out in the oven and will bake up beautifully.

9. Pop the muffins into the oven, and bake for 25 minutes, turning the muffins 180 degrees after they’ve been in the oven for 13 minutes. You don’t have to do this, but it helps the muffins to bake more evenly.

Some of the muffins will look like they are baking more quickly than others. Don’t worry about this as they will all bake up evenly at the end.

11. After the 25 minutes, turn the oven temperature up to 375, and turn the muffin pan by 90 degrees. Allow the muffins to bake for another 10 minutes until they are golden brown.

If you test the muffins with a toothpick, it should come out pretty clean with just a few crumbs here and there.

Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of each muffin and pop them out onto a plate and serve.

 

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Happy Eating!

 

 

The Very Best Gluten Free Pancakes – Oat Flour, Vegan and Egg Free Friendly, Dairy Free

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(These are the vegan pancakes, made with maple syrup)

When I first started on this gluten-free, food sensitivity journey, I found out that I couldn’t tolerate many of the ingredients in store bought gluten-free flour mixes.

And I missed pancakes.

pancake perfected
I missed eating them with maple syrup, and fresh peaches in the summer time. I missed eating them them with strawberries and blueberries. Pancakes are a very nostalgic and American food, and it really felt like I was missing out by not being able to eat them.

It took me a year and a half to get this pancake recipe perfect, but I’m honestly so glad that I kept at it until I figured it out. These pancakes are wonderful! They are slightly crispy on the outside, and pillowy soft on the inside. They are not gummy at all.

pancake stack cropped- corner fixed

They are made from simple ingredients, and cost very little to make.

The first time I finally figured out this recipe, I flipped over the first pancake and my heart skipped a beat when I saw how beautiful and golden that little pancake was. I had finally gotten it right, and it was so exciting!

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(The non-gummy cross section of the pancakes).

They are perfectly sweet, so you don’t absolutely need to drizzle over more maple syrup when you serve them, but you can of course! Especially if you like your pancakes extra sweet.

They are pretty hearty little pancakes and very filling. Each batch serves about 2 people. I have been known to make extras, and then eat them out of the fridge cold when I was too tired to think of something else to eat.

They work great for this! Especially after a long day if you’re being tempted by the siren call of those cookies you stashed away in the cupboard from your pre-gluten free days. You can eat these instead, and not feel ill afterwards.

You can pack a few of them in a little Tupperware container with some berries (fresh or frozen is fine) for breakfast. They heat up well in a toaster oven as well.

 

The Very Best Gluten-Free Oat flour Pancakes

Makes 10 pancakes (about 2 servings)

Ingredients

200 gm oat flour – or about 2 1/4 cup + 3.5 tbsp by volume *

scant ½ tsp of baking soda

tiny pinch of salt

 

1/4 cup of maple syrup

1/4 cup tbsp of melted coconut oil

2 eggs **

½ cup of water

1.5 tbsp of apple cider vinegar

 

Instructions

1. Sift together the oat flour, baking soda and salt.

2. In a separate bowl stir together the water, maple syrup, vinegar, eggs and the melted coconut oil.

3. Pour the wet mix into the dry, and stir this altogether until pretty smooth. Set this mixture to the side, and set a timer for 15 minutes.

During this time, make your stainless steel pan non-stick.

4. When there’s about 3 minutes left on the timer, start to heat up your pan.

If medium heat on your burner is a 5, set the heat to 4. You want to be just a little lower than medium heat.

5. When the timer goes off, give your batter a good stir (no gluten means not having to worry about over-mixing this batter).

Spoon 2 tbsp of pancake batter onto your pan for each pancake, and use the back of your spoon to gently spread the batter into a little circle, just to smooth out the shape of your pancake.

Cook the pancakes 1 min to 1.5 minutes on the first side until you see small bubbles forming on the surface of the pancake, and the sides have firmed up.

Flip the pancakes over and cook another 20-30 seconds until they are a pale golden brown, then stack the pancakes on a plate to the side. I usually cook 2 pancakes at a time so that I have room to flip them (I cook them in a 10 inch skillet). If the pancakes start to brown too fast, turn your heat down a little and cook them for a shorter amount of time on the first side.

The batter should be a little on the thick side so that the pancakes cook up nice and fluffy.

If you like thinner pancakes, you can add about 1-2 tbsp of water to the mix to thin it out. If the batter is too thin, stir in a little oat flour to thicken the batter up again.

If you use 2 tbsp of batter per pancake, then they end up about 4 inches in diameter. You can make the pancakes larger by using more batter, and adjusting the cooking time.

 

pancake duo closeup

(Adult Pancake – 2 tbsp batter, and Baby Pancake – 1 tbsp batter).

* Notes – Ideally you would weigh out the oat flour, but measuring it by cups and tablespoons will work in a pinch.

Costco sells organic maple syrup for $12 – $13 / liter. The oats I grind myself in a blender (wearing earplugs, because it can be noisy). Don’t use a food processor to grind the oats, because it won’t be able to grind the flour fine enough. I put any extra oat flour into an airtight container and use it for other recipes.

** Substitutions – you can sub white vinegar for apple cider vinegar, and any neutral flavored oil for the coconut oil. You can also swap out a few tablespoons of maple syrup for water if you want them less sweet. The maple syrup just gives the pancakes a mild sweetness and a nice brown pancake color.

***Egg-free and Vegan versions – This pancake recipe is the gift that keeps on giving. It continues to amaze me every time I eat them, and make them with or without eggs.

To make them egg-free, just swap out the eggs for an extra 1/4 cup of water per egg. The texture isn’t quite as fluffy as when you use the egg, but definitely still respectable, and much better than when I tried to use a banana to bind the pancakes instead.

I’ve also made a version where I swapped out the maple syrup for 4 tbsp of honey, and used an extra 1/2 cup of water instead of the 2 eggs. They were very good as well, and the honey also acts a little as a binder.

If you make the pancakes egg free, use 1 tbsp of batter for each pancake instead. Making the pancakes smaller makes it easier for them to cook through, and you’ll get a better texture than if you made them larger. I was very surprised at how beautiful the honey egg free pancakes were that I made today. They were a beautiful light golden brown when I flipped them over, and I was happily shocked that it worked as well as it did.

 

I served the honey ones today with a little jam that I made from just cooking down some frozen peaches, blackberries, blueberries and a dash of maple syrup over medium heat until thickened. It was so good!

 

two pancakes perfected

It’s amazing how much joy a pancake recipe can bring. However you make these pancakes, I hope that you enjoy them and get to share them with someone that you love.

Let me know how the recipe works out for you.

Happy Eating!

stainless steel pan

How to Make a Stainless Steel Pan Non-stick (non-toxic)

stainless steel pan 1

(This is what the pan looks like before the coating of oil).

When I decided to stop using non-stick cookware, one of the hardest thing to get my head around was how I was going to be able to cook things like pancakes and sunny-side up eggs.

I googled “how to make a stainless steel pan non-stick” and wasn’t able to find an answer.

So after much trial and error, I finally figured it out. And it’s actually super simple to do.

By heating the oil in a pan this way, the oil binds to the surface of the steel (forming a polymer – whatever that means…), creating a temporary non-stick coating. I’ve used this method with olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado various times and all have worked great.

Instructions

1. Start with a cool stainless steel pan. Rub the bottom of the inside of the pan with probably about ½ tsp (maybe less) of olive oil with either your fingertips or a paper towel. You only need a thin layer, but want to coat the entire bottom of the pan so that there are no gaps in where you put the oil.

2. This can get a little smelly so, I’d turn on the cooking fan for this.

Put the pan onto a cold burner and turn the heat up to medium. Hover your hand a few inches above the pan. When the air over the pan feels about as warm as a warm bath you’d give a baby (so not too hot) then turn the burner off, and leave the pan to cool on the burner while you prep your veggies for your stir-fry, or your pancake batter.

3. Then just cook as usual.

The non-stick coating is temporary, but you should be able to get through cooking a batch of pancakes, or fry a few eggs on this surface just fine before you need to add a little more oil.

When you’re done cooking, you can scrub this non-stick surface off with some baking soda mixed into a paste with a little dish soap and a scrubby sponge. When I need a non-stick surface next time, I just repeat the process.

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(This is what the pan looks like after it’s been heated with the oil).

For me, I cook on an electric stove, and I’ve done this enough times now that I know that if I start with a cold pan, it takes 5 minutes to heat to the baby bath level of warmth. Now I can just rub the pan’s surface in oil, put it onto the burner, turn on the stove, turn on the fan, and set a timer for 5 minutes.

You may have to adjust the timer for your stove, as you may find that your stove heats up more quickly or more slowly than mine does.

I always stay in the kitchen as I do this, just in case the pan starts to smoke.

If you see the pan start to smoke, pull the pan off the hot burner right away (also turn off the burner) and put the pan on one of the cold burners to cool. Once cool, it should still have created a non-stick surface and you can just cook on this pan as usual.

If you fry an egg sunny side upon this surface, I’d cover the pan with a plate or a lid while the egg is cooking. The egg white cooks through more evenly with a lid on the pan.

What would you cook using this trick? Let me know in the comments below.

Happy Cooking!

 

pumpkin muffins

Pumpkin Bread Muffins – Gluten Free, Dairy Free

pumpkin muffin final

These little muffins are wonderfully spiced and perfect for when you’re craving pumpkin bread. They have a better texture the next day, so I usually bake them the night before, set them out on a plate on the counter and cover them with a paper towel. The next morning they have dried out a little, and the texture and flavor are even better than they are fresh out of the oven.

When you take them out of the oven, they will be nice and puffy, but the will flatten as they cool. Don’t worry about this, as they will still be delicious. They are wonderfully creamy in the middle and taste just like your favorite pumpkin bread.

You can either bake them as 6 full sized muffins, or as 9 snack sized (flatter) muffins. I normally prefer to bake them as 9 instead of 6 muffins, as it’s harder to wolf down 9 muffins in one sitting than 6 muffins, (trust me on this, I know). Either way, they taste amazing! I hope that you like them.

I’ve included the measurements for 12 muffins below, just in case you need them.

Pumpkin Bread Muffins
Makes 6 full sized muffins – or 9 snack sized ones.

Ingredients

¾ level tsp ground cinnamon

¼ level tsp + 1/8 level tsp ground ginger

1/8 level tsp ground cloves

1 cup oat flour (I just grind the oats in a blender until they become a fine flour)

¼ level tsp + 1/8 level tsp baking soda

1 small pinch of salt

 

¾ cup + 2 tbsp pumpkin puree (or sweet potato puree)

1 tbsp water

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

4 ½ tbsp. melted coconut oil (or a neutral flavored oil)

¼ cup + 2 tbsp maple syrup

1 egg

 

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2. Grease and flour the muffin pan using coconut oil (or neutral oil) and oat flour. Here’s my trick to doing this.

3. In a large bowl, sift the cinnamon, ginger, cloves, oat flour, baking soda and salt together. In a separate bowl mix the pumpkin puree, water, apple cider vinegar, oil, eggs and maple syrup.

4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir until well combined.

For 6 muffins – divide the batter evenly between 6 muffin cups, and use the back of a spoon to smooth down the batter in each muffin cup so that the tops of the scoops of batter are flat.

Bake for 30 min at 350, then turn the oven down to 300 for another 10 minutes.

Let them cool in the pan. To remove them, run a butter knife around the edge of each muffin and pop them out and set them onto a plate.

For 9 flatter muffins – divide the batter equally between 9 muffin cups. Use the back of a spoon to smooth down the batter in each muffin cup so that the tops of the scoops of batter are flat.

Bake for 30 min at 350. Let them cool in the pan. To remove them, run a butter knife around the edge of each muffin and pop them out and set them onto a plate.


Note – I made the little decorative leaves from the extra scrap dough from making the tart shells. I used a small paring knife to cut the shape of the leaves and the tines of a fork to make the little indentations. Bake the leaves at 375 for 10-15 minutes until golden brown around the edges.

 

For 12 muffins

1 ½ level tsp ground cinnamon

¾ level tsp ground ginger

¼ level tsp ground cloves

2 cups oat flour

¾ level tsp baking soda

2 small pinches of salt

1 ¾ cup pumpkin puree (or sweet potato puree)

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

9 tbsp melted coconut oil (or a neutral flavored oil)

¾ cup maple syrup

2 eggs