Fairly healthy cupcakes with a fruity twist

In less than two days time I'll turn 37. What? Yes, I'm still a tad bit in denial, but on Tuesday I'll be 37. ACK! ;-)
But a birthday also means treating your colleagues, so I baked two fruity cupcakes for them. A bit of a risk, as i had never made them before, and had to adapt it as the original recipe was a 'gluten recipe'  but... they turned out quite awesome (if i say so myself), so I feel comfortable to share them here. 

Firstly: Blueberry cupcakes with oatmeal (this recipe makes 12 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade (400 degrees fahrenheit)110 grams (about 4 oz) of oat flour
• 75 grams (2.75 oz) of rice flour
• 1,5 teaspoon of baking powder
• 0,5 teaspoon of baking soda
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of oatmeal
• 75 grams (2.75 oz) of granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 2 tablespoons of clear honey
• 170 ml (3/4 of a cup) of buttermilk
• 55 ml (about 1/4 of a cup) of sunflower oil or olive oil. I used olive oil. 
• 1 tl vanilla aroma or a pod of vanilla
• 125 grams (4.5 oz) of blueberries

Instructions:

1. Put the paper cups in the muffin or cupcake tray.
2. Put the oat flour, the rice flour, xanthan gum, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl, mix  and add the oatmeal and sugar. 
3. Beat the eggs and honey in another bowl, add the buttermilk and vanilla aroma or vanilla seeds form the pod and whisk well.
4. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat it until everything is mixed, the batter can be a bit lumpy. Fold the blueberries into the mixture. 
5. Spoon the batter into the molds. bake them 20 minutes until golden brown. let them cool for about 5 minutes, take them out of the tin and cool on a wire rack. 

Secondly: Banana-dates cupcakes (yes, I want people to have a choice and it's a great excuse to bake more things LOL) This recipe makes 15 tiny cupcakes or 12 big ones. 

Ingredients:

• 2 very ripe bananas
• 175 grams (6 oz) of dates, without kernels and chopped or blitzed to tiny pieces. 
• 2 eggs beaten 
• 125 ml (half a cup) of olive oil
• 175 grams (6 oz) of fine granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla aroma or a vanilla pod 
• 175 grams (6 oz) of rice flour
• 2 teaspoons of xanthan gum

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (350 degrees fahrenheit). 
2. Put the paper cups in the muffin or cupcake tray.
3. Mash up or blitz the bananas. Put them in a big bowl, add the eggs and oil. Mix well. 
4. Add the sugar, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla aroma, rice flour and xanthan gum. Mix well till the mixture is completely blended. Fold in the chopped dates untiol evenly spread. 
5. Spoon the batter into the paper cups. If you have left over dates, slice them in half and put a half on every cupcake. 
6. Put in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden. Let them cool for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin and let them fully cool on a wire rack. Before serving, dust them with powdered sugar. 

Happy birthday to me! Eeerm... enjoy! :-D

Glutenfree dates & fig bread

This wonderful bread is much loved by my two kids as it tastes wonderful directly as it is baked, but also after a few days in the freezer. Toast it, put some honey or preserve on it and you have a wonderful breakfast full of fibers. 

I make this bread in the breadmaker, but you can also make it in a conventional oven. 

Ingredients:
75 grams (2.65oz) of dates
75 grams (2.65 oz) of figs
750 grams (26.455 oz) of glutenfree all purpose flour, i use an 'all bran' version to make it more substantial.
700 ml (23.67 fl oz) of lukewarm water
10 grams (0.35 oz) of fiber husk (to add more fibers to your bread and to improve consistency)
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons of xanthan gum
12 grams (0,42 oz) of sugar
18 grams (0,64 oz) of yeast 
6 grams (0,21 0z) of baker's salt (you can use normal salt too but bakers salt adds iodine to your bread which gives a better taste to your bread)

Made in the breadmaker: 

Put the dates and figs (make sure the kernel has been taken out of the dades first, you don't want to ruin your kitchenmachine/blender) in the kitchenmachine and grind them to tiny pieces. It almost looks like a paste when you are done. 

Add the lukewarm water to bread mold. Put in the fiber husk and the olive oil. 

On top of that you add the glutenfree all purpose flour. Now you add the sugar, xanthan gum, bakers salt or normal salt and the yeast. make sure the yeast does not come in direct contact with the salt, because that will diminish the effect of the yeast. Then add the dades and figs. 

Put the bread mold into the machine. If your machine has a French bread setting, use it! It gives the best result, as it allows the bread to develop and proof very slowly. If you don't, some machines have a glutenfree setting. Just make sure that the bread gets the chance to develop well. Help the machine along with a wooden spoon or fork when it mixes the dough, as it will turn into one heap and will not mix everything sometimes. That's what you get when you have no gluten to help the dough to stick together. Now wait and be prepared to take a wonderful loaf out of the machine when it's done. 

In the conventional oven:

If you use a conventional oven, put it on 35 degrees centigrade or 95 Fahrenheit so your oven is warm enough to let your dough proof. 

Put the dates and figs (make sure the kernel has been taken out of the dades first, you don't want to ruin your kitchenmachine/blender) in the kitchenmachine and grind them to tiny pieces. It almost looks like a paste when you are done. 

Put everything in a big bowl in the same order as you would in the breadmaker. 

Add the lukewarm water to bread mold. Put in the fiber husk and the olive oil. 

On top of that you add the glutenfree all purpose flour. Now you add the sugar, xanthan gum, bakers salt or normal salt and the yeast. make sure the yeast does not come in direct contact with the salt, because that will diminish the effect of the yeast. Then add the dades and figs. 

Mix it on a slow mode for 2-3 minutes first. When it's mixed well, put the mixer on a fast mode a mix some more (usually 6-8 minutes will do). Mind you, this will train your arm muscles, mixing is hard work. 

Grease a bread mold and transfer the dough into it. Even it out. Put the dough in the preheated oven and add a bowl of water, that will help the proofing process of the dough. Put the timer on 50 minutes. 

When your dough has risen to double it's size, take it out of the oven and cover with a damp dishcloth while you preheat the oven to 225 centigrade or 437 Fahrenheit. After ten minutes, put the bread (without the dishcloth) back into oven. Leave the bowl with water in the oven and bake the bread in 45-50 minutes until it smells heavenly and is golden brown. 

When it's done, leave it to cool on a wire rack under a fresh (dry) dishcloth for at least an hour and a half. When fully cooled, enjoy a slice or slice it up and put it in packets in the freezer to enjoy later.