Pumpkin muffins with ginger and mixed spice

Yesterday we had pumpkin risotto  for dinner and (as with every recipe) I was left with about a quarter of a pumpkin, which I did not need in the recipe. I always use more vegetables than the original recipe, because how else do you eat the required amount of vegetables per day? I think: "How can one family live off of 1 onion and 250 grams of pumpkin?", when I read such a recipe. 

I cram my kids full with 'that healthy stuff' called vegetables. In the beginning it was a huge struggle, but now it's getting better. My boys are no longer bouncing with disgust at the sight of asparagus, spinach, beans or pumpkin in this case. Sure, the three P's: fries (in Dutch it's called patat hence the three P's), pizza and pancakes for those who do not know those holy P's) are still favorites, but vegetables are now pretty ok. Not all of them of course, I mean, who likes Brussels sprouts? Blergh! ;-)

But anyway, there I was left with another 200 grams of grated pumpkin. What are you going to do with that? Well ... i decided to make high-fiber muffins, which the boys can take to school in their snack box (or i can take it to work as a snack). 

The recipe below is a free interpretation (read, I used what I had in at home) on a recipe from the Dutch cookery book Powersnacks, and of course I made it gluten free for the boys. In the original recipe, the pumpkin must be cooked, but because it was grated so finely, I have used the pumpkin ijlst like that. That way those fibers are retained a bit better and my gluten free boys need those extra fibers.

Ingredients for about 12 muffins:

• 200 grams (7 oz) of peeled, grated pumpkin
• Fresh ginger, piece of 4 cm finely grated
• 3 eggs
• 4 tablespoons  of date syrup (every syrup works I think)
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of Greek yogurt (the recipe contained 225 grams (8 oz) of yogurt, but I did not have that anymore, so I added crème fraiche and milk to it.) Also works. ;-))
• 125 grams (4.4 oz) of crème fraiche
• 50 ml (1.7 fl oz) of milk
• 175 grams (6.2 oz) of rice flour
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of cornmeal
• 3 teaspoons of cream of tartar baking powder
• 2 tablespoons of gingerbread spices/ mixed spices

Instruction:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees centigrade/ 360 fahrenheit. 
2. Grease the muffin tin (or multiple muffin tins) or place paper cups in the cavities.
3. Mix the pumpkin, ginger, rice flour, corn meal, tartar baking powder and gingerbread spices in a large mixing bowl.
4. Beat the eggs with the crème fraiche, yogurt, milk and date syrup and pour this into the flour and pumpkin mixture. Stir everything together until everything is mixed well.
5. Spoon it into the cavities of the muffin tins and decorate the batter with some pumpkin seeds if you have them (i didn't) and put in the oven. Bake this for about 20 minutes until the muffins have risen and are nicely brown.
6. Allow them to cool for five minutes in the tin before removing them from the tin and allowing to cool completely on a rack.

Enjoy your meal!

Blueberry muffins

I'm almost ashamed to say it's been a really, really, really long while since I've actually blogged a recipe. That doesn't mean I've stopped baking, because baking never stops when you have two gluten free boys to take care of. But life has been a tad bit hectic so blogging the recipes I developed never quite 'happened' to make it onto here. 

This week a brand new kitchen gadget arrived: My very own Kenwood Kmix and that was reason enough to bake something. Because, it is no use letting it be pretty on your kitchen countertop right? So... blueberry muffins it was. And they turned out so nice I just couldn't let them go "unblogged'. So hey... I'm back! 

This recipe makes 12 midsize muffins

Ingredients: 

• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of rice flour
• 50 grams (1.76 oz) of corn flour
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of almond flour
• 75 grams (2.65 oz) of sugar
• 10 grams (0.35 oz) of vanilla sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons fiber husk
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of soft butter
• 2 dl (3.33 fl oz) of butter milk 
• 2 eggs
• 175 grams (6.17 oz) of blueberries

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees centigrade/ 350 fahrenheit. 
2. Put the paper cups into the muffin tray or butter the muffin tray. 
3. Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl. 
4. Beat the sugar into the soft butter until it is a fluffy mixture. Add the eggs and beat them into the butter mixture. 
5. Add the mixed dry ingredients and mix it all in until it is combined. Then add the blueberries and fold them in carefully so they won't break open. I added them to the mixture in my Kmix and let it mix on the slowest/first setting. 
6. Scoop the mixture into the muffin tray with a spoon. 
7. Put in the oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown. 
8. Take them out of the oven, let them cool in the tray first for a couple of minutes. Then take them out and let them cool completely on a wire rack. 

Enjoy!!

Gluten free Banana Muffins with Raisins and Macadamia nuts

I love baking & cooking so my storage bursts with food and as a result with left over food stuff. Somehow you can always buy everything in large quantities only, and you need itty bitty bits of things in your recipes. So I have jars with raisins, coconut, nuts, several kinds of gluten free flours, preserves... well you name it actually, and it is all in my fridge or storage. I realize I buy a gigantic amount of food each week with all my gluten free stuff and I always need stuff in storage, just in case. That's what you get when you make everything from scratch because prefab gluten free is even more expensive. It's a bit insane, I know, I could feed half a village on what's in our store cupboard. But I use it all. 

Because what do I do with all that? Well, I bake with what I can find. These muffins were born out of left overs and the urge of my three year old to bake with mommy.  :-)

I just tossed in what I could find and ended up with this lovely result. Soft, sweet, fragrant muffins.

These muffins make a great lunchbox treat too!

This recipe makes about 16 muffins. 

Ingredients:

• 75 grams (2.75 oz) of soft butter
• 150 grams (5.5 oz) of powdered sugar
• 2 eggs
• 200 grams (7 oz) of gluten free (brown) rice flour
• 2 teaspoons of xanthan gum
• 250 grams (9 oz) of bananas (mashed to a pulp)
• 5 tablespoons of buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
• 0.5 teaspoon of grated nutmeg
• 200 grams (7 oz) of sultanas
• 85 grams (3 oz) of chopped up Macadamia nuts

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (350 degrees fahrenheit).
2. Beat the butter and powdered sugar in a big bowl to a frothy substance.
3. Beat in the eggs, make sure the mixture doesn't split. If it does, add a bit of the flour. 
4. Mash up the bananas and add these together with the milk to the mixture in the bowl.
5. Sift the flour, cream of tartar and the xanthan gum and add it to the bowl.  Mix it in with the grated nutmeg, raisins and chopped up Macadamia nuts. Pecans would taste amazing as well. 
6. Take out muffin tins, line them with paper muffin cups and scoop in the batter. 
7. Put the muffin tins in the oven, and bake the muffins until golden. It will take about 45 minutes. 
8. Take them out of the oven and let them cool on a wire rack.
9. Dust with powdered sugar before serving. 

Enjoy! 

Gluten Free Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins

EEEEEKKKK! ;-)

This recipe was born because my oldest son Thijmen wanted to make scary cupcakes for Halloween. I'm a bit late posting this recipe, but sometimes there just doesn't seem to be enough time in a day, or a week. So, you can bookmark this recipe for next year. :-)
Since I've made a gazillion cupcakes of late, I decided to turn them into scary muffins. The basic recipe is of a Apple, Cinnamon Oatmeal cake I've found in a Jamie magazine that I figured would make great gluten free muffins if i canted the recipe somewhat. Yes, I'm a daredevil, boldly changing that into a muffin recipe. LOL
Apple, Cinnamon & Oatmeal make a great combination, so if you aren't into a scary breakfast of snack, you can very well do without the marzipan spiders we put on top.


Ingredients:

• 180 grams (6 oz) of butter at room temperature
• 140 grams (5 oz) of cane sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of rice flour
• 80 grams (about 2.75 oz) of buckwheat flour
• 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
• 1 tablespoon of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 1 large apple (do not use a very sour one, pick a sweet tasting apple)
• 2 tablespoons of oatmeal
• Icing sugar
• To make the spiders, use gluten free marzipan

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees centigrade (325 fahrenheit).
2. Line a muffin tin with butter or paper muffin cups. 
3. Take a large bowl and add the soft butter and sugar. Beat it into a creamy mixture. 
4. Whisk the eggs into the sugar and butter mixture and sift the flour, cream of tartar, cinnamon and xanthan gum and fold all this into the egg/butter/sugar batter in the bowl. 
5. Peel the apple, take out the centre and grate it. Fold it into the batter.
6. Now, if you want to decorate your muffins with marzipan, toss the oatmeal into the mixture now and fold it in. It will give the muffins an extra bite and extra fibers. If you don't feel like making scary spiders, keep the oatmeal aside to decorate the muffins with later. 
7. Now scoop the batter into the paper cups in the muffin tin. Grab your oatmeal if you kept that for decoration and sprinkle it on top.
8. Put the muffin tins in the oven and bake them for about 35-40 minutes. If they look golden, smell wonderful and if you poke a skewer in them and it comes out clean, they're done. 
9. Take them out of the oven and let them cool a bit before you transfer them to a wire rack to let them cool completely. Then decorate with the marzipan spiders (stick them onto the muffin with bit of basic icing) or just dust the oatmeal topped muffins with some icing sugar for extra prettiness.

Enjoy!