Millet, Oat, Peach & Apple Gluten Free Muffins, and thoughts on Snow

Winter is here. Waist high snow fall and towering eight foot piles of it have zapped much of my energy and enthusiasm for life.  At good moments I like to marvel at the surreal landscape around us, wind carved drifts and epic icicles.  I am most grateful for my new snow boots keeping me warm and dry. Seriously, if you are looking for the best boot ever, look no further. 

And I think it may be wise to invest in some Westeros Wildling fashions. 

Because, see, winter is here. These are my windows after the last storm. And we live on a raised first floor, I usually have to stand on my tiptoes to reach the windows from the outside in the summer. 

I have not been outside today, since this scary guy seems to be out there right now... 

Winter and I are not friends. Mostly I have been making meals out of melted cheese and various corn products; tortillas, chips, corn bread. Cooking out of the freezer and the pantry a lot. And filling the rest of my calories with chocolate in the form of vegan brownies, and obviously hot cocoa. This is me with winter the winter snow sadness, nachos in one hand and rum laced hot cocoa in the other. Actually the two do not taste so well together, don't try it.

I did make an effort of cheerfulness with some peach muffins for breakfast. Inspired by the Millet and Oat muffin recipe in Le Tartine Gourmonde, I of course changed some things by adding peaches and removing some sugar.

This is how I keep my oatmeal; with the ratio on the front for making oatmeal so I don't have to wonder if my brain is remembering correctly first thing in the morning!

Mixing up the muffin batter up is easy.

for a double batch of muffins which makes 24. I used one bag of frozen peaches. Defrost them to make slicing easy.



Fill your muffin cups 3/4 of the way with batter. Divide the peach chunks evenly around them, poking them into the batter a bit. Sprinkle the tops with dry oats. My peaches did not sink much, you can see them here on the baked muffins. I find the frozen peaches have a good flavor, but are less tender and juicy than fresh ones. In muffins this might be a bonus, as prevention against soggy muffins.



Millet, Oat, Peach & Apple Gluten Free Muffins
makes 12 muffins

2 eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons tahini paste (well mixed)
3 1/2 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup millet flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup oats (plus more for topping)
5 ounces cut peaches (frozen is OK!)

Preheat oven to 350°

Mix eggs and sugar in a bowl until combined and sort of creamy. Add oil, tahnini paste, apple sauce and vanilla. Mix well.

Combine the millet flour, sorghum flour, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl, ensure there are no lumps. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add the oats. Stir until it is well mixed, with no dry spots.

Line a muffin pan with papers, or grease it. Or if you have a super easy silicone mold like mine, it needs no grease! Scoop 3/4 full of batter. Add peaches. Poke into the batter. Sprinkled with oats for garnish.

Bake for 25 minutes. Check that a toothpick comes out clean, indicated they are done.

Enjoy :)

Pumpkin Paleo Pancakes with Cranberries and Apples

Ok, so I have been on hiatus from writing for a week or two. Life got busy and between running from jobs to projects, getting to the gym and back, and lets be honest- Netflix, the blogging lost out. I have been cooking a lot, things like soups which turn out well, but I took no photos of the process because...its just a soup and I was hungry. So I am back, and here is a weekend pancake recipe to kick off the Thanksgiving week with ingredients like cranberries, pumpkin and spices. Happy weekend before thanksgiving, which means menu planning and planning all the planning ahead we can do. Like, what day should I make my pie crust? As of now, still undecided. 

It is paleo, and thus low sugar. Wanting more sweetness in the pancakes, but not having any sort of sweet juice in the house I used an unusual technique of soaking dried fruit to extract some of the sugary flavors. Prunes, figs, or dates work well as they have a high sugar content. I used prunes here. So take about a 1/4 cup of dried fruit (9 prunes) cover with boiling water, let steep for 5-10 minutes, while you whip together the rest of the pancakes. You will want 1/4 cup of this fruit juice to put into the pancakes, the now soft dried fruit can be eaten or used on oatmeal tomorrow, or chopped up and put into quickbread, stuffing, or whatever!

So grab a can of pumpkin, some coconut oil, eggs, and your favorite "milk" product and lets go. Melt your coconut oil, I throw the jar into the microwave for 30 seconds and that does the trick. Whisk the eggs, pumpkin, "milk", and oil together.

Measure the arrowroot and almond meal into a bowl, break up any lumps before adding it into the wet ingredients. Add the spices and other dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture. (spices from top, clockwise are: cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg and clove.)

Then add anything we missed, like maple syrup, prune juice, vanilla and apple cider vinegar. The batter is thick and custard-like.

Fresh cranberries are easily run over with a knife for chunks and bits which cook quickly in the batter. I always have some fresh cranberries in my freezer, which can easily be sliced up while still frozen. Stir the beautiful red berries into the batter and away we go.

I find success in a medium low heat, number 3 on my stove. And in my cast iron griddle pan which takes up two burners. I use coconut oil to grease the pan, since there is already coconut oil in the pancakes themselves. And because it is tasty and makes pancakes brown nicely. (Yes, butter is awesome too, I'll leave this choice up to you.)

Pour batter onto the griddle in 2"-3" rounds. If it does not flow easily, add more "milk". Cook slowly, bubbles will appear across the surface of the pancake when it is ready to flip. These can be delicate and my favorite tool is a fish spatula, it has an angled tip and is very thin, so it slides right under the pancakes. 

Once flipped over, they PUFF up, and when the pancakes reaches a puffy stage which is at the maximum puffyness and just before it begins to deflate...this is when it is done. Remove the pancakes from the griddle and begin to pile them up. Pour, cook, flip, cook, pile up. Repeat until done. 

Call everyone to the table and serve pancakes with maple syrup and cut apples.  

Pumpkin Paleo Pancakes with Cranberries and Apples

Serves 3-4

Wet ingredients: 
4 eggs
1 can pumpkin
2.5 T coconut oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup (or 1 packet stevia)
1 t vanilla
1/3 cup fig juice (something sweet)
1/2 cup hemp or almond milk (more as needed)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Dry ingredients:
1/2 cup arrowroot flour (or potato starch)
1 cup almond meal (or quinoa flour)
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon clove
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 t salt

Fruit:
1/2 cup of fresh cranberries
Sliced apple for serving
maple syrup for serving


Enjoy! ;)

Pumpkin spice has gone too far! And a real autumn treat, Apple and Maple Paleo Crisp

Fall has arrived in all seriousness, My fridge is currently home  to 5 varieties of apples. The mornings are chilly and chai sounds like a good idea again. I ate a cider doughnut, technically 3. Its official. 

If I was still not sure, say I had awakened from a lengthy Rip Van winkle sleep, I would know it was fall by the endless ads for "pumpkin spice" Or I may be confused about this "pumpkin spice" which has nothing to do with pumpkins. And everything to do with artificial flavored spice syrup.

I don't go in for this "pumpkin spice" flavor which the marketers seem to think can sell more of anything. ...Pumpkin spice is back! Pumpkin spice latte... pumpkin spice pringles... pumpkin spice coffee... marshmallows...vodka....I think I saw a pumpkin spice iPhone. Its gone too far. 

We all know by now that except for in the case of pumpkin beer, most of these things contain no pumpkin, which in real life tastes like squash. The flavor blend is a synthetic approximation of spices. If you dont believe me lookey here.

Nobody understands the pumpkin spice scented maxi pads. Im hoping those are a good internet photoshop joke, but it could not be confirmed one way or another. I think it makes a point.

This is all to say, I made an apple crisp last night, and  I used some spices. No way am I calling it a pumpkin spice apple crisp, its just spices! I hope next fall, the pumpkin trend blows over, they have ruined one of our comforts of fall, taking all the soul out of it.  

It may be a homely looking apple crisp, perhaps because it is paleo. It is certainly delicious. With allspice and nutmeg, omitting the ubiquitous cinnamon makes the dessert less than predictable. 

I left it on the counter to cool. When I had returned from dinner with a girlfriend, my husband looked at me, and said "I ate a little bit of that apple thing, its so good, too bad its not paleo." I reassured him that it was indeed. And I went to have a bite myself,  finding he had eaten about half of it. Ha, a little bit. Thankfully I took photos before. 

The sliced almonds approximate the texture of oatmeal in a typical crisp. Which is why he was fooled. 

Apple and Maple Paleo Crisp

Apples to fill a pie pan. (Mackintosh is good) peeled and chopped off the core.

Juice from 1/4 of a lemon

2.5 ounces sliced almonds

3 ounces sunflower seeds (unsalted)

pinch salt

3 Tablespoons (1 ounce) coconut oil

3 Tablespoons (3 3/4 ounces) maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon allspice

Preheat oven to 350°. 

Peel and slice apples, place directly into the pan. Sprinkle lemon juice on top of the apples.

Mix together the sunflower seeds, almonds, salt. Work the coconut oil into the mixture so all combined. Add the maple syrup, allspice and nutmeg.

(This is what real nutmeg looks like, you can grate it on a microplane directly into your baking, its the best!) 

Give the crisp topping a good mix up. Dump it on top of the apples without any fanfare. There is no way this will ever look chic, so don't waste your time. This is a homely and delicious crisp, loved for what is on the inside, thats what counts.

Bake for 20 - 30 minutes. Spin midway to promote even toasting of the topping. The apples should have softened, with some bubbling at the edges, the topping will be toasty golden brown. Try not to burn this one, burnt nuts taste icky.