Midweek Muffins

I'm a bit of a fan of muffins as they are usually quite quick and simple to rustle up.  They have such a lovely texture when fresh, require little in the way of adornment and the flavour possibilities are endless.  With this in mind I experimented with my own flavour combination, reduced the sugar and added extra fruit for natural sweetness.  The result has a lovely orangey zing but is still sweet enough to keep the children happy.

Carrot, Orange and Apricot Muffins (Low sugar and gluten free)

Ingredients

• 100g ready-to-eat dried apricots, snipped into small pieces
• 40ml recently boiled water
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 175g gluten free self raising flour (I used Doves Farm)
• 50g ground almonds
• 1 tsp gluten free baking powder
• 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
• 15g Truvia sweetener
• 150g carrots, grated
• 80g margarine, melted and cooled
• 250ml natural bio yogurt (I used a low fat Greek yogurt)
• 1 egg beaten
• grated zest and juice of 1 orange
• 3 tbsp/60g no-added-sugar orange spread or marmalade (I used the St Dalfour brand, readily available at the local supermarket)

1. Place the apricot pieces in a small bowl with the bicarbonate of soda, pour over the hot water, stir, then leave to soften for at least half an hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas 4.  Line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases.
3. Sieve the flour, baking powder and xanthan gum into a large bowl.  Stir in the ground almonds and Truvia sweetener.
4. Mix the orange spread/marmalade with your softened apricots then whizz them to a puree with a hand blender or food mixer.  This is not essential if you don't have the right gadgets but will help the distribute the sweetness of the apricots evenly through your muffins.
5. Make a well in your dry ingredients and add the carrots, margarine, yogurt, egg, orange zest and juice and apricot puree.  Fold together quickly, just enough to combine all the ingredients.  Muffins do not like to be over mixed.
6. Divide the mixture between your paper cases and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.
7. Cool on a wire rack.

Muffins are best eaten fresh but I also froze a few for a later date.  My rough estimate of carbs is 20g per muffin.  I made 12 medium sized muffins but of course you could make smaller buns and adjust the carbs accordingly.   For example 18 buns made from the same amount of mixture would be nearer 13g carbs per bun.

Banishing rainy day, back to school blues

Well the half term holiday is nearly over and it's raining again!  One cure for those winter blues is a hearty bowl of vegetable soup followed by a nice slice of cake.  Well the cupboards were looking a little bare but a I noticed a lonely Bramley apple on the bottom of the veg rack and decided to find a use for it.

I have tweaked a WI recipe for Date and Bramley loaf by reducing the added sugar content to virtually nil and substituting ground almonds for some of the flour content to lower the carb count.  Dates are so sweet by themselves that they really don't need much added sugar and the resulting cake is moist and plenty sweet enough.  Allow the cake to cool down properly before eating as it is much easier to slice.  We ate the warm but crumbly version!  Thumbs up from the family and plenty left for school lunchboxes tomorrow.

 Date and Bramley Loaf (the low sugar, gluten free version)

 

Ingredients

• 175g dried ready-to-eat dates
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 250ml recently boiled water
• 175g gluten free self-raising flour (I used Doves Farm)
• 100g ground almonds
• 1/2 tsp gluten free baking powder
• 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 115g butter/margarine
• 12g Truvia sweetener
• 1 medium egg, beaten
• 1 medium Bramley apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped

1. Snip the dates into small pieces and place in a small bowl.  Stir in the bicarbonate of soda and pour over the water.  Cover and leave to soak for at least a couple of hours or preferably overnight.
2. When your dates are ready preheat the oven to 180C / Gas 4.   Grease and line a 900g (2lb) loaf tin.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, xanthan gum and cinnamon into a large bowl.  Stir in the ground almonds, breaking up any lumps.  Rub in the butter or margarine until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs and then stir in the sweetener.
4. Add the dates, with their liquid, egg and chopped apple.  Beat until just combined.
5. Pour mixture into tin and bake for 1hr 15mins, or until a skewer comes out cleanly when inserted.  You may need to cover the cake with greaseproof paper or foil whilst cooking to prevent it going too brown on top.
6. Leave the cake in the tin for 10mins before turning out and allowing to cool completely on a wire rack.  

I think my loaf will make 12 slices and I estimated that each slice will be around 22g of carbs.

Blog beginnings and brownies

Blog beginnings 

At last I have nervously entered the world of blogging.  I hope you will bear with me as I get to grips with the basics and find my feet.  My aim is to share recipes and cooking ideas with other coeliacs and diabetics and anyone else interested in following a lower sugar, gluten free diet.  Of course if you are diabetic but not coeliac you can adapt the recipes accordingly by using non gluten free ingredients and likewise if you are a coeliac with a sweet tooth you may wish to add a little more sugar to my recipes.

Please bear in mind that I am not a qualified nutritionist, just a Mum sharing what works for us.  I try to use ingredients that are easily obtained.  For each recipe I will do a rough, non-scientific, calculation of carbohydrates per portion but this will vary with the ingredients you use e.g. brand of flour or chocolate.
 

Sweet Potato Brownies

Where better to begin my blog than with a Chocolate Brownie recipe?  Brownies are often offered as the gluten-free option in cafes but are also usually laden with sugar.  I wanted to find a lower sugar version which would not lead to a high blood sugar spike, and also tasted good.  I have adapted a recipe from Phil Vickery's "Gluten free cooking for kids".  I have been experimenting using the "Truvia" sweetener made from the Stevia plant.  It is now widely available, though expensive, but a little goes a long way.  The resulting brownies were moist, sweet enough and according to my daughter very tasty.  I hope you agree.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sweet potatoes 
• 150g gluten free dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 100ml olive oil or rapeseed oil (I used the latter)
• 75g gluten free self-raising flour (I used Doves Farm)
• 50g ground almonds
• 1 tsp gluten free baking powder
• 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
• 150g pecan nuts, roughly chopped
• 2 medium eggs
• 33g Truvia sweetener

1. Preheat oven to 190C/ Gas 5
2. Bake sweet potatoes in skins for around 45mins or until soft.  Slice in half and scoop out flesh into a mixing bowl.  You will need around 250g.
3. Increase oven temperature to 200C / Gas 6.  Grease and line a 20cm square tray with baking parchment.
4. Place chocolate and oil in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water) and stir until the chocolate melts.
5. Sift together the gluten free flour, baking powder and xantham gum into another bowl and stir in the chopped pecan nuts.
6. Beat warm chocolate and oil into warm potato, then add eggs and sweetener.  Finally add flour and nut mixture and stir well.
7. Pour into tin, bake for 30mins or until set and cooked.
8. Cool slightly and cut into squares (I cut mine into 16 squares which seemed about the right size).

The brownies kept well in an airtight tin and I froze some which also worked. I estimated that the carbohydrates per square were 12-13grams.