Gluten Free Apple Cake

Having a sweet tooth and a bag of apples normally meant lots of baking: apple crumble, apple pie, apple crumble pie, and so on.    Now this baking doesn't come so easily if I want to enjoy it.  I went on the search for a gluten free apple cake, thinking this would probably be easier than trying to make a gluten-free crust for a pie.  Most of the recipes I found called for xantham gum, which I didn't have in my kitchen (and probably won't ever have because of its cost and "synthetic" nature).

I found a recipe that I was able to tweak, and the end result was really quite good - and baked much faster than the recipe called for.  While I didn't try it, I believe this could easily be made dairy free as well if you substituted almond milk (or your go to milk) in place of the milk and your own butter substitute (or coconut oil).

The cake is really moist and tasted delicious warm.  It was a little crumbly - I'm not sure if that is because of the ingredients or the fact that we ate it warm. It doesn't rise very much, so next time I might consider baking it in a square pan and longer if necessary.  I may also add in some more apples to increase the flavour.  Overall though, it has a nice taste and definitely satisfied my cake craving.  I wouldn't guess it was gluten-free if I hadn't baked it myself.



Ingredients:
3/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp chia seeds (or flax seeds or half of each)
1.5 tsp boiling water
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 eggs
3 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla
1.5 cups apples, peeled, cored and shredded (I used 3 small empire apples)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 9" round springform pan with butter or coconut oil and dust with rice flour.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the rice flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg; set aside.

3. In a small bowl combine chia seeds and boiling water to create a gel; set aside.

4. Cream the butter with your mixer until it is softened and pale yellow. (I used about 1 tbsp less butter and added that amount in coconut oil.)  Add both the white and brown sugar and beat until well combined.

5. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.  Blend in the milk (I used regular milk, but you could use almond or any substitute), vanilla and the chia seed gel, beating well after each one.

6. On low speed, add the dry ingredients in two batches, beating well after each addition until it is well absorbed.

7.  Gently fold in the shredded apples.

8. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake 30-35 minutes (the original recipe called for 40-45 mins but my cake was already browning in 30) or until the cake pulls away from the edge of the pan and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

9.  Serve warm or cooled.  If serving warm, cool in the pan at least 10 minutes before removing.

10.  Dust lightly with icing sugar if you like.

Chocolate Banana Bread

You may not know that I have been going gluten-free for about a month now.  While I haven't been diagnosed with anything, it is likely that the gluten has been causing (or at least contributing to) my thyroid problems as well as digestion problems.  So I've tried to cut it out.  Needless to say, I have been miserable, miss my foods and haven't seen a difference.

A few days ago I hit up my bulk barn and bought a bunch of different flours that are gluten free.  I love baking, and as I've come to realize, baking gluten free is definitely not the same.  Substitutions don't work and you need several different ingredients to mimic flour and gluten.  Today was my first attempt at gluten free baking.  I've had these ripening bananas sitting on my counter and banana muffins and bread are kinda my thing, so I was determined to keep it as my thing.

I have this book called Nourishing Meals so I decided to work with one of their recipes.

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup teff flour

3/4 cup sorghum flour

1/4 cup tapioca flour or arrowroot powder (I did about half and half)

6 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:

2 tbsp ground flax seeds

1/4 cup warm water

1-1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 5-6 for me)

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted coconut oil (or any oil really)

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

Optional:

chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients.

3. In a separate (large) mixing bowl, add the ground flax and warm water; whisk together so the flax doesn't clump up.  Then add the remaining wet ingredients and whisk together.

4. Pour the wet ingredients in to the dry and mix together with a large wooden spoon.  Fold in your optional ingredients above (I did both!).  Pour batter into your bread pan.  Bake for about 45 minutes.  Cool for 20 minutes and then remove from pan and continue to cool on a wire rack.

My little one helped me with the baking and had a blast.  We also enjoyed licking the batter!  Surprisingly that batter didn't look all that much different from other batters I've worked with.  All my reading online caused me to think it wouldn't look "normal" but it did; maybe it was a little thicker than I'm used to. I probably kept the loaf in for about 50 minutes, but it could have used another 5-10 more as the middle still seemed a little moist.  Since it was my first time, and the batter is dark, I didn't want it to turn out too dry or hard.

The loaf turned out amazing!  You would never know that there wasn't flour in it.  The cocoa adds a richness to it that is almost fudgey or like a brownie!  It is definitely a hit in my house and my banana bread loving friends!