Book of Yum

I love the fall and winter season, and one of the first signs that it has arrived is when fresh cranberries appear in the supermarket. For the longest time, I could never figure out what to do with them. Then I stumbled on some recipes for homemade cranberry sauce, and realized that I could do way better than the Ocean Spray jelled cranberry sauce sold in the store. I started making homemade cranberry sauce for our Thanksgiving dinners, and loved cranberries simmered into a sweet, jammy sauce. It was fun to add different flavor elements and see what happened to the sauce. But it wasn’t until I attended a gluten-free potluck and had a gluten-free cranberry pie/crumble that I realized how delicious cranberries could be in baked goods. That’s why this season when I found that special first bag of cranberries at Trader Joe’s, I immediately decided to try to come up with a killer cranberry muffin using fresh, rather than dried, cranberries. My first effort was way too healthy- I tried converting a recipe to be both gluten-free and vegan recipe with severely reduced oil and sugar- and I didn’t like them at all. The next time, I decided to go for flavor and texture, taking inspiration from a southern-style recipe for cranberry muffins. The recipe I converted was quite big, and I only had one muffin tin, so I decided to bake half of it as muffins and half as a cranberry coffee cake, sprinkling it with brown sugar and chopped pecans just for fun. It occurs to me you could do this to the muffins as well, to make them even more decadent, but I like having the option of a healthier muffin as well as the option of yummy, sweet cranberry coffee cake. I loved the texture of the muffin crust- it was almost like cornbread, sans corn. The cake had the same lovely texture with the added bonus of caramelized pecans. Mmmm, I think I’m really on to something with this whole cranberry baked good thing… So the next time you can’t decide between making muffins or cake- and have a lovely bag of fresh cranberries in your fridge, just make both! Enjoy!

Gluten Free Cranberry Muffin Recipe with Cranberry Pecan Coffee Cake Recipe Bread  Breakfast  Alternative Grains  American

Ingredients 1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 cup white rice flour blend (such as Bette Hagman’s gourmet mix containing tapioca starch) 1 cup brown rice flour 1/2 cup sweet rice flour 1/2 cup garfava bean flour 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup white sugar 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup butter or margarine 1/2 cup yogurt 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1 cup milk For cake variation: 1/8 cup brown sugar or more to taste 1 cup chopped pecans Directions Combine cranberries and 1/4 cup brown sugar in a small bowl and reserve. Combine dry ingredients including sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter or margarine into the dry ingredients until the texture becomes slightly crumbly. Then combine your eggs, milk, and yogurt in a bowl and whisk together. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry crumble and gently stir together. Fold in your cranberry-sugar mixture. For muffins, pour into 2 muffin tins sprayed with nonstick cooking spray and bake for 20-25 minutes. For cranberry cake variation, combine your brown sugar and pecans in a small bowl. Spray up to two square 8 in. cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. If you like, you can like the cake pan with wax paper Pour your batter into the cake pan. Sprinkle the top with your brown sugar and pecans and bake for 25-30 minutes. You can use half the batter for a batch of muffins and half the batter for a cranberry coffee cake!

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Rating:  9 Original Source:  Inspired by online (gluten) recipe but adapted to be gluten free. Cake entirely my creation. Please do not replicate anywhere without my permission. Recipe ID:  1321 Added:  November 14, 2008 Last Modified:  November 15, 2008

This recipe doesn’t have any especially traditional Halloween ingredients, although apple cider is something I associate with Fall, but they are so tasty I thought they’d be the perfect treat for my boo-tiful readers. I was first inspired to experiment with apple cider when I read an apple cider donut recipe. However, it was a healthy recipe for a spicy cider muffin that finally pushed me to the edge and got me to play in the kitchen. I thought an apple cider muffin with streusel sounded great, but wouldn’t an apple cider muffin with cinnamon spiked caramelized apples be even better? Once I made the recipe gluten free and adjusted the seasonings, I tried it with apple pie filling in the base. It was delicious, but the apples were difficult to remove from the muffin tin. Then I tried it with apple pie filling and walnut streusel on top of the muffin. It was easier to take out of the tin, but a little hard to eat. Finally, I tried it with apple pie filling in the middle of the muffin, and that turned out to be JUST RIGHT. DH said that he couldn’t tell they were gluten-free, and that they were Yummy (with a capital Y). I totally agree. I could have these super-special Fall inspired muffins every day.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Gluten-Free Mulled Apple Cider Muffins Bread  Alternative Grains  American

Ingredients Streusel: 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar 3 tbsp. brown rice flour 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon butter, diced 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts Apple Pie Base: 1 tbsp. butter 3 or 4 small apples, peeled and sliced 1/4 tsp dried lemon peel (optional) 1/2 lemon, juiced 1 tsp. vanilla 1 tbsp. and 1 tsp. brown sugar heaped 1/2 tsp or more cinnamon 2/3 cup brown rice flour 1/3 cup garfava bean flour 1 cup all-purpose white GF flour blend such as Bette Hagman’s Gourmet blend 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 large egg 1/3 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup applesauce 1/3 cup honey 1/3 cup apple cider 1/3 cup low-fat plain yogurt 1/4 cup canola oil Directions Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat a regular 12 muffin tin with cooking spray. Heat a nonstick pan on medium and melt your butter. Just as it starts to brown, throw in your apples and sprinkle them with optional lemon peel. Let them begin to brown, and then turn and add lemon juice and vanilla. As the second side browns, add your brown sugar and cinnamon and turn one more time. Let apples become soft and move to side of the pan. Throw in the walnuts for your strudel to the empty part of the pan and let them brown lightly, turning once and then taking everything off the burner. Don’t mix the apples and walnut together! In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients for your muffin from brown rice flour to the nutmeg. Whisk together to combine. Put your egg and brown sugar in a small to medium bowl and whisk together. Add applesauce, honey, apple cider, yogurt and oil together and whisk until combined. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour your combined liquid ingredients into the well, making sure to leave a few teaspoons of liquid in the small to medium bowl. Fold in your liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Quickly place the streusel ingredients into the small to medium bowl and combine everything together with your fingers. Don’t forget the toasted walnuts from your nonstick pan! (Leave the apple pie filling in the pan!) Assemble your muffins by putting a small layer of batter in the muffin tin. Then put a layer of the apple pie filling over the batter. Cover it with a layer of batter. Then sprinkle the streusel generously on top of each muffin. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until muffins are a nice golden brown and separate easily from the muffin tin. Leave them in the muffin tin for a few minutes or separate muffins from the pan gently with a butter knife. Put on a wire rack to cool. Notes The most awesome muffins ever. DH said you can’t tell at all that they are gluten-free. All I know is that I want them for breakfast every day from now on!

Rating:  9 Original Source:  Heavily modified from Eating Well to be GF and even more fun! Do not replicate anywhere without my permission. Thanks! Recipe ID:  1309 Added:  October 25, 2008 Last Modified:  October 31, 2008