Book of Yum

I think we might have to rename the Book of Yum to “the Book of Amaranth” if I keep this up. I can’t help it. I’m eating amaranth every four days, thanks to this crazy allergen-free, gluten-free diet that I’m on. I’ve gone through phases. There was the amaranth banana muffin phase, the “amaranth gruel baked into a cracker phase, the amaranth soda bread phase, the amaranth pizza phase… but lately I’ve been bored with all of these. My food fantasies turned towards the sweet, and I started having visions of raisins and cinnamon sugar. Sorghum recipes go with cinnamon and sugar like jam goes on toast, so that has been easy. But the other day it occurred to me that perhaps the earthy flavor of amaranth might be coaxed into submission by the assertive flavors of cinnamon and raisin. In fact, amaranth might start to function like teff in my favorite gluten-free graham cracker recipe by Rebecca Reilly, adding depth and an almost graham flour flavor. So, I decided to try. I used my amaranth soda bread recipe as the jumping off point to create a healthy, low in fat and low in sugar scone that you can have for an everyday breakfast without an obscene sugar rush. And you know what? I liked it. I liked it a lot. Oh, and if you don’t want to bother with forming individual scones, you can also just make a cinnamon raisin soda bread round and cut it to serve. It isn’t quite as cute, but it tastes every bit as good. Tell me what you think, and about your experiments with amaranth. Let’s dish amaranth!

Gluten-free Vegan Amaranth Raisin Scone Recipe Breakfast  Dessert  Alternative Grains  American

Ingredients 1 cup raisins (i used jumbo assorted) soaked in warm water 2 tablespoons boiling water 3/4 teaspoon unbuffered vitamin C crystals 4 tablespoons coconut oil or other oil (grapeseed, canola, etc) 3/4 cup warm hemp milk (or other dairy-free milk) 2 tsp. vanilla 2 cup cups amaranth flour 1/2 cup sorghum flour 3/4 cup arrowroot starch 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon Penzey’s Baking Spice (or pumpkin pie blend, or cinnamon sugar) 2 teaspoons baking soda Extra warm hemp milk (or other dairy-free milk) for basting cinnamon sugar Raw sugar Directions Preheat oven to 400F. Cut a circle of parchment paper to cover the bottom of a round cake tin. Also cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put your raisins in a small bowl and pour warm or boiling water over them. Let sit. Put your vitamin c in the boiling water. If it doesn�t dissolve, whisk it in. Combine amaranth flour, sorghum flour, arrowroot starch, brown sugar, salt, baking soda and baking spice in a large bowl. Drain your raisins and add them to the dry mix. Next, add your water with vitamin C, hemp or other dairy-free milk, vanilla, and oil, and stir with a big wooden spoon. Begin to fold it all together. You can mistreat this dough a bit. Beat it up, fold it up until it seems thoroughly mixed and your arm feels tired. Plop the dough onto your cake pan and shape it into a circle about 1 inch high that doesn’t quite touch the edges. You can dampen your hands to shape it or use a cake frosting knife to smooth out the edges. Remove dough round (along with parchment circle) from the cake pan and put on a cutting board. Use a damp or oiled bread knife to cut the round in half, then quarters, and finally into eighths as if you were cutting a pie. Use a thin spatula or pie server to remove the triangles of dough one by one and place them onto the cookie sheet’s parchment paper. Do not let their edges touch. Brush with warm hemp milk and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and raw sugar. Pop in the oven. Lower oven temperature to 325 and bake for 45 minutes or until scone has a nice texture. (Depends on your preference; I like my amaranth a little over-baked so it is not gummy.) Remove from oven and serve! Would be good with soy-free margarine, coconut ice cream, or cashew cream if you do nuts.

Rating:  8 Original Source:  Inspired by an earlier recipe for irish soda bread, but my original creation. Do not replicate anywhere without my permission. Thanks! Recipe ID:  1513 Added:  August 20, 2010 Last Modified:  August 20, 2010

As many of you may know, in order to breastfeed my darling Baby Yum I had to go on a rather extreme allergen-free diet, cutting out the obvious (dairy, soy, nuts, eggs) and even the less obvious, like rice, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.* In the course of trying to figure out how to help my allergic baby, I reached out for advice from communities like la leche league, attending meetings and reading their allergy boards avidly. The latter was especially helpful as I met other Moms who had battled allergies with their own infants and found solutions that worked for them. Thanks to suggestions on this board, I tried digestive enzymes (didn’t work for us), diet modifications, and finally probiotics for her which markedly improved her symptoms and my sanity. While there are many probiotics on the market, we found success with a Klaire infant probiotic free of just about everything from dairy to rice. (Annoyingly, you can only get it through a holistic medical professional, so we went to Whole Child Wellness for this “prescription” as well as some thinking-outside-of-the-box advice.) These resources were all very helpful, but one thing I’ve struggled with is getting the fuel to keep me going that conformed with an everything-free diet. Allergen-free blogs have been helpful, and I’ve enjoyed researching international options like one-flour-ingredient Indian flatbreads (see my sorghum flatbread or millet flatbread recipe), but the same allergy-expert ladies on the La Leche League forums also had some recipes that I have found very useful. Happily, I found one of the best gluten-free, dairy and egg free muffins I’ve ever had thanks to “Shannon75″ on the boards. I had to modify them a little to suit our restrictions, but this recipe is nothing short of a chemical miracle that results in amazing, fluffy, sturdy muffins that taste pretty awesome with a swipe of dairy-free soy-free margarine from Earth Balance and a little local honey. You can even use them as a sandwich base or eat them plain. I’ve made them in regular muffin tins and in mini-muffin tins- they are great either way. These babies don’t need eggs at all- and they beat most egg-free gluten-free muffin recipes hands down. Got any favorite winning gluten-free, egg-free muffin recipes or links? Share them in the comments! Me, baby yum, and my fellow allergen-free readers will thank you!

*Note: I am not a doctor, so this is not medical advice- just the path we chose that worked for us personally.

Quinoa Apple Allergen-free Muffins Bread  Alternative Grains  American

Ingredients Dry: 1 Cup quinoa flour 1/2 + 1/3 cup arrowroot starch (may replace one portion with an alternate starch such as tapioca, corn, or potato) 2 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp xanthan gum 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp baking powder Wet: 1 1/2 Cup liquid- (I use 3/4 cup apple juice concentrate with 3/4 cup apple juice to mellow out the strong flavor of the quinoa flour, but you can substitute other juice or water) 1/4 c oil 2 tsp egg replacer Directions Grease muffin tin with palm oil shortening or other oil. Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk together dry ingredients, and then make a well in the center for the liquid ingredients. Mix all together with a large spoon. Pour batter into muffin tin and bake for 12 minutes. Cool and enjoy! Notes Thanks to Shannon of the La Leche League forums for providing the template for this recipe, which I modified for our allergies.

Rating:  9 Original Source:  Based on recipe adapted by Shannon and posted on the La Leche Leage forums WITH permission. Please do not replicate anywhere without both of our permission. Recipe ID:  1497 Added:  April 3, 2010 Last Modified:  April 6, 2010