Almond and chocolate mini muffins in less than 30 minutes: Paleo - Gluten free – Grain free

Well, hello there… It’s been quite some time since the last I posted in this blog, to be precise just about 2 month. My excuses? Several… but I hope soon to talk about them.

In the meanwhile, here you have a great little recipe I found while looking how to satisfy a baking / sweet craving and manage to remain gluten free and grain free (and almost sugar free).

To be perfectly honest I didn't expect much of the recipe due to it having so few ingredients and the claim that it will be ready in less than 30 minutes but I gave it a go and I'm so glad I did!

This little bites are delicious and moist and can be eaten just plain as they are or adding some almond butter or cashew butter or even honey to them.

So without much ado, here they are…

Almond and chocolate mini muffins – Gluten free – Grain free

SERVES: 12-15 mini muffins

Prep Time: 5 minutes                  Cook Time: 15 minutes

How many?: 12-15 mini muffins

Recipe adapted from The Sweet Spot

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup almond butter (You can buy almond butter here  or if you are in Málaga or Alhaurín El Grande check out the Herboristerías - Make sure it is the butter made of raw and peeled almond.)
• 1 medium sized bananas (The riper, the sweeter! Don't worry about using those that has the skin already blackened ;)
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or the seeds of 1 vanilla pod
• 1 serving of Stevia*. (If you buy it from Mercadona, they come in little sachets, use 1; if you buy the granulate Stevia the equivalent of 1 tablespoon. If you don't now where to get it, check here). These measures gives you a medium sweet muffin, if you like sweeter ones, add one more tablespoon.)
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon of double cream**
• 2-3 tablespoons of organic dark chocolate chips (at least 70% cacao). If the chips are too big don’t be shy and cut them with a knife.

Instructions:

1.    Preheat the oven at 180ºC.

2.    Place all ingredients - but the chocolate chips- into a blender or food processor. You can also use a stick blender if you have one. Blend until well mixed. Batter should be sticky in texture.

3.    Add 2/3 of the chocolate chips into the batter and mix. Keep the rest to use as topping.

4.    Pour batter into a greased muffin tin or those handy silicon mini muffins moulds.

5.    Add the rest of the chocolate as topping to each muffin.

6.    Cook time: 10-12 minutes for mini muffins.

 

I didn't expected them to rise so beautifully but here they are!

Note: best eaten the same day. If you have some left for the next day you can reheat in a toaster oven for about 4 minutes at 150ºC or just eat them at room temperature, your choice.

Hope you try them and let me know how you like them...

Ciao!

* I use Stevia to do some baking every once in awhile instead of sugar and results are quite good. I'm not saying it is the same but in terms of health I prefer Stevia. You can find information about stevia such as glycemic index here and how it is processed here. Or even something not so good here. Make sure to do your research..so you KNOW what’s going into your body. 

** If you want to make this dairy free you can change the double cream for apple cider vinegar.

Read more…

Paraguayan tapioca and cheese little muffins - Gluten free - Chipa Paraguay

Since I began my #NSNG challenge that is gradually turning into a lifestyle, I have been away of baking which is one of the aspects of cooking that I love the most but for the past week I have been honestly craving the taste of “chipa paraguaya”.

Chipa Paraguaya is one of the most traditional breads in Paraguay. It is made of mandioca flour also known as tapioca or cassava, a starch that is gluten free and therefore apt for celiacs, gluten intolerants and #NSNG who wants a treat once every blue moon (depending on how strict you are, but as Vinnie says, we need to put life into living... don't we?).

Even though the GI of tapioca is a bit on the high end with a GI of 85 to 90 for the tapioca flour its content of sugar is very low being of less than 3%, raw mandioca or cassava is consider an acceptable alternative to white potatoes and other starches for diabetics.

Going back to the chipa, these chewy cheesy little pillows are based on a recipe originally from Paraguay. The original chipa is made from Cassava flour or Tapioca Starch, lard and Paraguayan soft cheese. The adaptation you'll find here is also made from tapioca flour but instead of lard and Paraguayan cheese I used butter and a 3 cheeses combination in order to try to achieve the particular taste of Paraguayan cheese. 

Chipa paraguaya, just out of the oven
with soft melting cheese inside... yummy!

This version of the recipe results in a soft muffin, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. They are so quick and easy to make, they go wonderfully accompanying coffee or a cold tereré and by the way, you don't need to be following a gluten free diet to enjoy them.

Chipa paraguaya: Paraguayan tapioca and cheese little muffins – Gluten free

Author: Letizia Fretes – Cabernetplease.blogspot.com

SERVES: 30- 34 mini muffins

Ingredients:

- 350g Tapioca or cassava or mandioca flour

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 tablespoon baking powder

- 1/2 cup butter, melted

- 2/3 cup of Grana Padano grated cheese

- 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, strings*

- 150g of matured sheep cheese, diced*

- 2 eggs

- 180ml single cream or milk

Instructions:

1.    Preheat the oven at 200ºC.

2.    Mix the dry ingredients together: tapioca flour, baking powder and cheeses.

3.    In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and add the salt, the melted butter and half of the single cream or milk.

4.    Add the mix to the dry ingredients and incorporate, slowly keep adding the rest of the single cream or milk until you are able to form a ball with the dough (if necessary add some more single cream or milk to make the dough manageable).

5.    Make little balls with the dough and place them in mini muffin tins. As a variation you can make little sticks with the dough, they will result in a type of crispy and rich grisines.

6.    Bake at 200ºC until golden brown that would be around 18 to 20 minutes.

You can made cheese sticks like grisines,
these are my brother's favourites.

*You can use any combination of cheese according to your personal taste or what you have available at home. Some really nice variants are smoked or mature Gouda, old vintage cheddar and Manchego cheese? Change the flavours every once in a while for a new taste experience.

**Enjoy them right out of the oven and only make as many as you need. Using mini muffin tins or making the grisines are the way to go. Bigger muffins or buns tend to become chewy or hard the next day, but this can be fixed with some drops of milk and 5 minutes of hot oven.

Read more…

Orange cake with Cointreau sauce

We are still in “Oranges season” here and our Valle del Guadalhorce is pretty much famous for its orange trees. My brother and a friend brought home several bags of oranges freshly collected from the countryside, so I try to find creative and delicious ways to use them.

Searching the web I found a “Moroccan Orange Cake” recipe that looked simple and delicious, so changing  it up a little and adding a Cointreau sauce  we came up with this truly fantastic cake to go with a cup of coffee or tea.

To my delight it was so delicious that my DH asked me to bake some cupcakes  with this recipe for his workmates.

We still have oranges at home!

So, if you want to give it a try, here you have the recipe:

Orange cake with Cointreau sauce

Cake Ingredients

• 4 eggs (at room temperature)
• 1 ½ cups of margarine, melted
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 sachet of baking powder (15g)
• A pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• ½ a cup of fresh orange juice
• Zests of two oranges

Preparation

• Get your orange zest and juice ready. 
• Preheat your oven to 350° F (180° C). Grease and flour a tube pan or your cupcake tray. 
• With an electric mixer  beat together the eggs and sugar until thick. Gradually beat in the melted margarine. Make sure the margarine has cooled down before adding it to the mix. 
• Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt, and then the orange juice. Continue with the electric mixer until smooth, and then mix in the zest and vanilla. 
• Pour the batter into your prepared pan or into the cupcake try, and bake for about 40 minutes, or until the cake tests done. 
• Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling. 
• Soak the cake with the Cointreau and Orange syrup  while it is still warm. With the cupcakes, follow the same procedure and for even better results, grab a bakery syringe and inject the syrup into the cupcakes. Once the syrup is cold it will get a thicker consistency.

Ingredients for the Cointreau and orange syrup

• ½ cup of white sugar
• ¾ cup of fresh orange juice
• 1 shot (about 3-4 tbs) of Cointreau

Preparation

In a pan, mix together the sugar and fresh orange juice and take it to boil. Once the sugar has completely dissolved, lower the heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and add the Cointreau (Dark rum also goes really well with this cake). Let it cool down for about 100 minutes and then while it is still warm, pour it over the cake.

If you try the recipe, please let me know how it goes.

Leti.-

 

Read more…