I have a confession to make..

I had a slice of pie for breakfast this morning. And, in the past, I've eaten cake first thing in the morning. And once even, on a really hot day, ice cream (pre-dairy free) was my breakfast of choice.

I'm not proud of this. Nor do I recommend it, but sometimes you just eat what your body craves.

I think they do their breakfasts right in Taiwan. During my stay there most days breakfast consisted of rice porridge and a variety of greens and meats to serve with that porridge (another post on the subject with be posted soon). Traditionally, no sweets (pancakes, donuts, waffles, etc.) were served with breakfast and quite honestly that's probably the best way to do it (I noticed the ever-inspiring Sally does the same for breakfast). No sugar in the morning means you're starting your day off right without any spike in blood sugar. And that's a good way to start the day.

However, my pie this morning was homemade and I knew just how much sugar went into it, so I felt at least a little better about it. That, and it was practically calling my name.

My Grandma, the one who nicknamed me the good eatah (and who is in the background of the photo above), is also famous for her pies. Really, I went on a limb here making an apple pie that wasn't hers. At the tender age of 95 she's a bit confused about the whole gluten thing, so we made a deal for Thanksgiving this year: I'll make the crusts and bring them to her house and then we'll make the fillings together.

Apple Pie (gluten-free, dairy-free,vegatarian)

I took what I knew from making crusts with Grandma and mixed in some of my gf knowledge to come up with this:

Crust
1 cup brown rice flour (I use superfine)
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1 tablespoon xantham gum
2 egg yolks
1 cup organic shortening (I use Spectrum brand)
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup cold water
dash of salt

Filling
5 apples, sliced, peeled and cored
1 1/2 teaspoon apple pie spice (or cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice)
1/3 cup powdered maple syrup (you can certainly use regular sugar here, if so, I'd use 1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons vegan butter-spread
1 tablespoon demerara sugar (optional)

I made my crust by hand since my glorious dishwasher disfigured my food processor bowl...

In a large bowl combine flours, xantham gum and salt and whisk together to get out any lumps. In a smaller bowl, combine the vinegar, egg yolks and water and whisk to combine. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry and then cut in the shortening using two knives until the shortening is evenly distributed. Cut the dough in half and flatten into a dish and wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least two hours. Once you are ready to use them, take them out of the frigde and let sit for about five minutes before working with them. Place one half of the dough between two large pieces of parchment or wax paper, and roll until slightly larger than whatever size pie dish you have (8 inch or 9 inch works with this recipe). With the other half you can roll out the dough in the same manner and make a lattice, like shown below (click here on a great guide on how to create a lattice top). My mom's a master at them and created the one for our apple pie.

Preheat oven to 350.

Place the peeled, cored and sliced apples into a bowl and add the apple pie spice. Mix until evenly coated and place into the pie dish. Add the powdered maple syrup (or sugar) on top and drop small pieces of the butter-spread among the apples. Add the lattice top, or rolled out dough and place in the oven. Cook for about an hour, or until the apples are well cooked. This crust does not brown very much.

Zucchini Carrot Bread and Muffins

Oh Henry -- always sneaking into my photos.

I had this really strange urge to bake zucchini bread last night. It's really strange because I'm normally a morning baker: I wake up, let the dog out, and get cooking. Last night however, I was raring to go. It could have been the two glasses of wine in me, or the fact that I was procrastinating from packing for my trip, but at 10:30pm I started the bread, and before midnight I was enjoying some warm, moist zucchini carrot goodness.

This stuff is tasty; a little too tasty because I managed to have probably 3 muffin's worth already. But it's okay. I had a long workout today -- I'll just keep telling myself that. With this recipe, I tried to replicate zucchini cupcakes that my Mom makes; hers are topped with a cream cheese frosting so I certainly can't compete with that, but take it for what it is -- a quick bread. These hit the spot.

I used my favorite gluten-free flour mix which is made up of superfine brown rice flour, tapioca starch and potato starch and one cup of sorghum flour to add a bit more nutrition to the bread. I imagine millet flour would work well too in place of the sorghum flour. Most people associate walnuts with zucchini breads, but I only had a half of cup on hand, so I used pecans too, which turned out nicely. I have a mix of sweeteners (brown sugar, vanilla sugar and agave) in this recipe too. I hope to play around with this in the future and try only brown rice syrup, or only agave to cut back on the refined sugar.

Zucchini Carrot Bread/Muffins

1/2 cup Earth Balance buttery spread (dairy-free) or butter if you can have it
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vanilla sugar
2 tablespoons agave nectar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini and carrot (2 zucchini and 2 small carrots; wringed of water with a towel)
2 cups gluten free flour mix
1 cup sorghum flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped pecans


Preheat oven to 335 degrees.

Grease and flour (I used rice flour) 2 loaf pans, or 1 loaf pan and 6 muffin tins.

Mix the Earth Balance (or butter) in a mixer until creamy. Add the sugars and agave and mix until combined. Next, add the eggs, one at a time. Then, add the vanilla. Lastly, mix in the zucchini carrot mixture by hand until combined.

In another bowl, add the all of the flour, baking soda, baking powder, xantham gum, salt and cinnamon and whisk until all of the dry ingredients are combined.

With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until you have a thick batter, then fold in the nuts.

Pour into loaf pan, or muffin tins. I baked the loaf for about forty-five minutes and the muffins only took about twenty minutes. Keep an eye on these, as baked goods with agave can look "toasted" quite quickly.

To keep moist, store loaf and muffins in plastic or glass containers in the refridgerator.

Coconut Flour Cranberry Walnut Bread

Coconut flour is pretty cool; I've posted about it before, but I am really impressed with how much it expands when you bake it. I made an entire loaf of bread with just 2/3 of a cup of sifted coconut flour. Mind you, I had to use eight eggs, but still -- that defies physics (er, well -- I think).

This bread is perfect for breakfast, or as a snack. It doesn't really hold up well enough to make a sandwich from, but do you really expect that from a cranberry walnut bread? I adapted (omitted the sugar and added agave/use lemon zest instead of lemon extract) the recipe from one I found here and I'm hoping to experiment more with the flour (just check out the chocolate cake in that link -- yum).

Cranberry Walnut Bread (gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian)

8 eggs
½ cup coconut oil, melted
½ cup coconut milk
1/3 cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon lemon zest
½ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup sifted coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup dried cranberries
½ cup walnuts, chopped

Blend together eggs, oil, coconut milk, agave, vanilla, lemon zest, and salt. Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk thoroughly into batter until there are no lumps. Fold in dried cranberries and nuts. Pour into greased 9x5x3-inch loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees F (175 C) for 60 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on rack.

Please note that the crust of the bread may turn out quite dark due to the agave, but it still tastes quite nice; even *Henry thinks so.

*Henry has this new thing where he will wait underneath the kitchen table just in case I happen to drop a crumb that he can conveniently catch in his mouth. It's quite the sight when you're trying to enjoy your meal and look down and see that face just staring at you betwixt your legs.

Coconut Banana Muffins

Or shall I say mini Coconut Banana Muffins. There I go again with my infatuation of all things miniature, or is my new obsession all things coconut now? I should state that I find when baking gluten-free goods -- the smaller, the better. There's less of a chance for crumbliness when you're creating a mini muffin, versus a regular sized muffin. And these held up very well.

The texture of these little guys isn't the same as a regular muffin, you can definately tell they're made with coconut flour, but I like that. They're a hearty lot and not very sweet. And the fiber? They are loaded with it. Coconut flour has the highest percentage of dietary fiber (58%) than any other flour. Just imagine how fiber-rific they'd be if you added some ground flax seed to this mix...

Coconut Banana Muffins

3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
3 eggs
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 overly-ripe, mashed banana
1/2 teaspoon gluten free vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
(toasted coconut and pecans for tops optional)

Preheat oven to 375F. In a medium-sized bowl combine the coconut oil, eggs, agave nectar, banana and vanilla extract. In a smaller bowl, combine the coconut flour, salt and baking powder until all lumps are gone. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ones until thoroughly combined.

Using a teaspoon, fill mini-muffin tins 3/4 full (mine are non-stick, but coats yours with oil if they are not) and top with toasted coconut and/or pecans. Bake for 12 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.

Minature Banana Bread Loaf

I've tried quite a few gluten-free, dairy-free banana bread recipes in my day and none could compare to my dear Mom's banana bread. It was so good that when she sent a loaf back with me to school in college, and I had to hand it off to my friend to bring it back to my dorm because I had to go to tennis practice, there was only half left when I got back to the dorm. And I really couldn't blame her; my Mom's banana bread is good.

Fast forward to a few years later, and I'm trying to replicate that moist, sweet, loaf. I've had a few failures, including a loaf that crumbled to the touch, but alas! I have found a winner, and it's basically my Mom's recipe -- modified gluten free.

I should also mention my slight obsession with "little" cooking tools. The notebook above is the size of a checkbook, so yes, the whisk is really the size of a fork, and the mini-loaf pan (I have four of them) makes a loaf slightly larger than a regular-sized muffin. This banana bread worked perfectly in my mini-loaf pan, but it also turned out well in a regular sized loaf pan -- just adjust your cooking time.

That's Henry -- eyeballing my loaf. Bad Henry.

Gluten-free, Dairy-free Banana Bread

2 teaspoons vanilla (make sure it's gluten-free; I use Nielsen-Massey Vanillas)
3/4 cup sugar (I had vanilla sugar on hand, so I used that)
4 very ripe, mashed bananas (I freeze over-ripe bananas and pop them in the microwave to defrost them when I want to use them)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups of your favorite gluten-free flour (I use a mix of superfine brown rice flour, tapioca starch and potato flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl, mix the vanilla, sugar, bananas, oil and eggs. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients.

Grease either your mini-loaf, or regular-sized loaf pans and fill just before you reach the top of the pan.

Bake until a knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the loaf. It took about seventeen minutes for my mini-loaf pans, and about thirty-five for my regular-sized loaf.