Gluten Free Vegan Halloween Krispy Treats

The inspiration for this recipe was a bag of puffed millet that I wasn't quite sure what to do with. If you are not familiar with millet, you will be happy to know that it is a low-calorie, gluten free grain with nearly 10% protein. Millet is high in magnesium; magnesium is beneficial to cardiovascular health, and can help prevent muscle cramps and migraines. Millet is also high in B-vitamins, folate, iron and zinc. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I found this puffed millet is similar in texture to puffed rice. It is puffed and airy, but soft, not crispy. The only ingredient in the (Arrowhead Mills brand) cereal below is millet; nothing else.

The recipe below uses brown rice syrup instead of the marshmallows that are traditionally used in krispy treats. Why? Take a look:

The ingredients in Kraft marshmallows, large or small, are: corn syrup, sugar, modified food starch, dextrose, water, gelatin, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, artificial flavor, natural flavor, and blue #1.

Besides the corn, corn, and more corn, fake laboratory ingredients with names I can't pronounce, and artificial colors and flavors- I won't even go into how gelatin is rendered. You can Google it... it's pretty disgusting. Blech! I'm not even vegetarian, but gelatin is an ingredient I'd like to avoid.

Dried apricots and raisins sneak in a little extra nutrition in this recipe, in addition to adding Halloween color.

Allergy-Friendly Halloween Krispy Treats

Ingredients
2 cups puffed millet
1/2 cup cashew butter (click here for how to make your own)
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
Dash himalayan salt (optional)
Dried apricots, diced
Dried zante currants (or raisins)

Method
Add cashew butter and brown rice syrup to a large saucepan over low heat.

Stir until melted.

Add dash of salt, if using. Stir to mix.
Add puffed millet.

Stir until millet is well coated with syrup mixture.

Add diced dried apricots and currants. Stir to combine.

Drop large spoonfuls of millet-fruit mixture onto parchment paper and let cool.

The mixture is pretty hot at this point, so just drop it onto the parchment paper, don't worry about the shape.

When it is cool enough to handle, shape into balls (just roll between your palms).

Enjoy!

Bailey is such a good dog. Since he is so darn cute laying there watching me take photos of food, I thought I'd let him pose with the treats too : ) He just likes the attention, he doesn't even try to swipe a treat : )

This recipe is linked to Cybele Pascal's Allergy Friendly Friday. Click to check out the other great allergy friendly recipes and the rest of Cybele's blog for awesome gluten, dairy, and egg free recipes.

Gluten free blueberry millet muffins

Blueberries and millet are both incredibly good for you. These muffins are not too sweet, and the whole millet adds a nice crunch to the texture.

Gluten free vegan blueberry millet muffins
Makes approximately 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup millet flour
• 3/4 cup gluten free flour mix (I used this one)
• 1 1/2 tsp guar gum
• 1 tsp corn-free baking powder
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 2/3 cup millet seeds
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/2 cup sucanat OR brown sugar
• 1 cup liquid (I used 1/2 cup seltzer water and 1/2 cup filtered water)
• Lemon zest from one medium lemon OR approximately 1Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 cup organic blueberries

Method

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
• Fill a muffin pan with non-bleached parchment cupcake liners.
• In a large bowl, mix millet flour, GF flour mix, guar gum, baking powder, salt and millet seeds.
• In a small bowl, mix applesauce, oil, sucanat, water (or other liquid), and lemon zest.
• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir to combine. 
• Add blueberries and stir.
• Fill muffin cups approximately 3/4 full.
• Bake at 425 for approximately 25 minutes.
• Let cool and enjoy!

Pardon the photos, I didn't have great light. And I was too hungry to save the muffins to take pics in better light, so this is the best I could do before we ate them- yum!

Thoughts and ideas: These were a tad bit heavy/dense. If I used this exact recipe again, I would decrease the guar gum to 1tsp instead of 1.5tsp. Next time I make these, I plan to use less oil and maybe a little more applesauce.

If you eat dairy, you could use buttermilk as the liquid in place of water. These millet muffins would also be very good as a savory muffin- they would be really good with herbs and cheese in place of blueberries. Or- olive and rosemary? Mmm.

Another tip: if you do not want to buy both whole millet and millet flour, just buy one package of whole millet. You can make millet flour by grinding the whole millet in a coffee grinder or a VitaMix. You may be able to make millet flour from whole millet in a regular blender, but I haven't tried that. If you try making millet flour in a regular blender, I'd love to know how it works.