Gluten Free Vegan Orange Vanilla Cupcakes

Happy New Year! 

I had the brilliant idea that I was going to try to make champagne cupcakes for New Year's, but never got around to buying champagne : ) So, I opted for orange-vanilla cupcakes instead. Yum!

These cupcakes are adapted from the recipe found here. I made a few changes, and experimented with a new ingredient, acorn starch. I think they turned out a little denser than the original recipe describes- closer to a muffin than a fluffy cupcake- but still very, very good. 

Gluten Free Vegan Orange Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Frosting

Makes 12 large cupcakes, or 24 small cupcakes

Dry ingredients

3/4 cup organic brown rice flour

1/2 cup acorn starch (found in Asian markets)

1/4 cup tapioca starch 

3/4 cup organic raw cane sugar

1/4 teaspoon himalayan salt

1 teaspoon corn-free baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon guar gum

1 teaspoon vanilla powder

Zest from one orange

Wet ingredients

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

1 tablespoon light agave nectar

1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice 

Ener-G egg replacerfor 2 eggs, mixed with 1/4 cup warm water

Method

Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin pan with parchment liners.

Combine flour, starches, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, guar gum, vanilla, and orange zest in bowl or in food processor.

In a bowl, add wet ingredients to dry and beat for approximately 2 minutes, until batter is light and fluffy.

Spoon into muffin tins, approximately 3/4 full.

Bake at 350F for approximately 20-25 minutes.

Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients

Approximately 2 Tablespoons Spectrum Organic Palm Shortening(or similar)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (double check ingredients to be sure it is allergy friendly, or make your own)

1-2 tablespoons filtered water (or orange juice, or rice milk)

1 cup organic powdered sugar (I have found that Whole Foods 365 brand organic does not contain cornstarch- but always check the label)

Method

Combine all ingredients, and beat on medium high until frosting is smooth and creamy. If frosting is too thick, add a little liquid (water or orange juice). If it is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar.

Use a frosting bag and tip if you have one. I just used a Ziploc and cut off the corner :) 

Enjoy!

Gluten-free Black Currant Muffins

OK, I must admit, I am struggling with the "no sugar" effort... suddenly I'm craving something sweet all of the time. Which only reinforces that I need to lay off the sugar for a while.

I decided to experiment with a sugar-free muffin this morning- using whatever I have in my refrigerator, which isn't much these days. Summer time is slim picking at the Farmers' Market. But I have carrots... a lot of carrots. Perfect.

Since I was craving something sweet, I loaded this muffin with sweet things like carrots, apples and currants. In retrospect, I believe I was subconsciously thinking "carrot cake". I'm not sure if using agave exactly counts as sugar-free, but at least it's lower-glycemic than cane sugar. I think this no-sugar effort is going to be a work in progress.

These muffins are deliciously dark due to the black currant juice.

Gluten-free Black Currant Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups your favorite gluten free flour mix (I used this one)
• 1 teaspoon guar gum
• 2 teaspoons corn-free baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup black currant juice
• 1/4 cup white grape juice
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup agave nectar (I think you could get away with less; perhaps 1/4 or 1/3cup)
• 1/3 cup grapeseed oil
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup dried currants (Note: while black currant juice appears to be actual black currants, be aware that what is sold as dried "currants" in the US is just a small variety of grape; usually called "zante currants") You could substitute raisins if you do not have dried currants.
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 apple, diced small (I used a gala, because that's what I had on hand, but I think a granny smith would be better)

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Line a muffin tin with unbleached parchment cups. I ran out of muffin liners, so I improvised my own from regular parchment paper:

The spice jars were just holding the parchment down in the cup until I could spoon batter in each cup.

In a large bowl, whisk together the GF flour mix, guar gum, corn-free baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a smaller bowl, whisk together black currant juice, white grape juice, unsweetened applesauce, agave nectar, and grapeseed oil.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir to combine.

The batter is purple from the black currant juice! It doesn't actually show up so well in the photo here, but it was quite a pretty shade of purple.

Fold in carrots, apple, currants, and pecans.

Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool approximately 10 minutes, and enjoy!

Those DIY parchment cups didn't turn out so badly:

The muffins are very sweet and very moist. The moistness doesn't quite come across in the photo, but think: carrot cake. Hmmm... maybe I should call this recipe "carrot cake muffins"?

I'm sure these will freeze well, so there will be a stash on hand!

More info on the nutrients in: black currants, carrots, cinnamon, zante currants, apples, and brown rice.

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.