Quarter Cup Muffins

Oatmeal muffins reinvented, using one bowl and two measuring utensils. There are a lot of things you can personalize about these low fat, low sugar muffins. Change up the sweetener or the nuts, add a small apple, finely chopped, or leave out the cinnamon or raisins. Basically, a very nice, hearty muffin that makes a lovely breakfast or snack. If you don't have parchment liners, you might want to either use oil instead of apple sauce, or grease the muffin tins instead of using paper. (the muffins will stick to regular paper liners because they don't have any oil in them.)

1/4 cup sweetener (xylitol, Splenda, white or brown sugar, Stevia)

1/4 cup all purpose Gluten Free flour blend

1/4 cup almond flour

3 x 1/4 cup quick oats

1/4 cup coarsely chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans are nice)
1/4 raisins

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 x 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 x 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 x 1/4 cup milk (I use dairy free almond milk)

1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce (or vegetable/ Canola oil)

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

Measure ingredients into a medium sized bowl in order given, then mix very well. Actually, mix the heck out of it, then let it stand for 1/2 hour to give the flours time to soak up the liquid and thicken up, while the oven preheats to 350* F. 

Using parchment muffin papers, line 9 muffin cups, then divide the batter between them. Bake for 30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned, and the top bounces back when pressed, and when a toothpick inserted into the middle of one comes out clean.

Cool completely before storing in an airtight bag or container. Can be frozen or stored in the fridge to last longer.

I like these eaten with Becel Vegan margarine and honey or marmalade, or with slices of goat cheddar.

Makes 9 medium sized muffins.

Agave Holiday Cookies

It's holiday time, and with Christmas just around the corner, the baking has begun. We have several ingredient issues in our family; This Sister can't eat sugar, That Son can't eat dairy, This Blogger can't eat gluten, soy, or dairy, and it wouldn't hurt her to avoid sugar as well. SO, when my friend asked if I had a sugar free sugar cookie recipe that she could make with her grandkids, I was more than motivated to see what I could find. 

I scoured all my allergy-friendly cookbooks before turning to my new Almond Flour (by Beverly Lynn Bennett) cookbook. With some tweaking, Cut-Out Sugar Cookies has become "Agave Holiday Cookies". They are good plain, with frosting, with a dusting of sugar sprinkles (that and frosting kind of defeat the purpose... but...) and with a candy cane window. They roll out well, and bake up nicely. If you, or someone you love, has dietary issues, I'd encourage you to try these cut-out cookies. 

2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup arrowroot starch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Becel Vegan margarine
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Whisk together almond flour, coconut flour, arrowroot starch and salt. With a silicone spatula, mix in margarine, agave nectar and vanilla. Mix well. When all ingredients are well combined, divide into 2 parts and wrap each with plastic wrap. Refrigerate about an hour to chill.

Meanwhile, cover your cutting board over with plastic wrap and preheat the oven to 325*F. When dough is chilled, place half at a time on wrapped cutting board, cover with a second large piece of plastic wrap and roll between the plastic with a rolling pin to 1/4-1/2 inch thickness. Make shapes with cookie cutters. Transfer to parchment lined baking sheet with a flat silicone lifter. Decorate with coloured sprinkles, raisins or nuts if desired.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, depending on thickness, until light golden brown. Let stand on baking sheet for 3-5 minutes before removing to wire cooling rack to finish cooling.

* To make candy cane windows, cut a smaller shape in the centre of a large cut-out cookie. Fill the smaller shape with crushed candy canes or crushed clear, coloured hard candy. Fill the window generously as the candy shrinks when melted. Bake as directed above.

Easy New York Style Cheesecake

I've been hungry for cheesecake for awhile. Cherry cheesecake, to be specific. Problem is, the cheesecake at your typical restaurant is worth nearly two whole meals, carb-wise. (Swiss Chalet and Boston Pizza's  nutritional information indicates their cheesecakes have about 75 g of carbohydrates per serving) Also, no one makes Cherry Cheesecake anymore; not that I have anything against strawberry topping, but my favourite has always been cherry. Yes. Since the '80's. SO. Not wanting to fuss with my most excellent graham wafer crust, and finding a New York Cheesecake recipe in the new Splenda cookbook I have become possessed of, I put 2 & 2 together and came up with this quick, smaller, delicious cheesecake. I popped open a can of E.D. Smith Light Cherry Pie Filling, and even The Husband approved. 

1 pre-made graham wafer crust

500 g (2 x 250 g/8 oz packages) light cream cheese

1/2 cup Splenda granular

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1/4 cup fat free sour cream

Preheat oven to 325*F. 

Mix all remaining ingredients together, blending until smooth and creamy. Spread in graham wafer crust,  (for added stability, I set the pie crust tin on a cookie sheet) then bake for 30-45 minutes, until filling is firm to the touch and just lightly browned. 

Serve with fresh fruit or pie filling.

Per Serving: (1/8th before topping) *Check the nutrient guide on the pie filling. Serving size=about 1/3 cup; half of that gives you a good 2.5 Tablespoons topping. Add calories and carbs to your totals accordingly. The E.D. Smith Light Cherry Pie Filling I used adds 30 calories & 10 g carbs per serving. 1/4 cup of fresh, chopped strawberries adds about 12 g carbohydrates. Add 5 g of carbs for each teaspoon of sugar you mix with them.

Calories: 300

Fat: 22 g

   Saturated Fat: 11g

Cholesterol: 94 mg

Sodium: 92 mg

Carbohydrates: 19g

   Sugars: 8.5 g

   Protein: 9 g

 

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

I needed to make some sugar free muffins this week and I had oatmeal on the brain. I also had a bunch of overripe bananas, but I couldn't find a recipe that had both oatmeal and bananas, so I ended up going to my new "Company's Coming Mostly Muffins" cookbook, which has the most amazing muffin recipes, and took inspiration from two recipes: Basic Banana Muffins and Basic Oatmeal Muffins. I really liked the texture and flavour I got. I also liked the numbers that came up when I crunched them. I think these would be really good with chopped walnuts or pecans, together with or instead of the mini chocolate chips- (which are great for muffins because they are tiny and give the illusion of chocolaty goodness without actually adding too much chocolate). It made a lovely big batch of pretty large muffins. I'm hoping they freeze well, as the extras were tossed into the freezer this morning for breakfast and snacks later on.

1 cup oatmeal (not instant)
1 cup buttermilk (or milk soured with a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice)

1 cup all-purpose white flour
1/2 cup all-purpose whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup Splenda, artificial sweetener (you could make it 1/3 cup if you like 'em sweet)
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup Canola/vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas

Combine oatmeal and buttermilk in a medium sized bowl. Let stand 10 minutes.

Combine next 7 ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre.

Add eggs, oil, vanilla and bananas to the oatmeal mixture. Mix well. Add to the well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Stir gently to combine, until just moistened.

Divide between 15 paper-lined or greased muffin cups. Bake at 375*F for 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.

Let stand in pan for 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool. Serve warm or cooled with butter if desired.

Makes 15 large muffins.

Nutritional Analysis per 1 muffin:
Calories:  154
Total Fat: 6.4 g
Cholesterol: 27 mg
Sodium: 178 mg (lower this to 100 mg by omitting the salt)
Potassium: 112.55 mg
Carbohydrates: 20 g
Fibre: 2 g
Sugars: 6 g
Protein: 4 g