Nut Butter Bread

I was glancing at Heavenly Homemakers for the first time in almost a year, and she happened to have a post about bread made from nut butter.  She also made small buns with her muffin pan.  I was intrigued.

I have lots of friends who are gluten/dairy free, and other friends who poke sticks at paleo once a year, and I myself have been having problems handling anything resembling something sweet...sooooo, I gave it a try.  And was promptly amazed.  It truly is like bread.  A good, hearty whole grain, nutty bread.  And best of all it's insanely easy!

I made mine from almond butter since I don't care for peanuts as a rule.  (I also have yet another friend who is allergic to them...lol)  Even family who are iffy about trying my weird gluten free experiments tried it and liked it!  So I'm reposting a repost of a repost (yay internet blogs!) so all those friends who tried it can make it at home.

And to whoever was brilliant enough to come up with something so unexpected, hats off to you and thanks so much for sharing with all of us!

The Most Amazing Peanut Butter Bread! (Naturally grain/gluten and dairy free!)

Author: Laura from HeavenlyHomemakers.com

Serves: 12-16 slices

2 cups natural, unsalted peanut butter
2 teaspoons honey
Pinch of sea salt (omit if your peanut butter is salted)
6 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 Tablespoons white vinegar (mandatory to activate the baking soda)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all ingredients together in a blender or with a hand mixer.
Pour into a well-greased 9x5" loaf pan.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out clean.
Allow the bread to sit in the pan for about 10 minutes to cool.
Remove bread from pan and cool on a rack.

Honey Spice Muffins

Hubby and I were eating at Jason's Deli one day, and someone walked by with a small plate of the lovely gingerbread muffins they have out on the salad bar for everyone to enjoy.  We hadn't eaten there since he went gluten free, and he turned pleading eyes to me and said, "I forgot this was the place with those muffins!  They are gluten free, right???"  "No," I had to tell him, "they aren't.  But I'll make you some."

So I went to Ali's blog Nourishing Meals, certain that she would have a wonderful gingerbread muffin recipe, and sure enough, she did!  I made it and it was pretty good, but not spicy enough, so I traded the maple syrup for more molasses and increased the spices and we both decided that they were just as good as the ones at Jason's Deli!

I was glancing over the recipe again the other day, and noticed that except for the teff flour and the molasses, they are completely ED friendly!  I did the substitutions and made them today and they are fantastic!  So much better than the muffins in the ED book....  I will post an update on how they age, the only problem with the gingerbread is that they were dryer than I'd prefer.  I traded 1/4 cup applesauce for 1/4 cup coconut oil when I made these to try and keep them moister than the gingerbread was.

Honey Spice Muffins, adapted from Gingerbread Muffins by Ali at Nourishing Meals

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (215g) superfine sprouted brown rice flour
1/4 cup (30g) tapioca flour or arrowroot
2 teaspoon baking powder (Bakewell Cream link)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup (170g) prunes
1 cup very hot water
2 tablespoons ground chia seeds
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.

Place the prunes, hot water, and ground chia into a blender and let soak for 10 to 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a large bow,l whisk together the dry ingredients.  Measure remaining wet ingredients into a bowl to make adding them to the blender easier.  After the soaking time is done, puree the stuff in the blender, then add the rest of the wet ingredients. Puree again until very smooth. Pour into dry ingredients and stir together until combined. Spoon batter into muffin pan. Bake for approximately 30 minutes. They will still be heavy and feel dense after baking, so don't over bake them because you think they aren't done.

Yield: 12 regular muffins or around 30 mini muffins

Update 1/27: They still had an odd, dryish texture the next day and I'm not sure what is causing it.  It was easily solved when I put on in the microwave on high for about 20 seconds though! 

Waffles: Whole Grain and Gluten Free

This is the recipe that started it all.  After Hubby went gluten free in February 2015, I asked my friends who were also gluten free what to buy, and they recommended the flour blend Namaste.  Now, I'm not trying to bash Namaste, but after using it and having everything turn out soggy and gummy, I was getting frustrated.  I also started to have digestion problems and feeling bad from all the starches and gums that seem to comprise main stream gluten free baking.  I knew that there were grains that were naturally gluten free, after all, there is more to life than wheat, barley and rye.  So I went searching for a gluten free whole grain waffle recipe and happened upon Alissa Segersten's blog, Nourishing Meals.  Turns out that she loves whole grains too, and tries to avoid the gums by using naturally gelling things like flax, chia and psyllium.  I spent weeks looking for all the weird flours her recipe calls for, and when I was finally able to make it, we knew that it would change our lives.  This is my adaptation of the recipe off of her blog, mostly just downsizing and streamlining it, because hubby and I can't eat 16+ waffles by ourselves!

Waffles: Whole Grain and Gluten free, adapted from Nourishing Meals
Yield: about  6 waffles

Dry Ingredients
1 1/2 C (210g) whole grain gluten free flour (I like to use equal amounts of teff, sorghum and millet, but you can mix and match whatever you want or have!)
1/3 C (46g) starch (I use arrowroot, but tapioca, potato, corn or some other kind of starch will work also)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1-2 tsp cinnamon

Wet Ingredients
2 eggs (I've also used flax eggs, which are 1 T ground flax seed and 3 T water per egg, mix and set aside 5 minutes to allow to gel up)
3 T liquid oil, (I prefer melted butter, but coconut oil or something else works great too)
2 T maple syrup or honey
1 1/4-1 1/2 C milk (Dairy or non-dairy, buttermilk is awesome too)

Heat waffle maker.

In a large bowl whisk the dry ingredients together until uniform.  This is an important step in baking, but especially in gluten free baking because of the many different flours that are used.  In a separate bowl mix the wet ingredients together, then add to the dry ingredients. Start with the lesser amount of milk and add more if needed.  Depending on which flours and starches were used and how you measure depends on how much milk will be needed.

Yield: around 6 waffles, depending on your waffle iron

Spoon batter into waffle maker, cook until done and enjoy!  One of our favorite toppings for waffles are lingonberries!  I find these at my local Wal-Mart in the canned fruit section for around $6 a jar.

When we are feeling like we want something really special, I open a tin of this Herren Konfiture that we learned to love in Germany.