Gluten Free Oat Flour Muffins

When I pulled a batch of gluten free oat flour muffins out of the oven over the weekend and saw that they were an immediate delicious hit - meaning my husband ate 3 - I decided that I should share the recipe.  To this particular batch of muffins I added 2 chopped apricots and 4 chopped dates which I happen to have had on hand. 

The recipe for the oat flour muffins is a variation on the basic gluten free blueberry muffins that I posted on this blog several years ago.

In that recipe I used buckwheat flour instead of oat flour.  I've found that buckwheat is a good gluten free substitution for recipes that require whole wheat flour. 

Although both muffin variations are quite tasty, using buckwheat will definitely give you a denser baked good.

Oat flour?  It's pretty simple to make your own.

I usually buy Bobs Red Mill Oats in bulk from Amazon. (gluten free variety)

I put pour a bag full in the food processed and grind it up.  It's then stored in an air tight glass canister with a screw on lid.  The oat flour will last a month or more.

You can use quick cooking oats, or rolled oats.  Rolled oats are denser and require a long cooking time when you prepare them for oatmeal.  They also make a denser oat flour.
Oat flour is a nutritious, delicious alternative for gluten free baked goods. White rice flour in gluten free baked goods lack texture and usually tastes rather bland, although gluten free baking in general has improved greatly over the last few years.

The texture of this oat flour muffin can be a bit crumbly sometimes, but there are ways around that.  If you bake the muffins using foil lined muffin papers it helps quite a bit.  Also don't forget to spray the muffin liners with cooking spray before you fill them.  And finally, allow them to cool down a bit before you try to eat one.  I know, it's hard when they come right out of the oven.

Enjoy!

1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup Yellow Corn Meal
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt (I use sea salt)
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1 1/4 cup milk


Preheat oven to 400.  Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or grease muffin tins.
Mix together all ingredients.  Batter will be thin so let the batter sit for a few minutes so it will thicken up.  Then stir in your add ons.  Fill muffin tins 2/3 full - the muffins will rise.
Bake aprox 15 minutes.

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Solar Cooking - Cooking With Sunshine

While scrolling through my endless Facebook feed...yes I admit I do it too... every now and then I run across a subject that really peaks my interest.  Earlier this summer when Karen Casey-Smith posted a glorious photo of banana bread she had baked in her solar oven, I knew Solar Cooking was a subject that I definitely wanted to know more about.  Karen was kind enough to write up an article for our blog.  Ohhh this looks so cool.   Thanks Karen!

Solar Cooking - Cooking With Sunshine

Yes! You really can cook with sunshine using a solar oven. Place your food into a dark colored pan, set it in a solar oven outside under clear blue, sunny skies, and come back later to a delicious hot cooked meal! How amazing is that? You can even make a solar oven yourself! Now why would you want to cook outside if you have a perfectly nice oven in your home?

Solar Oven Baked Banana Bread

Benefits of Solar Cooking

• Solar cooking preserves more of the nutrients in your food because it cooks slower and at lower temperatures.
• You'll enjoy the improved taste and texture of your food and baked goods. You think you know what your vegetables taste like, but wait until you've had them cooked by the sun!
• Increase your indoor comfort and reduce energy bills during the warm months of the year by cooking outside instead heating up your home by using your conventional oven.
• Food doesn't dry out or burn when cooked in a solar oven. You don't need to stir your food while it's cooking.
• Energy from the sun is free.
• It saves natural resources.
• It's portable. You can use your oven in your backyard, camping, at the beach, on a boat, or at a picnic cookout.
• It's fun!

Make a solar oven, buy one, try one!

A demonstration at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair was my introduction to solar cooking. Not only did I get to see solar cooking in action, I had my first delicious tastes of solar baked cookies and bread. Solar cooking is fascinating! Since I love to experiment I had to try it for myself. Also, I wanted to see (and taste) my own results! To begin with I made a solar oven from two cardboard boxes, so with only a small investment of time I could find out how interested I was in continuing. There are several types of solar cookers, including panel cookers, box cookers, and parabolic cookers. A quick search online will bring up lots of plans for making your own.

It turned out that I love using solar for cooking, so we eventually bought an early version of the Sport Solar Oven. It's a great oven, durable and very stable. I've been cooking with mine for at least 13 years. We made our own reflector for the oven out of foam board, and covered it with Mylar. To stabilize the reflector in windy conditions I use two bungee cords, one each at the center top and bottom of the reflector that I hook to the rim of the oven. The reflector increases the temperature of the oven significantly. With the reflector this solar oven usually bakes between 250-300°F. In the right conditions you can cook with solar in winter and summer.

Solar Oven Disassembled

Solar Oven Interior View

Solar Oven Assembled with Homemade Reflector

I've had wonderful results baking banana bread. The crust is light and tender,

the bread is divine. I've often baked jerk chicken, rice, vegetables, lots of things! The solar oven is great for one dish meals, baked or roasted meats, grains, beans, breads, desserts, and more. Here are some recipes to get you started.

To use your solar oven with success you need:

• clear, or mostly clear, blue skies on a sunny day
• dark colored cookware - the dark color absorbs heat allowing faster cooking, shiny cookware reflects heat
• maintain safe practices- use pot holders or oven gloves, protect your eyes from glare
• maintain safe temperatures while cooking
  
• oven thermometer
• solar oven
• tasty recipe

Improving lives and the health of others

As if that weren't enough great things about solar ovens, there are more, very important benefits. Solar ovens are improving the lives and health of people the world over, especially women and children. Solar cooking is smokeless, and when used, eliminates breathing serious health-damaging smoke from indoor cooking fires. In addition to the health benefits of cooking with free, clean energy, solar ovens can be used for water pasteurization to provide safe clean water. Using solar energy also saves overburdened natural resources. Money that would have been spent on firewood, or charcoal, can be used for food or other necessities. There's a wealth of information at Solar Cookers International, a non-profit organization whose "mission is to spread solar thermal cooking technology to benefit people and environments." They are a wonderful resource for information on solar cooking. Please consider donating if you'd like to support their work.

I hope you're inspired to try solar cooking yourself. You'll get great tasting food with lots of nutrients, cooked with free energy, save resources and money, and help our environment all at the same time! This is a win/win for everyone. It would also be a fun project to do with your family and friends. A project where you get to eat your homework is definitely a plus!

Happy solar cooking!


Prints of Karen's wonderful photography can be found in her shop on Etsy.

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Pizza - Gluten Free or Not, Your Choice

When I was growing up, Saturday night was pizza night.  My mom would begin making the tomato sauce early in the morning and let it simmer all day.  She would start the dough in the afternoon, letting it rise at a nice easy pace, then punch it down and let it rise again.  In the early evening she would roll out the dough very, very thin, put it in a round pizza pan, top it with the sauce, some mozzarella cheese and sometimes some ground beef or sausage.  The oregano would go on last.  My mom would bake her pizza it until it was very crispy.  It was so delicious, it honestly was to die for.  Everyone who tasted it was hooked.

Later on when I became older and met my husband, he too fell totally in love with my mom's pizza.  He began making it for us when we got married, using her her original recipe.  He was fascinated with the dough process and how also thin he could roll it and how crispy he could make it.  Our sauce, unfortunately, was never quite the same as my mother's.  It's probably because I did not can fresh tomatoes like she did, so I never could replicate that deep rich taste.  

Eventually we did create a substitute.

A few years ago when our household became gluten free, the pizza was one of the first things that had to go.  We missed it, the kids missed it, and even though we dutifully tried just about every gluten free crust and dough recipe, the pizzas were just never the same.

  The crusts were just too thick, and over all tasted pretty icky.

One day my husband came across my mom's dough recipe and decided he would try to make it exactly as written, only substituting gluten free flour.  No other additions or adjustments.  We had a feeling it might actually work because we were going to use the Cup 4 Cup Gluten Free Flour, which I think is the closest replication on the market to regular white or unbleached wheat flour for baking.

The big difference you'll find when using the Cup 4 Cup GF Flour compared to others is that it's so light.  So many GF flour blends that are used for baking, even by some of the most popular gluten free bakeries, are just way too heavy to be used for a lighter baked good.  The Cup 4 Cup GF flour is primarily a very light rice flour and you use as it is - literally substitute it cup for cup in any type of recipe.  No other additions are required.

As requested by friends, below is my mom's dough recipe. 

You'll have to work your own magic for the rest of the pizza.

Gluten free or not gluten free, enjoy!

This recipe will make 2 pizzas.

Pizza Dough

2 1/4 c. flour

3/4 c milk

1 Tb. sugar

1 pkg yeast

2 Tb. oil

1 tsp salt

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 c lukewarm water.  Scald milk, add oil, sugar and salt to milk.

When lukewarm add dissolved yeast and mix.

Put part of flour in milk and mix really well.

Then add the rest of the flour.

Grease top of dough and cover.

Let rise up to 1 1/2 hours.

Roll dough out very thin. 

Transfer to greased cookie sheet.

Add sauce and toppings.

Bake 15 - 20 minutes

Notes: If you use GF flour, your dough will not rise very much.  It also will not have the elasticity when you roll it out, so it may take some finesse on your part to learn how to manipulate it.

In addition, they do sell a Cup 4 Cup Pizza Crust Mix.  It think it's less expensive however, to buy a bag of the flour and make the dough recipe.

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Blueberry Buckwheat Corn Muffins - Gluten Free

One thing I missed when I started eating gluten-free/wheat free was having a really hardy, tasty muffin.  I know that might sound silly to some people - but nothing beats muffins fresh out of the oven, especially in the winter.  A grain that I have enjoyed incorporating into our diet lately has been Buckwheat.  (Buckwheat is a gluten-free).  So I decided to try using Buckwheat flour to make some gluten free muffins. 

The Gluten-free Blueberry Buckwheat Corn Muffin recipe below is just wonderful.  I've been making them for us at least once a week.  Lowfat and delicious, the first time I made them I ate 3 right out of the oven!  These muffins are also a great food item you can make to help introduce your friends and family to alternative grains.  We would all benefit health-wise from eating less wheat, especially with the GMO's that is currently found in the flour we eat.   enjoy!

1 cup Buckwheat flour (I used Hodgson Mills)
1/2 cup Yellow Corn Meal (I used Arrowhead Mills organic gluten-free)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt (I use sea salt)
1/4 cup sugar (I use organic)
1 regular egg and 1 white replacer equivalent for 1 egg (total 2 eggs)
1/4 cup melted butter (I used 1/4 cup melted Earth Balance soy free spread) 
1 1/4 cup milk (I used low fat milk, you can use soy if you'd like too) 
Blueberries (about 1/2 cup)


Preheat oven to 400.  Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or grease muffin tins.
Mix together all ingredients.  Batter will be thin.  Fill muffin tins 2/3 full - muffins will rise.
Put blueberries on top of each muffin, poke down and bake aprox 15 minutes.

*You can try stirring the berries into the batter, but they will most likely sink because the batter is thin.

                                                Another Buddy Fergurson approved Recipe!

~ diane fergurson

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