A Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Baking Adventure

The second, more "experimental" batch of GFCF muffins, with coconut, nuts and brown sugar.

Earlier I wrote about making some Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Muffins for my DS’s teacher. They turned out pretty decent! Here’s the whole story, for anyone who cares, along with the “recipe,” if you can call it that.

At Kroger, I picked up some flours that I knew were acceptable, but I wasn’t ready to invest in all the supplemental ingredients (Xanthan gum, for example) necessary to make a good consistency. So I trucked on over to the health food store in search of a mix of some sort. I usually don’t believe in mixes, but in this case, I was willing to concede, if only for the sake of completing my mission. And sure enough, I found this, a GFCF Vanilla Cake Mix by Namaste Foods.

The first batch, just cake mix with chocolate chips added.

I wanted to add chocolate and found the dairy-free chocolate chips by Enjoy Life, which are also GFCF acceptable. So, I put the mix in the bowl of my stand mixer, and I found it to be awfully lumpy. The health food shop keeper said this often happens, just because of the nature of the products used. I sifted the mix through a wire sieve, pressed out all the lumps, and dumped in the rice grain part that was too big to go through. After adding the wet ingredients (egg, oil and water), I mixed in the chips, along with some nutmeg and cinnamon. (My recipient doesn’t have any allergies, but you should check before doing any add-ins.)

One dozen of these in the oven, and I’m getting my typical itch to experiment. Thing is, that itch can be dangerous when it comes to special diets. Luckily, my teacher friend doesn’t have any allergies, so I decided just a few “experimental” muffins wouldn’t hurt. I wrote out every ingredient, just in case. The next batch, I stirred in some coconut and walnut pieces.

A second-batch muffin, cut open. The goodies are much better suspended in these.

These had a wonderful texture, and the coconut seemed to help suspend the chips, which partially sunk to the bottom of the earlier batch. I’m guessing one cup of coconut (to the remaining half-batch of cake mix) and 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts. I sprinkled brown sugar on the tops, but this didn’t turn out like I planned, as the batter rose over the sugar. It did leave kind of a neat brown swirl in the top, though.

One problem…since I didn’t plan for experimentation while at the store, I only had “regular” coconut and nuts…with additives. BHT and some other preservative junk. I wrote it all out for my friend, and I told her she could feed those to her hubby if necessary. 😉 Lesson for you: Ask first, then shop accordingly. If it’s for a surprise goody, then get all pure products.

She sent me a note later and said she was really happy about her surprise, and that she and the girls enjoyed them. (I am assuming this means the additives were OK, or at least OK enough for someone-else-made-it status.) Give it a try yourself, if you know someone with gluten issues…or even if you don’t! They’re darn tasty, and I’m eating an “extry” as I write this tonight.