SRC: Jeanette’s Healthy Living Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Banana Bread

For October’s Secret Recipe Club, I was paired with Jeanette of Jeanette’s Healthy Living. Jeanette is a mother of four boys and loves to create healthy, tasty and delicious looking recipes that her kids actually want to eat.  Her youngest son has allergies to gluten and dairy, so all of her recent-er recipes are gluten and dairy free, which made this allergy conscious girl very happy! She has TONS of beautiful food – Soups – I bought Soba noodles to try after looking through her blog, Gluten and Dairy free recipes, including this Pumpkin Coffee Cake and Chocolate Marble Coffee Cake.

After spending at least 6 hours (I am not kidding) looking through her blog and being indecisive, I ended up choosing her Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Banana Bread and it did not dissapoint!

I did make a few changes to this loaf. Sometimes I’m a genius and assume something is a certain way based on what I want to see  (Does that ever happen to you?) and this loaf was the same. I read the recipe and was super excited to find a loaf that had both bananas and pumpkin, so I went and bought some pumpkin. Then when I was making the loaf, I re-read the ingredients list and it was “pumpkin spice” not pumpkin. (I had been confused as to why Jeanette said that she had substituted the spice for cinnamon as I assumed that all pumpkin loafs would have Pumpkin-y spices in them, not just cinnamon – way to go for reading things thoroughly.)

Being very stubborn, I decided to add pumpkin to the mix as I went and bought pumpkin specifically for this purpose. So, I added 1/2 c. of pumpkin puree in addition to the bananas. I also added some chopped up dairy-free dark chocolate (from a bar – way better than chips, in my opinion) and reduced the sugar by a couple tablespoons.

In the past, I’ve had issues baking with almond flour and bananas without eggs, so I was quite surprised to find a recipe with that criteria. Since there were other flours in the mix (it’s only half almond flour), it did work better than I expected it to, but I increased the cooking time to 55 minutes and it was still quite soft (I could have cooked it for another 5-10 minutes and it probably would have helped). I had a difficult time cutting the loaf (hence the ragged looking pieces), so to cut up the rest of the loaf, I stuck it in the freezer for an hour and it worked like a charm.

I took this loaf to a Halloween party and everyone loved it (it disappeared very quickly). It’s not too sweet, has a great depth of flavour thanks to the molasses and coconut palm sugar and is super moist and soft. I definitely recommend making this as it’s delicious! I almost didn’t want to take it to the party as it was so good – my waistline thanks me.

Please go and check out all the other recipes from group D by clicking the link below!

Gluten Free Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns

Last weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving and Mr. Bean and I were fortunate enough to spend it with family. On Sunday we had the turkey dinner with his side of the family, where I made an apple pie pretty similar to this one but in the oven – not the BBQ – with this xanthan gum free crust by Amy of Simply Sugar and Gluten Free.

On Monday, we had dinner with my brother and his wife, where I made these pumpkin cinnamon buns. They turned out quite well, but I forget that since it’s so dry here and my pumpkin puree was quite thick, I need to add more liquid to make them as light and fluffy as possible. The drizzling on of the extra margarine helps make the bottoms of the cinnamon buns super goopy and delicious – totally worth the extra calories!

Needless to say they were delicious and my brother happily took the second pan home.

Gluten Free Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns

Based on Manifest Vegan’s Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls.

3/4 c. Brown Rice Flour
1 c. Sorghum Flour
1 1/4 c. Tapioca Starch
1/3 c. Sweet Rice Flour
2/3 c. Potato Starch
1 tsp. guar gum
2 tsp. xathan gum
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt

3/4 c. rice milk, warmed to 105 – 110F
24g yeast (1 oz)
1 1/3 c. pumpkin puree
3/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
6 tbsp. Olive Oil

10 tbsp. vegan margarine, softened & divided (I used Becel)
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
3 tbsp. cinnamon

1. In the bowl of a mixer, proof the milk and yeast until fluffy, about 10 minutes.
2. Mix in the pumpkin puree, sugar, vanilla and olive oil and mix to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the west on low speed until the dough is stick and fairly elastic, scraping down the sides as required.
5. Tape a ~20″ piece of saran wrap to your counter. Dump half the dough onto the wrap, cover with another piece and roll out with a rolling pin until 1/2″ thick and 12″ x 16″ big. Remove top piece of saran.
6. In a small bowl, mix together the cinnamon and sugar.
7. Spread 3 tbsp (or more, if you want) margarine over the rolled out down and sprinkle on half the sugar and cinnamon mixture until the dough is evenly covered, making sure to leave 1/2″ uncovered dough at the end so you can “seal” the rolls.
8. Use the saran wrap to roll up the dough and pat the end of the roll into itself to “seal it”.
9. Using a thin, oiled knife, cut into ~2″ slices and arrange in a greased 9″ cake pan.
10. Repeat with the second half of the dough.
11. Melt the remainder of the margarine and spoon over the buns. Sprinkle with a bit of sugar if desired.
12. Cover both pans and let rise for 1 hr or until the buns have roughly doubled in size & are touching.
13. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown.
14. Ice if desired.
15. Enjoy!

Have you made any fall themed desserts lately? Do share!

Gluten Free Vegan Zucchini Pumpkin Loaf

After making a paleo pumpkin pie for the Thanksgiving dinner with Mr. Bean’s family (the crust was a variation of Elana’a Coconut Almond Crust from her Almond Flour Cookbook and the filling was from This Primal Life), I needed to make some kind of egg free for the dinner my brother hosted the next day. I didn’t want a pumpkin pie repeat, although if I had I would have made this one with an almond flour crust, and I wanted it to be relatively healthy (given the whole trying not to eat so much sugar thing.) I got thinking: since I love pumpkin loaf and zucchini loaf, why not put them both together? So I did and it was tasty.

Since the loaf is egg free, it takes a lot longer to cook than its egg filled counterpart. It’s also a lot harder to tell whether it is fully cooked our not, but the good thing is with egg replacer made with pureed fruits is that if you over cook it a bit, it is still pretty moist. I slightly under-cooked mine (oops), but I didn’t hear any complaints and it still disappeared very quickly at dinner!

I really liked the flavour – the combination of the spices, pumpkin and zucchini were quite delicious and the raisins added just a little hint of sweetness. Personally, I enjoyed it the most plain, but it also tasted fair good with a bit of margarine or earth balance spread.

Gluten Free Vegan Zucchini Pumpkin Loaf
Adapted from the Joy of Cooking

1/2 c. almond flour
1/2 c. tapioca starch
1/3 c. rice flour
1/3 c. millet flour
1/3 c. sorghum flour
1 tsp. xathan gum
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 – 1/4 tsp. cloves
1/8 – 1/4 tsp. allspice
6 tbsp. vegan margarine or butter replacement
1/3 c. sucunat (I grind mine in my magic bullet first so it’s nice and powder-y)
14 oz jar of canned pumpkin
1 egg replacer
1/3 c. agave nectar
2 tbsp. almond milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 small – medium zucchini, grated with excess water squeezed out.
1/2 c. raisins

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease or line a 9×5″ pan with parchment paper.
2. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.
3. In the bowl of your mixer, cream the fat and sucunat together until fluffy. Add in the pumpkin, egg replacer, agave nectar, almond milk and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
4. Add in the dry ingredients and beat until almost smooth.
5. Mix in the zucchini and raisins on low speed until evenly distributed.
6. Bake in oven for at least one hour (mine took about 1 hr 15 minutes) or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.
7. Remove from oven and let sit in pan for about 5 minutes. Remove from pan and let it cool. You can serve it warm, but it cuts a bit better if it is cooler.
8. Enjoy!

What’s your favourite kind of loaf?

Recipe Submitted to: Gluten Free Wednesdays.

Look, They’re Pumpkins!

So, I tried to make pumpkin cake pops for a Halloween Party last weekend.

They’re not quite as pretty as anything Bakerella would do, but considering it was my first time, I think they turned out fairly well. And my friend’s loved them, so who am I to complain?

Cake Pops ala Bean

What you’ll need:

1 white cake mix (I used celimix’s white cake and added 1/2 c. pumpkin, 1/4 c. less water and 1/4 – 1/2 tsp. each of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves)
1 can of icing (I used Betty Crocker’s whipped vanilla icing.)
Lollipop sticks
1-2 packages of vanilla candy melts (or chocolate)
Food colouring
Green Jelly Bellies

1. Bake cake according to directions with pumpkin, etc. Let it cool completely.
   
2. Once the cake is cooled, use a fork our your fingers to crumble the entire cake.
3. Add most of a container of icing. (Be careful as I added too much! I think you want it so that they will stick together well.
   
4. Taking bits of cake, roll into balls and place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. (I recommend making them about 1″ in diameter.)
5. Put pops in the fridge and leave them there until quite cool. (The dipping process seemed easier when the pops were cooler.)
   
6. Meanwhile, melt the candy melts in a double boiler. Add food colouring as desired.
7. Poke lollipop sticks into the pops, making sure that you don’t go all the way through.
8. Dip pops into candy melts, using a spoon to help cover evenly. (Don’t let the melts get too hot as they lose their consistency and it is not pleasant.)
9. Place a jelly belly into the top for a stem and poke sticks into styrofoam to let pops cool.
10. Once cool, enjoy!

Some didn’t want to stay on their sticks, but that’s okay as they’re still quite tasty!

Have you ever tried to make cake pops before?

Pumpkin Delights Part 2

Last Monday Mr. Bean and I shared a Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I wanted to make pumpkin pie – given that it is a traditional thanksgiving food – but it had to be my family friendly. So what does that mean?

• No Gluten
• No Eggs
• No Dairy
• No Soy
• No Cinnamon

But that’s basically what traditional pumpkin pie is made of right? Well, I guess my pie was a bit unconventional and I have to say that I couldn’t love vegans more for their my family friendly food.

Gluten, Egg, Dairy, Soy and Cinnamon Free Pumpkin Pie

Pie Crust inspired by this recipe from Whole Foods

Filling inspired by this recipe from About.com

For Crust:

1/3 cup potato starch, plus extra for dusting
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup millet flour
1/3 cup almond meal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold lard, cut into small pieces (Note: To make this vegan, use coconut oil)
1 egg replacer
1 tsp. xathan gum

1. Put potato starch, tapioca flour, millet flour, almond meal, salt and xathan gum into a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
2. Add lard and pulse again until mixture resembles a coarse meal. I used my magic bullet and it turned it into a batter because it’s too small. So use an actual food processor or a pastry blender.
3. Add egg replacer and pulse until completely combined to make a slightly sticky dough.
4. Turn dough out onto a large sheet of waxed paper dusted with potato starch.
5. Sprinkle potato starch over dough and knead gently, working in enough potato starch until dough holds together without being sticky but is still pliable. (Since my dough was so sticky, I probably used at least 1/4 c.)
6. Using your fingertips, press dough into a 10-inch circle.
7. Invert a 9-inch pie pan on top of the dough then quickly flip over both the pan and the dough so that the dough now rests in the pan.
8. Gently peel away and discard wax paper and press dough into pie plate, patching it together, if needed.
9. Set aside. The recipe recommends that you cook it for 15 minutes, but I didn’t.
   

Pumpkin Filling

1-15 ounce can pumpkin
1 c. coconut milk - don’t shake can and use the thicker milk at the top
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. potato starch
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. ground cloves - I added too many cloves, so this amount should be good
3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp. ginger

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Add all ingredients together and mix at medium speed for 3 – 4 minutes.
3. Pour into previously prepared pie crust and bake for 15 minutes.
4. Turn over down to 350F and bake for another 45 – 50 minutes.
5. Let pie cool.
6. Once pie is cool, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before eating.

Who makes your favourite pumpkin pie?