Vegan Apple & Almond Maple Granola (refined sugar & gluten-free too)

       
       

Salut my lovelies,

Today is the first in my fall fabulous recipe box, and not only is it gluten-free, it is also, drumroll please...
Vegan, dairy-free, soy-free, and refined sugar-free!!!
         

But that's impossible you say, I, my friends, have been toiling away in the kitchen to make some boom fall recipes that are healthy and taste nothing like cardboard awfulness, which some try to pass off as good and worth exhorbitant prices.
Why, sure, I always wanted to feel homicidal after throwing away my hard earned money, on life sustaining necessities I couldn't afford in the first place! ROAR!
But I digress.   

Anywhoodles, this recipe has become a family favourite, and I now get requests for double and triple batches of it for gifts, for birthdays and for the holidays. My son loves to add this to his smoothies, he gobbles it up faster than I can bake it and get more to him. I prefer to eat it with my vegan coconut yogurt, extra cinnamon sprinkled on top, and some seasonal fruit. People at work just grabbed handfuls and munched away on it like that. You could also dip some fruit in chocolate and then dip it in granola for a nice treat.
Another discovery, was that it was loverly with some heated, unsweetened, almond milk, on those super chilly mornings. It's a nice option over hot oatmeal or cornmeal porridge. What's  cornmeal porridge you ask? Why, you need this yumminess in your life, click the link to get to that recipe, and smile at the life changing breakfast discovery coming your way!
http://bienconfitglutenfree.blogspot.com/2016/10/west-indian-cornmeal-porridge.html?m=1
P.s. you can now make it vegan by substituting coconut condensed milk to replace the regular condensed milk. I have had to forgo this creamy, soothing, comfort food, delight, as I am on a no corn, strict, no dairy, mold free diet. However, you should try it, you're really missing out if you have never had it. It is one of the best Jamaican breakfast foods ever and is appreciated by old and young alike.
Okay, back to granola.     

Yeah, that does look good, doesn't it? I decided to make this after dehydrating a rather large amount of apples I had gotten from two different orchards we had gone to. The first being my beloved eco-farm, Au Paradis des Fruits Dunham, and then there's Petch orchards in Hemmingford. Seriously, if you have never gotten apples fresh from an orchard or verger as we call them here in Quebec (a la Francais), you are seriously missing out! The apples are amazing, you're directly supporting local farms, you can choose from a variety of apples-some of which you may have never heard of, along with having a blasty blast trying apple and pear based noms!       

Most vergers here have apples and pears, some even have other products like, pumpkins, berries, and scrumdidilyumptious honey!     

I adore the basswood honey we get from Dunham and no, I don't want to share it! Yes, it's just that good.       

Sorry, not really sorry. There's loads I will share but zee honey, she is too special. I buy you your own, and that's called compromise; even when being a a**. Hehheh.
Hmmmmm.
Where were we before the honey greed tangent? Oh yeah, granola and apples. So, I dehydrated loads of these tasty apples for snacking and baking during the colder months. I like stacking my  pantry.       

Ironically, I was not very well over the last year and the stacks of food stuffs I had dehydrated and canned were quite a bonus in my then, dangeously sickly life.
I was prepaaaaaaaaaared! If you don't know the movie reference, too bad and sad for you; you shall not pass into the realm of hoodwinked geekery.

Moving forward, I decided that apples and maple needed to hang out in a crunchy goodness kinda way, so I threw stuff together and it actually came out boomtastical!!! Toot, toot! Yes, I tooted my own horn. Nobody else wants to go near that thing!

I made sure to use gluten-free oats, and vegan ingredients that steered clear of soya and refined sugar, as my tummy was not tolerating any of that. The fact that all these ingredients did not trigger any response was a major win in my book.
  

I would suggest you use your own dehydrated apples that are not sugar laden or mixed with sulfites. I found out the hard way that sulfites are not our friends, and I should stay clear of that trouble maker at all costs! Yup, that means no wine of any kind for me either. Don't cry for me Argentina, I don't really like anything other than sangria, which let's be honest, is grown up fruit punch that I am convinced the kool-aid man must have been drinking. What other excuse could one have for smashing into strange people's houses and yelling, "Oh, yeah!"
Get the bleep outta here & fix this wall you insensitive, clumsy oaf!
   

Anywhoodles, enough sillies. You came for a recipe and I'm a give it to yah!
As always, there are pics to guide and inspire you.
     

       APPLE & ALMOND MAPLE GRANOLA
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Almonds chopped
1/2 Cup Ground almond flour
2 Cups Oats, toasted
1 Cup Warmed almond milk unsweetened
1/4 Cup Ground flax seed
3 Tbsp Hemp seeds
2 Tbsp Hemp seed powder aka hemp protein powder
3 Tbsp Ground tiger nuts
1/8 Cup Organic coconut flour
1 tsp Ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp Freshly scraped nutmeg
1/2 tsp Pink sea salt
1/2 Cup Unsweetened apple sauce
2 Cups Macintosh apple organic, shredded with or without skin, it's  up to you. I also use granny smith apples to success in this recipe.
3 Tbsp Exttra virgin olive oil organic or Melted organic coconut oil
1/4 tsp Walnut oil
1/3 Cup Grade B maple syrup
1 tsp Vanilla extract (real vanilla) or Vanilla bean paste

Toppings:
2 Cups Dried diced apples or dried blueberries of you prefer.
1/3 Cup Maple flakes

Method:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

-In a cast iron skillet, on medium low heat, dry toast oats, stirring constantly, until just starting to smell nutty. REMOVE FROM HEAT IMMEDIATELY!
Oats burn very easily, when off the heat pour them into a bowl right away to stop cooking and prevent burning. If your oats burn, you must throw them away and begin again or the entire recipe will taste burnt and bitter. Don't waste expensive ingredients for one mistake. Begin again, sorry but not sorry. Pour the warm almond milk over warm oats, stir well, allow to soak in for 10 minutes, while you prep your other ingredients.

-In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients, including oats, stir well.

-In a seperate bowl, mix all wet ingredients, stir well.

-Add wet to dry, mix until well incorporated.

-On a parchment lined tray, pour out the granola and spread out in a lumpy, even, way. Don't push it down, you want lumps, bumps, and chunks.

-Bake for 15 minutes, shake up the tray, turn it half way round and back into the oven it goes. Bake for another 15 minutes, shake up the tray, using a spatula break into some pieces, I like big chunky bites so I don't break it up too much.

-Remember to turn tray half way, back in the oven it goes for 10-20 minutes.

-This process usually takes 40-50 minutes but depending on how wet the apples were, it can take an additional 10 to 30 minutes or more. You want a golden hue to your granola. Stir it up one more time and put back in the oven, making sure to turn the tray half way when placing it back in.

-Turn off the oven and leave the granola inside, I will put a wooden spoon in the oven door to leave it slightly ajar, so it doesn't burn but this is only if my granola is already quite golden brown. If your granola is already dark, don't leave it in too long. This last step is only to ensure it has dried out to the core of the granola nuggets.

-Remove from oven, allow to cool completely. Transfer to a bowl, add toppings and mix together well. Feel free to use other toppings like coconut chips, chocolate chips, or other dried fruit of choice like cranberries.

-Keep in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks. Ours never lasts this long in the house but good luck! I like to reuse glass jars or Mason jars to store it in.
     

     

While my oats were soaking, I chopped my almonds and walnuts.

Stir carefully to keep some chunks to your batch.

If you need help with this, have questions, or would like clarification, leave your comments and questions down below. I love to hear from you.

Take care, be well, love freely...
Chef Kiki

Amazing Gluten-free Cinnamon Rolls for Special Occasions! Perfect for Valentine's.

                             

         

Happy February one & all!

                          
Today is a recipe post from another blogger, for gluten-free cinnamon rolls, that we truly enjoyed over the holidays this year; and I really wanted to share it with you.
Although we had it for Christmas morning brunch, cinnamon rolls are perfect for all kinds of special occasions, particularly Valentine's!
What says love like a soft, ooey, gooey, warm, cinnamon laced, frosted pastry?
                                         
  Rachel from Recreating Happiness gluten free, has created a gem!
She claims it is a cinnabon copycat recipe, as I live in Québec, Canada, I will have to take her word for it. I have never come across a Cinnabon here, however, I have tasted Saint Cinnamon cinnamon rolls way back in the day, and I can tell you, this recipe sparked up some old high school nostalgia, of me and my girl Marcia drooling at the baker window, watching pats of butter, and glorious puffs of cinnamon, nestling brown sugar laden dough. And that smell-whoa la!
                             

                            
We always caved in and bought one to have with tea, when money allowed; and although I can no longer indulge is such gluten filled delights fom them, they have never been forgotten.
                             
The link to the original post is here but the recipe does follow below:
http://recreatinghappiness.com/breakfast-recipes/gluten-free-cinnabon-copycat-cinnamon-roll-recipe-updated-and-now-easier-to-make/

There's also a video tutorial for them, which I highly recommend you watch. These babies are a bit tricky as the dough is rather sticky (Ha! That rhymes.), we watched the video twice before attempting this recipe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk3g0Pj7ZaQ

I must say we were sceptical when we made this, there have been way too many Pinterest fails that leave a gluten-free baker super pissed. Anyone who has to throw away a Pinterest gluten-free fail,is NOT a happy camper.
Gluten-free ingredient's are much more expensive than gluten filled baking products, you get less of them for triple the price, and they are notoriously more difficult to source-how about that run to 5 different stores, my gf peeps?
                          
Time is also precious and the feeling of utter sadness and dejection just makes it all the less appealing to try to roam in gluten-free, unchartered, Pinterest territory.
Luckily pour moi, mom decided to tackle it (Thanks MOM!), as a Christmas present.
I think she got fed-up of my whining and melancholy over the lack of true cinnamon bun goodness, but hey, I will take it! It was nice because I was able to take pics and document the whole process, with way less stress and mess. Yipee!!
                                   

                                  I kid you not, these were freaking boomtastical!!!!!
                                       

They do have dairy in them, I have yet to try a vegan version but I feel that one could make a successful go of it with Earth Balance buttery, soy-free spread. I may try this at some point, will get back to you on this, if I do.
So, here is the cinnamon bun recipe in all its' glory, with picture breakdown of all the steps down below. I tell you, this was such a win, we have made it a few more times.So go forth into cinnamon bun heaven with true zeal! I promise you, cinnamon bun dreams can come true!

Make sure to watch the video, have all your ingredient's/equipment on hand and already measured out before you begin, and make the frosting while these babies bake.

GLUTEN FREE CINNABON COPYCAT CINNAMON ROLL RECIPE, UPDATED AND NOW EASIER TO MAKE!

 

Rolls (these can be prepared the night before)

Author: Recreating Happiness

Yields/Serves: 8

INGREDIENTS

DOUGH:

• ⅔ cup milk
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 packet (7 g) yeast
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup (83 g) potato starch
• ½ cup (80 g) brown rice flour
• ¼ cup (29 g) finely ground almond flour
• ¼ cup (34 g) tapioca starch plus more for flouring your surface
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1½ teaspoon xanthan gum
• 2½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• good quality plastic wrap for rolling out (and up!) the dough

FILLING:

• ⅓ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon

FROSTING:

• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
• ¾ cup powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• dash of salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour a pie plate.

DOUGH:

1. Combine yeast and sugar in large mixing bowl.
2. Microwave milk and 1 tablespoon butter to approximately 110-115 degrees. Whisk into yeast mixture and set aside to proof.
3. Meanwhile in small bowl whisk together potato starch, brown rice flour, tapioca starch, almond flour, baking soda, xanthan gum, baking powder, and ½ teaspoon salt.
4. Once yeast is proofed add in egg, oil, and ½ teaspoon vanilla. Mix for a moment and then slowly add in the flour mixture. Turn the mixer up to medium-high and beat for 1½ minutes - beating long enough is essential, GF flours are "thirsty," the dough will thicken & lose it's stickiness as you beat it.
5. Roll out the dough: (please watch the video!) this is a sticky dough that you'll want to roll out to approximately a 13" x 10" rectangle. What I have found works best is covering my work surface with a good quality plastic wrap and then a light layer of tapioca starch. I place my dough in the center and cover with a bit more tapioca starch and another sheet (or two) of plastic wrap. Roll out to the needed size and then carefully peel off the top layer of plastic wrap.
6. Using a knife or spatula gently spread the ⅓ cup softened butter over the dough evenly leaving ½" space around the edges.

FILLING:

1. In a small bowl combine brown sugar & cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over dough.
2. To roll your dough: start on one of the shorter sides and gently begin rolling your dough into a log form. Use the plastic wrap to help you "lift and roll" the dough as you go along. Try to make it a nice tight roll, however do not try to unroll it and re-do it. You'll end up with a sticky mess.
3. Sprinkle lightly with tapioca starch again. Dip a sharp knife into tapioca starch then cut the rolls into 8 pieces.
4. Place the rolls, cut side down, in the prepared pie plate*. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel, place in a warm spot, and let them rise for 15 minutes.
5. Bake 22-27 minutes until tops are golden brown.

ICING:

1. Meanwhile, in mixing bowl, beat 3 tablespoons softened butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar until smooth. Beat in vanilla and a dash of salt.
2. Drizzle over the tops of cinnamon rolls as soon as they come out of the oven.

NOTES

*Night before preparation: Once the rolls are in the pie plate, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge. In the morning set them out for at least 25 minutes before baking.

  

I will have to cop to being very impatient and deciding not to let these rise in my Excalibur dehydrator, which has worked wonderfully well for breads I have made in the past. The kitchen was a bit chilly, as such, we did not get the same rise as Rachel did in her original recipe. They still baked beautifully and tasted wonderful!                     

 I tried one with frosting and one without, I am definitely a frosting woman. Sorry waistline.

This is an amazing dough for a gluten-free product. I have eaten my fair share of gf cinnamon buns from local health food stores & gf bakeries, and I must say they are not right. Always a pasty, or more bread-like, dry dough, that just vexes your taste buds. This recipe has that right texture, good dough to sweetness balance, perfect cinnamon to frosting ratio, very buttery rich, and they are just as good reheated. Let me know down below if you tried making these and don't forget to share them with your special someone!

Take care, be well, love freely...Chef Kiki

Blueberry Syrup (4 Ingredients)

Awwwww yeah! Blueb season is upon us!

I am on a blueberry addiction, which is quite common for me. I get cracked out on a delicious fruit or food item and binge on it for about 4-6 weeks, then I don't want to know about it for at least half a year or more. Luckily it's always healthy stuff I go crazy for and I think I am easily on my 20th pint of blueberries in 3 weeks, shhhhh it's our little secret. Mwuah hahahaha 
As it turns out, two of my pints were not tasty. They were sad, gritty, bland, and lonely bluebs. So, I say, when life gives you bad blueberries you make blueberry syrup to smother your pancakes, Crêpes, ice cream, mini shortcake, everything. Eat all the blueberries, all of the time!!!!!!! 
I like this recipe because it's super quick, easy peasy, and has only 4 Ingredients. I know, super awesome sauce with a cape! 
Here you are peoples, now go out there and get you some blueberries. 

BLUEBERRY SYRUP:

Ingredients:
1 Pint washed blueberries 
3 Tbsp grade B maple syrup 
1 Tsp vanilla extract 
Small pinch pink sea salt

Method:
-Place all ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to simmer, cook for 3-5 minutes. Don't overcook, you want blueberries to still be looking like their round pillows of antioxidant goodness but softened a bit. 
-Turn off and remove from heat, let sit 5 minutes and pour into serving container. The pectin in the blueberries will thicken this up and you will have a great syrup saucy consistency. 
Serve over whatever you desire, wrap it, keeps in the fridge 3 days. 

Kale Smoothie

Hello ya'll!

In the process of working on lilac flower processing, so recipes are few and far between for the next little while, but this is a really tasty treat that is easy and quick. 
Enjoy!

Kale Smoothie
Ingredients:
-1 Cup frozen mango 
-1/2 Cup frozen peach
-1/2 Banana fresh or frozen
-2 Cups Almond milk
-2 Full kale leaves removed from stalks
(I use black kale cuz it's amazing!)

Method:
Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.
(You may add a scoop of protein if you like) 

Raw Vegan Buckwheat Krispies Recipe

                                 

Well, Hello There!

I was wanting something simple and nutritious for breakfast but wasn't in the mood to make anything. It turns out after smashing my hand like a total klutz, there was yummy raw, vegan, cereal to be found hidden on the shelf I had been rifling through, that I had made in the dehydrator a while back. Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! 



There's so much happy & healthy in a bowl and it was already made. Good Saturday morning even though I still can't find my wedding planning binder but shhhh, don't tell hubby to be. Actually, he's the first person I whined to about it and it's all because I reorganized last week & now I can't find things. The wedding binder being the most distressing but it's here somewhere. Soon-to-be Hubby to be is being very supportive & trying to help jog my memory but no luck yet, St. Christopher, please help me find it! 
Anyways back to food. 
I am working on that recipe with some vegan mock ricotta & the Sable grapes but it's not ready to post, ( I ate all the Grapes, sorry, & the grocers order will only be there later today-waaah) so I am going to put up this one. It's an oldie that has my changes, from the Raw Food Real World cookbook by Matthew Kennedy & Sarma Melngailis. I use this recipe quite a bit, especially when I want to introduce people to the wonders of raw food, I need to modify it though because I found the original was way too sweet/salty for my liking. One of my favourite things to do is triple the recipe and add strawberries to one batch-which I always eat first, blueberries to a second, & leave the last tray plain. I have increased the amounts to reflect a 3-4 tray batch because I figure, if you're going to bother making cereal, make enough to last for a while longer that 3 days. Which, is as long as this stuff lasts when everyone discovers it & lovingly eats your stash. Meh-better they eat healthy & you be wise enough to make several trays. (Hide your personal stash) 
This recipe requires a blender & Excalibur food dehydrator, set on the living foods temperature setting. (105 degrees)

RAW VEGAN BUCKWHEAT KRISPIES:

INGREDIENTS:
-5 CUPS raw buckwheat soaked for 2 hours, then rinsed & drained. Be sure it's raw buckwheat, not toasted. 
-1 1/2 Cup grade B maple syrup 
-2 Tbsp vanilla extract
-1/2 tsp sea salt
-1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/2-1 Cup water or juice depending if you are adding fruit. I will leave 3 bowls separated with ingredients, omitting the water until I know what kind of flavour cereal I am making. Strawberry cereal gets strawberry juice, blueberry cereal gets blueberry juice, plain cereal gets water & a touch more maple if it's not sweet enough. Add a bit at a time so it's not too watery. 

METHOD:
-In a bowl combine all ingredients together, separate into three smaller bowls if you are making different flavours. 
-In blender, blend half the recipe at a time so it does not overflow, if you need to do 3 or 4 batches at a time then do so. - When it's smooth and looks like a thick paste, then you can spread it out on teflex or parchment lined sheets on your dehydrator trays. You must place the mix on a sheet, not directly on the tray, or else the cereal will goop through & you're going to be swearing at the mess to clean! 


                                       This is plain with the cinnamon. 


With blueberry, the strawberry pic did not turn out but it looks the same except pink because of the strawbs. 


This last tray has my Honey'd Graham's cereal on it, I believe in simplifying life whenever one can. So, I got into the habit of making several different kinds of cereals when it's dehydrator time, this recipe is already in a much earlier post, should you be interested. 

-Now dehydrate each tray for 10 hours and check them, if the cereal is dry enough, flip them over to allow the back to dry out as well as the top. If it's not ready, dehydrate an additional 1-3 hours until you can flip them and peel away the telex sheet or parchment paper. If some of the parchment paper sticks, don't worry, it's easily removed once the cereal is all dry. 
-Continue dehydrating for another 14 hours. This recipe requires a good 24 hours. 
-Once dry, you may begin breaking one tray of cereal at a time into bite size pieces & then place in storage bags or airtight containers. 

This is what it looks like when done:


Stored up:



It lasts 3-4 months if stored in a dry place in the proper container. I have never seen it last beyond a few weeks because it gets eaten so quickly, except for the bag above which was somehow forgotten during the holiday craziness. 
Enjoy it with milk of your choice, I always use almond milk, and fresh fruit. So good with fresh mangoes or berries. I have also been known to crumble it on my coconut yogurt! 



Remember to share with your loved ones and leave a comment below, I love hearing from you.