Thursday, September 25, 2014

Blueberry and zucchini muffins -FODMAPs friendly

Being the mother of a three year old, I'm always keen to get said three year old to eat vegetables. She is actually pretty good with it, but you can never have too many veggies and she has become rather enamoured of the muffins found at the supermarket nearby. They are not fabulously healthy items, so I thought I'd try and make some at home to ensure that if she was eating a muffin, it was also benefiting her health.

I googled and found a blueberry and zucchini muffin recipe that I then adapted to make it low FODMAPs. 

I present said recipe here for your enjoyment. Photos to come when there are some left. I didn't get a chance to photograph any before TWO (the wee one) decided to eat them all.

Ingredients


1 1/2 cups gluten free flour mix

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder (if you make this with regular flour, use only 1 teaspoon)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup lactose free milk

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup grated zucchini

3/4 cup frozen blueberries

Method


Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Mix all the ingredients together with help from the small person until well mixed. The mixture will probably appear quite runny. It works anyway and they are incredibly moist.

Cook in the oven until a skewer comes out clean. About 15-20 mins. I didn't really time it just went back and tested them. 


I made these in a small muffin tin that fit 24 mini muffins in a tray and I got a tray and a half out of it. Next batch will be large muffins and photos will be forthcoming. 

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Moist vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese icing - FODMAPs friendly

cupcakes

Last night we had friends over for a late summer/early autumn BBQ. The weather has been unseasonably warm. The whole summer has been the hottest and longest one since we moved here 5 years ago. We thought it best to take our possibly last opportunity to enjoy eating outdoors.

I adapted a Sue Shepherd cake recipe to make vanilla cupcakes instead of a big chocolate cake and I can definitely call it a success. I changed out the cocoa for soy flour. I know that some people still react to soy flour and I have plans to try a different flour combination next time I make these to see if it still works. But personally I have no problem with small quantities of soy flour in baking. 

In any case, these cupcakes were indeed moist. The icing/frosting was pink at the request of TWO and incredibly tasty. The recipe ended up making about 30 cupcakes. I have a whole bunch still left in my fridge and they are very very tempting. 

I bring you : moist vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese icing!


Ingredients

130g rice flour
75g corn flour
90g potato flour
70g soy flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
50g unsalted butter, melted
200g lactose free vanilla yoghurt 
2/3 cup lactose free milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.

Whisk the eggs and sugar until well combined. Add melted butter, yoghurt, vanilla and milk and stir. 

Sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Add the wet to the dry and mix well with electric beaters. 

Fill cupcake moulds two thirds full and bake for 10-15 mins. They are ready when they are firm to the touch and slightly golden. The standard skewer inserted into the middle of the cake coming out clean is a good test. 

Cool and while they are doing that, make the icing/frosting.

Icing instructions


200g icing sugar
1 packet lactose free cream cheese
food dye of choice

Get the ingredients together in a bowl and mix with electric beaters until they are a lovely mix of sugary goodness. 

Ice as you like and add sprinkles if it floats your boat. The only thing left after this step is to enjoy. I sure did. 


cupcake

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Oy

No racists on this street

Sweden held their elections on Sunday. 13% of the country voted for sverigedemokraterna, or the Sweden Democrats, otherwise known as the ultra right wing scary racist party. 

There is a bit of the old outrage on the go around town. This was on the street near our house. The translation is "No racists on this street!". Made me feel better about the part of Sweden I live in.