Saturday, October 26, 2013

Quinoa Spuffins


You may be asking yourself, "What the heck is a SPUFFIN?"  Well, I made up that term.  Since my son and I can't eat normal wheat/white flour, we have to use alternative ones.  Even though I have a wheat intolerance, spelt is fine in moderate amounts for some reason.  But when you bake with spelt, the texture is thicker and more dense.  Thus, I call spelt muffins, "spuffins!"  They also go with my old nickname which is Spam-a-lama-ding-dong :)

Ingredients:
 1 Cup of uncooked Quinoa, rinsed (will use 2 cups of the cooked quinoa & have some leftover)
1/4 Cup of unsweetened applesauce (I just dumped in a single serving applesauce container that I put in my kids’ lunches)
1-3/4 Cup of gluten free all-purpose flour (spelt, rice flour, GF flour, ground oats, or whatever you like)
1/4 Cup of ground flax
1/8 Cup Chia seeds
1/2 Cup of brown sugar (maybe honey or raw sugar instead?)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
¼ to ½ teaspoon cardamom
¼ to ½ teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 Cup of almond milk (could use coconut, soy, or cow’s milk)
1 Large Egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Directions:
1.                  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray and set aside. 
2.                  Bring 2 cups of water to a boil.  Add one cup of quinoa and cook on medium for about 12 minutes or until water is absorbed.  Turn off stove.  Stir and then leave it covered for 15 minutes away from stove.
3.                  In a medium size bowl, mix together sugar, egg, almond milk, flax, chia, applesauce, and spices. Mix in only 2 cups of the cooked quinoa (save any extra for another use or meal)
4.                  Add flour(s), baking powder, baking soda and vanilla.
5.                  Divide batter evenly into a 12 muffin greased tin. Bake until toothpick comes out clean and tops are firm to touch. Approximately 20 minutes. Don’t overcook.
6.                  Depending on what flour(s) you use, the muffins will be pretty thick and heavy but delicious.  Served warm smothered with butter (or at least that is how my teenage boys and hubby like them).  These will spoil quickly due to the very fresh ingredients to eat within a day or two or store in the freezer.  I used 1 cup of spelt flour and 3/4 cup of brown rice flour because we're not allergic to those.
7.                  You can add nuts, raisins, diced fruit, chocolate chips, etc. if desired.  Probably about ½ cup if you do that.  They taste good plain though.

Nutritional Information for 1 muffin: (12 muffins per recipe)
Calories - 185
Carbs - 25
Fats - 5 (healthy fat though)
Protein - 6
Sugars - 6