sunflower seed butter

3 cups roasted sunflower seeds, unsalted
1/3 cup canola oil

In Vitamix, start on variable, speed 1 and quickly increase speed to 10, then turn to high. Use tamper. In one minute you should hear a high pitched sound. Then watch for butter to flow. At this point you should hear a low laboring sound. Stop.

Caution from Vitamix recipe book: Over processing will cause serious overheating to your machine! Do not process for more than 1 minute after mixture starts circulating freely.

Notes:

-may roast seeds in pan or in oven. 3 cups seeds and 1 T. canola oil.
-use immediately and freeze whatever you won't use immediately. The sunflower seed butter gets "nippy" as it sits, even in a half hour or so. May store in fridge for a couple days if you don't mind some "nippy-ness." But it gets more nippy the longer it's there. It doesn't seem to get this way in the freezer. Interesting I also had frozen sunbutter that has thawed a couple days in fridge and it hasn't had the nippy-ness either.
-yummy to mix equal ratios unflower seed butter and frosting, with optional chocolate chips or raisins, crushed cereal (plain cheerios or chex) and form into balls. Freeze immediately(in ball form, so easier to eat partially thawed) what you won't eat in one sitting.

Variation: Almond butter- roasted almonds and 1/2 cup canola oil. Pour off excess oil next day.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Original recipe(not allergen free), from Rhonda Hair, pumpkin recipes

Pumpkin Cupcakes

2 1/4 c. flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. each ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg

1/2 c. margarine

1 1/2 c. sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 c. pumpkin

3/4 c milk

3/4 c. each nuts and raisins

Adapting without wheat, dairy, eggs, nuts:

April 27, 2016
Sweet potato cupcakes, double batch

1 cup oil- 1/2 cup coconut and 1/2 cup canola

3 cups brown sugar

1/3 cup applesauce + 1 T. ground chia seed

1 1/2 cups Coconut Dream drink

4 c. flour of choice

1 1/2 t. xanthan gum

1 t. soda

4 tsp. baking powder

1 t. salt

2 t. cinnamon

1 t. ginger

Cream oil and sugar, then add applesauce and chia seed and mix. Add coconut milk and flour, slowly mix until flour won't fly then mix on medium high for a couple minutes. Turn into muffin tins. I made 18 muffins plus one 7X11 glass pan, to fit it all on one rack. Bake 375 degrees 23-25 min.

notes:

-light and fluffy! moist, flavorful. 

-Great with coconut-vanilla frosting I make.

-sweet, try reducing sugar to 2 1/2 cups. 

-find Coconut Dream on shelf in grocery store,    Tetrapak shelf stable

-Try reducing sugar to 2 1/2 cups, if using sweet potato puree.

-for flour this time I used a mixture of rice, oat, garbanzo, very fine cornflour, and cornstarch. 10 cups rice, 5 cups each oat and garbanzo, 2 cups cornflour, 2 cornstarch. Stored in gallon bags in freezer. 

Pumpkin Bread

April 27, 2016 sweet potato bread

1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cup sweet potato puree and 1/4 cup Coconut Dream Drink, unsweetened
     (when I used homemade pumpkin puree I used 1 1/2 cups and no milk)
1/3 cup applesauce and 2 t. ground chia seed

2 cups flour of choice
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. nutmeg

Blend dry ingredients. Blend wet ingredients and stir into dry until incorporated.
Turn batter into 4 small loaf pans, 350 degrees, 35-40 min.

Flavorful, moist, tender but not crumbly. A bit heavy- settled a bit, but great texture.

Great with orange glaze(pictured above), or regular glaze on top. Or with coconut-vanilla frosting between two slices. Good for school lunches this way.


notes:
find Coconut Dream Drink on shelf in grocery store, Tetrapak shelf stable
-today flour was from mix I made:
10 cups rice, 5 cups garbanzo, 5 cups oat, 2 cups cornflour, 2 cups cornstarch
-batter seemed thicker than should be, so I added 1/4 cup milk to some, but that wasn't as flavorful. Consistency after baking was pretty much the same. So I would keep batter slightly thick as is.
-last time I made with homemade pumpkin puree. That was really yummy, with the coconut-vanilla frosting I make. I prefer pumpkin puree, but have sweet potato puree on hand to use. : )

delicious strawberry shake

My kids loved a shake I made for supper yesterday. I really enjoyed it too; only thing I would do differently is less sugar. I think kids would disagree  : ) 

2 cups Coconut Dream Beverage*

About 4 cups whole frozen strawberries

1/2 cup sugar

Blend and enjoy fresh!

*look on shelf at grocery store - it is a Tetrapak shelf stable version

Applesauce Cake

Applesauce Cake

I made this for breakfast this morning. It's neat I can use the rule of thumb for oil, sugar, and flour that I use for making cookies, whatever oil amount I use, I double for sugar amount, then I double sugar amount to get flour amount. 1/2 cup, 1 cup, 2 cups. The difference for the cake is just more liquid and spreading into bar form.

1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup applesauce + 1 T. ground chia seed

1 cup oat flour
1 cup rice flour
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
dash salt

add non-dairy milk if needed to thin batter*

Bake 13X9 pan 375 degrees for about 25 min.

*I wasn't sure whether to add extra liquid to this, I wasn't using a recipe, so I baked in two smaller pans.(about 8X8 each) Pan one as I recorded here, and pan two had coconut milk stirred in(maybe 1/3 cup for half the batter). Two of us preferred the batch without added liquid; it had really good flavor and was still moist and soft and fairly fluffy. Two other family members preferred the batch with coconut milk added- they loved the extra fluffiness. It was fun to experiment and get good results both ways!

Dairy Free Orange Julius

2 cups Coconut Dream Coconut Drink

 8 ounces orange juice concentrate(half of 16 oz family size)

10 ice cubes

1/3 cup coconut cream (I use cubes I have frozen in trays and keep in freezer in quart size bag)

                                            (Note for me: 6 star cubes)

1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla, opt.

Original recipe uses dairy milk. I have substituted canned coconut milk, combination of water and coconut cream, and combo of coconut and rice milk. I like the fresh taste of the boxed coconut dream. We buy the shelf-stable version and keep a few boxes at a time. 

A favorite cake!

Yay! It has been a challenge to make a good basic, but flavorful gluten free cake. But the most recent cake my family made was a great success! It has a really good basic flavor and great texture. And, it's good cold, right out of the fridge! Most gluten-free baked goods are gritty when cold. Not this one!  It could have to doing with my new grain mill; it can grind very fine flour. I home ground garbanzo beans and brown rice for this cake.

What's funny is that my daughter and I first made a cake mix cake, which I thought had a good chance of turning out. But it didn't. Haha, the simple cake fell through but the one from scratch turned out! Things happen! It's all a part of the learning and the experience. (I think I made the batter too thin with the cake mix cake. It was about 1/4" tall. I cut it up into pieces and stuck in a freezer bag to later mix with pudding and strawberries. : )

Here is what we did for our new favorite from scratch cake:

Adapt Better Homes and Garden Yellow Cake recipe:

On the left are original ingredients; on right are my substitutions
if nothing appears on right side; use what is called for on the left

2 1/2 cups flour                     1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
                                              2/3 cup garbanzo bean flour
                                              1/3 cup cornstarch
                                              1 tsp. xanthan gum
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt                            1/4 tsp. salt
2/3 c. butter or margarine     2/3 cup canola oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs                                    1/4 cup applesauce and
                                               2 tsp. ground chia seed, mixed
1 1/4 cups milk                      1 1/4 cups Coconut Dream coconut drink
                                               and Rice milk
                                               (I used 3/4 c.coconut drink and
                                               1/2 cup rice milk
                                               may use canned coconut milk

Grease pans with canola oil, if not nonstick. (We used nonstick layer pans this time). 2  9" rounds, 2 8" rounds, or one 9" X 13." In separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. In mixing bowl, cream sugar and oil. Add vanilla and egg substitute and mix. Add milk and dry ingredients. Mix 2 minutes. Bake 375 degrees for about 30 minutes, checking if toothpick comes out clean. If in layer pans, cool 10 minutes, then invert on cooling rack or on plate. If making cake more than a few hours ahead of time, place in fridge after it has cooled. To help frosting to spread more easily, place cake in freezer for a couple hours or so, then frost while cake is firm on outer crust.

Top with fudge frosting, adapted from Better Homes and Garden:

On the left are original ingredients; on right are my substitutions
if nothing appears on right side; use what is called for on the left

No-Cook Fudge Frosting

4 3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder            1/2 cup semi-sweet
                                                                     chocolate chips, melted*
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened          1/2 cup dairy free spread
                                                                     (I used Smart Balance*)
1/3 cup boiling water                                   1/3 cup Coconut Dream,
                                                                     microwaved hot
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine powdered sugar and dairy free spread. Add vanilla, melted chocolate and hot coconut milk. Mix with electric beater.

*I substituted chips because I had no cocoa. To melt chocolate chips, stir in pan on stovetop on very low heat. May want to add coconut oil or shortening(like 1 T) to smooth texture. (my chocolate chips were a bit rough and dry, probably heated a bit too fast at first, but stirring with a bit of coconut oil smoothed them out). Another method is simply to microwave the chips, beginning with 30-60 seconds in microwave, stirring, and returning to microwave and stirring in 30 second intervals until smooth.

*check labels, many types of smart balance have dairy

I think this would make a great tres leches cake(gluten-free, diary free egg free see http://www.theprovidenthomemaker.com or a good carmel cake with carmel topping.

My children decorated my daughter's birthday cake.

It was so fun for them to get to do it!