Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Muffin Recipe

Today I made a gluten free Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe.  It was really simple to make, and it was really delicious.  I found many different ways to make this recipe online, and this is my version.   I am also thinking about adding some dried fruit next time I make them.  That will hopefully add another layer of deliciousness to these amazing muffins.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Muffins

3 eggs

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup honey

2 1/2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chocolate chips

3 cups almond flour, firmly packed

1 rounded teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place muffin liners into the muffin tins and set aside. 

In a medium bowl, beat eggs with a stand mixer.  Then add the coconut oil, honey, milk, and vanilla extract.  Mix together and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the almond flour and baking soda.  Then add all of the wet ingredients and combine until it is well mixed.  Then add the chocolate chips, and stir until the chips are spread throughout the batter.

Using an ice cream scoop, spoon about one scoop into the muffin tins.  Each cup should be about 3/4 the way full.  I was able to get 14 muffins out of this batter.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned and the knitting needle stuck in the center of a cupcake comes out clear.

I tried one of these muffins fresh from the oven, and it was amazing.  The muffin was moist, and the chocolate chips were melted.  It hit the spot.  I am looking forward to having one for breakfast tomorrow morning.  

 I hope you enjoy this making this recipe.

<3 Cassidy  

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Pancakes Recipe

Even though the kids had pancakes this past weekend at the Lion's Club Pancake Breakfast, they still wanted to have pancakes for dinner one day this week.  When I asked both of my children why they wanted  to have pancakes again, they said because their daddy makes the best pancakes.  I have to agree with that, but there is a caveat.  My husband puts chocolate chips in the batter and he makes the pancakes into fun shapes.  He has made bunny faces, teddy bears, and even a lightsaber.

After I found out that I was pregnant, my husband and I talked about some important traditions that we wanted to continue with our family.  One of them was that my husband wanted to be able to make chocolate pancakes, and he wanted to eventually do it with our children.  He remembered how it was his job to give a "chip alert" when the pancakes seemed low on chocolate chips.  So, he practiced.  My husband's parents even bought us a brand new griddle, so he could perfect his pancake making skills.  Fast forward almost 7 years, and my husband has perfected making a variety of pancakes.  He has made regular pancakes, high fiber pancakes, and even gluten free pancakes.   Now we decided to try almond flour pancakes.  I based my recipe from The Nourishing Home blog.  Since this was our first try, my husband did not make this batter into shapes.  We will have to try again when we are more familiar with this type of batter.  Here is our recipe.  

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Pancakes

1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup buttermilk or 1/4 cup of milk with 1 teaspoon lemon juice*
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the griddle to medium heat.

In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour, baking soda, and salt.  Then set it aside.

Next, you will need to separate all 3 eggs.  Place the egg whites in a medium sized mixing bowl and set it aside.  Place the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl.  Add the melted butter to the egg yolks and mix together using a mixer.  It is really important to make sure that the butter is cool to the touch, because you don't want any of the egg yolk to get cooked.  As you are mixing, add the buttermilk, maple syrup, and vanilla to the yolk mixture.  Once everything is mixed well, mix in the dry ingredients that have been set aside.  Make sure that there are no lumps in the batter, and then set aside.

Attach the medium bowl with egg whites to the mixer and clean whisk attachment.  Whisk the egg whites rapidly until they are a foamy consistently.  It should take about 1-2 minutes.  Then add the foamy egg whites to the batter and mix together slowly and carefully with the whisk.  You do not want to beat them too much, because they can lose the air that you added to the egg white to help the fluffiness of the pancakes.

Once the batter has been combined well, add some chocolate chips to the batter.  You can decide how chocolaty you want the pancakes.  Plus you can always add more chocolate chips are you are making the pancakes.            

Grease the griddle with canola oil or coconut oil.  Once the griddle is hot, ladle spoonfuls of the batter onto the griddle.  The pancakes should be about the size of a silver dollar.  (My husband uses 1/4 cup measure and fills it halfway with pancake batter.)  Cook the pancakes for a couple of minutes until the edges dry out a little.  The batter should begin to bubble a little bit when it is ready to flip.  Carefully flip the pancake and cook for a few more minutes.  Both sides should be browned, but not over-cooked.  (Once you have successfully cooked one pancake, it is important for the official tasters of your house to taste the pancakes.  Then you know if you are doing it correctly.)  

Serve the pancakes hot off with griddle with pure maple syrup.  You can make sausage or bacon as a side dish, but it is not necessary.

*Cook's Notes:  I used 1/4 cup milk plus 1 teaspoon lemon juice, because I do not regularly keep buttermilk in the house.

After you make these pancakes, I hope your loved ones will tell you, like our's did, that this is the best meal ever.  Enjoy!

<3 Cassidy  

Gluten Free Coffee Cake Recipe for Passover

 

One of our favorite Passover breakfast treats is a Honey Pecan Swirled Coffee Cake.  It is so yummy, but it is not gluten free.  So, I decided to try to adapt this recipe to be gluten free.  Below is my adaptation of this recipe.  If you want to make the regular version, here it is.  I have made it many times, and it always comes out beautifully.  You can substitute any nuts for the pecans, and I used matzah cake meal instead of plain matzah meal.  The matzah grains are finer in the cake meal, so there is less of a grainy taste for the coffee cake.

Gluten Free Honey Walnut Swirled Coffee Cake

1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup honey
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
6 eggs, separated
1 cup almond flour
6 tablespoons potato starch

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Grease a bundt pan with shortening or oil.  Place a small metal mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer until you are ready to beat the egg whites.  (I have found that this will shorten the amount of time it will take to beat the egg whites into soft peaks.

In a medium bowl, mix together 1/2 cup honey, walnuts, cranberries, chocolate chips, and cocoa powder.  (This does not seems like a large enough volume to put in a medium bowl but you need the space to mix these ingredients together.  It is very sticky, so it is nice to have a larger bowl to prevent overflow.)

In a large bowl, combine 3/4 cup honey, egg yolks, almond flour, and potato starch.

Remove the small bowl and whisk from the freezer.  Place the egg white in the bowl and beat until they form soft peaks.  I like using my free-standing mixer, but a handheld mixer will work fine too.  When the egg whites have formed soft peaks, add the whites into the yolk mixture and mix together.  

Spread 1/3 of the batter on the bottom of the bundt pan and then spoon 1/2 of the walnut mixture on top.  Spread another 1/3 of the batter into the pan and top with walnut mixture.  Finish with the last of the batter.  Take a spoon handle, and gently swirl the filling around the batter.

Bake for 40 minutes or until a metal knitting needle comes out clean when inserted near the center.  

Let sit and cool until you can touch the bottom of the pan.  Remove from bundt pan.  Serve warm or room temperature.

I found that this version of the coffee cake stuck to the pan a little more.  I really greased my bundt pan, but it still had trouble coming out of the pan.  I think I might need a new bundt pan.  Even though this did not come out of the pan as I would have liked, the coffee cake was light and fluffy.  It was sweet but not overpowering.  It is something that you could eat during Passover or all year long.  I hope you enjoy making this in your kitchen.

~Cassidy