I use to have one thing that I craved day in and day out. I am not big on sweets. I am no cookie or cake monster.  I know I said last week that I do like the occasional muffin, but that’s not true. I love muffins. If there was one thing I use to be able to eat everyday, it was muffins. Banana ginger, carrot-walnut, blueberry, bran, coconut. Big ones, small one. Sweet, but mostly savory ones.

Muffins are not really known for their incredible healthfulness. Before I went Gluten Free, it was easy to find a muffin on my way to work and I definitely had a good habit going. I usually ate a breakfast of a healthy homemade fruit smoothie and a low-fat/whole grain healthy (as can be) muffin from my local shop or whole foods. Most store bought muffins still leave something to be desired in the nutrition department and now, both gluten-free and egg-free, muffins are basically non-existent.

My muffin habit went to the wayside when I went gluten-free and vegan. I trained myself away from them. I developed mixed feelings over grains in general and didn’t spend much time baking. But last week, I opened the flood gates with my Gluten Free Banana Ginger Muffins. Now, all I can think about is the next muffin recipe I want to make. What is ironic, its more of a desire to bake them, than to eat them. Yes, even though I love muffins, I love creating them gluten free and egg free even more. It really gets my creative juices going. And yields delicious results. My head is spinning over the next combination I want to create. I love to eat muffins yes, but the last thing I need is dozens of muffins sitting around at arms reach. Thank goodness, I have an early morning running group that happily gobbles up my creations and provides feedback. I can have my muffin and eat it to, as the cliche goes.

The success of the banana in last weeks version made me very enthusiastic. I figured if mashed up bananas worked then soft baked apples made into apple sauce would not only work in the same manner but would be outstanding in the flavor department. The result was a moist muffin that held together and still was light and not dense. I think in gluten free baking we are all just trying to avoid things turning out like small bricks. These muffins succeeded. I really liked the homemade quick granola on the top, it was brown-sugary and a great counter-point of texture. I might experiment with incorporating the granola additionally into the muffin itself, but think that the scant tbsp-ish of granola per muffin helps maintain some of the healthfulness but keeps the flavor.

I am dreaming up the next batch and the next batch and the next batch. Try these for now, until next week that is. Stay tuned, there will be coconut and pineapple involved next time.

Gluten Free Apple Cinnamon Granola Muffins

Ingredients:

1 pound apples, cored and chopped
½ cup agave nectar
2 tbsp. cinnamon, divided
½ cup almond milk
1 tbsp. lemon
½ cup gluten free oats
¼ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup butter , room temperature
2 tbsp. vanilla extract
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar
1 ⅓ cups brown rice flour
⅔ cup garbanzo bean flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp fresh nutmeg
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp pumpkin pie spice

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325. Toss apples, agave nectar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon together and spread on a baking sheet with parchment paper in a single layer. Bake for 35 minutes or until apples are tender. Remove apples from baking sheet with a slotted spoon. Carefully toss oats and 1/4 cup dark brown sugar in the apple liquid to coat. Bake oats for 10 minutes or until it begins to toast, be careful not to burn. Remove from oven and remove from baking sheet. Let apples and granola cool. (Home-prepared or store-bought granola can be substituted if you have it on hand).

Preheat oven to 350 and line with parchment cups/grease 2 muffin pans (12 muffins).

In a food processor, mix together the apples, almond milk, lemon, butter. Mix in the two types of brown sugar and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients including remaining cinnamon. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir to combine.

Scoop about 1/4 cup of muffin mix into the muffin pans, making 9-12 muffins. Sprinkle the muffins with the granola and bake until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted, about 20-25 minutes.

Calling my name, GF Banana Ginger Muffins

There are many times in life since going gluten free that I will pass by a bakery window and gaze in upon stacks of beautiful fresh baked muffins and wish that I could have one too. As I have mentioned, I don’t crave sweet that much but I do love an occasional muffin. Last year, when I was able to “take a break” from my no-gluten diet (doctor’s recommendation for testing) I stumbled upon my all time favorite muffins at Macrina Bakery in Seattle. Vegan Banana Ginger Muffins. I went home after that, totally obsessed and created a version of my own and posted the recipe. But those were made with whole wheat and spelt and soon I had to reliquish their hold over my tastebuds and go gluten free again (thanks for the painful vacation doc!).

I will wait for these to cool, I will wait for these to cool.

After that, I baked muffins occasionally, picked up muffins at Flying Apron when I was in Seattle, and generally went without. And then, the other day I remembered these muffins. I think it was because I was planning a big group run around Discovery Park in Seattle for my visit home this weekend. Last year a bunch of speedsters got together and ran some loops and then went to Macrina. Oh those muffins. I instantly knew that it was up to me to create a gluten free version that would be as crave worthy as the Macrina ones.

I did it. Yes, me and my little creative brain did it.

I took my own original recipe and then worked through some possible flour combinations/ratios. With muffins, especially gluten free ones, texture is huge. And picking the right flour combination makes a huge difference. I settled on brown rice flour and garbanzo bean flour in a 2:1 ratio. Flying by the seat of my pants as it were, I also kicked up the ginger content two fold as I recalled that my previous batch a year ago was not as gingery as I liked.

I baked. I waited. I let them cool so completely that by the time I went to eat them I was bonking from lack of food. I think there was a bit of trepidation in there too. I was afraid to try them. The looked like a winner, but would the taste be triumphant? Would the texture leave me once again annoyed that gluten free will never translate the same? Would they dissolve into a wet, fallen mess overnight (like a lot of GF baked goods do)? Would they be hockey pucks?

In a word: No. I was awe struck by these muffins. Look at that texture! If I didn’t tell you it was gluten free, you would not know. The taste, oh my! Smooth banana flavor with a perfect and very present ginger flavor. They played nicely together, letting each other have a share of the glory and spotlight. Neither dominated, they comingled, they made music together and my taste buds were singing! My favorite part was that the banana and ginger were present but the muffin was still predominately savory, not overly sweet- just enough. Again a very fine balance, I think.

I was so excited I couldn’t wait to share them with the Baker.

He made me wait though. I fed him way too much bibimbap and homemade coconut milk ice cream for dinner. I waited patiently for my second opinion. I finally got it post early morning run with our regular crew in the Headlands. I open the container (which I left on the counter), prepared myself for some caved in or other gluten free horror to unfold but they were still perfect, together, moist.  The Baker took one out and  took a bite, I prepared myself for a polite, “they’re good” and to go back to the drawing board.

“Wow” He said. “These are good. These are really really good. Where did you get the recipe?” Happy dance in my head, something along the lines of a end zone dance, complete with strutting and waving of arms!

“From my head” I answered. “Completely original recipe”. I liked being able to say that. I feel it is important to my perspective to keep perspective on the whether things are “good for a gluten free item” (because we all know there are plenty of really bad options out there) or “universally good”, meaning gluten free/egg free or not these are damn good. I am glad my second opinion heralded them as the second. I made my muffins in small muffin tins so we shared a second muffin, though I am sure we easily could have each had two and not be making a bad dietary choice (since in addition to all the other awesome things about this recipe, there is only 1/4 cup of butter and that is the only fat). These are not “you can eat those because you run 100 miles” muffins, these are part of a healthy and delicious lifestyle muffins. I don’t think it is a bad thing when you can have your decadent cake and have it be nutritious too. It is just an added benefit to these muffins that you don’t even have to think about it.

They are good. Damn good. I will be making them again and again and again. I have a feeling that down the line, someone will be looking at one of these babies through the window of my own bakery.

Gluten Free Banana Ginger Muffin

Ingredients:
5 small very ripe bananas (if not super ripe, add 1/4 cup almond milk)
¼ cup butter , room temperature
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar
1 ⅓ cup brown rice flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
⅔ cup garbanzo bean flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
2 ½ tsp. ginger zest, divided
4 tsp. crystallized ginger, minced, divided
1 ½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice
pinch fresh nutmeg

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 and line with parchment cups/grease 2 muffin pans (12 muffins). In a food processor, mix together the bananas and butter. Mix in the two types of brown sugar and blend together. Add in vanilla, 2 tsp of minced crystallized ginger, 1 1/2 tsp fresh ginger (zest).

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients including the remaining ginger until incorporated. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir to combine.

Scoop about 1/4 cup of muffin mix into the muffin pans, making 9-12 muffins. Sprinkle the muffins with dark brown sugar and bake until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted and the tops are golden brown, about 20-25 minutes

Beef Bourguignon, the perfect way to end a weekend

This weekend was an absolutely wonderful and blissful weekend. In food, running, life.  It was Valentine’s Day Weekend which has never meant a thing to me one way or another. Like most holidays, I don’t get swept up in the commercialism and hype. I do my own thing. This weekend was no different, but it is the first time in the history of my life that I have ever received flowers and chocolate on Valentine’s Day, and I have to admit it did make me feel all warm and fuzzy. And then I tasted the chocolates from Recchiuti Confections in the Ferry Building as my last bites for the weekend I am about to describe, which pretty much cemented it as one kick ass weekend.

Beautiful flowers from the Ferry Building Saturday Market

The weekend started with a fabulous Friday night of food. I decided to indulge in a non-gluten free friendly meal and it was decidedly worth the risk. In fact, other than a bit of asthma symptoms on Saturday, I was pretty non-reactive to it. We went to Little Star in the Mission and had a deep dish Classic, which has sausage, mushrooms, onions, bell pepper. I had been seriously craving pizza for a long long time (I haven’t had a slice since November at Delfina) and this definitely satisfied that craving.

This weekend seemed like it was created straight out of my imagination, it contained all of the things that combine to make me insanely happy and content. Saturday kicked off by getting up early and, for the first time in a while, instead of going on a long run, we headed down to the Saturday Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building to pick up ingredients for our planned Sunday dinner as well as our other weekend meals. I wish I had had my camera. We met Brett and Larissa down there, sipped on some Blue Bottle and wandered around gathering more and more ingredients, as well as snacks with each lap around the market.

Our dinner plan for Valentine’s Day was simple. After watching Julie and Julia last week, we couldn’t help but think about Julia Child’s beef bourguignon and since I had never ever had beef bourguignon, it was an easy pick for a Sunday at home on a special occasion. We grabbed our beef from Prather Ranch Meat Company as well as a half chicken for Saturday. We picked up Batch 21 Cheese and Crescenza cheese from Cow Girl Creamery. We shared a box of potatoes from Roli Roti. I drank an outstanding smoothie from one of the purveyors, we snacked on dates and filled our bags with greens, tiny potatoes, beautiful King Oyster mushrooms, spring garlic, beautiful sprouts and pickled veggies from Happy Girl Kitchen. It was a blast. By 10am though, the market gets crazy busy and we were ready to go. Brett and Larissa headed off to Tomales Bay for the weekend and we headed back to my house with all the goodies. We changed, went for a nice long run on the Miwok 100k course from near Rock Springs to the turn around point of the course at the bottom of Randall trail and back. 24 miles worked up our appetites, we made a quick stop at Whole Foods post run for a few ingredients and ice and we headed back to dive head first into our farmer’s market goodies.

First there was salad to temporary satisfy the ravenous beasts we were quickly becoming. I tossed a beautiful mix of Greens with Sprouts and topped with avocado, sauerkraut and mild pickled peppers from Happy Girl. The huge ramen bowls were empty in less than five minutes. We put our half chicken into the oven and cooked it “brick chicken” style, using my cast iron grill press. While it cooked, ice baths were taken, beer/cider was opened, veggies were chopped. When the chicken was done, we made fajitas with handmade tortillas from Primavera (also from the farmer’s market), bell pepper, jalepenos, onion. We kept the seasoning light and the flavors clean, a bit of avocado, crescenza and lime were all that was needed. Absolutely delicious. The evening was finished off with Coconut Bliss and some gluten free graham crackers which I made on Friday.

We had decided that we wanted to be done running and heading home by 11:30am. We also had planned to run really really hard for a long way, so that meant we didn’t have to get up too early. In fact, we each managed to run 19 miles in just around 2:40 and that is on the climby-est part of the Miwok course. Very nice. We were back at the car and heading back into the City by 10:45, which was a vast difference than Saturday when we hadn’t even left for our run yet! Lunch was a redux of the previous days salad. And I am thinking that I may be making it for myself every day as long as the ingredients are still available to me. My favorite part was the crunch from the “Market mix”, which is a blend of sprouted beans. Wow good.

The beef bourguignon takes a while, so got to work on it pretty quickly. While easy, tasty meals are awesome, there is something really fun and validating about working on small little details and ingredients and spending hours and hours in the kitchen. Sunday afternoons in the kitchen are one of my more favorite thing. It’s fun just to create and then be able to eat the reward at the end.

I have not done much cooking out of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and unlike most recipes, this one we really tried to follow. There would be no reinventing of the wheel on this one, there is a reason that Julia Child’s compendium is in 40-somethingth edition and could become a best seller, again, 49 years after its release. I really liked working through each step, each little detail to create the final product. From individually cooking the bacon, browning the meal, cooking the vegetables before cooking them all together for 3 hours with lots of wine to sauteing the mushrooms in butter (don’t crowd the mushrooms!), it was a blast. It reminds me how complex it can be to make amazing simple food. And it was amazing. The beef bourguignon had so much depth of flavor, you felt like you were watching a perfectly executed symphony, but instead of listening, you were trying your best not to submerge your whole face in the still hot dutch oven. We paired the rich stew with a very simple playmate: boiled potatoes. And they played well together. Meat and potatoes to something like an exponent of 10. Meat and potatoes at their best. It was damn good and when followed by the chocolates mentioned above, pretty much capped off the kind of weekend you remember for a long time and enjoyed completely from end to end.