The Harp Lounge

Technically rolled oats don’t have gluten, but they’re usually contaminated since they’re transported and processed on the same equipment as wheat. Sometimes you can find certified gluten-free oats, but I haven’t so far. This is probably more like Just Right cereal, actually, but it’s far nicer. This recipe makes a LOT.

Gluten-Free muesli (or granola/cereal/yum)

Recipe

You’ll need a big bowl.

• 8 cups puffed buckwheat (about a 175g bag)
• 2 cups brown rice flakes
• 200g dried apricots, chopped
• 100g dried apple, chopped
• 2 cups sultanas
• 100g flaked almonds
• 100g macadamias, chopped (or Brazil nuts, cashews, etc)
• 100g sunflower seeds

1. Mix it up in a big bowl. That’s it. Store it in airtight containers. You’ll have enough for quite a few breakfasts.

It’s good with milk (dairy or no), or yoghurt, preferably a thick tangy one. There’s enough fruit the you probably won’t feel like adding honey or other sweetener.

Now to figure out the best way to make this into muesli bars!

These treats were an experiment by me to see what happens when you adapt a recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for gluten-free ingredients. And they were indeed delicious, fairly moist, a bit like a devil’s food cake.

Gluten-free vegan chocolate cupcakes

Wet ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups soy milk (plus more for later maybe)
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• ¾ cup evaporated cane juice (panela etc)
• 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon light olive oil (or other veg oil with little taste)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Dry ingredients:

• ¾ cup gluten-free flour
• ¼ cup quinoa flour
• 1/3 cup Dutch cocoa
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350F/180C.

1. Whisk the soy milk and vinegar together to make “buttermilk”, let it sit and curldle for a bit
2. Stir the sugar, oil and vanilla into the buttermilk
3. Sift the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl
4. Gently beat the wet ingredients into the dry, until there are no big lumps left, some tiny ones are OK
5. Add more soy milk and/or oil if the batter is too thick. Vegan cake mix is usually really runny but quinoa often sucks up a lot of moisture, so add until it’s about like a regular cake mix.
6. Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

These cakes crack a little on the top, but that’s OK.

Icing (optional)

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil (melted and cooled)
• 2 tablespoons coconut cream
• ½ cup Dutch cocoa (use less if  you want the icing less bittersweet)
• 2 cups icing/powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Stir to combine
2. Beat on high speed until creamy and delicious
3. Adjust by adding a little more coconut cream or icing sugar or cocoa to preferred taste and consistency
4. Spread or pipe on cooled cupcakes.

You may need to adjust the amount of oil or soy “buttermilk” if they turn out too dry or too moist. It depends on your oven and altitude.

They’re really quite nice. I adapted the recipe from a recipe on Cuisine.com.au. We do normally eat eggs, but ran out. A box of egg substitute in the cupboard comes in handy. I also used soy milk but was intending to use almond milk, which we turned out not to have because somehow its lid came loose in the cupboard and it went off. Pretty much any milk or milk substitute will do.

Gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free Buckwheat Pancakes

• ½ cup gluten-free plain flour (any of the mixes you get in the supermarket these days should be fine)
• ½ cup buckwheat flour
• ½ tsp gluten-free baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup gluten-free milk substitute
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 egg or egg substitute [see below]
• 2 tsp honey (or vegan alternative such as brown rice syrup or golden syrup)
• 2 tsp melted butter substitute, cooled (I use coconut oil)

Sift all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Sifting is extra important when using gluten-free flours as it helps get more air into the mixture. Don’t leave out the salt. It’s important for enhancing the texture too.

Put the milk substitute into a separate bowl and add the apple cider vinegar. Whisk it in and leave for about a minute. This makes non-dairy buttermilk. (If you can eat dairy, you can of course just  use real buttermilk.) Why buttermilk? The acidity is part of the chemical reaction that makes the pancakes rise and become fluffy.

Whisk the other wet ingredients into the milk mix, then add to the dry ingredients bowl.

Mix the two together lightly until there are no lumps. A good whisk is your friend when it comes to batter.

Cook in a hot skillet or frypan. Non-stick is good, but if you use a regular pan melt a little butter or substitute in the pan first otherwise you’ll never get them off the bottom. You can pour in enough batter to make large pancakes or small pikelets. Cook on one side until lots of bubbles have come up and the edges are  little browned, then flip and brown the other side.

Serve with whatever pancake toppings you like.  Blasphemously delicious.

Egg substitutes

There are some decent commercial ones such as Orgran No-egg, or you can make your own. Nearly any sticky food will work! Flax seed paste is good, so is half a ripe mashed banana, and various other substances as described on the Vegan Baking Tips page from the Post-Punk Kitchen people.

Actually I’ve been putting stuff on the internet for some time. Believe it or not.