a (most delicious!) gluten-free hybrid pastry.

not to direct attention away from my own upstanding blog, but a few weeks ago i discovered the vegan, gluten free cooking of swell. and it was, to say the least, inspiring.

so inspiring that last saturday, i took the plunge into gluten-free baking.



while i don't personally suffer from a gluten intolerance, i know many people whose lives have been significantly improved by rice noodles and all that whole foods has to offer the picky eaters among us. so i thought i'd try my amateur hand at better baking, starting with this recipe.





now i know what you're thinking: where the frick are the muffins?! well, you'll be relieved to hear that in true hobbit chef fashion, there were muffins at the end of this culinary rainbow. what were supposed to be hard, almost crunchy scones ended up more like gentle hybrid scone-muffers. the dough was simply too gooey to let them bake outside the security of a muffin tin. my suspicion is that it's because i substituted an egg in for the chia seeds that swell recommends. next time, i will try using half a banana to keep them vegan and toughen the dough. otherwise, you can't beat these hybrid mutants as a morning pastry or afternoon snack.



ingredients:

1 1/4 cups premade amazake beverage (or 3/4 cup amazake blended with 3/4 cup water)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp almond extract
1 1/3 cups brown rice flour
1/3 cup coconut flour (or any other gluten free flour)
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 
pinch of ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar (use 3/4 cup if you like them a bit sweeter)
1 cup chopped peaches (fresh or frozen)
1 tablespoon maple syrup, for brushing the tops

and away we go!

preheat the oven to 400F.  lightly oil a muffin pan.

combine the wet ingredients in a small bowl (including the egg).  in a medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.  pour the wet mix over the dry and stir up and around until well mixed, at which point you can fold in the peaches.  let the dough rest for a few minutes.

using a 1/3 measuring cup, scoop the dough in portions into a muffin tin. bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the bottoms are golden and you can see the color creeping up around the edges. after about 10 minutes of baking, i removed the lil' guys to brush their tops with a bit of maple syrup. remove and let cool before eating. they are particularly delicious with a dollop of thick honey or apricot jam.