Yesterday, whilst at workplace number one, I started the day by dropping a glass container of coffee on the floor. It shattered.
It turns out that cleaning up glass and coffee granules without a brush or broom is a tricky task indeed.
Overnight, I remembered that yesterday was the birthday of one of my university friends. I'm still feeling terrible about forgetting.
This morning, at workplace number two, I spent some minutes wondering where I'd put my coffee cup. Then I remembered that I dropped it on the floor last week. You guess it - it shattered too.
To this string of events, I could add these coconut flour muffins. They weren't dropped, and I didn't forget anything in their preparation, but they didn't quite turn out as expected. As their name suggests - they were crumbly. If optimal muffin crumbliness is a 3 out of 10, these are probably a 7.
However, whilst these muffins are above average in crumbliness, they are also above average in taste. They taste of strawberries and slightly of coconut, and are sweet enough to taste like a treat without being so sweet that they deserve to be called dessert. They are also light and dense at the same time, in the way that coconut flour manages to be.
In light of this, I'm going to interpret these muffins as a lesson in my coconut flour learning process. I'm sharing them along with my thoughts for future adaptations.
Messiness in the form of muffin crumbs is, after all, a lot better than messiness in the form of coffee or glass all over the floor.
I really enjoyed these, but do concede to needing more coconut flour practice. It is quite odd not being able to predict how baked goods will turn out! Most non-vegan coconut flour recipes use rather a lot of eggs, so I am working on the assumption that these needed more binder (thus my thoughts on adding chia). However, if you have any other thoughts or ideas for me - please let me know.
Do you enjoy baking with coconut flour? How about other gluten-free flours? I don't have problems with gluten and am thus quite a novice in this area!
It turns out that cleaning up glass and coffee granules without a brush or broom is a tricky task indeed.
Overnight, I remembered that yesterday was the birthday of one of my university friends. I'm still feeling terrible about forgetting.
This morning, at workplace number two, I spent some minutes wondering where I'd put my coffee cup. Then I remembered that I dropped it on the floor last week. You guess it - it shattered too.
To this string of events, I could add these coconut flour muffins. They weren't dropped, and I didn't forget anything in their preparation, but they didn't quite turn out as expected. As their name suggests - they were crumbly. If optimal muffin crumbliness is a 3 out of 10, these are probably a 7.
However, whilst these muffins are above average in crumbliness, they are also above average in taste. They taste of strawberries and slightly of coconut, and are sweet enough to taste like a treat without being so sweet that they deserve to be called dessert. They are also light and dense at the same time, in the way that coconut flour manages to be.
In light of this, I'm going to interpret these muffins as a lesson in my coconut flour learning process. I'm sharing them along with my thoughts for future adaptations.
Messiness in the form of muffin crumbs is, after all, a lot better than messiness in the form of coffee or glass all over the floor.
Crumbly strawberry coconut flour muffins
Not quite right in texture, but highly enjoyable in taste
Adapted from banana coconut flour muffins at Detoxinista
Yields 12 muffins
Vegan and gluten free
Ingredients
1 1/2 punnets strawberries (150g unhulled / 15 medium strawberries)
1 medium banana
1 cup (125g) coconut flour
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp water
1 tbsp coconut oil, in liquid form
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp baking soda
In future I would also add: 1 tbsp chia seeds soaked in 1 cup water
Method
Preheat your oven to 180'C and prepare a 12-pan muffin tray.
Hull and roughly chop the strawberries. In a large bowl, roughly mash the berries and the banana. Leave some strawberries relatively whole.
Add the coconut flour, maple syrup, apple sauce, water, coconut oil and vanilla to the strawberry mixture. Mix well to combine.
Add the apple cider vinegar and baking soda to the other ingredients, and mix through.
Divide the batter between 12 muffin trays.
Next time I would press the mixture firmly down into the muffin trays.
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch. Allow to cool completely before removing from the pan.
I really enjoyed these, but do concede to needing more coconut flour practice. It is quite odd not being able to predict how baked goods will turn out! Most non-vegan coconut flour recipes use rather a lot of eggs, so I am working on the assumption that these needed more binder (thus my thoughts on adding chia). However, if you have any other thoughts or ideas for me - please let me know.
Do you enjoy baking with coconut flour? How about other gluten-free flours? I don't have problems with gluten and am thus quite a novice in this area!
omg...the little crumbly stuff on top of muffins, cakes and pastries ALONE makes my drool. i like to pick off the big doughy, sweet balls and bite into them. am i a weirdo for getting so excited about just the crumbles?? :P
ReplyDeleteI think you're just great, because it means that these muffins would be perfect for you :D
DeleteI broke a plate last week just as I was in the midst of starting cake baking at 11:30 at night...not very good timing. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteThese muffins sound super tasty even if suboptimally crumbly!
Oh dear - 11.30 at night is not great timing for breakages even when cakes aren't involved! I hope the cake survived?
Deleteouch to the shattering! And I am sure you are learning about coconut flour with each experiment. I think most of the coconut flour recipes I have my eye on have eggs and I am still wary of the stuff. I have even had a look because you made me curious and thie is one of the few vegan coconut flour recipes I can find that depend mostly on coconut flour rather than just a spoonful or two http://www.dietdessertndogs.com/2009/08/18/grain-free-coconut-flour-biscuits/. I have one coconut flour recipe that is quite similar to yours but has other flours - what is unusual is that it uses agar agar - http://gggiraffe.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/amazing-gluten-free-vegan-chocolate.html. Will look forward to more experiments!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for taking the time to look out recipes - I remember those cupcakes of yours (they stuck in my mind because of the agar agar!) but had forgotten they featured coconut flour. Perhaps I should try mixing coconut flour with other flours as a starting point, it seems to be a more successful stance to take!
DeleteI thought of you this week when I made a recipe with coconut flour - not quite as successful as I had hoped - it instructed to leave the mixture for 5 -15 minutes (sorry I can't quite remember how long) once that coconut flour was added and then add other stuff - I was amazed at how the texture thickened up.
DeleteAh, interesting! Thanks for that tip, I will have to try the standing time next time.
DeleteOh dear. I think we all have days like that. I think the muffins look pretty good even though you say they're crumbly but hey, any home cooked muffin is better than a bought one! xx
ReplyDeleteThank you Charlie :)
DeleteSorry about everything breaking on you! I have spilled coffee grinds on my kitchen floor minus the glass and it was still not fun to clean up. Hopefully this week goes better!
ReplyDeleteYes, I think the glass was a small part of it really - the coffee granules were definitely the hard part! Thank you :)
DeleteThose muffins look yummy even though they're crumbly! I've never tried coconut flour, but I'd like to :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Courtney :) Coconut flour is very new to me too (as you can no doubt tell by the crumbliness!) but it does yield really delicious results.
DeleteYes, coconut flour can quickly turn dry and crumbly. I'd recommend using full-fat coconut milk as the liquid - helps with texture and flavour :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, the other day I read that the best way to pick up shards of glass is with a piece of soft white sandwich bread. Though that might have looked slightly crazy at work...
Thank you for your helpful hints! I had you down as a coconut flour expert and it seems I was correct :) I can imagine coconut milk working really well. I can also imagine the bread working well, bizarrely - and as I did my coffee dropping before anyone else was in, it could have been a perfect clean up solution if only I'd had some bread and known of it at the time!
DeleteMy coconut flour muffins turned out looking the same way - I used blueberries not strawberries - I think I might try half coconut flour and half normal flour next time. Plus does chia + water give an egg like texture which makes it vegan?
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of glad it's not just me :) I'm thinking half regular flour might be the way to go - and also see Hannah's suggestion above re. coconut milk.
DeleteChia + water does give an egg like texture if you let it soak - it goes sort of gloopy and like egg white. It holds things together well in baking.
oh no! sorry you dropped the coffee containers! the crumbles are my favorite parts of muffins!
ReplyDeleteThen you might like these :D
DeleteI hope this works!
ReplyDeleteI set my blog to private months ago because I didn't like how people could find it using my first name... I was never able to comment on your blog after that because it counted my "private" blog as inactive so I had nothing to post under! I have been faithfully reading, though. Very happy to hear about your upcoming wedding (less than 2 weeks... ah!) and have been enjoying your photos and recipes. I'm cleaning up ye old blog and should be posting again soon! Hope you're well.
-E
I'm so glad to hear from you! Thanks for continuing to stop by, and for your comment today :) I'm thrilled you're going to be posting again and will look forward to talking with you more now you're back into things.
DeleteCoconut flour sounds so interesting. Unfortunately my most allergic friend is also allergic to coconut (partially as a result of one of my birthday parties at an Indian restaurant) so when seeking gluten free coconut is also off the list. That said however if I was catering to everyone's allergies in the group the food item would need to be: gluten, dairy, nut, egg, soy and coconut free, low sugar and low protein. Oh yeah, that is a list!
ReplyDeleteThat is a list indeed - wow! I think you should rotate, and on the times when you're not catering to (say) gluten, dairy, nuts and eggs but are instead catering to soy and coconut free with low sugar, the rest of the people can just have fruit. Or air :P
DeleteMore seriously, your skills in working around allergies are really admirable - I don't have to do it much and this GF flour thing is showing me it's quite hard!
I've never baked with coconut flour either and I'm not fond of a muffin I have to wear but if it tastes really good, I'll sacrifice myself. :)
ReplyDeleteI think I might keep trying for you Maureen, so you can have a muffin that keeps itself off your clothes ;)
DeleteI know what you mean when you just don't know how they are going to turn out! These do look yummy though! I love the crumbly texture of something. :) I had a favorite cookie recipe that I loved to make and wanted to make them this past weekend......enter cookie fail. I tried a "similar" recipe and they were NOT good. :/ Oh well! I must find that recipe!!!
ReplyDeleteOh how disappointing! It's worse when you have a good version in mind I think :)
DeleteHey, if they taste that good, who cares if they are crumbly. They sound scrumptious!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteI haven't played with coconut flour either. I've picked it up on numerous times, but always end up putting it back. I think you've reignited my wanting to play with it though.
ReplyDeletePlease do play with it, and then give me instructions :D
Delete