New Year, new ingredients! There are a few new things I would like to tackle in 2016: experiment with different flours, experiment with natural fruit sugars in baking, work on more super quick dinner ideas… the list goes on.
You ever notice how much easier it is to make a list than it is to do anything on it? Fortunately, The Recipe Redux’s theme for this month helped push my wishlist into a reality,
“Pick a new ingredient that you’ve been wanting to try… and cook or bake up a new recipe in the new year. Show us how you’re cooking with something new (to you!) in 2016.”
I decided it was the time to try out coconut flour. Coconut flour is nutty and its lightly coconutty flavor is quite tasty in baked goods. It lacks the gluten that makes muffins dense or chewy, but it also lacks the gluten that really gives baked goods body. It also absorbs an unbelievable amount of liquid, so it cannot just be substituted 1:1. It definitely took some trial and error, but overall I am quite happy with the end result!
- ¾ cup soy milk
- 1 tsp Cider Vinegar
- 2 tsp Vanilla
- 2 TBSP oil
- ¼ cup sugar + 2 tsp
- 3 Eggs
- ½ cup Coconut Flour
- ½ cup Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- pinch of salt
- ¼ cup pecans, chopped
- 2 cups grated carrots
- 2 TBSP orange juice
- zest of one orange
- ¼ cup cream cheese
- Preheat the oven to 375
- Combine soy milk and vinegar, allow it to sit for 5 minutes
- Meanwhile, whisk together the oil, the ¼ cup sugar and the eggs.
- Add the vanilla, the orange zest and 1 TBSP of the orange juice.
- Pour in the sour soy milk.
- Add the flours, the baking soda and baking powder, the pie spice and the pinch of salt.
- Fold in the nuts and the carrots.
- Whisk together the cream cheese, the 2 tsp sugar and the remaining 1 TBSP orange juice.
- Scoop a scant ¼ cup into a prepared muffin tray. Add a small dollop of the cream cheese mixture to center of the muffins and bake for 22-25 minutes.
