Home comforts of GF bread on the road

I have been craving a bit of carbs lately and so have been digging up a few of my favourite recipes. This bread is so easy and delicious I thought I would share it again. Rather than inventing the wheel though I’m taking the easy way out and re-blogging my original post 🙂 The Gluten free flours can be changed up as you like too … I now use quinoa instead of chickpea flour in this recipe and it still tastes just as good. From August 2017, when we were still living on the bus rather than just holidaying in it ……

So, I know … it has been a while since I posted, longer than I planned anyway.  It seems that one down side to bus life in Winter is the reduced solar power we have.  My old laptop is the one thing on the bus that needs to be plugged into a regular (i.e. not solar) plug and sucks up the power fast which means that I either have to duck into the library to use it for any length of time or wait until a sunny day! Well here it is a sunny Sunday afternoon and I thought I would get onto a blog post at last.

Themselves in the bus … looking south to Oaro

We are just back from a quick overnighter down the coast.  It was only 30 mins away and yet with SH1 closed it was such an awesome break.  Parked up right on the beach without the hum of traffic made us all feel very spoilt and themselves spent hours on the rocky shore exploring and playing.  It is wonderful having our home with us where ever we travel and being able to have those home comforts too.  One home comfort I have been enjoying lately is some homemade Gluten Free bread (and toast).  The shop stuff is good but it usually comes a quite a price and invariably gives me a bad case of wind …. enough said!!

Slices so well and I even got an ‘It looks just like shop bread’ seal of approval comment.

Anyway … this recipe is one that I shared last year but if you are like me and completely forgot about it while basking in the Summer sun then here it is again.  Actually I have a lovely mum from one of Infant Massage Courses to thank for the reminder and I’m so glad she did.  This loaf recipe is super easy!!  It is my favourite kind of recipe in fact … the chuck it all in and bake kind ;).  I have changed it only a little since last time so as to accommodate my vegan child however you can’t really tell anything is different and it makes a fantastic loaf.  This GF loaf will last quite a few days in an airtight container, slices really well and can be frozen for toasting later.  I have to say, with many other recipes tried and tested, that this really is my favourite Gluten Free bread recipe. Hope you enjoy it too.

Gluten Free Bread

Makes 1 loaf

• 1 Tbsp Dried Yeast
• 2 Cups Warm Water
• 1 Cup Brown Rice Flour
• 1 Cup Buckwheat Flour
• 1 Cup Chickpea Flour
• 1/2 Cup Tapioca Flour
• 8 tsp black chia seeds
• 8 tsp boiling water
• Sprinkle of Salt
• 1/2 Cup Olive Oil

– In a large bowl whisk the water and yeast and leave for 10 minutes to activate.

– Add all dry ingredients apart from chia seeds and mix well

– Mix chia seeds and boiling water then add to bread mixture with the oil.

– Mix well and pour into a lined bread tin.

– Leave to rise for 10-15 mins.  It doesn’t rise much on baking so if you want a bigger loaf then leave it to rise longer before cooking.

– Bake at 170 C for 45 minutes.

-Enjoy!!

Hope this finds you happy, healthy and warm,  possibly enjoying some yummy GF toast 😉

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz

Banana & Walnut Bread

Without any face to face Infant Massage or Baby Reflexology courses lately there hasn’t been a pressing need for baking. The other month however, after herself baked and decorated yet another master piece, I felt like making something a little sweet for me too. That combined with all the rainy weather we have been having has sent me into the kitchen to create!

Cloudy skies that lighten for a bit before pouring with rain

The trouble is that so many things don’t agree with me that it can be hard to find something to hit the spot. Something vegan and gluten free was required. Combined with this I have been trying to have a better relationship with the food I’m putting in my body; being more mindful about what comes in, how often it comes in and how it impacts my health. There are definitely up and down days however on the whole I am feeling much better physically and mentally as a consequence. As part of that process I have been finding and using a lot more vegan recipe books from the library in a bid to nourish my body and of course find some new sweet treat recipes.

Although I have shared another Banana and Walnut Bread recipe a few years back, I really think this one is much better as it is a more flavoursome and denser. It is a super easy, fail safe recipe however in my usual style it is an adaption from the recipe I first saw, which was called Banana Bread, to suit both what I had in the cupboard and my own tastes. While I found the original recipe in ‘Vegan Intermittent Fasting’ by Dr Petra Bracht, which despite the name actually has a whole heap of delicious recipes, what follows is my adaption of it. The book is worth the purchase or at least getting it out of the library just for the nourishing recipes within!

Sliced up ready to enjoy

As with most of the bread recipes I use, I cut up the loaf on the first day and freeze the slices. Two slices per bag waiting to be toasted up and enjoyed at a later date. This recipe toasted up better than most and is so nice warm that I highly recommend using this option for yourself …. or enjoying it straight out of the oven! The recipe in ‘Vegan Intermittent Fasting’ used chocolate but as my body doesn’t like it very much, this was swapped out for walnuts. Not only because I love them but because of they are good for the brain and body. I also changed the flours to create a gluten free version using a combination of two gluten free flours. Completely omitting the sugar from the recipe created an even healthier sweet treat too.

• 2 Tbs coconut oil
• 3 ripe bananas (I often use frozen too)
• 100ml unsweetened soy milk
• 3 Tbs Almond Butter
• 1 Tbs Apple cider Vinegar – see here if you want to make you own for next time 🙂
• 150gm buckwheat flour
• 150gm rice flour
• 60gm chopped walnuts
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 1 Tbs baking powder

– Preheat the oven to 180°C

– Blend the first five (wet) ingredients together until smooth and well combined. I just have a hand blender that I use as everything fits in the large ‘cup/jug’ that comes with it

– Mix the last six (dry) ingredients in a bowl

– Combine the wet and the dry ingredients ensuring that you mix really well. There is a tendency for the walnuts to get a flour coating on them if everything is not blended well

– Pour the mixture into a baking paper lined load tin

– Bake for 1 hour or until golden brown.

– Remove from the oven, you should be able to easily lift the loaf out with the sides of the baking paper, and place on a cooling rack.

– Allow it to sit for at least 15 mins before slicing and enjoying with a cuppa 🙂

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz

Shortbread -Vegan style

I have posted this one before but though it is such a quick and easy make that it was worth sharing again ….. especially as I have just been baking it for an Infant Massage the other week.

This recipe comes from a great wee book we got when himself (then aged eight) decided that he wanted to become Vegan.  As I tend to feel better without gluten I was trying to find a way to still bake yummy treats without gluten, eggs or butter  being involved and began trawling the library for books.  Thankfully Jennifer Katzinger was a step ahead and had already written her book; Flying Apron’s Gluten Free and Vegan Baking Book.  It is a great ‘go to’ resource as it has a mix of sweet and savoury treats which have all been tested in her bakery.

As close as I get to homemade shortbread 🙂

The end result of the she calls Maple ‘Butter’ Bars is so like shortbread that I have just given it that name 🙂 It is a super quick, easy and very delicious recipe.  The only thing we have altered from her original recipe is to use coconut oil instead of palm oil.  I have noticed though that the quality of the coconut oil does change how it bakes in the oven so wanted to mention here that if you find you have coconut oil bubbling away on top of your shortbread as it bakes then fear not.  We have had this once or twice and simply pour a bit of the excess on top then return to the oven for a little extra baking with the same delicious results.

Scored into bite size pieces while it is still warm in the pan

We have also played around with the flour that we use over the years.  I love a mix of brown rice flour and buckwheat however the non-vegans on the bus prefer it when I use the Edmonds GF flour so I guess it is just personal taste for you and yours.  I have given the full recipe below however I usually just do a half recipe as it is very sweet and moreish.  I also cut them into bite size biscuits so that it goes a bit further. 

Vegan Shortbread

• 2 3/4 Cups GF flour (1 3/8 buckwheat and 1 3/8 rice, all rice or premixed works)
• 1 cup of coconut oil
• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

-Heat the coconut oil in a pot until it is just liquid then add the maple syrup in along with the vanilla essence and stir well

-Mix in the flour until it is well blended in.

-Spread the mixture into a baking paper lined tin.  Preferably a tin that you can open and slide the baking paper out of at the end. You want a layer about 1/2 to 1 cm thick.

-Bake at 190C for 30 mins or until the edges are golden and hardening a little.

-Remove from the oven and use a knife to ‘cut’ into small pieces.

-Slide the baking paper with the scored shortbread intact onto a cooling tray.

-Cool and enjoy.

Hope this finds you warm where ever you are 

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz