Soft , slightly sweet, gluten-free, vegan apple gingerbread muffins. Warm from the oven as a breakfast, snack, or healthy dessert, these muffins will shock you not only by their deliciousness, but by their unique ingredients as well.
As I said yesterday, I am still truckin’ forward with everything Christmas. I was late to the game with being able to enjoy all things gingerbread and baking so I’m just getting around to it now (and living it up for sure!). I’ll be posting gingerbread stuff through the year. Why? Because I bet you’ll appreciate the festive flavor when you least expect it. It’s simply a cheery and joyful word, gingerbread. Just the sound of it puts a smile on my face.
I wasn’t going to post these today though. I had another killer recipe to share, but this post is part of a 3-part series and since gingerbread was involved, I decided to share it first to play along at least a little with the season! What is this “series” about you ask? How about flours that are grain-free? No, not nut flours or coconut flour or bean flours. I’m taking veggie and fruit flours! I am very honored to introduce you to Anti-Grain flours!
I recived samles of Anti-Grain’s apple, squash, and sweet potato flour back in September, but wasn’t able to properly try them out until I was home with a good kitchen! I was so excited to finally do some testing and I am very please with the yummy results! I have a recipe for each of the flours, starting with these muffins!
Anti-Grain started as a Kickstarter campaign and that’s how I found them. I then contacted Jerry (he and his wife founded the project) and asked about them. They happily sent me samples which was the nicest thing! I love Kickstarter campaigns and always find the coolest new foodie things like my beloved banana flour and coffee bars!
As I’ve been conversing with Jerry the last few months, he happily agreed to do a little Q and A for this post! I’m sure you’re curious about his project, I know I was! So now I would like to introduce you to Jerry…
Q1: Who are you and what is Anti-Grain Foods?
Anti-Grain Foods is a brand new company run by a soon-to-be husband and wife couple, Jerry & Amanda. By day, Jerry is an innovation consultant at a Boulder, CO agency that frequently works on product development projects with both natural food clients and major CPG companies. Amanda is currently pursuing her doctorate in Physical Therapy and was a former Microbiology Technician at a food plant. We both have a passion for wellness and believe that food is the largest component of living well. We started Anti-Grain after being frustrated that so many of the ‘solutions’ in the grain and gluten-free space have been achieved by taking things OUT of our food–including the parts that are good for us. We wanted products that fit into our lifestyle, that added both nutrition and flavor to our food, and could help us achieve better balance in the things we make and eat.
Q2: Why grain-free and how do you do it?
Cooking and especially Baking is something that brings people together. It’s something we do for others more so than we do ourselves. Anti-Grain is much more than just grain-free. We create products to be as inclusive as possible, so that when someone who is gluten-free sits in front of their birthday cake with their Paleo friend and their cousin with a nut allergy, everyone can enjoy the experience together.
Anti-Grain promises to provide the most vibrant alternatives for all types of grain-haters–with a strong belief that we all have a reason to hate grains. We started from scratch—with the flour—because we saw the potential to change the perception of flour altogether; to be less of a necessary evil, something to strictly hold flavors together, or as something to try to replicate the taste and texture of the all-purpose flour foods many of us grew up with; but as a flavor ingredient in its own right: something that can act as a contributing member of the flavor profile in modern home cooking and baking.
Q3: Are you testing other veggies and fruits to expand the line?
We experimented with all sorts of vegetables and fruits before arriving at our current 3 varieties and take tremendous pride in the end result. While we aren’t experimenting with any more varieties, we are continuing to improve the three we have: we will be introducing 1lb packages in mid 2015 and are finding ways to boost the macronutrient content of our flours (focusing on fiber and protein) without compromising our values of being single ingredient flours. Plus some super top secret stuff for down the line.
Q4: Where can I get my hands on some of these flours? Will they ever be in conventional grocery stores?
We will have our flours available for sale on our website, www.anti-grain.com, beginning in January 2015 and plan to make them available on Amazon shortly after that. While conventional grocery stores might be a long ways away, we do hope to enter a few natural stores in the Rocky mountain region in early 2015 to start.
Q5: What’s your favorite Anti-Grain recipe?
So far, my (Jerry’s) favorite are the Dark chocolate blondie bars made with squash flour and apple flour. They come out super chewy and satisfy every sweet craving. While Amanda LOVES the squash flour and chicharron encrusted chicken tenders—we probably make those every other week!
Q6: What was the biggest grain-free flop?
The first time we tried to make noodles using our sweet potato flour was quite a disaster. We made them a more traditional Italian style fashion and they looked like they were going to turn out great, until they hit the water that is and pretty much dissolved. We posted about it on our blog and were able to refine to them both durable and delicious!
Apple Gingerbread Muffins
Ingredients: (makes 8 medium muffins)
+ 3/4 Cup Oat Flour
+ 1/4 Cup Buckwheat Flour
+ 1/4 Cup Apple Flour
+ 1 Tsp Baking Soda
+ 1 Tsp Baking Powder
+ 1/2 Tsp Ginger
+ 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
+ 1/4 Tsp Cloves
+ 1/2 Tsp Pure Bourbon Vanilla Extract
+ 1/2 Cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce
+ 1 TB Blackstrap Molasses
+ 1/2 Cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
+ Sprinkle of Gluten-Free Rolled Oats (for topping, optional)
Directions:
+ Preheat oven to 350ºF.
+ In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients and whisk together. Then add the wet ingredients and whisk again until you get a thick and sticky batter.
+ Line a medium muffin tin with 8 liners. Scoop about 2 1/2 tablespoons of batter into each liner. Top each with a sprinkle of rolled oats if you wish.
+ Bake the muffins for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
O boy, these were good! My first taste of gingerbread of the season and with this new apple flour. Total winner! I can’t wait to share the two other recipes I have with Anti-Grain flours. One is completely “anti-grain” too, hi paleo people! So this foodie is giving Anti-Grain flours a two-thumbs up! So fun and creative!
So tell me:
+ Have you ever found any awesome Kickstarter campaigns?
+ What would you make with apple flour?
*Recipe linking up for the week! WIAW, Allergy Free Wednesdays, #RecipeFridays, #RecipeOfTheWeek, #StrangeButGood, Gluten-Free Wednesdays, Real Food Friday, Gluten-Free Fridays, Tasty Tuesdays, Savoring Saturdays, #WeekendBites, Real Food Recipe Roundup, Tasty Tuesdays, Lena’s Tasty Tuesdays!*
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