We’ve been getting a lot of acorn squash in our farm box. I used to love plain mashed acorn squash, but now prefer it in baked goods for its sweet and delicate flavor. I roasted the acorn squash at 400°F in my halogen oven and scooped out the insides to use as puree in baking, and ended up with about 4 … Read more
As long as zucchini keeps fruiting, I’ll keep making zucchini muffins. This week I decided to make a not-gluten-free version of chocolate zucchini muffins. It has whole wheat, plus a little almond flour for richness. Notes: If you love almonds, you can increase the almond flour to ½ cup if you like, in which case you should reduce the whole wheat flour or … Read more
We still have a glut of zucchinis. By the end of the summer, I’ll have figured out a dozen variations on zucchini muffins. Heck, maybe I’ll even try putting summer squash in cookies. These muffins are moist, fudgy and extremely chocolatey. The lack of gluten makes them a little more delicate than a grain-based muffin. Enjoy! Supplies measuring cups … Read more
It’s that time of year when summer squashes become almost perverse in the profligacy of their fruit production. Those who are usually glad to benefit from summer’s bounty mysteriously disappear when they see a gardening neighbor come down the walk with a box full of zucchini. Farmers can barely give the things away – really. Each week when we go to pick up … Read more
I wasn’t sure what kind of muffins to make today, so I looked in my fridge for inspiration. The jar of sour beets caught my attention. I texted my sister and told her I was thinking about making beet muffins. She texted back, “That sounds kind of gross. But good luck anyway!” She’s right. It does sound kind of gross. But it’s … Read more
The weather hasn’t cooled, so I’m still finding myself unable to eat all the bananas in the fruit bowl before they start turning too ripe to eat. (It doesn’t help that I consider any banana with no green on the skin “too ripe.”) Well, it’s time for more banana muffins! Just to keep some sort of variety in my life, I decided to make this … Read more
Now that it’s getting warmer, bananas and avocados ripen a lot faster on the counter than they did in the winter. They over-ripen a lot faster, too. Over the weekend, I found myself with a glut of avocados and bananas that were too ripe for my taste, but still edible. How could I use them up fast? I decided to make … Read more
I had a bunch of odds and ends in my fridge: an overripe avocado, half a banana, a spot of applesauce, some leftover millet and a bit of whey from making Greek yogurt. What could I make that used all of them? Muffins, of course! Avocados are a great source of beneficial fats, including anti-inflammatory phytosterols and oleic acid, similar to the … Read more
I finally found a way to cook with coconut flour that doesn’t require using a million eggs! The trick is to use psyllium husks – yup, the stuff in Metamucil. When you combine psyllium with a little liquid and allow it to sit, you get a thick goop. Including it in grain-free baked goods adds excellent structure and holding power to the final product. If … Read more
I’ve got nothing against wheat, but it’s fun to mix things up a little. I found some coconut flour at Trader Joe’s and have been playing around with different recipes that use it. Coconut flour can’t be substituted one-to-one for wheat flour; it expands a lot when mixed with liquid, so you generally need to use less coconut flour than you … Read more