Pumpkin Gingerbread

This recipe from Simply Recipes was the basis for the pumpkin gingerbread I made last weekend with a lot of changes to suit my preferences, the ingredients on hand, and my mistakes.  The result was a very dark, thin dry crust encasing a fabulously rich and moist center inside - almost chocolately, although there is no chocolate in pumpkin gingerbread.

• Instead of white flour, used a gluten-free baking mix
• Instead of 1/2 cup brown sugar, added an additional 1/2 cup mixture of blackstrap and Barbados molasses
• Instead of butter, used coconut oil
• Used 2 jumbo eggs and no water
• Used an unmeasured amount more of coconut oil and more gluten-free mix to fix the coconut oil error
• Added 1/4 tsp cardamon 
• Instead of a loaf pan, baked in an 8x8 pan
• Baked for only 40 minutes, not 45-60 minutes. 

When I checked at 40 minutes, the gingerbread was dramatically dark (due to the molasses) and toothpick clean (overcooked?  luckily no).  Any worry that I might have ovemixed the batter - due to forgetting to add the coconut oil until after I mixed the wet and dry ingredients, and then forgetting to measure the melted coconut oil (guestimating an extra Tbsp or two), and then having to mix in several tablespoons of flour incrementally to soak up the oil - proved to be unnecessary.  The additional coconut oil and flour was just right for the square pan.   

(Note to self: if a recipe is worth writing about, write it down the day you make it.)
(Another Note to self: if a recipe might be worth writing about, remember to take a picture before most of it has been eaten.)  

Since I made so many changes, I guess it really isn't the same recipe at all, thus my Fool-Proof Pumpkin Gingerbread Recipe below.  Any variations from liquid to dry sweetener, size of eggs, liquidness of the pumpkin puree can be adjusted by adding water (3T in the Simply Recipes recipe that used brown sugar and normal size eggs)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Grease 8x8 ceramic glass pan with coconut oil

1. Combine the 7 dry ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups (200 g) Gluten-free baking mix, plus about 1 -2 more Tbsp ??? ( or all-purpose flour) 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger 
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon 

2. Combine the 5 wet ingredients

• 1 cup (240 ml) pumpkin purée (roasted pie pumpkin- was very thick, but could also use canned) 
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted (plus 1 or 2 Tbsp)??? 
• 1 cup (240 ml) of mixed blackstrap and barbados molasses 
• 1 Tbsp finely grated fresh ginger 
• 2 Jumbo eggs, beaten 

3. Mix the dry mixture with the wet mixture

• Adjust as needed with flour or water 

4. Bake for approximately 40 minutes

• Check with toothpick at 35 minutes 
• Cool and then cut in small squares

Pumpkin Hummus and Paleo Pumpkin Bread

Sunday, October 21 and it is unseasonably frigid due to blustery winds and a high temperature of 40 degrees.  It took less than a minute outside to decide today would be an indoor day.  I ran back inside and decided it was good day to use up vegetables I had previously frozen, especially the bag of frozen  cooked mashed winter quash in 1 cup scoops from last winter.  It was either pie pumpkin or hubbard squash - one of the sweeter types of winter squash.

My first idea was to make pumpkin soup, but that is too easy and not very imaginative.  Instead, I made a paleo pumpkin bread and pumpkin hummus (no chickpeas).  As I type this post, I am eating the hummus with celery and the last orange pepper from the garden (with an apple cider and selzer drink).   The hummus is amazingly good.  If Phil doesn't get home soon, there will be none left for him.  The pumpkin bread will be paired with the jar of homemade pumpkin maple butter that Michelle brought last weekend.  I'll try to wait until tomorrow to try the pumpkin bread.  We'll see how that works out.

Pumpkin Hummus

• 3/4 cup cooked mashed pumpkin 
• 1 large garlic clove
• 2 TBSP tahini
• 2 TBSP fresh lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander
• scant 1/8 teaspoon cayenne 
• 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan or sea salt

Whirl all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.  Chill in fridge for about an hour for flavors to develop.  Serve with colored peppers, celery, and other crunchy vegetables, such as radishes and kohlrabi.  I ate it with celery and the last of an orange pepper. I think Phil will enjoy it with cauliflower florets and kohlrabi.

Paleo Pumpkin Bread

I looked at quite a few recipes on line and decided Dr. Axe's recipe made the most sense, although I added more baking soda and spices and also added chopped walnuts and raised oven temp to 350.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Use coconut oil to prepare loaf pan.

• 1 cup almond flour
• ¼ cup coconut flour
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda (I raised to 1 tsp)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (did not use, instead added 1/4 to 1/2  tsp each of ginger, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg)
• 3–4 eggs (I used 3 jumbo eggs)
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• ¾ cup pumpkin (mashed)
• ¼ cup melted coconut oil
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Combine first 6 dry ingredients in a small bowl.  (I sifted to get lumps out of almond flour)
2. In a larger bowl, whisk the eggs, then the maple syrup, then the pumpkin, and last the melted coconut oil.
3. Stir the dry mix into the wet mixture. Stir in walnuts.  Will look too wet but in a minute it will dry up.
4. Put mixture into loaf pan and bake 45-55 minutes. (At 45 minutes, it seemed cooked, but dented in the middle when pressed, so baked it another 7 minutes)

Inspiration: https://draxe.com/recipe/gluten-free-pumpkin-bread/

All Cornmeal Cornbread - gluten free

We accidentally have A LOT of organic cornmeal at the moment.  I made up this recipe tonight and it was so good, Phil said I should write it down so I can make it again.  See Update below, which was even better! 

Almost 2 cups of organic cornmeal

• 3 T almond flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t salt

• 1 egg
• 2 T melted coconut oil (I melted this in the pan, bad idea-it leaked)
• 2 T melted butter
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup low fat greek yogurt plain
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 2 T honey

Mix wet ingredients into dry mix.
Pour into greased dark grey cake pan with removable sides.
Bake in 400 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Update:  I made cornbread again last night without looking at this recipe.  I think it came out even better, with a real corn taste with coconut and butter flavors.  No need to add butter for serving!

MY BEST 100% CORNMEAL CORNBREAD (so far)

Preheat Oven to 450 degrees.  Use coconut oil to grease 9 inch round dark cake pan with removable sides.

Mix in small bowl:

• 2 cups organic cornmeal from Co-op (coarse)
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Mix in large bowl:

• 2 T melted coconut oil (melt in microwave 30 seconds)
• 1 T melted butter
• 2 T honey
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (the last of a container of low-fat greek yogurt is what I had on hand)
• 1.5 cups almond milk (plain)

Pour Dry mix into Wet mix.  It will seem way too liquify, but it is OK.  Let it sit for a few minutes before pouring into pan and baking.

Bake for 25 minutes.  I turned the oven temp down to 400 degrees when I put it in so the heat would not come back on.

Vegan Cornbread

I have finally created a cornbread recipe I like, by combining the best of two vegan cornbread recipes.    It was moist with great texture warm out of the oven. It was basically this vegan-cornbread from healthy family and home combined with the flax seed and water technique from vinogirl's vegan cornbread on food.com

• 6 T water 
• 2 T ground flax seed

1. Boil water in a small saucepan, add ground flax seed, and simmer 3 minutes. Remove from heat.

2. In medium bowl, combine and set aside:

• 2 cups cornmeal (non-GMO)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 T aluminum-free baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt (pink himalayan if you have it)

3. In another bowl, mix together:

• 1.75 cups almond milk
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
• 1/3 cup coconut oil (melted in the 8x8 pan while the oven is preheating).
• 2 T maple syrup or other sweetener

4. Add the flax seed mixture to the wet ingredients and then mix wet and dry ingredients together. Batter will be thick.

5. Transfer to 8 x 8 inch baking pan that has been slightly oiled from the coconut oil.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes.

Juicing and Recipes to use the Leftover Vegetable Pulp

The pulp from the first vegetable juicing this week went to feed the worms busily making compost. Tonight I decided to make something with the second batch of juice. Half a cup went into a millet and cherry tomato salad because I cooked 3 times as much millet as I needed the other day.  1.5 cups went into a quick bread recipe (which was not very good) First the juice recipe.

The basic Recipe for Beet/Carrot/Ginger Juice

1/4 bunch of fresh parsley (optional)
a few cups of kale, dandelion greens or stems, beet greens or stems (optional)
5 carrots
1 small - medium beet
3 -5 celery stalks
1 cucumber
1 apple, cored, medium
2 inches fresh ginger

This will produce 25-30 oz of juice.  Drink half right away, chill the rest and drink within 12 hours.
It also produces about 2 cups of vegetable pulp. I ran it through the food processor to smooth out some dandelion stems and it turned a beautiful red-purple color.

Not knowing what I was doing I made the first millet recipe I saw which called for cooking 2.5 cups of millet in 4 cups of chicken broth.  The recipe that said this would serve 6 produced 10 cups of millet!

After we each ate 1/2 cup of millet with olive oil, parsley, lemon juice and were not impressed, the rest went into the fridge and I did a little research about millet. 1 cup dry = 4 cups cooked which is still about 6 servings-millet is dense.  Fortunately there are lots of things to do with millet, if not vegetable pulp and millet.

Millet, Beet-Carrot Pulp, and Tomato Salad

• 3/4 cup leftover millet cooked in chicken broth with olive oil, lemon and parsley, cold
• 1/2 cup beet-carrot pulp leftover from juicing
• fresh parsley
• olive oil
• rice vinegar
• orange cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

This salad was much better than the original plain millet recipe with just olive oil, lemon, and parsley.  However, this is not something I would repeat again. One or two servings was good for a lifetime.  Same for the Quick Bread.  Vegetable pulp is really best served to the worms.

Beet-Carrot Pulp Quick Bread 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9" bread loaf pan.

In one bowl, combine

• 1.5 cups flour  (I used 1 c white whole wheat and 1/2 c white flour)
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 T flax seed flour (because I did not add any oil in next step. I did not add oil because I knew I would put butter on my slice!)

In another bowl, stir to combine

• 1/4 - 1/2 cup mashed banana (almost 1 whole banana) or similar amount of applesauce or oil
• 1/4 cup ginger sugar (or other sweetener, such as white or brown sugar, honey or agave or stevia blend)  Next time, add a little more sweetener, up to 1/2 cup.
• 2 T blackstrap molasses 
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1.5 cups vegetable pulp
• 1/4 cup coconut milk (or any milk type liquid)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or other nut)- add nuts after combining with the flour.

Stir the dry mix into the wet mix.  It will be thick, but a little more milk may be needed to get the flour to combine.  Stir in 1/2 cup chopped nuts. Bake 45 minutes or until done.

The molasses made it very dark, it would have been a prettier red color without the molasses, but blackstrap molasses has iron and other nutrients I wanted to include in the bread. The quick bread came out a little too "virtuous". It could benefit from a bit more sweetener. Although it was moist, it was a bit dense and has the texture that breads can have without oil or butter. On the other hand, because it isn't fabulously good, we won't be tempted to eat more than 1 slice at a time.

Inspirations for this recipe came from the NYTimes for the enormous amount of cooked millet, Erin at Plantoeat.com for ideas for using juicer pulp, especially her link to the whole-wheat-zucchini-or-carrot-bread receipe, and also to hillbillyhousewife for her pulp bread recipe that confirmed for me that I could  add milk and replace the oil with bananas.  I decided to also add flax seed flour to replace 1 T of oil.  It is my fault that I used less sweetener and than both these recipes and to use black strap molasses because I thought that since my pulp had sweetness from the carrots, beets, and apple, which a regular zucchini recipe would not have, that it would be sweet enough. It is not sweet at all, which is a good thing after all.

Sometime when I have pulp and have time, I want to make Genas Juice Pulp Crackers.  Although Gena used a dehydrator to make the crackers, at Plantoeat, she wrote that she uses her oven at the lowest possible setting for 12 hours to make them almost dry, then cuts them with kitchen shears, and then bake another hour or two until crispy. Change spices to suit preference.