PJ Breakfast: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

My friend Meredith, with her mom and sister, has started a pajama breakfast tradition when everyone gets home from college for christmas break. We all go over there, dressed in our pajamas and have a fabulous breakfast that her and her mom prepare. This year I wanted to be able to contribute, so I decide I would whip up some mini muffins to take with me. I am personally a huge fan of anything pumpkin flavored so I thought that would be a good place to start. And what's a better combination than pumpkin and chocolate? It's always a crowd pleaser.

Meredith also has the cutest 1 1/2 year old daughter and she guzzled down a few of these mini muffins before breakfast even started, so apparently I am not the only one who loves pumpkin and chocolate together.

These came out a little lumpy looking and pretty gooey but they are really tasty. And in addition to being gluten and dairy free, they are also refined sugar free so they do not spike your blood sugar and sustain you for longer. This makes them a healthier option without tasting healthy in the least.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

Ingredients

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1/2 cup almond flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1 teaspoon xanthum gum

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 (16oz) can unsweetened pumpkin puree

1 cup chocolate chips (I like enjoy life allergy-free chocolate chips because they are miniature so they distribute more evenly throughout the batter)

2/3 cup agave nectar

2 eggs

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line mini muffin pans with mini cupcake papers. I filled 48 mini muffin cups and had extra batter. (I am not sure how many muffins this actually makes because I ran out of muffin pans).

Sift together the three flours, xanthum gum, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Once sifted together, give the dry ingredients a quick whisk, to mix again.

Next, add in the pumpkin, eggs, agave nectar, and coconut oil and mix with a hand mixer or stand mixer. Then add in vanilla and mix again. Stir in chocolate chips by hand.

Use a spoon to fill each of the mini muffin cups with batter, almost to the top then bake for about 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out completely clean and the muffins are golden and lightly crusted on top.

Let cool completely before eating or transferring to another plate. In fact these muffins taste even better the next day because they become more muffin-consistency as they sit.

And here is a picture of my favorite slippers and the muffins ready to head out to the breakfast. Can just mention again how obsessed I am with this tradition? I wish I could wear pajamas everywhere.

PS: I think I have had a break-through about gluten free flours. In the past I have had issues with gluten-free baked goods tasting sort of metallicish (yep, I made a new word). After I did some research courtesy of google, I discovered that it is most likely bean flours that give this metallic taste. It also turns out that Bob's Red Mill all-purpose flour consists of bean flours. Don't get me wrong, those pre-made mixes are very convenient and I thank Bob's Red Mill for all of the flours that make for us gluten-free folk, but I am too sensitive to that metallic taste to keep using bean flours.

So, now I am into sorghum and almond flour. But of course, with gluten-free baking you pretty much always need to combine more than one flour, so thats how I decided to combine my new favorite flours with a starch to come up with my own baking mix for this recipe. I plan on testing out more mixes in the upcoming days so I will keep ya'll posted.

Back in Action

Dear Readers,

First of all, I am sorry it has been so long since my last post. As some of you know I was in Kenya most of the summer (which was incredible, by the way) then school started, which has proven to be my toughest semester yet. I took extra hours, got a new job, started a new editor position with our online newsmagazine and was training to be an aerobics instructor. Now that the semester is coming to a close, I am reader to start posting once again!

As I said two posts ago, I now no longer eat anything with gluten or dairy. Even though I still cook for my non-allergy friends and family, I do not want to recommend any recipes that I cannot personally recommend, so the recipes on this blog will almost entirely be gluten and dairy free but none less tasty.

I am also working on redesigning and editing, so it may change from time to time. And lastly, I have finally figured out more of the manual settings on my camera, so hopefully my photography has improved and will continue to improve.

To kick-start the restart to my blog I will pass on a recipe my mom and I made today from the Babycakes cookbook made by the owner of the famous New York bakery. It's a simple chocolate cookie but its so soft and delicious.

Babycakes Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup coconut oil

6 tablespoons unsweetened apple sauce

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups evaporated cane juice

2 cups Bob's Red Mills gluten-free all-purpose baking flour

1/4 cup flaxseed meal

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons xanthum gum

1 cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Now, take out two medium bowls. In the first bowl mix together the coconut oil, applesauce, salt, vanilla, and evaporated cane juice. In the other bowl, mix together the flour, flaxseed meal, baking soda, and xanthum gum.

Using a rubber spatula, gently mix the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until a grainy dough is formed. Next fold in the chocolate chips.

Using a spoon, place small balls of dough one inch apart on the baking sheets. Once dough is placed, gently press the dough down using the back of the spoon.

Bake the cookies on the center rack of the oven for 15 minutes. After 9 minutes, rotate the trays 180 degrees so that they bake evenly.

Lastly, let cool on the sheets for 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. You can store these in an airtight container for up to three days at room temperature.

Now all you have to do is enjoy and share! Trust me, if you don't tell anyone they are gluten -free and vegan then no one will ever know (my family didn't!).

4 (or 3) ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

It's no secret that I have a ridiculous sweet tooth or an even more ridiculous obsession with peanut butter. These cookies satisfy both. The only bad thing about them is I could eat them until I'm sick- not so good.

Peanut butter cookies have always reminded me of my friend Meredith because she would bring them to our Girl Scout Cookie Swap every year when we were younger. We re-found this recipe when she came over to bake cookies to ship to her friend for her birthday.

This is a perfect recipe for college students or young professionals, etc. with no time and an ill-equipped pantry. There are only 4 ingredients (1 being somewhat optional), take no time at all to prep and bake super quickly.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking soda (I have seen it done without this and apparently it still works, making it a 3 ingredient cookie)

Blend together the peanut butter and sugar. Add the baking soda and blend again. Add the egg and blend again. Now, roll the dough into balls about an inch in diameter. Place on a greased cookie sheet and press down with fork in a criss-cross pattern (press down one way then the other way perpendicular to those lines). Sprinkle each cookie with additional sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes or until the cookie is a little cracked and slightly golden. Let cool to harden. Be careful when removing the cookies from the baking sheet because they can be quite crumbly.

Another way to make these cookies, and the way Meredith always made them for our cookie swaps, is to roll the dough into balls and roll the balls into additional sugar. Place the dough balls onto a greased baking sheet and bake until they start to crack. Press an unwrapped Hershey's kiss into the center of each cookie. Place the cookies back in the oven for 1 more minute. Then remove and let cool completely.