Gluten-free and tasty
They sound kind of ridiculous, I know, I know. I reported my progress on them, and was then a little embarrassed.
I was honestly not expecting much from these cupcakes; how does one have a cupcake without gluten forming the spongy backbone of it?
And the answer is, apparently, that you make do with a variety of other flours, all of which are readily available due to the existence of Bob’s Red Mill, a local milling company that is pretty much every kind of cool you can imagine.
Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
Ingredients:
1 cup soy milk
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cardamom
1 tablespoon instant coffee
Preheat the oven to 350 and line the tins.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the soy milk, canola oil, sugar and vanilla extract, and whisk enough to combine. The original instructions say to use an electric mixer, but we all know how I feel about electric mixers (not positively, and for absolutely no discernible reason), so I say use a whisk.
yeah, I know, looks gross.
Now, I almost attempted to sift all the flours together. Do not do this. The order in which you add the flours affects the texture of the cupcake, so add the tapioca and flax seed, and mix until the tapioca is dissolved and the mixture looks even.
woohoo
This was also the stage I added the instant coffee crystals and cardamom. After all that is mixed in, add the cocoa powder, white rice flour, quinoa flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Clockwise from left: cocoa powder, white rice flour, and quinoa flour
Mix for a long while. Since there is no gluten, we have no worries about over-mixing, but PLENTY of worries about getting an even suspension of all the weird flours we’re using to get the right texture.
The batter getting all mixed up
Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full. According to our cupcake oracles Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, these little cakes won’t rise as much as gluten-dependent cupcakes. This appears to be the case, since they were a little denser than the other cakes I’ve made from this book.
Anyhow, bake them for 20-23 minutes, and the normal rules of “cleanknifetoothpick” apply.
I decided not to frost them, because I didn’t feel like making very much frosting.
ta-da!
I think that when I make these again, I’ll want to replace some of the other flours with ground hazelnuts or almonds; while these cupcakes are good, I think they would really benefit from the texture that ground nuts seem to lend to cupcakes.
Mels
Gibbs
Alex
