Yes, more experimenting with vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar free baking courtesy of the Babycakes NYC cookbook. I’ve made a few things from here that have been blogged about here, here, and here with pretty good success. If my often carnivorous/dairy loving heart can be transformed than this stuff must [...]]]>

Yes, more experimenting with vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar free baking courtesy of the Babycakes NYC cookbook. I’ve made a few things from here that have been blogged about here, here, and here with pretty good success. If my often carnivorous/dairy loving heart can be transformed than this stuff must be good.

When you check out the cookbook you will see a photo for these teacakes and you will likely melt.  The photo is gorgeous and made me want to devour the teacake.  It’s something about the schmear of jam on the teacake that really sealed the deal for me.

I had stocked my pantry a few weeks ago with pretty much all ingredients needed to make things out of this cookbook so I didn’t really have to buy anything to make this recipe except for lemon extract.  The only change I made was using almond milk instead of rice milk… big whoop!

The results were pretty good.  I used Clubhouse lemon extract and I think it may have given the loaf a bit of an “off” taste… it didn’t ruin the loaf but it didn’t feel like true lemon flavour.  I also thought there were entirely too many poppy seeds!  I ate this with my Christine Ferber black cherry jam from France and was a VERY happy camper.

Overall, another good Babycakes recipe.

Lemon Poppy Teacake

2/3 cup rice milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1?4 cup poppy seeds
3/4 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking Flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut oil, plus more for pan
3/4 cups agave nectar
1/3 cup applesauce
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons pure lemon extract
1 tablespoon lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease a 7 × 4 × 3-inch loaf pan with oil.

Pour the rice milk, apple cider vinegar, and poppy seeds into a small bowl – but do not stir – and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt. Add the oil, agave nectar, applesauce, vanilla, and lemon to the dry ingredients and stir until the batter is smooth. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the poppy seed mixture into the batter, and combine just until all ingredients are blended. The batter will expand slightly.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake on the center rack for 35 minutes, rotating the pan 180 degrees after 18 minutes. The teacake will be golden brown and springy, and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean.

Let the teacake stand in the pan for 20 minutes, then gently run a knife around the edge of the bread. Cover the top of the pan with a cutting board, and invert onto the board. Carefully lift the pan away and re-invert the teacake onto another cutting board. Either cut and serve warm, or wait until it is completely cool before storing. Cover the uncut teacake with plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

(From Babycakes NYC)

So I’ve blogged about the bakery Babycakes NYC a few times like here and here. I love the bakery and was thrilled when the cookbook came out.  I don’t need vegan or gluten-free treats but I like the idea of experimenting with alternative forms of baking.  I recently bought a [...]]]>

So I’ve blogged about the bakery Babycakes NYC a few times like here and here. I love the bakery and was thrilled when the cookbook came out.  I don’t need vegan or gluten-free treats but I like the idea of experimenting with alternative forms of baking.  I recently bought a mini-muffin tin in order to bake mini cupcakes for a work party and  of course have been looking for opportunities to use it again.

Finding the ingredients wasn’t difficult.  My local health food store had everything. But alas I like to buy things in bulk so I headed to my beloved Bulk Barn to secure the various types of flours. I like buying in bulk because it makes these types of recipes more accessible.  A lot of these ingredients can cost about $8 per bag but if I buy in bulk I can buy just what I need for maybe $2.

I was pretty strict about following this recipe because I figured the slightest deviations could really screw things up.  The bulk store didn’t have the garbanzo/fava flour but they did have garbanzo flour and romano bean flour.  So I bought a bit of each and mixed them together!  This was before I remembered that I could have subbed in rice flour in the recipe.  I also used brewed coffee instead of water in the recipe.

The verdict: not bad!

Were these the best brownies ever? No, I really think a brownie benefits from butter like this recipe from the always buttery Ina Garten aka Barefoot Contessa.  They were definitely as good as your average good brownie though!  They were pretty reminiscent of those two-bite brownies everyone makes just less gooey.  Would I make them again? If I had the ingredients to use up, sure.  They are definitely a good substitute for traditional brownies if you’re avoiding gluten, dairy etc.

Babycakes Brownies

Ingredients

Makes about 5 dozen mini brownies.

• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted, plus more for pans
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons garbanzo and fava bean flour
• 1/4 cup potato starch
• 2 tablespoons arrowroot
• 1 cup unrefined sugar or 10 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons agave nectar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup store-bought unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup brewed coffee or hot water
• 2 cups vegan gluten-free chocolate chips, such as Tropical Source

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Brush 3 dozen mini-muffin pans with oil; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, potato starch, arrowroot, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, and unsweetened cocoa powder; set aside. In a large bowl, mix together applesauce, 1/2 cup coconut oil, and vanilla. Slowly add flour mixture, stirring to combine. Stir in coffee until it forms a batter. Fold in chocolate chips.
3. Place 1 tablespoon batter into each prepared muffin cup. Transfer muffin pans to oven, and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack before unmolding.

(Recipe from BabyCakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York’s Most Talked-About Bakery by Erin McKenna)

Babycakes NYC is one of my favourite bakeries. They make a variety of allergen-free baked goods. We’re talking vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free etc. While I don’t have problems with these ingredients I like the idea of “safe” foods. Babycakes wasn’t a regular stop for me while in NYC but every once in a [...]]]>

Babycakes NYC is one of my favourite bakeries. They make a variety of allergen-free baked goods. We’re talking vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free etc. While I don’t have problems with these ingredients I like the idea of “safe” foods. Babycakes wasn’t a regular stop for me while in NYC but every once in a while I’d pop in for a snack. I love the cupcake tops and the chocolate chip cookies. Can I get a yum yum?

Toronto definitely lacks this type of bakery so I was totally pumped when I saw that Babycakes was finally release their own cookbook! I mean, what took them so long?  I was up one night ordering my latest bookclub selection from Amazon and as usual I got sucked into the spend $39 and get free shipping deal so I ordered the Babycakes book and a DVD of The Devil Wears Prada.

I digress…

I’ve been pouring over the cookbook for a few days and decided to start with something simple – scones!  The ingredient list is short and uncomplicated.  The hardest to find items are spelt flour and coconut oil but even those aren’t hard to find.  I’m lucky enough to have a great (and cheap) bulk store in Toronto called Bulk Barn and they are a great place to get alternative ingredients for cheap.  We’re talking everything from spelt flour to coconut flour! Amaranath and Quinoa.

I was originally going to make these with raspberries but the supermarket was sold out of raspberries so I went with blueberries instead.  The recipe uses coconut oil but I used canola instead.  I also sprinkled the tops of my scones with evaporated cane sugar.

They turned out great.  They were lighter than scones but that doesn’t bother me.  I’ve been having them for breakfast with some fruit.  I can’t wait to cook my way through this book.

The ladies at Babycakes have put up answers to FAQ about their cookbook here. Super helpful!

Check out what others have to say…
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Raspberry (or Blueberry!) Scones

Preheat the oven to 375°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl, whisk the spelt with the baking powder and salt. Stir in the oil, agave nectar and vanilla. Stir in the hot water, then the raspberries.

Scoop 12 mounds of batter ? cup each onto the prepared baking sheet and lightly brush the tops with oil. Bake the scones for 20 minutes, or until golden. Let the baking sheet cool completely on top of a rack.

(From Babycakes NYC cookbook)