Eggless, Gluten Free Baking (Low Carb)

Recently I have been trying to find recipes to add zucchini to, and this has lead me to some interesting experiments with eggless, low carb recipes which turn out to be accidentally gluten free. Perhaps eggless recipes need a cook book of their own. 


Since low carb is helpful to regulating my blood glucose, I have been trying to add more low carb recipes to my routine, as well as more vegetables. I don't count vegetables (especially the green ones) as carbs. But we're not here for a discussion about blood glucose, we are here for yum-ness! Or at least I am. I'll leave the diabetes lectures to the nurses and dietitians.


These recipes both turned out delicious, but it was the first time I tried either and I had to replace quite a few ingredients due to allergies. There are a few things I learned and things I plan to try out next time. The Almond Blueberry Pancake recipe does not currently have zucchini because Patch is not a big fan.  That said, she did love the Zucchini Brownies. They are going fast! You can make these without the xantham gum if you don't have any; I will be making a post entirely on xantham gum in the near future. Buying some is well worth your while if you plan to cook eggless and/or gluten free recipes, especially baking.


Some things I've learned along the way:
Brownies are pretty amazing no matter what you make them with
Zucchini, when cooked, actually helps create a flour like texture, especially if finely grated
Replacing eggs in recipes is tricky, but a little xantham gum goes a long way and replaces the stickiness of gluten in a recipe as well. 
Apple sauce may sweeten your recipe as well as replacing eggs and/or fat
Don't forget you may be adding liquid in some cases
< span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">The more eggs a recipe requires, the more difficult it is to replace them, and the more likely the recipe will be too watery.
Just adding flour may not be able to save some recipes,  but give it a shot in small amounts>
Gluten Free flours vary widely and even within the same type (almond flour for example) can vary in moisture content, texture, etc. This can be taken as a fun adventure, or an irritation. I choose the first but feel free to ignore my reality and substitute your own. 


Adding zucchini to recipes can add moisture. Try pressing them against a paper towel lined strainer to get rid of some of the water before adding them to a recipe or you may end up with a batch so watery it won't cook properly at all. This happened to me the first time I attempted zucchini pancakes, major fail. I will be trying them again in the future as well as sweet potato pancakes and a combination. When I get them perfected, I will share them here.

The following recipes were delicious and everyone who tried them is either lying to me or they liked them too. 

Zucchini Brownies
A friend recommended Fast Paleo Zucchini Brownies but they have some things I'm allergic to so I altered the recipe slightly. They smell delicious when baking and were no disappointment! We ate all but one before remembering to photograph them. Photo coming soon. These were a bit more oily than I'd prefer, and I didn't cook them quite enough, so those in the middle tasted a bit more like zucchini than those on the outer edges which people did not guess contained zucchini. The middle however, was moist and delicious. Next time I might add 5 minutes to the baking time.

Minutes to Prepare: 20

Minutes to Cook: 30- 45

Number of Servings: 16

Tips

If you do not have a small whisk you can use a fork to mix the xanthum gum and apple sauce. This is the egg replacer. If you want, you can put a dark chocolate chip in the center of each right after they come out of the oven. I was told to wait to cut these after they cool, but they cut just fine for me right out of the oven.

Ingredients

Almond Butter, 1 cup
Zucchini, 1.5 cup, grated 

Maple Syrup, .33 cup
Almond Extract, 1 teaspoon
Baking Soda, 1 teaspoon
Cinnamon, ground, 1 teaspoon
Allspice, .5 teaspoon
Dark Chocolate Chips, 1 cup

Directions

Preheat oven to 350


Using a small whisk, mix 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce with 1/4 teaspoon xantham gum. Add all other ingredients and mix together.


Pour batter into a 9x9 greased brownie pan


bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until you can prick it with a toothpick and it comes out clean






Serving Size: makes 16 brownies 2.25 inches square

Almond Blueberry Pancakes

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup almond flour  1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 

Other Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons almond butter
• 3/4 cup blueberries
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup coconut milk 
• 1 Tablespoon 100% Maple Syrup (or your other favorite liquid sweetener)

In addition:

2 tablespoons butter or oil for frying pan

Directions:Place non stick frying pan on medium-low heat.

Once well blended, mix in all other ingredients. (except  the milk & butter)

Add milk slowly until the consistency is that you would normally expect for pancakes

Lightly coat frying pan with butter (or oil if you prefer)

Spoon onto warm, buttered pan and cook slowly until underside is brown, flip and cook until both sides are nicely browned.
The tops of the pancakes will not bubble like normal pancakes, but may start to appear slightly cooked around the time they are ready to be flilpped.

Recipe makes approximately 12 small pancakes or 24 "silver dollar" pancakes

Tips:

• Be patient. If you cook slowly  as they cook the batter will puff up around the blueberries
• Almond flour is really almond meal and the pancakes made with them can be grainy
• For softer less grainy pancakes, try adding 1/2 a cup of rice flour (tapioca or brown rice) it will raise the carb count, so if that's a concern try a 1/2 cup sweet potato flour (changes flavor)
• For puffier pancakes, you can use sparkling water or mix some xantham gum or guar gum into the mix. I find mixing it into the flour before adding wet ingredients helpful. I don't like sparkling water because carbonation seems to trigger my migraines, so I tend to use xantham gum but more on that later.