Thursday, August 19, 2010

Something Worked!

Not a knitted creation but I just had to share!

It's been a bit of an ordeal trying to figure out how to make things for my youngest son to eat. For about the last 8 months we've been trying to adhere to a diet that eliminates (for the most part) everything he enjoys due to food intolerance issues.
Dairy, wheat, gluten, eggs, citrus - the poor kid!

In any case, I have done lots more cooking from scratch than I have ever done before in my life being the lazy, take-out kind of girl that I am. There have been a few successful creations that are "Drew-safe" and acceptable to the rest of the family. There have been far more unsuccessful creations - mushy pancakes, dense like a paper weight scones, adzuki bean ice-cream, mustard green smoothies...Needless to say I have ended up eating lots of interesting things that everyone else (not so) politely declined.

But this is my greatest gluten, egg, dairy free creation to date. A trip to the local farmer's market scored us lots of yummy, fresh, green goodness including these substantial fellows


And though I am happy to eat zucchini raw or grilled or lightly sauteed with onions, there are others in the household who would rather eat a plastic bag than deal with this mild-mannered squash in it's most natural preparations. So of course we move on to the zucchini bread.

So out came the food processor, in went the zucchini and out came oodles of grated goodness. (3 cups for the bread, 2 large tupperwarefuls in the fridge, and a bag in the freezer).

The bread looks and tastes wonderful, and I'm just happy that my youngest can enjoy this along with the other kids instead of having to eat his "special" treats while they dig in to their own yummies.

Here's the recipe - mainly for me to be able to look back and see what I did, because that is another problem I've had - not writing down the recipes for the few successful experiments in the kitchen! Feel free to try it out, but remember this is a KNITTING blog - I am no culinary expert and will take credit for only my own FAILS in the kitchen!

Gluten, Egg, Dairy free Zucchini Bread

2 cups rice flour
1 cup tapioca flour
1 tsp. each - salt, baking soda, baking powder
3/4 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsps. ground cinnamon

1 cup vegetable oil (you could probably do 3/4 cup and be fine)
2 cups white sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. ground flax mixed with 6 Tbsp. of water (acts like eggs)
1/4 cup apple butter (because I had it in the house - applesauce would be fine)
2-3 cups grated zucchini


Directions:
1. Grease 1 Bundt pan (or 2 loaf pans) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Mix flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat flax mixture, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini until well combined. Pour batter into bundt pan.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and cool completely.



At long last we have a winner!

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