Savory n' Sweet

Welcome to the Soul Doors kitchen! Surprise! Creating in the kitchen is one of my favorite things to do. This is the first of what will be occasional recipe posts under the heading of Savory n' Sweet.  I hope you’ll enjoy these favorite recipes that feel to me like a natural fit in Savor the Sweetness.
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First some background. I love to bake! Mixing together a variety of dry and liquid ingredients, scooping or pouring the resulting batter into a pleasing shape, then placing it into the alchemical magic of a hot oven and watching it transform to a golden-domed, fragrant delight, is a never-ending source of inspiration to me. Even better is creating my own recipes based on the proper proportions of flours, leaveners, binders, sweeteners, and liquids. Best of all, is creating delicious, nutritious recipes, gluten-free, no refined sugars, high protein and lots of hidden vegetables!

I’ll share a little story. A number of years ago I received strong inner guidance that wheat was not good for me. Though I had no physical symptoms I reluctantly followed that guidance and discovered that the gluten-free breads and muffins available at the market were more like eating cardboard than bread. It was disheartening for a gal who adored her dense and flavorful home-baked whole grain bread. So, I set out to bake dense and flavorful whole grain gluten-free bread.

Many, many failures later I discovered a recipe on-line that I could recreate into the loaf of bread I had been craving. (I’ll share this recipe in a future post.) I was launched into the creative world of gluten-free flours and recipe tinkering. I never regretted giving up wheat because I had such fun researching, learning and experimenting, and I was delighted to find that the anxiety I’d carried around with me for most of my life disappeared. Apparently something in the wheat was causing me to feel anxious. Who knew?

Fast forward several years and I welcomed three grandchildren into my life. One grandchild in particular had numbers of food sensitivities as well as an aversion to eating meat, most vegetables and many fruits. If it didn’t look like bread, crackers or pasta, he wasn’t eating it. I was concerned for his protein intake, as well as the vitamins and minerals he should be getting from fruits and vegetables. Loving a baking challenge, I set out to create muffins (a form of food he would eat) that were high in protein, had vitamins and minerals from hidden vegetables, had no refined sugars and tasted sweet and delicious.  Easy right?
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Um, not so much. But lots of enjoyable experimentation later I hit upon a recipe that checks all the boxes. I’m delighted now to be able to share with you this recipe for Pumpkin Spice Muffins. 

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

 Dry ingredients:
2 cups/200 grams almond flour
1  1/4 cups /125 grams oat flour (made from gluten-free oats if desired)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1  1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4-1/2 teaspoon allspice (depending upon how much you like)

​Wet ingredients:
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups/300 grams pumpkin or winter squash puree
2 tablespoons molasses
4 tablespoons agave nectar
2 tablespoons honey
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12 muffin pan with cupcake liners, or spray with non-stick baking spray.

2. Stir together the dry ingredients in a large mixer bowl. Set aside.

3. Whisk together the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.

4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix thoroughly, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally.

5. Using an ice-cream scoop or large spoon, divide batter evenly among the muffin cups.

6. Bake in pre-heated oven for 25 minutes.  For a special treat serve with Cinnamon Spiced Cream Cheese Topping.

Cinnamon Spiced Cream Cheese Topping
Whip together until smooth, an 8 ounce package of cream cheese that has been softened at room temperature, 3 tablespoons agave nectar, 1 tablespoon milk or cream, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

Spoon into a plastic bag and snip off one corner. Use this to pipe topping in a pretty, serpentine or grid pattern on the top of cooled pumpkin muffins.