One of the guys at D’s work is allergic to gluten, which presents a bit of a problem, as D. likes to bake for the people he works with. So, this is our first shot at revamping this favorite recipe, but using besam (chickpea) flour. Right at the end we realized that our golden flax seeds have run out, so had to use an egg instead of ground flax (making this merely vegetarian rather than vegan). Still – it’s a recipe we’ll tinker with, and it’s quite tasty for a first effort!
- 1 cup (2 small) zucchini, grated
- 1.5 cups besam (chickpea) flour
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1 cup granulated sugar, plus sugar for sprinkling
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup warm water
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp sweet spice blend
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Mix all the stuff together. *
- Spoon into a muffin tin.
- Sprinkle tops with granulated sugar.
- Bake for 25 minutes in a 170°C / 325°F oven, rotating once at 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool until you can get them to pop out of the muffin tin (10 minutes).
- Allow to cool thoroughly and eat slathered in butter or cream cheese.
Makes 18 small muffins. If you’re making larger muffins (or a loaf), increase baking time to maybe 30-35 minutes for the muffins and 50-55 for the loaf.
D. will be taking them into work tomorrow. We’ll let you know how they fare, but the couple that we sampled were quite delicious!
-D & T
*Note: We could give you instructions for creaming your sugar and oil (and hope that you will), but basically it doesn’t matter: there’s no gluten in this, so your dough won’t ever develop into more of a bread and less of a muffin or quick-bread. Stir it until you’re tired of stirring it (but don’t take too long, as the baking powder will start to react, giving you less rise in the oven).
They do look good and I have everything but canola oil 🙂
Well, it’d be rapeseed oil, this side of the pond.
Looks delicious! I’d like a taste right now.
I’m going to try this with a sweetener sub, because we are going lower carb these days and I am really missing baking!!
I’d recommend a mix of sugars, frankly – the chickpea flour tends to be a bit crumbly, more like a biscuit than you really want in a muffin. So, I’d throw in some honey (1 Tbsp) and some regular sugar (again, 1 Tbsp), because the combination of different sugars will make the muffin more chewy (the different sugars prevent each other from turning into crystals). Then I’d top up with whatever substitute sweetener you’re going for.
Chickpea is a low glycemic index carb in any event, so that should be helpful for you as well.
It was really interesting to eat these when hungry, and the blood sugar just does NOT jump up as it usually does when you’re hungry and have something sweet. It was really interesting!!