Refined Sugar-Free Apple Fritters

I have a pretty fantastic Apple Fritter recipe, but I've been trying to limit my refined sugar intake...and these would just be an overload, and my digestive system would not enjoy that.  So, I made some the other night minus the white sugar and they were pretty good.  I glazed them with a homemade powdered coconut sugar glaze, but really they didn't even need it, they were sweet enough without.

This post is featured on Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Allergy Free Wednesdays and Whole Food Fridays.

Refined Sugar-Free Apple Fritters
Fritter:
1 cup gluten free flour blend
2 tablespoons coconut sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup So Delicious Coconut milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup chopped apple
canola oil or unrefined coconut oil for frying

Glaze:
1 cups powdered coconut sugar*
2 T So Delicious Coconut milk


Directions:  

Combine flour, coconut sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon.  Stir in milk, egg and honey until smooth.  Fold in apple. 

Heat oil on medium high.  If you are using coconut oil, make sure it doesn't get above 350F (that's the smoke point of the oil). Oil is ready when dough floats to top.  Carefully add dough to oil in heaping teaspoons.  Cook until brown, about 1-2 minutes, then flip.  Cook another 1-2 minutes, until both sides are browned.  Transfer briefly to paper towels to absorb excess oil, then transfer to cooling rack. 

Make glaze by stirring milk and powdered sugar together in a small bowl.  Dip warm donuts into glaze, and let set on a cooling rack (make sure paper towels are under the rack to catch the excess glaze).  Once set, dip the other side into the glaze and let set again.  Best served warm.

*To make homemade powdered sugar: blend together 1 cup coconut sugar and 1 tablespoon tapioca starch on high in a high powered blender (like a blendtec) for ~30 seconds.  This will make lots of dust, so let it settle for a few minutes before opening it up.

A to Z Muffins

I love zucchini bread (and muffins), but if I say the word zucchini my boys are automatically turned off to the idea of eating it. I still don't think they've knowingly eaten zucchini, I still try all the time, though.  Anyway, I wanted to make myself some zucchini muffins and decided to try subbing some fruits in place of the oil and it worked wonderfully.  I'm calling these A to Z muffins, in hopes that my boys will eat them, because I know if I called them Apple-Avocado-Zucchini Muffins they would end up in the trash. ;)  The applesauce and avocado worked great as an oil substitute, I even decreased the amount of sugar by half because of the natural sweetness the applesauce has. Yay, for healthy AND tasty muffins!

A to Z Muffins
1 1/2 cups GF flour blend
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/4 cup mashed avocado (make it as smooth as possible)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.  Line muffin tins with paper liners.

In a medium bowl combine the flour blend, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl combine eggs, sugar, zucchini, avocado, and applesauce. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix to combine.

Fill muffin cups to 3/4 full and cook at 350F for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins.

Apple Fritters

I know I was feeling better today when I woke up and thought, "I want apple fritters!"...and then proceeded to make them!  I adapted this recipe, and also put down directions for baking, if you want to do that instead.  Also, you can leave the apples out and it turns out just fine, the only reason I know this is because of my older son.  He took a bite of a fritter and said "Wow, Mom these are good except for these little yellow-green things...can you make these without those?"  I should have said no, eat your apples!  But, I was wanting to experiment with baking the batter....so, I made another batch.  And yes, these are so good you will make yourself sick on eating them, so hopefully you have more self control than I do. :)

Apple Fritters

Fritter:
1 cup gluten free flour blend
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup So Delicious Coconut milk
1 egg
1 cup chopped apple
canola oil

Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
3-4 T So Delicious Coconut milk


Directions:  

Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon.  Stir in milk and egg until just combined.  Fold in apple.  Heat oil on medium high.  Oil is ready when dough floats to top.  Carefully add dough to oil in heaping teaspoons.  Cook until brown, about 1-2 minutes, then flip.  Cook another 1-2 minutes, until both sides are browned.  Transfer briefly to paper towels to absorb excess oil, then transfer to cooling rack.  Make glaze by stirring milk and powdered sugar together in a small bowl.  Dip warm donuts into glaze, and let set on a cooling rack (make sure paper towels are under the rack to catch the excess glaze).  Once set, dip the other side into the glaze and let set again.  Best served warm, but they were still good tonight when I ate some for dessert. :)

Baking directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease donut pans and set aside.  Make batter same as above (of course you can omit apples if you want more of a regular cake donut). Fill each donut half full.  Cook for ~15 minutes.  Cool on cooling rack until able to handle, then dip tops in glaze and let set.

Caramel Apple Pie

Yes, it's gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free...and yes it has caramel! :) I found the recipe here, and it looked incredible.  Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm too lazy to make pies, that's why we have crisps in my house...but I really wanted to try this pie and try out the pie crust from "Cooking for Isaiah", so Sunday night is the perfect time to test it out.

Ingredients

1 recipe gluten free pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
1/2 cup soy-free margarine
3 tablespoons gluten free flour (I used my 'Silvana's all-purpose flour blend')
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
7 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced ( actually only had 5 granny smiths, so I threw 2 fuji apples in there)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the margarine in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
2. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work of crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft. 

Note:  For those of you that are dairy and/or soy free, this caramel sauce is also fantastic for your dairy free ice cream and for dipping apples. :) 

The pie crust turned out decent, considering I don't do pie crusts. :)  It probably would taste better with a white or sweet rice flour, but I used a blend with brown rice.  It still worked, and I ate way too much, so no complaints here.  Once again, I would recommend getting "Cooking for Isaiah", it has the pie crust recipe in it, along with other fantastic recipes. :)