What could possibly be better to start off the blog than Chocolate Cupcakes?
I looked at several recipes before deciding how I was going to make mine and what I was going to sub-out and into my recipe. Here's what I came up with and it turned out so yummy!
Ingredients:
1 cup Kamut Flour
1/3 cup Coconut Flour
1 &1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 & 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
2 Tsp Salt
3/4 Cup Coconut Sugar, packed
1/4 Cup Beet Sugar
1/4 Cup Pear Sauce (or you can use apple sauce - I used pear to lower
salicylates)
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
2/3 Cup Goat's Milk
1/3 Cup water
1/2 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
Seems like a lot but bear with me here - it's worth it!!!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pan with liners (I used un-bleached ones).
Bring water and milk to a boil in a small sauce pan. When it's boiling turn off heat and mix in cocoa powder. Let cool.
In large bowl mix the dry ingredients (flours, baking soda, baking powder, sugars, salt)
In a small bowl mix pear (or apple) sauce, eggs, oil & vanilla.
Blend ingredients from smaller bowl into large bowl. Then mix in the chocolate/milk mix.
Fill cupcakes 3/4 full and bake at 350 degrees for roughly 10-15 minutes - (ovens vary - just watch 'til you think they're done then do the "toothpick" test).
I also made Chocolate Gnoche Frosting!
Ingredients:
4oz unsweetened chocolate
Your choice sweetener(s) to your taste:
I used: 1/4 cup beet sugar
1/4 cup date sugar
1&1/2 cup coconut sugar
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons pear juice concentrate
1&1/2 cups goat's milk
1 cup coconut milk
Sweeten (put in same bowl as chocolate) with your choice of sweetener(s). You can use less or more - to your taste. What I made turned out semi-sweet.
Pour boiling milk into bowl and mix. Let it cool - I put mine in the fridge for awhile.
You can either put it as "icing" over the cupcakes or whip it up as "frosting" on them.
Note: I found that the taste was too strong/dark and not sweet enough but if you mix in more sweetener it doesn't mix well unless you boil more milk and pour in on top of the additional sweetener and mixture. Adding more milk will also help you achieve a more mild chocolate. Once cooled I added a small carton of whipping creme and whipped up the frosting (obviously NOT casein-free) - and couldn't find my cake decorating supplies so just cut a hole in a sandwich bag to pipe the frosting and make it look neat. My kids ate it up!
GFCF NOTES: To make either of these casein (dairy) free just sub coconut or some other non-dairy "milk" instead of the goat's milk I have on my ingredient list. I haven't tried it that way but I assume it would come out pretty good.
To make the cupcakes gluten-free -
Kamut flour is not gluten free but is supposed to contain a unique form of gluten that is supposed to be easier to digest. You can read more about this grain
here. I LOVE how the Kamut flour mixed with the coconut flour has made these turn out! If you cannot have ANY gluten in the recipe then I suggest subbing for a gluten-free flour. The coconut flour is gluten free.
Sugar notes: I did use some beet sugar, which is a refined sugar - not the healthiest thing but I'm making cupcakes here and can't use cane sugar so I'm seeing if the beet sugar has the same effect (negative, sensitivity) or not and was careful to use a smaller amount of it and use mostly other sugars/sweeteners. I'm sure you can sub out the beet sugar for more coconut sugar or pear juice concentrate or something.
