Gluten-Free and Full Baking with Candace

Baking is a hobby that has never really peaked my interest.  The last time I baked something that didn’t come out of a box, was when I was in college.  I attempted to make my Aunt Kay’s Homemade Biscuits, which I will never do again because I was sadly mistaken to think that I could actually recreate their delightfulness.  I had a few somewhat successful OK batches, but good batches started to elude me and I soon became defeated by the idea of ever being as good of a baker as my Aunt Kay...unless of course it comes out of a box.

In my quest to spend time with my friend Candace (who has a natural knack for cooking/baking), we decided we were going to spend the day Sunday baking sweet cupcakes and savory breads.  The whole idea came to fruition while I was on my juice fast.  You see, when you juice fruits and vegetables, you get loads and loads of YUMMY pulp that for the most part sadly gets thrown out. Ideally, I would compost all my pulp for my imaginary garden.

Anyway, we decided that we were going to put some of this pulp to good use and bake delicious treats for ourselves.

Measuring out Carrot Pulp and enjoying my juice! :)

Candace in her cute apron!

Oh, and how can I forget this little tidbit of information?  Not only did I take on the feat of baking from scratch with pulp, but for some crazy reason I decided I was going to make Gluten Free cupcakes and bread.  Upon my research of looking up recipes I found out that this would not be an easy task, since most recipes call for 3 or 4 different types of flour.  I didn’t even know there were as many types of flours as there are out there on the market these days.  I nearly gave up, but on one of my many weekly trips to Whole Foods I decided to scope out their baking section.  Not only are there tons of options, but some of the stuff was incredibly expensive.  I couldn’t justify spending $15 on a bag of Xanthan Gum when I only needed ½ teaspoon.  Crazy!  Lucky for me, this was only an experiment and I’m not Gluten intolerant.  While at WF’s I came across a Gluten Free premixed flour that is good for all types of baking…Thank You Namaste Foods for making my day of baking so much easier and far cheaper, had I bought everything separately.

Candace didn’t experiment with Gluten-Free like I did, because she is a Gluten Loving Soul (per her brother).  Take a glimpse at the yumminess that she made using Coconut Pulp (Why Candace?) for her Strawberry Coconut Cupcakes and Zucchini pulp for her Zucchini Bread that had Roasted Tomatoes & Feta in it.  Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of Candace's Bread, but DANG was it delectable.

Strawberry Coconut Cupcakes

I didn’t get her recipes before she left.  If you would like to have them, let me know and I’ll forward them along to you.

I chose to make Healthy Carrot Cupcakes using Carrot Pulp.  I didn’t use any pulp in my bread…slacker, I know.  My bread was a Rosemary and Olive Loaf.

Healthy Carrot Cupcakes drizzled with Local Honey

Olive Rosemary Bread

If you want any of the recipes, please contact me.

Enjoy,

Candice