Ginger-Spiced Fruit Granola

I’ve seen other bloggy friends make their own granola.  I like crunchy cereal but there’s always the dreaded note in bold on the labels at the store: may contain traces of tree nuts.  A few times I thought I had found a pure and nut-free granola, take the box home and crack it open.  Taste a few clumps and feel a lingering numbness at the back of my throat.  It’s hopeless!

As part of feeding myself and the family better, I gave homemade granola a try.  This was the answer to my nut-free quest.

I took condensed milk as the binder as seen on A Recipe A Day’s blog when she made granola bars.  The only thing needed was a fresh bag of rolled oats.

Here’s what I tossed together and baked on a greased cookie sheet at 200 ºF for about an hour:

• rolled oats (not the instant oats)
• wheat bran
• dried cranberries dried with blueberry juice
• raisins
• dried apricot
• crystallized ginger
• sweetened condensed milk (about 1/2 can)

Chop the ginger and apricot in tiny pieces, leave the raisins and dried “blueberries” whole.  Keep adding a little milk at a time and mix it in, about half a can was enough for the amount of oats in the bowl.  Bake and toss every 30 minutes trying to keep some chunks whole.

Store in an airtight container, such as an empty mason jar.  I’m putting mine in the fridge to hopefully keep longer.

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Gluten-Free Blueberry Cupcakes

These were inspired by a winning recipe on Food52, Salvadoran Breakfast Cakes.  The original recipe was tested a while ago and I found it very greasy.  I played with the ingredients and found a good combination that is springy, moist, and now has blueberries added.  I love blueberries so it was inevitable they would make an appearance in these otherwise plain cupcakes.

• 1 1/4 cups rice flour (white or brown)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup salted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 8 ounce container of low-fat sour cream (1 cup)
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, washed and dried

 

Pre-heat the oven to 325ºF (dark metal pan) or 350ºF (light metal pan).

Sift or whisk the rice flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add the buttermilk, sour cream and lemon zest, beating well.

Fold in the blueberries.

Fill each cup of a metal muffin tin almost full of batter.

Bake for 25 – 28 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.  This batter is very moist so it’s hard to over bake these, the blueberries only add to the moisture factor.  Just keep an eye on them after the first 20 minutes.

 

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