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Wheat Free, Gluten Free Chocolate Muffins That Taste Like Dessert

My recipe, which I invented yesterday inspired by the Gluten Free Goddess’ Chocolate Muffin recipe is below. My husband is allergic to wheat, and I’ve been learning how to bake gluten free things that actually taste good. It’s harder than it sounds, and you need an arsenal of flours to do it. However, once you get a good non-wheat flour mix down, you can really make some tasty baked goods. Some I even prefer to regular wheat containing baked goods because they  have a superior texture & don’t get gummy the next day.

The secret to the recipe below is that you need superfine Brown Rice Flour. Right now, it’s only available from Authentic Foods & it’s expensive to buy and ship. (But worth it if you can’t have wheat flour because the texture is far superior to the coarser ground stuff available in your local store.) Luckily Authentic Foods distributes through Amazon, so you can get it that way if you prefer.

If you have access to a super fast blender like a Vita Mix (my regular blender doesn’t cut it) you can blend regular brown rice flour into super fine rice flour in no time. Thanks Mom, for letting me use your Vita Mix!

1 1/2 C. Superfine Brown Rice Flour Mix*

1/2 C. cocoa powder

1 C. sugar

1 T. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

3/4 t. xanthan gum

1/4 t. salt

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. nutmeg

1/2 C. canola oil

1/2 C milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Whisk all dry ingredients until well combined. Stir in wet ingredients, scraping down sides of the bowl as necessary.

Fill 12 muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake in preheated oven for 18-13 minutes. (It took me 21.)

Enjoy!

* This mix is from the book  Gluten-Free Baking Classics by Annelise Roberts. I highly recommend this book and use it all the time. Great baked goods from pound cake to cupcakes to pizza crust and sandwich bread. You can buy the mix from Authentic Foods or mix it yourself:

2 parts – Authentic Foods Brown Rice Flour Superfine (2 C.)

2/3 part – potato starch (2/3 C.)

1/3 part – tapioca flour (1/3 C.)

little Miss Margaret!

Miss Margaret is my latest pattern. She was released yesterday for Three Irish Girls’ Sock Yarnista club. She’ll be available for purchase for non-club members shortly at Three Irish Girls.

She is a cuff down sock with an easy to remember spiral stitch pattern. I’ve added beads for a little “bling” but she’s just as pretty without. The spiral pattern melts into a cabled heel flap and is framed by prettily cabled gussets for a great fit.

The pink sample is shown in Scarlett O’Hara by Yarn Love, colorway: Petal.

Intermediate difficulty: pattern assumes familiarity with cables and charts. Bead work is done using a small crochet hook, so you don’t have to pre-string the beads.

Materials:
• 4 oz/410 yards fingering weight yarn. Shown in Yarn Love’s Scarlett O’ Hara. Color – Petal.
• US size1 or 2.25 mm needles (2 circulars, 5 DPNS or 1 long circular for magic loop.)
• Taspestry needle
• Stitch markers (optional)

Extra notions:
• Small gauge steel crochet hook – size 14
• Seed beads size 6 or 8 (You will need 60-80 per sock depending upon how long you knit the cuff.)
• 2 small cable needles (You may cable without cable needles if you prefer.)

Techniques:
• Beading (explained in the pattern)
• Cables
• Short rows

Notes:
• The heel flap, gusset, and instep st patterns are given as charts only for clarity.
• You may pre-string the beads if you prefer.

Fiddlehead Mittens

I actually don’t know exactly what these mittens are up to now. They were for a swap partner, and I hope she is getting lots of use out of them!

I knit them from the Fiddlehead Mitten pattern. The yarn is Andee dk from Henry’s Attic, that I hand dyed for this project.

They were so much fun to make, and are super dense. I had to go down to a 000/1.25mm needle to get gauge, so I opted not to line this pair. I need to make some for myself but like most things, I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Bowl Full of Cherries Socks

I designed these socks for the Sock Knitter’s Anonymous July 2009 challenge. Right now the original pattern (released in 4 parts for the challenge) is available for free.

I loved designing these socks, but they were a challenge. I had a total of 3 weeks to design and publish the pattern. (The designer they had lined up had to decline unexpectedly.) They were my first colorwork design. There are two versions – a 2 strand and a 3 strand – and they’re available in two sizes.

By the time I got done knitting both socks, I was pretty much (happily!) exhausted. It was a whirlwind tour and I had a million ends to weave in. My mom fell in love with the socks and offered a trade. She would weave in all the ends if she could have the socks. Done! I love seeing the fraternal twin socks on her feet. It’s as satisfying as completing the pattern and finishing the knitting.

Since I am generally designing while I knit, I must have at least a piece of paper and pencil handy….but often times my laptop, too. I’m hugely into charting when designing for visual simplicity and ease of error checking (via KnitVisualizer) so it’s nice to have the computer around for quick changes. Practically speaking, I always knit at home and I’m either sitting at my kitchen table or on my couch. I try to save the majority of my design time for when my kiddos are in bed. Theoretically this allows me to concentrate and make fewer mistakes. But it didn’t stop me from ripping out the instep of my newest (and still TOP SECRET) sock design 5 times last week.

I have knitting/designing/dyeing stuff in various places throughout the house, so you’ll find me doing yarn related things in the kitchen, spare bedroom/storage space and basement. These yarn related activities are usually not knitting, but generally dyeing, packaging, yarn prep, yarn washing, and business related etc.

It’s a good thing we have a pretty big house.

KnitCroBlo Day Four:

I want to learn how to chart crochet! I’m fairly proficient with knit charting. I even have a really nifty program that helps me out. (KnitVisualizer is what I’m running. There’s a new program, much less expensive from Intwined Studio that’s getting rave reviews. It checks in at $44, instead of $185 for KnitVisualizer.) Since I love charts for knitting as I can see immediately how stitches line up with each other, I’d like to be able to do the same thing with crochet.

When I learned to crochet charts were not commonly available in crochet patterns. Which meant that you crocheted along, checking the picture and sometimes you could be rows past a mistake before you realized it. With charting, it’s harder to do that because stitches are lined up and you can look down a column and see the previous stitches which are the foundation for your current work.

I recently found the StichinCrochet font by the talented Adriprint. If you download the True Type font (TT font) and own KnitVisualizer, you can import the Stitchin Crochet font into Knit Visualizer & use the crochet symbols within the charting software. All you need to do is use the Create Custom Stitch function, select the symbol you want to use, enter in directions for completing the stitch, save and you’re ready to go.

I’m so excited about the possibilities. I have a lot to learn about charting crochet, but I’m chomping at the bit to chart out a lovely crocheted edging along the cuff of a sock….or the edge of a sleeve.

I have to say Norah Gaughan is amazing. Her designs are both stylish and unique. By unique I mean off-beat and slightly quirky but loveable *not* weird. It’s as if Norah designs for a world that’s so pretty, I’d like to live there. She now works for Berroco, and every time they release a new Norah pattern collection I’m consistently drawn to the patterns. Her asymmetrical motifs and unique construction never fail to draw me in. One day when I grow up, I hope to make patterns as pretty as Norah.

Find more Norah Gaughan’s designs at www.Berroco.com.

Norah blogs at: http://blog.berroco.com/

Go check out her work. It’s beautiful & worth your time. Ideally, I’d post pictures of her designs here, but I don’t want to infringe upon Berroco’s rights by using their photos on my blog……

Knitting Needle Conversion Chart  000-000 – 50 or .7mm – 25mm

I started knitting and crocheting when my mom taught me. I was pretty young – 7 or 8. I strongly preferred crochet and for many years only crocheted. This may have had something to do with the fact that my mom knits very oddly. She was taught by a woman who was about 9 months pregnant and consequently, my mom holds her needles like T not an X. Her right arm is held up horizontally, while her left arm is relaxed and parallel to her side.

I didn’t start knitting in earnest until many years later. I was expecting the twins and wanted to make them soakers (knitted wool cloth diaper covers) and there just weren’t many crochet patterns out there. So I started knitting again.

Soon, I was getting many requests to knit other people soakers, which got me started designing. I needed to design a soaker pattern for my own use, so I could sell the finished pieces. Soaker knitting also got me started dyeing yarn. I got many very specific color requests that could only be filled by dyeing the yarn to order. It took a while to get both sides of the business up and running as Yarn Love today, but that’s how I got my start!

That’s it for knitcroblo1 – day one. I’ll see you tomorrow! (or hopefully later today)

~katie

To get me back into blogging with a bang, I am participating in Knitting and Crochet Blog week. That means I am going to make my best effort to post on a predetermined topic for 7 days in a row, starting April 26th. I hope to do well. If you’re interested in reading other participant’s responses all you need to do is Google search the term: knitcroblo1 for the first day, knitcroblo2 for the second, etc. We’re pretty sure that the term/tag “knitcroblo” is a googlewhack. Ok, technically it’s not two words, and you’ll get hits from all the blogs participating, but the main point is all the results will be participating blogs!

You may be wondering what in the world could prevent Katie from blogging everyday? Well, Nick and I decided this morning upon an impromptu visit to his grandmother. We’ve been wanting to for quite a while and finally have booked our trip….we leave 9 days from today and we’re taking all 3 kids with us.

On a plane.

1500 miles away.

You see my point. I shall endeavor to participate as much as possible….while secreting wondering if I am indeed crazy. Wish me luck & see you the day after tomorrow!

~katie

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