SWEET DEBBIE’S ORGANIC TREATS
Debbie Adler
Harlequin
September 2013
$19.95/Trade Paperback
ISBN-13: 978-0373892822
Debbie Adler is the owner and biggest nosher at Sweet Debbie’s Organic Cupcakes in Los Angeles. Whenever you meet her, she is quick to offer you a Chocoholic Cupcake or any one of her allergen and sugar-free desserts that happens to be exiting the oven. Adler has appeared on NBC’s Evening News, and Sweet Debbie’s has been featured in Pilates Style Magazine and on InStyle online and E! Online, among others. Her recipes have been published online by Food Allergy Research and Education, The Chalkboard and Life Goes Strong, and on AllergyMoms.com. Adler lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and son. Visit her at www.sweetdebbiesorganiccupcakes.com.
No Gluten, No Dairy, No Sugar, No Soy, No Nuts—No problem!
When Debbie Adler’s son was diagnosed with severe allergies to many different foods, including eggs, nuts, gluten, soy and milk, she took matters into her own kitchen. Her allergy-free recipes were a hit with family and friends, but when she opened her sugar-free, allergy-free bakery, Sweet Debbie’s Organic Cupcakes, in Los Angeles in 2006, she had no idea just how popular her homespun baked goods would be. Today Sweet Debbie’s boasts celebrity fans like Gwyneth Paltrow, Emily Deschanel and Felicity Huffman and a local cult following, as well as nation-wide clients.
Now SWEET DEBBIE’S ORGANIC TREATS shares 50 delicious recipes for muffins, brownies, cookies, cupcakes, energy bars, doughnut holes and bread. Debbie’s guilt-free, allergy-free recipes will appeal to the growing number of parents catering to kids with severe allergies and to readers everywhere who are avoiding gluten, dairy, soy, sugar and eggs for health reasons.
Salted Caramel Apple Muffins
Makes 12 standard-size muffins
If I had to choose one candy I miss most since giving up dairy and refined sugar, it would have to be caramels. There is something about their chewy, sweet gooeyness that is very comforting (and cavity inducing). So imagine my ecstasy when I tasted my fake caramel sauce for this recipe for the first time. It is so good that it instantly became my friend and faux simultaneously. Make this for people you love, because they will take a pledge of allegiance to you forever.
Muffins
12 standard-size paper baking cups
2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour (see below)
2 teaspoons sodium-free baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon guar gum
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
1/4 cup coconut nectar
1/4 teaspoon stevia powder
3/4 cup unsweetened plain rice milk
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 small Gala or Granny Smith apple (about 5 ounces), peeled, cored and sliced into 1/4-inch pieces
Caramel Sauce
1/2 cup coconut nectar
1/4 cup sunflower seed butter (see below)
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper baking cups.
To make the muffins, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, guar gum and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle.
Add the grapeseed oil, coconut nectar and stevia and stir to combine. Add the rice milk and applesauce, and stir until the liquid is absorbed and the batter is smooth.
Fold in about half of the apple pieces.
To make the caramel sauce, mix together the coconut nectar, sunflower seed butter and salt in a small bowl until well blended.
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin, dividing it evenly. Each cup should be about two-thirds full. Top each with the caramel sauce and the remaining apple pieces.
Bake the muffins for 16 to 18 minutes, or until they are a light golden brown and bounce back slightly to the touch. Rotate the muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking.
Transfer the muffin tin from the oven to a wire rack and let rest for about 10 minutes before removing the muffins to cool completely.
Keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or wrap and freeze for up to 3 months.
All Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Mix
This is the mix you’ll make as the basis for every recipe in this book. You should double or triple the recipe so you have a nice big batch at the ready whenever you need it. In order to save money, you can buy all these flours in bulk and store them in an airtight container in the freezer. This will extend their shelf life for up to a year.
1 cup tapioca flour
3/4 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup millet flour
1/4 cup ivory teff flour
1/4 cup quinoa flour
Put all the flours in a gallon-size ziplock Baggie and toss it around and turn it upside down to thoroughly combine.
When measuring out gluten-free flour for a recipe, always loosen it up first by shaking its container, whether it be a tub of Tupperware or the aforementioned ziplock. Then scoop it up with a large spoon and transfer it into the measuring cup and level it off. You have to do it this way because gluten-free flour is very dense and compact, and you don’t want to end up with more volume in your measuring cup than is called for in the recipe.
Sunflower Seed Butter
Makes almost 2 cups of seed butter
15 x 10-inch sheet of parchment paper
2 cups raw sunflower seeds
4-5 tablespoons grapeseed oil
In order to get ground sunflower seeds to mimic peanut butter as closely as possible in color and flavor, roast the sunflower seeds in the oven before grinding.
Preheat oven to 275°F. Line a 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan with parchment paper.
Spread the sunflower seeds out in a single layer in the pan. Roast in the oven for 30–35 minutes, or until the sunflower seeds turn light brown, stirring halfway through roasting.
Take the pan out of the oven and let the seeds cool.
Grind the sunflower seeds in a coffee grinder or food processor until a powder forms. Place the powder in a medium-size bowl, add the grapeseed oil a little at a time and stir until combined.
Store the sunflower seed butter in an airtight container in the refrigerator so it stays fresh longer.
These recipes may be reproduced with the following credit:
Recipes from Sweet Debbie’s Organic Treats by Debbie Adler. (Harlequin; October 2013; $19.95/Trade Paperack; ISBN-13; 978-0373892822). http://www.harlequin.com/
Contact: Lauren Jackson
(212) 553-4263
Lauren_Jackson@harlequin.ca