Gluten-Free Carrot Bread with Chai Spices

Gluten-free carrot bread with raisins and chai spices.

I've got a lovely tender tea bread recipe for you- a gluten-free carrot bread fragrant with chai spices and studded with juicy sweet raisins. Ever since I baked those happy, sunny carrot muffins I've been pondering carrot bread. I wanted to create a new gluten-free bread recipe that featured several whole grains, including (gasp!) brown rice flour. Shocking, I know. Long time readers will confirm I'm not the biggest fan of rice flours. I almost never bake with them. And yet. There I was. Standing in the Whole Foods check out line. Buying a bag of Bob's Red Mill organic brown rice flour. On impulse. Because it just sounded good to me. Wholesome. Nutty.

And friendly to carrots.

Which is important in a gluten-free recipe. The friendliness.

You want all your ingredients to get along. You want your flavors co-mingling in savory-sweet bliss. Supporting one another's strengths. Forgiving each other's weaknesses. No single gluten-free flour is perfect on its own, as you well know. Going solo doesn't work. It needs a supporting cast. It needs to find balance and achieve harmony via relationships. Give and take. That's what it's all about in the crazy game of gluten-free baking.

Kinda like love.

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Gluten-Free Chocolate Gingerbread Recipe

Delicious chocolate gingerbread loaf. Gluten-free yum.

As the song says, Let it snow / let it snow / let it snow. Icing sugar that is. In a soft, sifted whisper of white. A dusting of tongue-melting sweetness to accent the solstice dark moon taste of a classic ginger spiced chocolate tea bread.

In the deep midwinter, I cheer my fragile spirit by baking. I put on Yo Yo Ma and stir cocoa laced batter with a wooden spoon, imagining my fellow gluten-free bakers- all of you- out there- standing in your humble kitchens, beating strange flours and non-traditional ingredients with an odd blend of dread and hope. Crossing fingers and scooping tea bread, cake and muffin batter, rolling cookie dough between nervous palms, praying to the kitchen gods.

In a mere two days- perilously close to the Winter Solstice- I will celebrate my tenth anniversary of living gluten-free. December 19, 2001 was the day I decided to shun gluten forever. What timing. Right before Christmas. I could have waited until December 26th. Or even the New Year. But I didn't. I couldn't. As soon as I connected the dots- from my plague of symptoms to their instigator gluten- I couldn't wait to begin my new life. If I had eaten my very last buttery croissant, so be it. If I had unknowingly crunched my last iced sugar cookie, so what. I was done.

Few of us have to make such choices.

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Gluten-Free Banana Nut Bread Recipe

Warm from the oven gluten-free banana nut bread. Just a fad?

I hope you all enjoyed a safe and nourishing Thanksgiving holiday, stuffed with all good things- familial affection and laughter, kindness, acceptance and generosity of spirit. Food for the soul as well as food for the body. I hope your table was inviting, inclusive and beautiful- and untarnished by condescension, resentment, or the snorting ridicule of your Uncle Stu (whose politics alone are enough to give any thinking person a spike of schpilkis).

Because out there in the cold cruel world, Darling, some folks apparently (still) view our gluten-free lifestyle through a jaded foodie lens, believing, first of all, that gluten-free anything is never going to taste anything but awful, and second, that this whole gluten-free trend (their word not mine) is a fad not worthy of serious consideration and compassion. Apart from the standard (and always brief) lip service that non-afflicted food writers, non-GF bloggers and journalists pay to celiac disease, adhering to the medical treatment that is a gluten-free diet is degraded- for that sexy topical hook- to a bandwagon. An eating disorder. A diet by choice.

They dub it a controversy. 

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie Bread

Tender, delicious tea bread that tastes like pumpkin pie.

I'm feeling a tad, shall we say, under the weather, lately. Nothing serious. Just an autumnal cold that has knocked the stuffing out of me. I feel like a rag doll. An achy, cranky, ratty old rag doll with matted squirrelly hair and baggy sweatpants. It ain't pretty is all I'm sayin'. So forgive my delay in sharing the promised new pumpkin bars recipe. Soon, Babycakes. Soon.

In the meantime, here's an easy gluten-free pumpkin bread recipe from the archives- a moist, gluten-free pumpkin bread you can bake in a bread machine.

Or in your oven, if you prefer.

***

From 2009: This is a big week. Huge. Never mind The Canyon premiere. Forget the post screening parties at Cafe Was, and the Palihouse (where the valet parked the only Honda Fit of the night- I'm guessing). Forget hanging out in Hollywood with Yvonne Strahovski. We're talking major excitement. Glamour with a u. Dreams come true. That's right.

We're unpacking our relocation cube.

But wait. There is more to the story, truth be told. There is a subplot with a third act twist. There is, um. Titillation. Desire. Longing. By your intrepid Goddess. No, Babycakes. Not longing for fame. Or glitz. Or girly-girl anything. I'm not that kind of Goddess (Botox and bling isn't on my radar). Nope.

So what is this obscure object of desire?

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Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread Recipe

Delicious gluten-free zucchini bread.

Today's post will be short and sweet. We are back. My trip to New Hampshire is over. The wedding weekend was one lovely blur. I had a love hangover for days. Being present at your son's wedding is an experience like no other. Especially when members of your newly expanded family feel like old friends instead of in-laws. 

I cannot help but feel abundantly blessed.

To celebrate I'm baking a zucchini bread.

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Gluten-Free Muffins, Scones + Brunch Recipes

Gluten-free muffins like these grace any brunch table.

Karina's Gluten-Free Muffins, Scones and Brunch Recipes

Here is my collection of favorite brunch-worthy gluten-free muffin, scone and coffee cake recipes for breakfast in bed, brunch by a cozy fire, or a laid back morning spent reading the Sunday paper on a sunlight dappled patio.

I've also included my best egg recipes- easy frittatas and crustless quiches (my all time favorite brunch egg dish is the spicy Eggs Diavolo served on creamy polenta). And if you haven't tried one of my crustless quiches studded with roasted vegetables or my light but filling pasta frittata-- Babycakes, what are you waiting for? 

If you're going vegan continental, browse my bakery recipes for tender scones, tea breads, and warm, fall apart muffins. Or zap up a smoothie. 

There's no excuse to reach for the cold cereal box.

 

Eggs + Brunch Recipes

Artichoke and Jalapeno Savory Pie
Blue Chip Frittata
Buckwheat Cereal with Maple-Cinnamon Apples

Cherry Clafoutis

Eggs Diavolo (Diablo) on a Nest of Soft Polenta
Gold Potato Frittata (Quiche)

Karina's Gluten-Free Latkes and Cinnamon Applesauce
Mediterranean Pasta Frittata with Goat Cheese

Pancakes! Karina's best.
Pumpkin Waffles

Roasted Vegetable Cheddar Quiche
Roasted Vegetable Frittata

Santa Fe Huevos on Polenta
Savory Vegetable Kugel with Sour Cream
Smoked Salmon, Spinach and Goat Cheese Strata

Gluten-Free Muffins, Scones, Tea Breads + Coffee Cake

Almond Yogurt Cake
Almond Flour Blueberry Muffins

Baked Donuts
Banana Blueberry Muffin Cake
Banana Chocolate Chip Bread
Banana Corn Muffins
Big Banana Muffins

Blueberry Almond Flour Muffins
Blueberry Crumb Cake
Blueberry Corn Muffins
Blueberry Oat Muffins
Blueberry Scones

Brown Sugar Blueberry Muffins
Butternut Pecan Scones

Carrot Muffins
Carrot Quinoa Bars
Cherry Almond Muffins
Cherry Clafoutis 

Chocolate Muffins
Cinnamon Apple Muffins 
Cinnamon Raisin Scones
Cranberry Apricot Muffins
Cranberry Bread

Gluten-Free Breakfast Bars
Gypsy Soda Bread

Maple Sweetened Almond Zucchini Mini-Muffins
Oatmeal-Quinoa Breakfast Brownies
Orange Scented Soda Bread

Peach Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel Topping
Peach Muffins with Almond Flour
Pear Polenta Muffins
Pineapple Coconut Muffins

Pumpkin Corn Muffins
Pumpkin Muffins
Pumpkin Raisin Bundt Cake
Pumpkin Scones with Maple Nutmeg Icing

Quinoa Breakfast Brownies with Chocolate Chips
Quinoa Breakfast Cake- scrumptious

Rustic Strawberry Cobbler Cake

Skillet Cornbread with Green Chiles
Sour Cream Blueberry Muffins
Sour Cream Apple Cake

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins
Strawberry Chocolate Chip Scones

Sweet Banana Polenta Cake
Sweet Potato Cornbread
Sweet Potato Coffee Cake

Vanilla Cornbread 
Whole Grain Strawberry Muffins
Zucchini Bread

Dairy-Free Smoothies

Banana-Apricot Hemp Shake
Blueberry Smoothie Veganluscious

Carob-Almond-Banana Smoothie
Chocolate-Strawberry Smoothie
Cranberry Banana Smoothie

Pomegranate Smoothie
Strawberry Hemp Smoothalicious

Gluten-Free Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

Gluten-free banana chocolate chip bread. Yum.

Score one for banana bread lovers. After more than a few banana-induced mishaps (who knew baking egg-free gluten-free casein-free banana breads would prove so harrowing and unappealingly gummy and well, just plain spirit crushing?) Steve and I produced a sweet and tender banana loaf worthy of a mention.

A shout of big thanks goes out to my buddy Clare from Massachusetts (you remember Clare- she generously shared her brownie recipe with me back in the day). Clare posted her banana bread recipe on the Celiac Listserv last week. I veganized Clare's ingredients to make this recipe egg-free and dairy-free. And then, well, I simply had to add chocolate chips. After all, chocolate is goddess food.

And what's a banana without a little chocolate?

Just another naked banana.

And when you have a partner/husband like Steve (who, by the way, as you would expect, has been a champ through my hip healing process- hefting laundry, dusting (yes, that's right, dusting), bringing me mugs of hot apple cider (with a cinnamon stick!) and just plain cooking up a storm on my famished behalf)- who sweetly asks, Would you like me to grill your slice of Banana Chocolate Chip Bread?--- you blush, Dear Reader, and realize (once again) you've married the right man.

The man who knows you like your chocolate dark and melty and warm on your tongue. For breakfast.

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