I must confess that I am not a baker. While I admire the artworks accomplished people are able to create with dough and sugar frosting with all my heart, I simply lack the patience for baking. The reason is that I want to eat when I am hungry – which means that I am not so much up for waiting for another hour until something is ready for eating, so I prefer cooking a quick meal – and I am not so much concerned with food when I am not hungry. Thus, baking somewhat goes against these habits. Lately, though, I have been getting more and more into preparing yummy things out of sequence to have at hand when getting hungry and wanting for something particular that would take too long to prepare at once (like brown rice of which I use to cook a batch at a time because it takes rather long). And all the lovely recipes and pictures I have seen on other blogs during the past months have convinced me that it was worth to give baking a chance.
A while ago, when it was gradually dawning on me that the time for baking was going to come, I had bought a mixer, and today was the time to inaugurate it.
~ it can whisk and knead ~
And last week, I had picked up some gluten-free products at the health store, thinking about future baking to come. One of those was a container of tigernut flour.
Tigernuts are no actual nuts, but the tubers of a grass species. They are free of gluten, rich in healthy fats, and have a hearty, nutty flavor. Ground tigernuts can be used as a substitute for regular flour. I tried it with the cupcakes I made today, and I was delighted that they turned out yummy!
~ a little ugly , but very tasty ~
These cupcakes are free of gluten and sugar. I found them very flavorful and did not miss any sweetness, but if you want for some, feel free to add any sweetener of choice.
Almond and Plum Cupcakes
6 cupcakes
Ingredients
200 g (1 1/2 cups) tigernut flour (or other flour)
100 g (1/2 cup) chopped almonds
3 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
dash of salt
125 ml (1/2 cup) almond milk (or other milk)
2 plums, pitted
Directions
Preheat the oven to 200 °C (390 °F). In a bowl, whisk flour, almonds, eggs, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt, then slowly pour in the almond milk and go on whisking until all ingredients have nicely combined.
Then cut the plums. I used two plum slices per cupcake, so I cut the plums into six slices each.
Slightly grease a cupcake baking pan, then put one or two tablespoons of the dough into each hole and flatten it with a spoon. This should use up around two thirds of the dough. Then nicely arrange two plum slices on every blob of dough.
Use the rest of the dough to cover the plums.
Bake the cupcakes for around 20 to 25 minutes at 200 °C (390 °F). Let cool and enjoy. Cupcakes that are not to be eaten immediately can be stored in the freezer compartment.
Would you call yourself a baker? Do you like cupcakes? If yes, what is your favorite kind?
