Feeling adventurous?

[Diane Pinkers]

Ok, I'm now gluten-free, lactose-free for life. However, I also can't eat eggs, or refined sugar according to my allergy tests. This is going to make desserts a real challenge in the back country–no pudding for example. Also, I used to use Sarah's Fauxbaker and make cupcakes and muffins.

So, do you think that a gluten-free vegan cupcake/muffin without refined sugar is possible? I'm thinking I could sweeten with the honey powder, but will the egg replacer be amenable to a freezer-bag, shake-it-and-pour-it-in the muffin cup, steam-bake kinda thing?

I guess I need a basic muffin gluten-free recipe that will allow me to add stuff. Laurie, is that in your new book?

[BlackHatGuy]

You might want to check out Living Without magazine/online.

[John Whynot]

Try this site – plenty of gluten free dessert recipes with no refined sugar. You will need to adapt them for the trail (or bake ahead of time)…

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Which sweeteners can you use? If you are willing to carry the weight you can still make good steamed goodies :-) GF can steam well.

[Laurie Ann March]

There are muffin recipes in the new book. I use, because of the vegetarian spin on the book, chia seeds and xanathan gum to replace the eggs and to help keep everything from crumbling.

Can you use maple sugar in place of refined white sugar? That would be a great and easy substitution if you could have that. There are lots of ways to modify things to suit – just takes a bit of experimentation.

Send me a PM and I can send you a scan of one of the muffin recipes if you like. I have one that uses brown sugar but should be easy enough to make substitutions with that and the other uses a small bit of maple syrup.

Edited to add… sorry for the delay in responding… yesterday was a national holiday (Canada's Birthday).

[Laurie Ann March]

was just thinking… can you use sucanat as a substitute? It doesn't dissolve well enough for sweetening tea and the like but works really well as a refined sugar substitute in baking. Even better – there isn't any math because you use it in the same quantities as sugar. It's basically unrefined sugar cane juice that has been dehydrated into a brown sugar like form and it still retains nutrients this way.

[BlackHatGuy]

Would coconut sugar work?

[Diane Pinkers]

I'm not entirely certain exactly what is permissible in terms of sugar. I can definitively say that on the blood tests, I tested out as highly positive for cane sugar, and was fine with honey. So, I interpret that to mean that any sugar cane product is verboten, but honey, agave, maple, and probably coconut would be ok. I don't think it's about glycemic index or any of that stuff, it's more about where it comes from. Not that I need to be eating lots of sweets, mind you. But, I do like to have a little something after dinner when I've been hiking hard, and it seems to help me stay warmer in the bag at night.

Truvia seems to be an interesting sugar substitute, at least it didn't taste funky when I tried it on it's own. No idea how it works in baked goods. I've used agave syrup in some recipes now, and that works well, but I'd like to avoid hauling lots of sticky liquid into the back country. I use honey powder in my tea when hiking, so I have that anyway.

The tricky part I think is the egg-free. I was eating those, but have tested out highly positive for them, so it's vegan gluten-free for me. I have found a great web-site with recipes, but wasn't sure how to adapt to steam baking in the back country. Laurie, I have purchased your new book, expecting it any day now.

Sarah, the time for steam baking was what was concerning me. I have seen regular recipes that take 35-45 minutes to bake. I use an alcohol stove, and just keep the pot on the stove while the flame is burning, then once the fuel runs out pop the pot into a cozy. With the microwavable cake kits, that has worked well for cupcakes, but I wasn't sure about any other type of baked goods.

Speaking of eggs, I've got 2 packages of Ova-Easy that I can't use now. Anyone who wants them, PM me and I'll be happy to mail them to you free.

Chocolate's the worst part. Isn't the best part of the trail mix the M&M's? I've found a recipe for making honey-sweetened chocolate, but keeping it from melting, that's the tricky part. Are cocoa nibs really bitter tasting?

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Truvia is OK, but be wary in baking. It can leave an off taste. I have found when baking with it that half it and half sugar works best. BTW, Trader Joe's sells the real thing in the baking section – pure Stevia with no after taste :-)

On the steam baking the good thing with single servings is you are baking a lot less than say a loaf. And you might try steaming in a wider/shallower container as well.

On the cocoa nibs….I am sure there are fans out there for eating alone – I like them but only in stuff. A very much adapted taste, I am sure one could get used to it!

Myself I would look for vegan chocolate not made with refined sugar – it is out there! Plenty of options at WF, PCC, etc :-)

[BlackHatGuy]

"Chocolate's the worst part. Isn't the best part of the trail mix the M&M's? I've found a recipe for making honey-sweetened chocolate, but keeping it from melting, that's the tricky part."

Here's a sugar-free dark chocolate bar. Can't tell you about taste, as I've never had it.

"Are cocoa nibs really bitter tasting?"

I wouldn't call them bitter, they just don't taste like chocolate! They certainly, by themselves, would not satisfy a chocolate craving!

[Roger Caffin]

> I'm now gluten-free, lactose-free for life. However, I also can't eat eggs, or
> refined sugar according to my allergy tests.
Ouch!
Ugh!
That is an *awful* lot of no-nos! It almost sounds too much.
Have you thought of getting a second (blind) opinion? I would.

Cheers

[Diane Pinkers]

Well, it gets better than that, Roger—I'm also off beef and pork for now, which apparently beef and egg allergies go together, go figure. When I have eliminated these from my diet for 6 months, we will re-test, and some of this will change as my gut heals itself.

I'm also very Vitamin B12 deficient, and of course, Vitamin D deficient (living in the PNW it's almost endemic). Vitamin B12 is absorbed by the small intestine, Vitamin D by the tips of the little villi that do the major work in the intestine. Having these deficiencies proves my gut isn't working well. As a veterinarian, I see this problem in cats that have inflammatory bowel disease, and often changing their diet makes a major improvement in their health. I'm not a cat, of course, but based on my medical experience what my doctor is telling me makes sense. Without going and doing intestinal biopsies ($$$$, ow, ow, ow), which is the only way to confirm, the link between allergy testing and vitamin levels is as good as it's going to get. Also, I can say that after the initial 6 weeks were up, I ate milk products and wheat products for one day—and paid the price by being up all night. I'm also seeing better weight loss than I have for a while. Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease run in my family, so I'm trying to get some control over those things before my health is permanently damaged.

As my regular health physician didn't have any good suggestions for weight loss, and just wanted to feed me pills to control other health issues, I've turned to a naturopath for ideas on how to improve my health. Their focus is on preventative medicine, not pharmaceutical, so for now it's something I'm willing to pursue.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

And it won't harm you to try :-) I hope it works out for you. Us going mostly vegan did amazing things for our cholesterol (both the husband and I) in less than 3 months.

[John Nausieda]

Xylitol is a very good sugar substitute. We use it in pies, Thai and Vietnamese curries, etc. How are you dealing with your B-12 deficiency? Sublingual B-12 works well.

[Diane Pinkers]

You know, it's funny, but I worry about xylitol. I know people use it just fine, but it's literally toxic to dogs—drops their blood sugar like a stone so they have a hypoglycemic crisis, and it messes up their liver. That makes me think that it could have unintended consequences for people, too. Again, a matter of the veterinarian overgeneralizing. I'm ok with honey, agave, which I know those have calories, but that doesn't bother me.

[S. K.]

Here is a possible solution for your chocolate problem.

http://www.enjoylifefoods.com/our_foods/chocolate_for_baking.html

They are semi-sweet chocolate chips that are gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free, egg-free, peanut-free, tree-nut-free, and dairy-free. They actually tate fine, and we have used them both as a trail mix ingredient, and in baking (chocolate chip cookies and chocolate mousse). Our local Giant Eagle has them, as does Whole Foods.

(Now, if they would only make them with a hard coating (sugar-free for you of course) they would be almost as good as M&Ms in the trail mix!

[Author]

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