I have always been intrigued with mastering a gluten-free, sugar-free, and dairy free dessert srecipe. I had many friends growing up who had many allergies, and whenever I tried food from their houses, I felt like it just didn’t taste the same as the wonderful food I ate, so I’ve been trying to master some on and off throughout my life. And I gotta say it is a lot easier now that there are so many flour options, dairy-free alternatives, and natural sugars. No wonder things taste better now!

After having a baby, and realizing a natural way of living, seems to be better. We’ve been trying to eat less processed food. I’m not going to get on the soapbox about it, but if you have some time, do a little research to see the benefits of trying to eat less processed food. So my goal for the next month is to eat less gluten, dairy and sugar, as these are all very highly processed foods. I don’t think I’ll ever completely cut them out, since I don’t think that’s where we are as a family, but I definitely want to eat less of it, and make better choices for my family.

So this week I wanted to conquer a quick bread that tasted similar to the wonderful applesauce cake that was my favorite growing up. However, as you can imagine that recipe has gluten, sugar and dairy. I have to tried many a recipe that tasted as my husband said “ yummy free,” and I was losing hope when I stumbled across this one, and my husband actually liked it! He had seconds. I considered it a win and I want to post it so you guys can try it, and so I will have the recipe saved to make again. The texture is what makes me so happy. For oat flour, it doesn’t taste grainy, it tastes dense, but cake-like and I love it! I also found some really good oatmeal, raisin cookies, but more than that another time.

If you don’t have oat flour, don’t worry! You can buy whole oats, check the box to make sure it doesn’t have anything else, but then you can pulse them in your blender until you have fine, oat flour. I’ve been doing that for a very long time!

I modified this recipe slightly, which I have below, but if you want to see the original post to go to beamingbaker.com and you will find it under vegan cinnamon raisin quick bread! Happy baking!

CINNAMON QUICK BREAD

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups oat flour
• 2 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup water
• ½ cup non-dairy milk
• 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
• ¼ cup coconut sugar 
• ¼ cup pure maple syrup
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an bread pan with parchment paper  or greased foil, or cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients: oat flour, almond flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. Add water and milk to a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 10-second increments until just warm. This will prevent the melted coconut oil from solidifying once mixed with these liquids.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients: water, milk, oil, sugar, maple syrup, egg and vanilla. Whisk until well incorporated.
5. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Whisk until just incorporated, making sure no flour patches remain. Fold in raisins and walnuts.
6. Pour batter evenly into prepared pan. Using a rubber spatula, smooth batter into an even layer. Optionally, sprinkle with walnuts. Tuck a few raisins into the batter. Lightly press toppings into the loaf.
7. Bake for 45-55 minutes. Mine took 50 minutes. Insert a toothpick to check for doneness—once it comes out clean with just a few moist bits, it’s done.
8. Allow to cool if you can! If you cut too soon it will crumble. (I speak from experience!

As always enjoy!