breakfast club

My usual breakfast of choice is a big bowl of steaming porridge cooked with a generous squeeze of Agave syrup or honey, served up with lots of fresh fruit.

I've been on the lookout for a gluten free, no sugar, low fat alternative, for days when I'm in a rush.  I haven't found a recipe to-date and so decided I'd have to make up my own. 

I didn't want to use low-fat or artificially gluten-free ingredients that had gone through lots of processing, just good quality ones that are naturally gluten free, or good fat.

Hence these little light oat buns were born...

Ingredients:

• One cup of jumbo porridge oats
• One cup of oatmeal
• One cup of dried vine fruits
• Half a cup of chopped figs
• One cup of coconut milk(or alternative)
• Two tablespoons olive oil
• Three eggs
• One quarter of a teaspoon of fine sea salt
• Ground cinnamon
• Vanilla past or extract

Method:

1. Prepare cake cases in a bun tin and preheat oven to 190c/375f/gas mark 5
2. Place the oats, bran and spices into a bowl with the milk and oil and leave it to absorb for about ten minutes or so.
3. Place the dried fruits into another bowl and cover with a little hot water or fruit juice and leave to steep.
4. Separate the eggs.
5. Lightly beat the yolks. Add some vanilla extract,honey or agave syrup to sweeten. The amount will depend which you use.  I use Geo dark agave syrup that I get from here. It is very sweet and so a big squirt is fine. The dried figs that I use are also naturally very sweet and so really reduce the need for much additional sweetening.
6. Combine all the ingredients together except the egg whites.
7. Whisk the egg whites until soft peak then fold into the other ingredients.
8. Spoon into the cake case and bake for about twenty minutes until golden brown. If unsure...test by inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean the cakes should be ready.

The resulting buns are very light and airy thanks to the whisked egg whites that make the addition of any raising agent unnecessary. The recipe can be played around with a lot by adding chopped nuts, different dried fruits and seasonings.  I added the crushed seeds of a cardamon pod because it's one of my favourite spices. Ginger either fresh or ground or mixed spices would work really well too. I'm also working on a savoury version. 

(NB Although oats are gluten free in some instances there may be cross contamination from other grains. You can read a bit about the debate  here and here.  But you can buy oats that are guaranteed to be uncontaminated and are and suitable for coeliacs from here in the UK.)

 I'm joining the Breakfast club blog-hop hosted here