Sunday, 05 May 2013 20:07

Gluten-free Baking Mixes!

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Not only is it Celiac Awareness Month but it's also Food Allergy Awareness Week! Does that mean that celiac's is more important to all the other food allergies? Hmmm... Anyways, to celebrate I want to introduce to a new company making wonderful gluten-free baking mixes: Zema's Madhouse Foods. The founder took her health, fitness and ADHD perspective to combine ancient whole grains with superseeds chia, hemp and flaxmeal into delicious creations. Each mix is kosher, Non-GMO Project Verified, and free of refined sugar and the top 8 allergens. And yet there's so much inside - in fact, for most recipes all you need to add in is wet ingredients like milk and egg alternatives of choice. Fill your kitchen with Cinnamon-Oatmeal Apple Muffins, Multigrain Pancake & Waffles, Cocoa Teff Pancake & Waffles and Rosemary-Millet Focaccia & Pizza Crust - Zema's sent me the latter two to try and here's what I thought:

zemas waffle mix ecovegangal IMG 4345

First, I want to tell you about my experience - I'll begin with Cocoa Teff Pancake & Waffle Mix because it was darn good! If you're unfamiliar with teff, it's an Ethiopian grain rich in protein, fiber, calcium and iron, and when combined with the other ingredients there's a solid punch of antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, vitamins and minerals in every bite. I made waffles (in my awesome eco machine), which came out perfectly and were really easy to make - I loved the hint of cinnamon. As an egg replacer, I experimented with Beyond Eggs in one batch and The Vegg in the other - I preferred the former as it seemed to make the waffles a tad bit fluffier. Homemade hemp milk was wonderful in this, though I'm curious if coconut milk would improve it. Coconut oil did the trick here (olive oil seems like it'd be weird) and I really wish I had tried adding chocolate chips to boost up the cocoa flavor. Maple syrup was delicious inside and on top of the waffles, and you know what brought it to a whole new level? Coconut bacon bits! HEAVENLY! I'm sure tempeh bacon would be equally as scrumptious. The mix yielded about 8 waffles as promised and I was bummed when I ran out, especially because I want to try all the recipes on the site (how good do Mocha Maca Muffins sound?).

zemas bacon waffles ecovegangal IMG 4369


Fortunately I had the Rosemary-Millet Focaccia & Pizza Crust Mix to move onto and I was very excited to try out the GF Deep Dish Pizza Crust recipe. Sadly, my poor baking skills got in the way of a perfect pie. Well, in appearance that is. It tasted amazing but despite having a lovely flavor my crust didn't hold up, which resulted in more of a cheesy Italian crumble then a deep dish 'za (thus the lack of photo). Apparently using a tart pan is a must and the vegan substitutions I used were either not ideal for the recipe or the volume wasn't quite right. I would be thrilled if you gave it a try - please tell me where I went wrong because I'm ready for round two! You'll love the texture of vitamin B-rich millet and protein-packed quinoa in this mix, in addition to the omega-3s within the chia and flax. It's hard to feel guilty eating this dough! I want to try the mix next as a breading on veggies (the Scalloped Tomatoes, Cauliflower Au Gratin and Zucchini Fries sound bomb) and the occasional faux chicken treat.

Oh, and you must check out this review of Zema's on one of my favorite blogs: Diet Dessert n Dogs, which features a recipe for Sunbutter Mocha Spread to top on the pancakes/waffles - holy wow... 


Disclore: though this article was sponsored by Zema's Madhouse Foods, my opinions are my own and are not influenced by this partnership. Financial compensation makes it possible for fresh content to be posted regularly on Eco-Vegan Gal. I'm thankful for the opportunity to write about this topic and I hope you found it inspiring and educational!

Read 20754 times Last modified on Monday, 10 June 2013 09:52