Gluten Free Sour Cherry & Ginger Scones

The one problem with going on "vacation" to your mom's house? Being wrangled into picking the year's crop of sour cherries at 7am on a Sunday while still in your pajamas. The reward, you know, besides spending quality time with your mom, being the return home with a pound of perfectly red cherries. Tiny, tart, and bright red, sour cherries have a short season at the end of June through beginning of July depending on where you are in the country. They're not as sour as you'd think and lend themselves well to just about everything - sauces, pies, jams, baked goods - but especially sweet things where their tartness has something to play against. The crop this year was impressive and a few days later I made my way home with pot full of them sitting in my passenger's seat and no ideas in my head on how to use them other than straight up eating them, which, you know, I did happily. After some deliberating I landed on scones because I was craving something cake-like but not too sweet... and hence, these gluten-free oat scones were born. Like their brethren the zucchini bread, I recommend eating these warm with plenty of grassfed butter (I like Kerrygold) and an inappropriately large mug of coffee. Because why not.

Gluten Free Sour Cherry & Ginger Scones

1 cup oat flour (use a coffee grinder to make your own from rolled oats)

1 cup oats

1/3 cup coconut sugar

2 + 1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground ginger

Generous pinch of sea salt

1/3 cup solid coconut oil or chilled grassfed butter

1 egg

2 tbsp almond milk

1 cup pitted sour cherries (read tips below)

1 tsp freshly grated ginger

1/4 cup almond flour or extra oat flour, for dusting

Tools: Baking sheet, parchment paper, large bowl, small bowl, pastry cutter or fork

Before you do anything, pit the cherries. You can use a cherry pitter, but I've found the fastest, least wasteful, and easiest way is to just squeeze out the pits over a bowl. Place the cherries in the bowl with any juice that may squeeze out and toss the pits in a cup before discarding.

Preheat your oven to 400 F and line the baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix together the oat flour, oats, coconut sugar, baking powder, ginger, and salt in a large bowl until well combined. Use a fork to cut in the solid oil or cold butter until the mixture resembles cornmeal.

Whisk the egg and almond milk together in a small bowl. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Fold in the cherries and the grated ginger.

Dust a cutting board with some almond flour or extra oat flour and turn out the dough. Pat the dough into two large hockey pucks and place on the parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake until golden, about 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.

Remove from the oven and, while still warm, carefully cut into sections with a sharp knife. Cool on a wire rack (or eat immediately, I won't blame you if you do). Enjoy!

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Gluten Free Zucchini Bread

Remember how great it felt to be signed out of school early? Seeing the world as it existed mid-day, like you were getting away with something when, really, you were probably off to see the doctor or dentist. Zucchini bread will always remind me of that feeling. Ritual is a funny thing. We all have ours, whether we're aware of them or not, they sneak their way into our subconscious, begging to be repeated or calling to mind certain deep-seeded memories. When I was a kid, from middle school and on through high school, whenever my mom would need to pick me up mid-day, we'd always stop at the same country store for a juice and a slice of their homemade zucchini bread.

With zucchini season here, I felt inspired on a recent Sunday to recreate this old favorite using (I'm assuming) healthier ingredients. Oat flour is my favorite gluten-free, whole-food flour to bake with these days and while it doesn't work with every recipe, it was perfect for this recipe. Combined with the applesauce, it made for a super moist and dense quickbread that just begged to be toasted and covered with good quality butter. Chris even liked it, which is saying something. Enjoy!

Gluten Free Zucchini Bread

1 cup grated zucchini, packed (about 1 small-ish zucchini)

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup applesauce

1 tbsp melted coconut oil

1/4 tsp grated fresh ginger

1/4 tsp grated fresh orange peel

1  3/4 cups oat flour (to make oat flour, place oats in a blender or coffee grinder and blend until powdered)

1/2 cup dry sweetener (sugar, coconut sugar)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

generous pinch of salt

1/4 cup raisins (optional, you could also try adding nuts or chocolate chips)

Sunflower seeds

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease bottom and sides of a loaf pan. Line the bottom with a square of parchment paper and sprinkle in a few sunflowers seeds.

2. Add all wet ingredients to your food processor and pulse until well mixed.

3. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together all dry ingredients, except for raisins and sunflower seeds.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix with a wooden spoon until just incorporated. Toss in the raisins and mix lightly.

5. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and sprinkle sunflower seeds over top. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm and slathered in (preferably grass fed) butter (I like Kerrygold but really, any kind of butter will do).