Gluten Free, Vegan Dosti Roti (Trini Style)

The instructions are lengthy and may seem intimidating. In real time, it is much easier, many of the steps are simply repetitive. Of course as with everything the more you do it the less challenging it becomes.

Gluten Free, Vegan Dosti Roti

Ingredients

For the roti

2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Homemade Wonderful Bread Mix*

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp instant yeast

½ tsp sugar (optional but helps with the taste)

¼ cup vegetable oil (I use coconut)

¾ – 1 cup warm water (or more)

tapioca flour for dusting (any other finely ground GF flour or starch will work)

*Thus far this particular blend of flour yields the best result for making gluten free roti

For shaping the dough

¼ cup butter softened**

¼ cup vegetable oil (I use coconut)

¼ cup + 1 tbsp flour

oil for your hands to help with shaping the dough

**I use vegan butter or margarine, you can use regular butter if you wish

Directions

Combine the bread mix and the baking powder. Sift into a bowl. Add the sugar and yeast to the sifted flour blend, mix to combine

Add the oil and ¾ cup of the warm water. Either by hand or with a mixer knead the dough until it holds together and is fairly smooth. The dough should be sticky but not stiff, nothing like regular roti dough which is drier and very smooth. Add more water, a little at a time to achieve the right consistency, you may need more water than is specified in the recipe. The more water you can add before the dough becomes impossible to handle the better. Working with wet or oiled hands will help. Leave the dough to rest for about 15 minutes Lightly flour your work surface. I use a silpat mat but parchment paper is an option. With wet hands pinch off pieces of dough to form 6 balls. It may be best to work with smaller pieces until you get accustomed to working with gluten free dough.

Knead and roll the dough lightly around on the floured surface to form a smooth ball. Use a light touch and as little flour as possible. Add a little oil to the palm of your hands and rub over the ball of dough. Set aside on a greased surface or bowl. Repeat the process with the remaining pieces of dough. Cover the rounds with oiled plastic wrap and a warm tea cloth. Leave to rest for at least ½ hour

Once the dough has rested, heat a tawa to moderate. Just before cooking the first roti, you can “season” the tawa by spreading a thin coating of oil, wipe away excess with a paper towel. This should be the only time you need to do. Your roti will not cook properly if the tawa is not pre-heated.

Combine the softened butter and the oil, stir to mix well. Divide the mixture in 2. To one half add the ¼ cup + 1 tbsp flour and mix to form a thick paste. Set both mixtures aside

Keeping the remaining pieces covered, on a lightly floured surface gently roll out one of the dough balls to about ½ inch thick. Turn the dough occasionally and add a little flour at a time to prevent the dough from sticking to the surface or tearing. I work with a diameter of no less than 8” per roti. I also try to roll out the roti as thin as possible, this gets easier with practice. Ensure that the roti is easy to pick up before continuing. Leave the roti where it is and repeat these steps with another piece of dough. Try to roll out the 2nd piece to around the same size as the 1st, I work on 2 silpat mats for this and I use the mat to flip the roti unto the palm of my hands instead of picking it up (try parchment paper). On one piece of the rolled out roti, use the back of a spoon (less tearing) to spread enough of the butter/oil/flour paste to cover the surface completely. Place the other roti on top, lightly sealing the edges.

Place the dosti roti on the tawa to cook. At this stage, I am usually able to increase the size of the roti a bit by stretching the edges outward. Use the back of a spoon to lightly spread some of the butter and oil mix on top of the roti. The roti will begin to swell on the top and between the 2 layers. Once the edges are set and the roti has pulled away from the tawa, flip and cook the other side. Brush this side with a bit of the oil and butter mixture

Once the roti has finished cooking stack on a plate, place a piece of parchment paper between each roti to prevent them from sticking together. Cover the roti as you stack with a warm tea towel or two.

The roti is best served warm. To store wrap and freeze immediately as it's cooled. Reheat and serve at once.

Gluten Free Vegan "Trini" Coconut Sweet Bread Muffin

I'm breaking a few traditional rules here but I'm allowed since this recipe is both gluten free and vegan. The truth is you can use the recipe as a guide to make the sweetbread just the way you like it. You can grate the coconut, buy grated coconut, blend the coconut until fine, whatever is your preference you can incorporate it here. The result will always be tasty if not perfect. The things to look out for would be the amount of liquid you need (more than what you would normally use) and how much leavening (baking powder or baking soda) is optimum. The flour blend you use will also affect the end result. A bread flour mix, may need more water and leavening than a cake mix. Don't let these details stop you from trying the recipe, you can only perfect it with practice (1/2 a recipe is just fine for a practice run). If you try the recipe, I would appreciate your feedback.

Gluten Free Vegan Trini Coconut Sweetbread

Ingredients

Coconut Crumb Topping

(this recipe can easily be doubled for more topping)

¼ cup sugar ¼ cup water ¼ cup very finely grated coconut pinch of salt (optional)

Coconut

70 g of fresh coconut cut into small pieces (about ¼ of a large coconut)

½ cup water

Note: If you are using freshly grated coconut or pre-packaged grated coconut or flakes (unsweetened), you will need about 1/3 cup. Add the ½ cup of water (or milk if you like), to the dry ingredients along with the flax mixture and add the coconut along with the dried fruit

Muffin

2 tbsp flaxmeal

½ cup sugar (or more to preference)

½ cup water

2 cups gluten free flour blend

1 tsp xanthan gum (omit if it is in your flour blend)

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

½ cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

½ cup of dried mix fruit & raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with baking cups

To prepare the coconut

I opted to blend the coconut instead of grating. That way you can use the coconut milk from blending. Add the ½ cup of water and the fresh coconut to a food processor and blend until the coconut is chopped into smaller pieces (somewhat chunky or whatever you prefer). Set aside. See my note above if you do not want to blend the coconut.

To make the coconut crumb topping:

This is not a lot of topping so you will have to watch this mixture carefully

In a small saucepan dissolve the sugar in the water and bring up to a rolling boil. Reduce until it reaches the consistency of a thick syrup. Add the salt if using and stir in the grated coconut. Allow most of the liquid to dry off. If you're familiar with Caribbean sugar cake, the final mix will resemble a loose crumbly version of this.

To make the muffins

To your mixing bowl add the flax meal, ½ cup of water and the sugar. Whip, beat or mix until slightly thickened. Turn off the mixer or stop beating and leave to rest for about 5 minutes

Combine the flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, set aside

Resume mixing or beating the flax and sugar mix gradually adding the oil. Whip until the oil is fully incorporated and the mixture lightens in colour. Mix in the vanilla extract and the apple cider vinegar

Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add the flax mixture and the coconut milk blend. Mix by hand until combined. The batter should be like a regular muffin batter and not as thick as regular sweetbread. Add more water, a little at a time if needed, to get this consistency

Add the dried fruit and stir gently to distribute throughout the batter

Fill each muffin cup to 2/3 with batter. Sprinkle the tops with the coconut crumb topping. Bake until light golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean about 12 to 15 minutes

Turn out muffins onto a wire rack, and let cool completely

Red Velvet Blender Donuts (gluten free & vegan)

To make these donuts follow my recipe for regular Chocolate Blender Donuts with the following changes to the ingredients:

........use only 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder ........omit the coffee ........increase the vanilla extract to 2 tsp ........add red gel color (to your preference)

Gluten Free, Vegan Red Velvet Donuts