Welcoming Kitchen’s Gluten Free Vegan Apple Coffee Cake with Chia Seeds
23Piggies! It is DAY 23 of Gluten Free Baking with KitchenAid, and we begin the last week of KitchenAid Stand Mixer Giveaway Mania with this fantastic gluten free, vegan crunchy topped apple coffee cake from the DIVINE Kim Lutz and Megan Hart from Welcoming Kitchen. If you are living with multiple food allergies, this amazing website will be a LIFESAVER for you and your family. All of the delicious recipes that Kim and Megan share are free of the eight common allergens (dairy, eggs, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, fish, and shellfish), and are gluten-free, and vegan. WOO HOO! I swear this site is a GOLD MINE! I call these ladies the "dynamic duo" because they do AMAZING things together in the food allergic community.
These ladies both live in Chicago, and in addition to running Welcoming Kitchen, they have co-authored three incredible books together: Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen and Gluten-free Recipes (Sterling Publishing, 2011), The Everything Organic Cooking for Infants & Toddlers Book (Adams Media, 2008), and The Everything Guide to Cooking for Children with Autism (Adams Media, 2010). I first came into contact with Kim Lutz when we both became regular contributors to The Balanced Platter earlier this year, and after exchanging dozens of emails, I was thrilled to finally spend time with her at the Nourished Gluten Free Food Blogger's Conference in Chicago a week ago. We ate lunch together, we ate dinner together, we drove home together, and I still found myself craving more of this lovely lady's company. I ADOOOOORE Kim! She is one of the loveliest people I have ever met in my entire life!
So who is Kim Lutz? Kim is a vegan mom, cook, author, and recipe developer. Since her son was diagnosed with multiple food allergies several years ago, she has developed hundreds of delicious allergy free, gluten free vegan recipes. Kim and her recipes have been featured on WGN-TV, Chicago Sun-Times, VegNews, Mothering Magazine, Chicago Parent, and many other websites. Kim's partner in crime, Megan, is a registered dietitian, and is a senior clinical nutritionist at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She has over ten years of pediatric nutrition experience working with many special needs populations including food allergies, celiac disease, cystic fibrosis, gastrointestinal diseases and oncology.
So, to say these ladies offer a wealth of information and experience working with food allergies is an understatement. There are SO many INCREDIBLE recipes on the Welcoming Kitchen blog, and in Kim and Megan's three books. Kim gave me a signed copy of Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen and Gluten-free Vegan Recipes, and I am literally making my way through every single recipe before I give it to my sister to cook for my niece, Alexandra, who suffers from multiple food allergies. Kim's book will be a LIFELINE for them! I am thrilled to report that this book was recently announced as a Nautilus Silver Award Winner in the Food/Cooking/Healthy Eating category. Congratulations!!!!
I could rave on and on about Kim and her website, but I will let one of her delicious gluten free vegan recipes speak for her incredible talents in allergy free recipe development. This apple coffee cake is DIVINE! This is really different, and has a salty-sweet flavour. The apples add a lovely sweetness and a delightful moisture to this treat that is gluten free, dairy free, egg free, nut free, soy free and vegan! I love the use of chia seeds in this recipe too. Aren't those little beads of joy a gluten free vegan baker's best friend? WOW!
The only thing that topped meeting Kim was when I got to tell her she won the Vitamix in the conference giveaway! When they announced it, she was chatting away obliviously in the corner, and I could NOT resist the opportunity to run up and deliver the good news! It was SO exciting, as she had been telling me ALL day about how much she wanted one! Since we left each other, she has entertained me with stories of her Vitamix journey on Twitter and I could not be more thrilled for her!
Kim, I look forward to more fun times together in the future. Thank you for sharing this delectable recipe. You ROCK!
Learn more about Kim's recipe in her original blog post.
Discover more about Kim Lutz and Megan Hart at Welcoming Kitchen.
Follow them on Twitter and Facebook.
Welcoming Kitchen’s Gluten Free Vegan Apple Coffee Cake with Chia Seeds
- chia seed mixture
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 Tbsp chia seeds
- pepita topping
- 1/2 cup pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds)
- cake ingredients
- 2 cups gluten-free baking flour mix (Kim used King Arthur)
- 1/2 cup rice milk
- 1/2 cup vegan buttery spread (soy free Earth Balance)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp coconut palm sugar, divided
- 3/4 tsp salt, divided in half
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp gluten free baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- add ins
- 1 1/2 cup 1/2-inch diced, peeled apples
- Preheat oven to 180 / 350.
- Lightly oil an 8-inch-square baking pan.
- Combine the chia seeds and water in a small bowl and set aside.
- Lightly toast the pepitas in a dry skillet for approximately one minute or until lightly golden.
- In a food processor, pulse together the pepitas, 2 tablespoons coconut palm sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
- In your stand mixer, cream together the earth balance, 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar and maple syrup.
- Mix in the chia seed mixture and vegan milk.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg using a whisk.
- Mix dry ingredients into wet, one half at a time until well incorporated.
- Gently fold in the apples.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth the top with a damp spatula.
- Spread the pepita mixture over top.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. YUMMO!
Learn more about Kim's recipe in her original blog post.
Discover more about Kim Lutz and Megan Hart at Welcoming Kitchen.
Follow them on Twitter and Facebook.
Piggy Cooking Tips
Easily Remove Cakes from tins
If you leave a cake too long in a greased tin, it can be difficult to remove. A really easy way to ensure a cake slides right out of a greased tin is to run the bottom of the tin over a very low flame on the stove top. This will melt the fat that was used to initially grease the tin and the cake will slide right out.
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Piggy Grunts!
Add Your GruntAlta,
I hope you like it. It’s not too sweet and a little salty. The pepitas are one of my favorite nut stand-ins, since we can’t have them at our house.
mmm… I can smell all those lovely spices now. I really should get off my duff and make something from your cookbook. I mean, I’ve bought two! Silly me. Seriously, spices and palm sugar make everything better.
Yep! Spices and palm sugar…......HEAVEN!
I LOVE Kim’s book too! I am making my way through it now…...
Laurel,
Thanks for buying the book! I agree, there’s not much better than the smells of cinnamon and nutmeg baking!
This looks so yummy that I just bought her book before even trying it yet!
Oh! That is SOOO great!
I really love that book! SO many great recipes!
Another awesome addition to my little girl’s snack box!!!! I love these and have added Welcoming Kitchen to my bookmarks and reading. Thanks Tess for teaming up with all these other wonderful resources for us. Yummo!!!!
I hope your daughter likes it as much as my boys do. They’ve been gobbling this up for the past couple of days!
It is a PLEASURE!
I am so glad you are enjoying all of the recipes!
Oh yummy! I love Apple Coffee Cake! Ok, I feel like I’m gaining weight just from reading all these yummy recipes… ;)
LOL! I HAVE gained 5 pounds and counting from this month. But I have a smile on my face!
ENJOY! This cake is YUMMO!
It was so great to hang out with Kim and Megan at Nourished! You can’t help but smile when you’re with them. Kim was the PERFECT person to win the Vitamix!! Can’t wait to make this coffee cake. Love the use of pumpkin and chia seeds…so wholesome!
Kim, this recipe looks and sounds incredible. I’m allergic to pumpkin. Perhaps I can use pistachios for the same color. Looking forward to giving it a try very soon. My father is visiting for 2 1/2 weeks and loves pistachios. That will be perfect. Thanks for sharing!
Carla,
That’s a great idea. We use pepitas because my son is allergic to nuts, so it makes sense to make the switch the other way around :) You could also try sunflower seeds, too.
Yes! YUM! This cake is SOOO good!
My sister made it last night and was in HEAVEN!
Sunflower seeds are a great sub. Thanks so much!
This is terrific! I can totally imagine how good its smell. I bet this one is amazing!
Thanks for sharing.
Kim’s recipes ARE amazing. Definitely try this one. YUMMO!
This looks SO good. My tummy is saying I should go make this RIGHT NOW. Love that you topped it with pepitas.
Alta - this is SOOOO good! ENJOY!