Dairy free zucchini and corn mini muffins

Having a child with multiple food allergies makes food really hard. I've been making all her food from scratch since she started on solids. To be honest I probably would've done that regardless of her food allergies, but the allergies have made it a lot more challenging. Because of this I've pretty much avoided baking for the last 18 months, but we're getting to the fussy eating toddler stage and I need to have an arsenal of different food up my sleeve to keep the food dodging toddler satisfied.

Bub is allergic to dairy, soy, eggs and a number of other foods so it makes baking difficult {which is why I've avoided it for so long}. However over the past few months I've found some great substitutes for all of these things and have started creating my own dairy, soy and egg free recipes so she can enjoy the same kind of foods as her friends. My most recent creation are these dairy free zucchini and corn mini muffins.

Two of the foods that bub's guaranteed to eat even at her fussiest are zucchini and corn and it just so happens that they go perfectly together so it was a no-brainer to combine them in a muffin. I've kept the recipe super simple with the least amount of ingredients necessary. You can of course add extra ingredients if you like {i.e. spring onion, spices or bacon}.

As an alternative to cow's milk we've been using oat milk as I find its gentler on her belly and it doesn't sweeten the food. You could also use unsweetened almond milk or rice milk. It took me a while to find a substitute for cheese, but I finally found Bio Cheese which is based on coconut oil {its also soy free}. You can make these as proper muffins, but because bub wouldn't eat an entire muffin in one go I made them in patty cake pans.

INGREDIENTS

- 1 medium zucchini {grated}
- ½ cup corn kernels
- 1 cup grated bio cheese 
- 2 cups self-raising flour
- 1 cup oat milk
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 eggs beaten {using egg replacer powder}

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius. Line patty cake pans with paper cases

2. Combine zucchini, corn, cheese and flour in a large bowl.

3. Mix milk, oil and egg replacer in a jug until well combined. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour the liquid into it. Gently stir all ingredients together until they're just combined.

4. Fill patty cases half way. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.


They can be served warm or cold and are great as a snack for morning tea or afternoon tea. They can also be frozen for up to 3 months {just wrap each muffin in cling wrap and seal in a sandwich bag}. One batch made 18 mini muffins which will be more than a months supply for us so I've frozen ours and just re-heat them in the microwave when she wants one.