Recipe: Blueberry Flax Muffins
15 June 2020 01:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
runpunkrun posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
gluten_freeYet another recipe for blueberry muffins, this one with flax meal. Soft and sweet with a wonderful whole-grain taste, these muffins dome up beautifully with a golden brown crust and can be eaten out of hand without falling to pieces. They're currently my favorite blueberry muffin. Adapted from Gluten-Free Goddess's Blueberry Flax Muffins.
Ingredients:
1 cup almond flour (95 grams)
1/2 cup sorghum flour (65 grams)
1/2 cup potato starch (100 grams)
1/4 cup flax seed meal (30 grams)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (optional...? see notes)
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 cup brown sugar, packed (150 grams)
1/2 cup neutral flavored oil
3 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (~300 grams)
Time: Around 20 minutes of prep and 25 minutes of cooking. No special tools or skills required, though you may want to use a mixer.
Instructions:
0. If using fresh blueberries, rinse them off, then place them on a clean kitchen towel and gently rub them dry. Or just let them sit there for a while if they're too delicate for that treatment. If you're using frozen, defrost them first or the muffins won't cook in the center.
1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line 16 muffin holes with muffin papers. I like to use parchment paper muffin cups.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sorghum and almond flours, potato starch, flax meal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum. Smash up any lumps in your flour.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together your eggs, brown sugar, oil, applesauce, and vanilla extract.
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients in your large bowl. The batter will be thin to start with. Give it some vigorous stirs until it's noticeably thickened. This is the xanthan gum doing its work, and it means your blueberries will be less likely to sink. Should take under a minute of stirring, but use a mixer if you need to.
5. Gently stir in your blueberries.
6. Scoop your batter into the muffin cups. I put a heaping (on account of the blueberries) 1/4 cup in each. These rise a lot in the oven, so don't fill them to the top, leave about a 1/4 inch of space.
7. Bake muffins in the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes, giving the pan a turn after 15 minutes. These brown beautifully, but quickly, so keep an eye on them toward the end of their baking time. The first time I made them, they took 25 minutes, and if I had spent even a second longer checking my email, they would have been real golden brown when I finally returned to the oven. But as it was they were just perfect. If the tops are getting brown but they're still not done inside (sticking them with toothpick will give you an idea of how wet they are in the center), gently cover the pan with a sheet of aluminum foil for the remaining baking time.
8. Remove from oven and let the muffins sit in the pan for a couple of minutes, then remove to a rack to cool. I eat mine hot from the oven and they're delicious. (Caution: May contain burning hot blueberries.)
9. Store in an air-tight container on the counter for a day or two, or freeze. For best results let frozen muffins thaw naturally, then gently warm in the toaster oven before eating. Or defrost and then give them a little zap in the microwave, like 15 seconds.
Makes 14-18 muffins, depending on the size and amount of your blueberries.
Notes: Measurements in grams are mine. I ran out of potato starch once, and went with half potato & half tapioca (83 grams total), and it was fine. I've used avocado oil and light olive oil for the fat.
2 cups of blueberries is an optimistic measure. If your berries are big, they won't fit in the muffins; there's just not enough batter. So anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 cups is acceptable. I prefer to use fresh in these because frozen bleed too much purple into the batter and dingy muffins make me sad. But frozen still works, just be sure to defrost them first or your muffins won't cook so great in the centers due to all the coldness. I say this as someone who never defrosts their fruit before baking, and who, in this instance, regretted it.
If you're looking to swap out some flours, consult the original recipe first as Karina offers some options that I eliminated due to not having tried them myself.
Gum Free: I made these a couple of times without the xanthan gum, and the muffins themselves hold together fine, but they don't rise as much and all the blueberries end up at the bottom. And since these muffins are heavy on the blueberries, things get a little swampy down there. They're still delicious. It's just it's more like a blueberry upside-down cake at that point. 1/4 tsp xanthan creates a slightly more stable muffin, but the 1/2 tsp gives the best results.
Variations: I have a note here from myself that suggests I try a cranberry/orange version, which sounds like an excellent idea. The cranberries would definitely cut the sweetness of the muffin.
Questions? Ask 'em!
Ingredients:
1 cup almond flour (95 grams)
1/2 cup sorghum flour (65 grams)
1/2 cup potato starch (100 grams)
1/4 cup flax seed meal (30 grams)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (optional...? see notes)
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 cup brown sugar, packed (150 grams)
1/2 cup neutral flavored oil
3 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (~300 grams)
Time: Around 20 minutes of prep and 25 minutes of cooking. No special tools or skills required, though you may want to use a mixer.
Instructions:
0. If using fresh blueberries, rinse them off, then place them on a clean kitchen towel and gently rub them dry. Or just let them sit there for a while if they're too delicate for that treatment. If you're using frozen, defrost them first or the muffins won't cook in the center.
1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line 16 muffin holes with muffin papers. I like to use parchment paper muffin cups.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sorghum and almond flours, potato starch, flax meal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum. Smash up any lumps in your flour.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together your eggs, brown sugar, oil, applesauce, and vanilla extract.
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients in your large bowl. The batter will be thin to start with. Give it some vigorous stirs until it's noticeably thickened. This is the xanthan gum doing its work, and it means your blueberries will be less likely to sink. Should take under a minute of stirring, but use a mixer if you need to.
5. Gently stir in your blueberries.
6. Scoop your batter into the muffin cups. I put a heaping (on account of the blueberries) 1/4 cup in each. These rise a lot in the oven, so don't fill them to the top, leave about a 1/4 inch of space.
7. Bake muffins in the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes, giving the pan a turn after 15 minutes. These brown beautifully, but quickly, so keep an eye on them toward the end of their baking time. The first time I made them, they took 25 minutes, and if I had spent even a second longer checking my email, they would have been real golden brown when I finally returned to the oven. But as it was they were just perfect. If the tops are getting brown but they're still not done inside (sticking them with toothpick will give you an idea of how wet they are in the center), gently cover the pan with a sheet of aluminum foil for the remaining baking time.
8. Remove from oven and let the muffins sit in the pan for a couple of minutes, then remove to a rack to cool. I eat mine hot from the oven and they're delicious. (Caution: May contain burning hot blueberries.)
9. Store in an air-tight container on the counter for a day or two, or freeze. For best results let frozen muffins thaw naturally, then gently warm in the toaster oven before eating. Or defrost and then give them a little zap in the microwave, like 15 seconds.
Makes 14-18 muffins, depending on the size and amount of your blueberries.
Notes: Measurements in grams are mine. I ran out of potato starch once, and went with half potato & half tapioca (83 grams total), and it was fine. I've used avocado oil and light olive oil for the fat.
2 cups of blueberries is an optimistic measure. If your berries are big, they won't fit in the muffins; there's just not enough batter. So anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 cups is acceptable. I prefer to use fresh in these because frozen bleed too much purple into the batter and dingy muffins make me sad. But frozen still works, just be sure to defrost them first or your muffins won't cook so great in the centers due to all the coldness. I say this as someone who never defrosts their fruit before baking, and who, in this instance, regretted it.
If you're looking to swap out some flours, consult the original recipe first as Karina offers some options that I eliminated due to not having tried them myself.
Gum Free: I made these a couple of times without the xanthan gum, and the muffins themselves hold together fine, but they don't rise as much and all the blueberries end up at the bottom. And since these muffins are heavy on the blueberries, things get a little swampy down there. They're still delicious. It's just it's more like a blueberry upside-down cake at that point. 1/4 tsp xanthan creates a slightly more stable muffin, but the 1/2 tsp gives the best results.
Variations: I have a note here from myself that suggests I try a cranberry/orange version, which sounds like an excellent idea. The cranberries would definitely cut the sweetness of the muffin.
Questions? Ask 'em!
Re: Are You Drafting Your PhD Thesis on <em> Vaccinium corymbosum</em>?
Date: 2020-06-15 10:37 pm (UTC)