In the winter, I find myself missing homemade blueberry muffins.  I love the taste of a blueberry muffin in the summer, packed with freshly picked huge blueberries from my in-laws’ farm in Linden, VA.  While we do freeze blueberries so we can make muffins after the season, those remnants of summer are usually long gone by the time December rolls around.  Recently I was craving some kind of breakfast muffin but I didn’t want to use flavorless fruit that had traveled thousands of miles to get to me.  I also wanted to create something in my kitchen that involved the least amount of grocery shopping.  Isn’t it so nice when you realize you already own every ingredient you need for a certain recipe?

I had some beautiful north Georgia apples in my fruit bowl and I thought perhaps I could use those in some kind of baked good.  I was envisioning apple pie meets blueberry muffins.  Yum.  These apples inspired me, as did a whole wheat apple muffin recipe from Smitten Kitchen.  Of course I had to omit the whole wheat flour from Smitten Kitchen’s recipe, and replace it with other flour concoctions.  These muffins turned out so well, in fact they might be some of the yummiest muffins I’ve made.  The chunks of apples added great texture and the teff and amaranth flour were a great compliment to the apples.  I actually think those flours might even be better than the whole wheat and all-purpose flour combination in the original recipe.

A word of warning, these muffins were a little difficult to transport because they were so moist and delicious.  I had extras so I refrigerated them and they tasted fresh for the remainder of the week.  Great for breakfast or with tea in the afternoon.

Teff & Amaranth Apple Muffins (Adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup white rice flour
• ½ cup brown rice flour
• ¼ cup teff flour
• ¼ cup amaranth flour
• ¼ cup almond flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
• ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup plain yogurt (or buttermilk)
• 2 large apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 450.  Grease and lightly flour 18 muffin cups.  (I used rice flour.)

Mix together the flours, baking powder, xanthan gum, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.  Set aside.  In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and ¼ of the cup of brown sugar.  Beat until fluffy.  Add the egg and mix well.  Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl once.  Mix in the yogurt gently.  Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the pieces of apple.

Put batter into muffin cups in a muffin pan.  Sprinkle the remaining brown sugar on top of the muffins.  (I sprinkle liberally because the brown sugar is delicious on top.)

Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400 and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes.  They are done when you can insert a toothpick into the center and it comes out clean.  Cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then put on a wire cooling rack.

These apple muffins make a great component for a brunch and you can make them a few days in advance.  Enjoy!

As I head out for the holidays, I thought I’d leave you with one more delicious cookie recipe to add to your holiday baking.  Their name is a mouthful, but I promise that the flavors go perfectly together.

I found these cinnamon ginger chocolate chip cookies on http://www.gfzing.com/ and I was immediately intrigued by the use of cinnamon and ginger in this recipe.  The recipe reminded me of snickerdoodles, but even better because they have chocolate chips!  I made some changes, but used the original recipe as my guide.  These cookies have been very popular among all of my gluten-eating friends and I’m making a big batch for the holidays.  David said this was a really good flour combination too so I might try it with some other cookie recipes to see how it works in my other baking endeavors.

I love the texture of these cookies because they’ve been rolled in sugar.  Yum!  I also tried refrigerating some of the dough for a couple of days and then using it to make a batch of cookies and it worked just fine.  The cookies came out a little smaller after their three days in the fridge, but the taste was still delicious!

Cinnamon Ginger Chocolate Chip Cookies (From www.gfzing.com)

Ingredients;

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Flour Mixture (2 Cups)

• ¼ cup almond flour
• ¾ cup white rice flour
• ¼ cup corn starch
• ½ cup brown rice flour
• ¼ cup sorghum flour

Sugar for rolling dough

Preheat oven to 375.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a bowl, combine flours, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, salt and xanthan gum.

In a separate bowl, with a mixer, cream butter, sugars, and vanilla.  Add egg and mix.

Add the dry mix to the mixer and blend with wet ingredients until blended.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Put sugar in a bowl.  Form 1-inch balls of dough and roll them each in the sugar.  Place on cookie sheet and flatten each cookie a little.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from oven, let rest for 5 minutes on pan before transferring cookies to a wire rack.

Enjoy!  These are a fun twist to your normal chocolate chip cookes.  For some reason, cinnamon reminds me of the holidays so I find that this recipe has a festive touch without being overly sprinkled or topped with gobs of icing.  Have a wonderful and healthy holiday.

I love Christmas.  There are many parts of Christmas that I love, but three of my favorite parts of this holiday season are decorating the tree, making holiday cookies, and Christmas music.  David has decided this year that we should have a new holiday tradition that involves him putting the lights on the tree while I make cookies and then he eats cookies, while I put on the ornaments.  I’m happy with this ‘newly created tradition’ as long as we listen to Christmas music too!  Since the night of tree decorating, I’ve been baking a lot and exploring new cookie recipes, so I thought I’d share some of my cookie experiments with you.

I recently received Nigella Lawson’s new Christmas cookbook.  This is a great seasonal cookbook with lots of great entertaining ideas, and I particularly like the section called ‘All Wrapped Up’ that has great gift ideas, many a which are gluten-free.  While there are definitely some naturally gluten-free recipes in this cookbook, I decided to dive right in and work on making gluten-free versions of her cookie recipes.  My first cookie recipe was Nigella’s cranberry and white chocolate cookies.

These cookies make great holiday treats because they look like Christmas to me.  The red from the cranberry and white from the chocolate chips are festive but not too ‘Christmasy.’  I love the combination of dried fruit, chocolate, chocolate and pecans.  Trail mix in a cookie!  Even if you don’t like fruit in your dessert, I suggest giving these a try.  Everyone who ate these thought they were delicious, despite those who were hesitant about mixing fruit and chocolate.

I kept Nigella’s recipe exactly as is but changed the flour mixture and added xanthan gum.  I don’t usually like nuts in my sweets so I didn’t use as many pecans as Nigella called for, but I will actually use some the full ½ cup the next time I make these cookies.  This recipe works well gluten-free because it only calls for one cup of flour, resulting in fewer components of the cookie needing to be altered.  These are great for a holiday party and can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days or frozen for 3 months so you can make them in advance.  Enjoy!

Nigella Lawson’s Cranberry and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup white rice flour
• ¼ cup brown rice flour
• ¼ cup sorghum flour
• ¼ cup soy flour
• ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup gluten-free oats (Nigella says to use ‘quick cooking oats’ but I just used Bob’s Red Mill)
• 1 stick plus one tablespoon unsalted butter
• ½ cup packed dark brown sugar
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon GF vanilla extract
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• ½ cup roughly chopped pecans
• ¾ cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Measure the flour, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum, and oats in a bowl.

Put the butter and sugars into another bowl and beat together until creamy.  (I used an electric mixer.)  Then beat in the egg and vanilla.

Beat in the dry ingredient mixture, then fold in the cranberries, chocolate chips and pecans.

Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into balls with your hands, then place them on you cookie sheet and squish dough balls down with a fork.

Bake for 15 minutes; when ready, the cookies will be too soft to lift immediately so wait 5 minutes before moving to a wire cooling rack.

What will you be baking this holiday season?  If you don’t have time or ingredients to bake, I’m still baking away and taking cookie orders.

My friend, Kelly, threw this recipe together one afternoon for her toddler who is gluten intolerant.  Kelly sent it to me and I made them the next day.  So easy and even my gluten-eating friends said they taste like real snickerdoodles.  Pamela’s Baking Mix is a great item to have in your cabinet for days like this, when you don’t feel like creating your own flour mix.

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup Pamela’s Baking Mix
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• Additional cinnamon and sugar for dipping dough

Mix butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until blended.  Add egg and mix.  Add dry ingredients and mix.  Refrigerate dough for 10 minutes.

Make a cinnamon-sugar (1/4 part cinnamon to 1 part sugar) mixture in a bowl.  Make your dough into round balls and dip the dough-balls in to the cinnamon-sugar mixture before placing on baking sheet.

Bake at 375 for about 8 minutes.  Mine were perfectly fluffy, yet crispy at the edges.

This is a great recipe if you need to make a large batch of cookies and they travel well because you don’t have to worry about melting chocolate.  Definitely satisfies my sweet tooth.

Enjoy!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, full of good (gluten-free) food, no contamination, and time with family and friends.  David and I had a great time on the Eastern Shore with both of our families.  There were many highlights from our vacation on the Shore, and I loved getting to be in the kitchen with my family.  David cooked an incredible turkey on the grill that was unbelievable.  Alden made her famous pulled pork barbecue in the Dutch Oven for David’s birthday as well as the pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner. My mother-in-law, Elaine, brought her famous baked butternut squash for our Thanksgiving feast.  Mom treated us to delicious bacon, eggs and grits in the morning and made her skillet cornbread to go with chicken chili on Saturday night.  No one went hungry!

Over the vacation, I made some old favorites and experimented with new creations in the kitchen.  At the last minute I was inspired by Molly Wizenberg’s article, “Biscuits with a side of Nostalgia” in the December Bon Appetit.  In Wizenberg’s article she talks about her parents’ roots in Maryland and Virginia and how she grew up eating many ‘Virginia & Maryland foods,’ even though she grew up in Oklahoma.  Being away from Virginia this year, I became nostalgic myself as I read, thinking about all of the foods that come to mind when I think of Virginia.

The article included a recipe for sweet potato biscuits with Smithfield ham, which are quite possibly one of my favorite things, especially when I’m on the Eastern Shore.  I had not yet created a gluten-free sweet potato biscuit so I thought I’d give it a try for Thanksgiving.  We already had plenty of food so if the baking went horribly wrong, I knew no one would miss them.  Also, my brother, Rob, loves bread, doughnuts, rolls, cake and all things gluten.  (I know he lives in fear that he will someday be diagnosed with celiac.)  Rob’s such a good sport about limiting his gluten intake at holiday meals so I wanted to create a biscuit that would help him not miss the gluten so much.

I used Wizenburg’s recipe as my outline for the recipe, but of course substituted different flour.  The biscuits were delicious.  All were consumed at Thanksgiving dinner except two, which I ate on the ride to the airport yesterday.  We ended up not putting Smithfield ham on these biscuits since we were already eating so much food.  These biscuits were definitely a worthwhile addition to any holiday meal or a great finger food at a holiday party.

Ingredients:

• 1 ¾ pound red-skinned sweet potato, peeled, cut into ½ inch cubes
• ¾ cup white rice flour*
• ¼ cup soy flour
• ½ cup tapioca flour
• ¼ cup almond flour
• 1 tablespoon (packed) dark brown sugar
• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 8 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch cubes, plus 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/3 cup chilled buttermilk

*If you want to make the gluten-version of these biscuits, just use 1 3/4 cups flour and omit the xanthan gum

Cook sweet potatoes in medium saucepan of boiling salted water until tender, 8 to 10 minutes.  Drain, cool and mash.

Position oven rack in lower third of oven.  Preheat to 425.  Butter bottom and sides of 9-inch cake plan with 1 ½ inch sides.  (I didn’t have this so I just used a cookie sheet.)

Whisk flour and rest of dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add cubed butter to flour mixture.  Toss to coat and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Whisk ¾ cup mashed sweet potatoes and buttermilk into a separate bowl.  Add to flour mixture and toss with fork.

Gather mixture in bowl, kneading until dough comes together.  Turn dough out onto floured work surface (I used rice flour for this) and pat dough until it’s about 1-inch thick.  Using 1 ½ inch round biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits, flouring cutter each time.  (I had to use a shot glass because we didn’t have any biscuit cutters.  It would have been better to have the actual cutter but this was a solid substitute.)

Gather scraps, cut out additional biscuits.  The recipe says not to do this more than once but I did it twice, and all of my biscuits turned out fine.

Arrange biscuits side by side in prepared cake pan.  Brush with melted butter.  Bake until puffed and golden on top, about 22 minutes.  (Mine only took 18 minutes but I think they were a little on the small side.  Keep an eye on yours as they cook.)  Turn biscuits out and gently pull them apart.

I made these earlier in the day and just reheated them before dinner.  If you want to serve as ham biscuits, use Dijon mustard and Smithfield ham.  Honey is also delicious with the ham and mustard combination.  These sweet potato biscuits were a huge hit at Thanksgiving dinner, even with Rob.  The entire weekend was perfect and great to be with our families.

After 5 days of delicious Thanksgiving food, birthday meals, and leftovers, tonight I’ll be enjoying my Kung Pao Chicken from Dinner A’ Fare.  Even those of us that love to cook, need a little break from the kitchen.  On Saturday night, as we were serving up the chicken chili and cornbread, my dad said, “I’m all cooked out.”  Yes, my dad said that.  I must agree though;  I’m “all cooked out.”  Well, at least for a couple of days.

This weekend I made brownies from scratch for the first time ever.  I must admit, I’ve been a little intimidated about going beyond dumping from a box, adding eggs and butter.  Also, I really like the Betty Crocker’s gluten-free brownie mix (just add extra chocolate chips!) so I hadn’t felt pressure to find a new, better brownie.

We were going to dinner at a friend’s house on Saturday night and the only component of the meal I was responsible for were the brownies.  I decided I would take the plunge and bake brownies from scratch.  I was skeptical of the time, energy, and even cost that was involved in making these brownies, but the final product was worth it!

The difference in taste between these brownies and “brownies in a box” was enormous and I felt like I was eating brownies from a high end bakery.  I still can’t compete with Tully’s Bakery, but I must admit they were pretty darn good and definitely better than any brownie I’ve ever made.

I used Virginia Willis’ recipe for Georgia Pecan Brownies from her Bon Appetit Y’All cookbook.  I didn’t use pecans because I don’t really like nuts in my brownies and I cut her recipe in half.  Of course I changed the flour as well.  Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

• ½ cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• ¾ cups flour (I used ¼ cup tapioca flour, ¼ c. brown rice flour & ¼ c. sorghum flour)
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder (I used Dagoba organic chocolate)
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 6 oz. nice semisweet dark chocolate (I used Scharffen Berger)

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9×9 or 8×8 baking pan.  (If you want to use a 9×13 in. pan then you should double the recipe.)

Cut chocolate into small pieces.  If you use a large, sharp knife, this works very easily and the chocolate sort of flakes off the bar.

Melt butter over medium heat.  Add sugar and stir into butter.  Keep warm.

Whisk in a bowl, flours, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

Add butter/sugar to bowl and combine.

Add eggs, chocolate and vanilla.  Stir until blended.

Pour batter into pan and cook for 20-25 minutes, depending on how gooey you like your brownies.

You’ll notice I did not use xanthan gum in this recipe.  I’ve recently met a few people with celiac that avoid xanthan gum so I wanted to try baking without the xanthan gum.  The brownies fell apart a little when I cut them because of the absence of xanthan gum, but they were still yummy.  I’d rather affect presentation over flavor any day.

Enjoy brownies with ice cream or by themselves.  These brownies are so flavorful that you don’t need a lot to get the chocolate satisfaction.  I promise you, it’s worth going beyond the box for these ones!  Of course I’ll still keep Betty Crocker and Pamela’s in my pantry too.

Peanut butter might be one of my favorite foods.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I eat it all the time.  It’s a great snack and goes well with many different foods: honey, jelly and of course, chocolate!

I love this cookie recipe, not only because it includes my favorite ingredient, but because it doesn’t require a mixer or fancy flour.  This recipe only requires four ingredients, and they’re all items that you might have in your pantry without having to make a trip to the store.  This recipe  makes at least 2 dozen cookies and are a huge hit with both gluten-free and non gluten-free eaters.  Perfect to take to a holiday event.  My friend, Ellie, always made these when I would come over to her house so they remind me of her!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg & 1 egg white
• ½ cup (or more) chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix peanut butter, sugar, baking soda and eggs until thoroughly combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Refrigerate cookie dough for 12 minutes.  Scoop chilled cookie dough into small balls and place on a greased baking sheet, 2 inches apart.  Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, or until top begins to brown.  (They may seem a little soft but will harden once they cool.)

Peanut Butter Cookies with Hershey’s Kisses

There are a few versions of this recipe.  One that my students loved used Hershey’s Kisses instead of chocolate chips.  Just make the batter and roll each dough ball in sugar.  Squish down balls with a fork.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and put a Hershey’s Kiss on top of each cookie.  Put in the oven for another 10 seconds.  Let cool.  (When making this recipe, sometimes I use a 1 teaspoon of baking powder in the mix.)  You can also make this recipe without Hershey’s Kisses and just have a peanut butter cookie.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Bacon

I also found another twist on this recipe by Joy the Baker.  This one calls for cooked, diced, bacon.  Sounds a little weird when you first hear about it, but these two foods are a great combination.  My grandmother introduced me to this flavor combination as a child.  She microwaves Ritz crackers, peanut butter and bacon and it makes a great appetizer.  I’m thinking about trying it with Glutino crackers because it was such a part of my childhood and a great snack!  Seriously, try it.

Check out Joy the Baker’s post for peanut butter bacon cookies.  It’s almost exactly the same as the previous recipes except with bacon instead of chocolate.

Enjoy!

This week I made multiple batches of cornbread.  In the past I’ve used Bob’s Red Mill’s cornbread mix, which I really enjoy, or made cornbread in the skillet but this week I decided to work on my baking skills and make corn bread from scratch.  I wish I could take credit for this recipe, but Gluten Free Girl, Shauna, came up with this one.  If you don’t know about Gluten-Free Girl, you should definitely check out her beautiful website!  Even if you eat gluten, you’ll still love it.

The corn bread was so delicious and beautiful.  This is also a great recipe if you’re trying to adopt a low-sugar diet.  I love the combination of honey, plain yogurt, and sour cream.  I do think it’s important to use nice honey in this recipe.  I used Hidden Springs Honey from Williamson, Georgia, sold in all varieties at The Local Farmstand.

Shauna’s Gluten-Free Cornbread

• ½ cup white rice flour
• ¼ cup tapioca flour
• ¼ cup sorghum flour
• ¾ cornmeal (I used Bob’s Red Mill Cornmeal)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons, rich high quality honey
• 2/3 cups plain, gluten free yogurt (I used Stonyfield)
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2 Tablespoons melted butter

Turn the oven and preheat to 400.  Grease a square or round baking pan with oil or butter.  (I tried one batch with butter and one with Pam and they were both fine.)

Mix gluten-free flours,  cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Set the bowl aside

Measure out the sour cream , yogurt, honey and melted butter.  Mix together.  Whisk in the eggs and beat together until blended.  Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and stir all ingredients until just blended.

Pour batter into the pan and bake for 19-20 minutes, until the top starts to brown a little, but not too much.

Enjoy warm.  This cornbread recipe reheats nicely too.  I prefer eating cornbread with honey to bring out the subtle sweetness.  I think this is one of the best cornbread recipes I’ve ever eaten.  Thick, but not to dense, I like the texture and the way the different ingredients taste together.  Perfect on a cold night with chicken chili or a summer barbecue.

I tried using a large, rectangular pan and doubling the recipe.  It worked perfectly and I only cooked the cornbread for an additional minute.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I’ve been wanting to experiment with seasonal, holiday recipes.  One of my all-time favorite holiday desserts is apple pie.  Apples are currently in season so I decided to experiment with a recipe borrowed from my celiac buddy, Anne, who made this delicious pie a few weeks ago.  She and I both used the Whole Foods Gluten Free Bakehouse pie crust which is so yummy and saves lots of time.  I keep vowing that I’m going to start making pie crust from scratch, but I haven’t quite gotten there yet.

I used fresh, north Georgia apples for my apple pie.  I didn’t stick to just one variety either.  You do want to use more tart varieties of apples when baking with apples, as opposed to golden delicious and red.

I tweaked Anne’s recipe a little bit, by adding some lemon juice to keep the apples tart, using a combination of flours and, adding more apples.  I can’t get enough apples in my apple pie!  The component of Anne’s recipe that I liked the most and made this pie unique was the use of chopped pecans on top.  The pecans add great texture and flavor to this dessert.  Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

Filling:

• 3-4 lbs. large apples of different varieties (you can see from the photos that my pie was quite tall because I used a lot of apples)
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon white rice flour
• 1 tablespoon tapioca flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Topping:

• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup almond flour
• ¼ cup rice flour
• ½ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup chopped pecans

Let Whole Foods pie crust get to room temperature.  Preheat oven to 350.

Peel, core and slice apples into ¼ inch slices and put in a bowl.  Add the other filling ingredients to the bowl and stir.  Put filling into pie crust.

Mix topping ingredients together, making sure that the butter starts to mash with other ingredients.  You can use a mixer if you’d prefer.  I didn’t but it might have made it a little easier.  Evenly spread this mixture onto the top of the pie filling.  (It will seem like a lot but it’s really not, as it will cook down.)

Bake in oven for 30 minutes, then turn down heat to 325 and bake for another 40 minutes.  Serve warm and with vanilla ice cream.  You can make the pie earlier in the day and even go ahead and bake it.  Just reheat it when ready to serve.  David and I found the leftovers to be even better than the first time we ate it.  Enjoy!

As the chilly weather persists, I find myself going back to the pantry and reaching for my canned pumpkin.  It’s the perfect ingredient for fall cooking and for those of us who are gluten-free, I find that pumpkin works well with gluten-free flour, adding flavor and good texture.  Last week I continued experimenting with pumpkin in the kitchen and made two versions of pumpkin muffins, a sweet and a savory.

I went to Sara Foster’s Fast, Easy, Fresh cookbook for baking guidance and used her pumpkin muffin recipe to create the basics for my batter.  I used the same amounts of ingredients that Sara Foster calls for, but once I made the batter, I split it in half, divided between two bowls.  In one batch I added a mix of semi-sweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips, to make my sweet muffins and for the other batter, I added golden raisins to make it savory.  (Feel free to substitute regular raisins for golden as the golden can be difficult to find.  I spent weeks looking for golden raisins and finally found them at Return to Eden and Wal-Mart.)

I knew that I was going to be doing a variety of entertaining over the weekend so I thought making two different types of muffin would allow me to use them throughout the weekend.  I used the chocolate chip muffins to serve with ice cream and chocolate sauce to celebrate a friend’s birthday.  I planned on using the savory muffins to serve with the Crockpot chicken chili I was making for dinner the next day.

Of course I also created my own flour mix and I think it worked well.  I’m a big fan of the almond flour and tapioca flour right now.  The rice flours add a good base to the mixture.

Foster’s cookbook says this recipe makes 12 large muffins but I ended up with 18 muffins.  (Mine were probably a little smaller than Foster’s, but still a nice size.)

Ingredients:

Flour Mix (total 3 cups):

• ½ cup potato starch
• ½ cup almond flour
• 1 cup white rice flour
• ½ cup tapioca flour
• ½ cup brown rice flour

Other Ingredients:

• ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree (1 ½ cups)
• 1 cup milk
• ¾ cup golden raisins and ¾ cup chocolate chips (or if you want to make just one batch of sweet or savory, double the amount of your desired ingredient)

Preheat the oven to 375.  Line muffin tins with liners and spray the top of the pan with Pam.

Combine the flour mix, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, stir the sugar, butter and eggs together.  Stir in the pumpkin puree and milk into the bowl and mix.  Pour into the bowl with the flour mixture and mix.  Once blended, you can separate the batter in half and add your raisins and/or chocolate chips.  (Note: I didn’t use a mixer for this recipe and the muffins turned out totally fine; the batter probably could have been blended a little better, but I didn’t notice a major difference.)

Scoop batter into muffin tins and bake on center rack for 25 minutes.  Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes in the tin before removing them and letting them completely cool on a wire rack.

These muffins are a perfect fall treat, and very versatile!  They were perfect for birthday entertaining, a cupcake without the icing but the chocolate sauce made up for that!  (I warmed the muffins up before serving so they went well with the ice cream and sauce.)

David didn’t love the golden raisins in the savory muffin and when I make them again, I’ll probably use fewer raisins.  I definitely think you can make the muffins plain too.  They tasted great with the chicken chili because the cooled down the spicy flavor of the chili.  I’ve been enjoying them all week and they freeze well too.  Great for an afternoon snack with coffee or tea.