Gluten-Free Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Will you look at these? They’re gluten free. I know!
I’m one of the lucky ones – one who can eat wheat and other gluten-y grains without my innards ganging up on me and holding a mutiny. But because there are so many who can’t, and because I was teaching a class on cooking for kids with allergies to a group of day care cooks, I wanted to tread into the waters of gluten-free baking. I was unsure of myself, and so looked to Shauna as a guide – she has navigated her way through I don’t know how many combinations of flours to produce everything from fluffy pancakes to flaky pastry without gluten, and she’s a brilliant writer besides. She loves food as passionately as anyone I know, not just settling for the gluten-free. I have written her blog address on I don’t know how many scraps of paper and napkins for people who come to me wanting to know what to do for loved ones who have just discovered they can’t have gluten. She even put together an indispensable guide to gluten-free flours.
And to be honest, I eat too much wheat myself. I like the idea that I can make a batch of muffins without using wheat flour if I want to, and then actually want to eat them. As you can see, W was quite enamoured with them too. It’s a great basic recipe to which you could add any type of berry or chopped fruit – peaches, plums, apricots, apples, pears… whatever you like in your muffin.
Gluten-Free Lemon Blueberry Muffins
adapted from Gluten Free Girl (a must-read for those with gluten allergies – and she has a book! and another on the way!) to use the gluten-free blend – she calls for a cup each of sorghum flour, white rice flour and tapioca flour. I didn’t see sorghum flour at Community, and so tried their gluten-free blend (rice, tapioca and xanthan gum, I believe?), which worked swimmingly.
10 Tbsp. butter, softened
1 cup sugar
grated zest of a lemon
2 large eggs
3 cups gluten-free flour blend (or 1 cup sweet white sorghum flour, 1 cup white rice flour and 1 cup tapioca flour)
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 ½ cups plain yogurt
1 cup fresh or frozen (don’t thaw them) blueberries, raspberries, Saskatoon berries, blackberries.. or diced peaches, pears, apples, whatever you have that you want in your muffinsugar, for sprinkling
Preheat the oven to 375F.
In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest together with a spatula. (If you beat the mixture for awhile with an electric mixer, the muffins will not rise – stick to doing it by hand.) Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each.
Add a cup of the flour along with the baking powder, soda and salt, and mix well. Add half the yogurt and stir until combined, then another third of the flour, the rest of the yogurt and the rest of the flour. Stir in the berries, or whatever fruit you want to use.
Divide the batter among muffin tins that have been lined with paper liners or sprayed with nonstick spray, filling them. (You’ll get about 18-20 muffins.) Sprinkle the tops with sugar and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch.
Makes about 1 1/2 dozen muffins.
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Aimee on 09 Sep 2009 at 7:55 pm #
It’s hard enough to produce a decent muffin with regular flour, so hats off to you for this GF version!
JulieVR on 09 Sep 2009 at 8:17 pm #
Hats off to Shauna!
Erica B. on 09 Sep 2009 at 9:32 pm #
Marvelous looking muffins – Thank you Julie, and Thank you too Shauna! I have a few friends and their kids who are GF I look forward to making these muffins for them.
Kate on 10 Sep 2009 at 4:07 am #
Thank you, Julie and Shauna.
I spent several hours yesterday reading Gluten Free Girl’s advice on baking w/o gluten – looking for some edible bread recipe. As I mentioned once before the hub is recently outta luck on the gluten front. These muffins will cheer him along.
Now to Shauna’s site. Thanks for the resouces, ladies!
These muffins look VERY good!
ABowlOfMush on 10 Sep 2009 at 5:57 am #
My gluten free friend will love these! I forwarded this page to her!
Really lovely
Lucy on 10 Sep 2009 at 9:13 am #
I can’t believe these are gluten free – brilliant! They look delicious
pauline on 10 Sep 2009 at 12:11 pm #
Have a terrific time in Vegas Julie. Ya lucky thing. How could you not, I can only imagine what fun it would be with 18 women. Did you know that your print post has done a runner again.lol now where does it go to.
Cheryl on 10 Sep 2009 at 1:48 pm #
I knew there was a reason I froze a flat of blueberries.
BigGirlPhoebz on 10 Sep 2009 at 1:49 pm #
These look like such a treat! My mom is GF and she will definitely be reaping the benefits of this experiment in a parcel coming her way.
Jennifer on 10 Sep 2009 at 3:54 pm #
I keep scrolling back to the photo of the split muffin top. Looks tender, fruit-packed, toasty and oh so delicious. Such an adorable photo of W too.
Chelsey on 10 Sep 2009 at 5:04 pm #
You can buy Sorghum at Amaranth whole foods if you ever want to try a comparison
Kim on 10 Sep 2009 at 7:00 pm #
Sorghum flour is available at Community, but not in the bulk section. They package it into “Community” bulk bags (white with a Community label, in the same area as their rice bran). It is quite different in both flavour and texture from rice flour. It makes great GF biscuits!
shauna on 10 Sep 2009 at 8:25 pm #
Julie! You dear. I saw on Twitter that you were making these, but I didn’t know you were doing a post!
Thank you for all of us gluten-free folks. I just love when someone who can eat wheat tries to understand.
JulieVR on 11 Sep 2009 at 5:58 am #
I try to post about everything, don’t always manage to, but these (and you!) are definitely worth sharing!
Avery on 11 Sep 2009 at 7:58 pm #
Weird… I just made a bunch of brown sugar apple/pear muffins (I think I’m getting the hang of this muffin-thing!), and have consequently eaten so many I think my body is now held together with apples and glue… and brown sugar. Perhaps my next foray into muffins should be of the gluten-free variety! Have a blast in Vegas!
Sam@BingeNYC on 14 Sep 2009 at 7:35 am #
Yum – lemon&blueberry muffins are my fav, I’ll have to try these gluten-free ones for a little change of pace!
Sophie on 14 Sep 2009 at 9:43 am #
MMMMMMMMMMMMMM,…they look so lovely & tasty too!
Grace on 18 Sep 2009 at 9:48 pm #
Well, now that my little guy has decided that he *will* eat muffins (his pickiness is related to his autism), these seem like a perfect thing to bake for him. A GFCF diet is recommended for autistic kids (gluten-free, casein-free – the protein in milk), but I’ve recently found out that he doesn’t have a milk intolerance – thank gawd … I will definitely have to try these out – and if he doesn’t eat them, I know I will!!
Grace on 18 Sep 2009 at 9:53 pm #
Oh, and I just about forgot … Planet Organic carries *all* things (and I seriously mean *all* things) gluten-free …