MMMM Blueberry Muffins!

So I had a bit of a baking frenzy and made not only Maple Blueberry Muffins with brown sugar cinnamon topping but I also made cupcakes.  This post is for the muffins and then cupcakes will be on my next post.  Now onto the Muffins!

I started out with a basic muffin recipe and then modified it to create the muffins I wanted.  The basic recipe for muffins is
2 1/2 cups self rising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
2 lightly beaten eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 oz melted and cooled butter

My flour of choice is Bette's Featherlight Blend, it is a wonderful rice flour mixture that is ground super fine.  It is almost like powder.  The fine grind makes it perfect for baked goods since it doesn't come out with a grainy texture.

To make the rice flour into self rising flour add 2 teaspoons of baking powder to 1 cup of flour, stir together and then sift the mixture several times.

I find that it is essential to sift gluten free flours and dry ingredients together at least 2 times before adding the wet ingredients.  This makes the finished product lighter.

For the binding agent I like to use Xanthan Gum.  I find that 1 teaspoon per 2 cups of flour works best for most baked goods.  You can use which ever binding agent you like best.  When sifting the dry ingredients I like to put half the flour in the sifter add the other dry ingredients (baking powder, salt, xanthan gum, etc.) then cover with the remaining flour so that I can mix and sift at the same time.

So I took my gluten free ingredients and made me some muffins.  I wanted to make maple syrup blueberry muffins so I made a few changes in the basic recipe.

Sift 2 1/2 cups GF flour mixture,  1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, and 1 teaspoon Xanthan gum together.  Sift 2 times and then add the 1/2 cup sugar to the bowl.   Mix gently and then make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.

Combine the 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup maple syrup, the 2 lightly beaten eggs and the teaspoon of vanilla together and then pour in to the well in the dry ingredients.  Add the cooled melted butter and then fold until just combined.  Do not over beat or the muffins will become tough and rubbery.

Toss 10 oz blueberries in some granulated sugar (this keeps them from sticking together and allows for a more even distribution of berries in the muffins) and add to the batter.  Stir gently to incorporate.  You can also add the berries to the flour mixture before you add the wet ingredients.

Fill your muffin tins.  I line my muffin tins with the paper cups for ease of clean up and removal of the muffins from the pans.  I used an ice cream scoop to put the batter in the pans.  It is faster and makes less of a mess on the pans.  The ice cream scoops with the trigger and the little part that actively removes the ice cream from the scoop work best.  But you can fill your muffin tins however you like.

I wanted to make a crumble topping for the muffins but discovered I was out of butter.  So I mixed brown sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkled it on top of the batter before baking.

Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes until they are risen, golden and come away from the sides of the holes.  A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.  I used standard size muffin pans and my muffins were done in 20 minutes.  I actually set my timer for 18 minutes and checked the muffins then since all ovens are different and I did not want to over cook the muffins.  The larger your muffin pans the longer they will take to cook.  So mini-muffins should be cooked for probably 15 minutes and large oversized muffins should cook for 25 or more minutes.  

Gluten free muffins won't rise as high as muffins made with wheat flour so you can fill your muffin tins a bit fuller.  This will get you nice tall muffins with a lovely top.

This is what my muffins turned out like.  I got about 2 dozen muffins from this recipe so I took them into work and fed them to my co-workers.  Everyone ate them and then asked who brought in the muffins.  They didn't even realize that they were GF. 

So that is maple blueberry muffins with brown sugar cinnamon topping.  Next time Cupcakes!