I'm Jenny Finke, the blogger behind Good For You Gluten Free. I write about living the healthy, gluten-free lifestyle.
Honeyville asked me to contribute a post and recipe to its blog. I've contributed articles in the past about baking with Honeyville's awesome almond flour, and today I'm trying something new.
Honeyville sent me the most delicious canisters of freeze-dried fruit. Seriously. This freeze-dried fruits are so tasty, crunchy and fun to eat! You can dress up yogurt, cereal and ice cream with freeze-dried blueberries, mangoes or strawberries, for example. I find myself snacking on them straight from the canister... non-stop!
I wanted to come up a recipe using these delicious freeze-dried fruits, and during my brainstorming session, all I could think about was blueberry muffins. I can't remember the last time I had a blueberry muffin.
I didn't have any fresh or frozen blueberries at home, but not to worry. I knew I could reconstitute the freeze-dried blueberries and use them to create some delicious, gluten-free blueberry muffins.
Now mind you, I'm not a professional recipe maker. I love to cook and know my way around the kitchen... but when it comes to baking, I need to follow a recipe to help me along.
After thumbing through some of my cookbooks in search for a blueberry muffin recipe to try, I settled in on a blueberry muffin recipe inspired by America's Test Kitchen. The recipe called for regular wheat flour, which is no good because I'm gluten-free. I wanted to see if a gluten-free all purpose flour could be used instead of wheat flour. (The recipe also called for buttermilk, which I didn't have so I used almond milk instead.)
I'm happy to report these now gluten-free blueberry muffins were incredibly delicious. The blueberries were just as juicy as if they were fresh, and the muffins were sweet, spongy and bursting with blueberry flavor.
The best part of these muffins is the tops. Oh yes, you are going to go crazy when you sink your teeth into these muffin tops. They are crunchy, sweet and offer up just a hint of lemon flavor.
If you want to be able to make blueberry muffins anytime - without worrying about having fresh fruit in the house - stock up on Honeyville's freeze-dried blueberries. There's no need to run to the store the next time that blueberry muffin craving comes a calling. (Of course, if you have fresh, or even frozen, blueberries on hand, you can easily use them in this recipe instead.)
Enjoy!
Ingredients:
Topping:
- 1/3 cup sugar
- Zest of one lemon
- 1 cup freeze-dried (or fresh) blueberries
- 2 1/2 cup all-purpose, 1-to-1 gluten-free flour blend
- 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 cup + 1 Tbsp. sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 4 Tbsp. vegetable oil of choice
- 1 cup almond milk (OK to substitute buttermilk or regular milk)
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Directions:
- Reconstitute freeze-dried blueberries in 2 cups of hot water. Allow blueberries to soak in hot water for at least 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- Combine lemon zest and 1/3 cup of sugar. Combine well and set aside.
- Preheat panggangan to 425 degrees.
- Spray muffin tin with cooking spray (if using muffin liners, grease the top of the muffin pan to prevent the muffin tops from sticking).
- Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a second medium bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs for 30 seconds until well combined.
- Add oil and melted butter to wet mixture and combine well, then add milk and vanilla extract and continue to mix.
- Add dry mixture to wet mixture -- gently fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients until well combined.
- Add blueberries to mixture and continue to gently fold until all ingredients are well combined.
- Divide mixture evenly into a 12-muffin baking pan, filling each muffin cup to the top.
- Evenly sprinkle sugar-lemon mixture on top of muffins.
- Place muffins in panggangan for 16-18 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
- Muffins are finished when a toothpick comes out dry.
- Let muffins cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer them to a wire rack to continue cooling until ready for serving.
For more gluten-free recipes, please visit me at www.GoodForYouGlutenFree.com or find me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram.