Saturday, January 20, 2007

Black Raspberry Muffins

The raspberries and black cherry juice make these muffins so flavorful that you don't need any other sweetener, but you can add a tablespoon or two of sweetener if desired. My kids prefer them with 2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup of honey added.

I made both whole wheat and gluten-free versions tonight. The gluten-free ones would work best in a mini-muffin tin, but either kind works with no modifications to the recipe other than adjustments to the cooking time.

Mix together and set aside, stirring occasionally:
3 Tbsp. flaxseed meal
1/2 cup very hot water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Oil the cups of a muffin tin.

In a large bowl, mix together:
1 and 1/2 cups whole grain flour (I used King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour for one batch, and 1/2 cup each brown rice, amaranth and buckwheat for the other)
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder (I used Hain Featherweight, or see baking powder substitutes here)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Combine in blender:
3/4 cup black cherry juice (Knudsen's Just Juice)
2 Tablespoons oil (I used rice bran oil)
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
Flaxseed mixture

Blend berry mixture until smooth.

Add berry mixture to dry ingredients and mix just until moistened. You should have just enough liquid to moisten all of the flour mixture. Add a tablespoon or two more juice if you are still seeing dry flour after it all seems to be mixed up.

Divide batter evenly between the cups of the muffin pan.

Bake until a toothpick comes out almost clean (gluten-free batters will be more gooey in the middle, so if the muffin seems solid and has a nice firm crust it is probably done).

I baked the whole wheat mini-muffins for 18-25 minutes and the gluten-free regular-sized muffins for 30-35 minutes. I think the gluten-free muffins might cook slightly more evenly in the mini tin.

My mini-muffin tin has 24 cups and takes the same amount of batter as a regular-sized 12-cup pan.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

These look incredible! I can't wait to try this out!

purple_kangaroo said...

Kai, if you try the recipe you might want to add 2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup honey or other sweetener. My kids didn't find the recipe sweet enough with just the fruit.

Karen said...

I tried these and they were DIVINE. I did end up adding some honey (just under a 1/4 cup and it was perfect. Great recipe!!!

purple_kangaroo said...

I'm so glad you enjoyed them!

Anonymous said...

For those of us trying to beat candidiasis, it's no use offering recipes that include things like fruit and honey - the fungus will feed on these - does anyone have recipes without yeast and without any kind of sugar, natural or otherwise (and without aspartame or sucralose, yeast can grow in them, too!)

purple_kangaroo said...

I do have a muffin recipe made with sourdough starter, and no added sugar (stevia is optional) that I need to post.

But it really depends on what yeast-free diet you are on. Dr. Semon's yeast-free diet (Feast Without Yeast) allows berries and honey, depending on the stage of the diet you're in.

If you're doing the no fruit at all, no fermented products (which includes sourdough starter and vinegar), no starchy vegetables (so potato starch or tapioca starch is out), no grape products (so no cream of tartar), and no grains, then I really don't think there's going to be a muffin recipe you can use.

A muffin recipe requires at the very minimum a type of flour, a base (such as baking soda) and an acid. Without vinegar or lemon juice, I just don't know what would be readily available that someone could use to interact with the baking soda and make it rise. If you could tolerate citric acid, that might possibly work, but then again that's a product of fermentation, as is cream of tartar.

I do have some recipes for things like soups, roast beef, etc. that should be appropriate for a yeast-free diet in the archives.

If you have a request for a specific recipe or type of food and can post or e-mail me your dietary restrictions, I'd be happy to try to come up with a recipe for you.