Gluten-free pumpkin muffins
Sep 16th, 2011 by lapazfarm
Fall has fallen (kerplop!) smack dab onto the Lapaz household, and I don’t know about you, but for me, this always means it is time for all things pumpkin.
Pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread…mmmmm…can’t you just smell the pumpkiny goodness? (Me too, and that’s because I’ve been baking!) I’ve always enjoyed fall baking so much because whipping up a batch of pumpkin, blueberry, or cranberry muffins is as easy as pie. Easier, really. But since going gluten-free, things have gotten suddenly more complicated. Recipes with 10 different kinds of specialty flours, difficult techniques, weird flavors and textures that are just a little…off. *sigh* That can put a real damper on the urge to bake, let me tell you.
But, there was a can of pumpkin in my cupboard and it was calling my name. Taunting me. Challenging me to come up with something so the family and I could enjoy it’s pumpkiny contents.
I resisted its siren call for quite a long time. But I finally caved. And I’m so glad I did (and so are the kids).
Because I’ve been foolin’ around making a mess hard at work in the Lapaz test kitchens and I have at last come up with a gluten-free pumpkin muffin I think is a winner. Easy, tasty, uncomplicated, wonderfully aromatic pumpkin muffins! And I’d like to share the recipe with you.
Gluten-free Pumpkin Muffins
Dry ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cup gluten-free flour blend ( I use Gluten-free Mama’s Almond blend. No more mixing of 25 different exotic flours. This has simplified my life like you wouldn’t believe.)
- 1t baking powder
- 1t baking soda
- 1/2 t salt
- 1t cinnamon (or more)
- 1/2 t allspice (or cloves)
- 1 t ginger (YES!)
- 1/2-1 t nutmeg, depending on your feelings about nutmeg. I use as much as I can get away with.
- 1t xanthan gum
Wet ingredients:
- 1/2 cup veggie oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened pumpkin (fresh or canned)
- 1/3 cup water
- 1t vanilla
Heat oven to 350. Whip up the wet ingredients, stir in the dry. Pour into muffin tins (I used paper liners in one batch, and just sprayed Pam in the muffin cups in another batch.They both came out fine, though the Pam batch rose higher and looked nicer for some reason). Bake for about 25 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Made about 16 muffins.
Enjoy!
A note on gluten-free flour blends: I’ve tried a few with mixed results (ex: Bob’s Red Mill GF all purpose baking mix tastes like barf). I’ve tried mixing my own with several different recipes (way, way too complicated). And I have definitely settled on Gluten-free Mama’s Almond blend. Easy-peasy and tastes great. I highly recommend it.
Saved these:) hoping to make soon.
If you were NOT making them GF, would you use the same amount of regular flour? I love the recipe and would love to try it. BTW, I made our traditional Christmas Buche de Noel (chocolate cake roll) GF last year for my dad and it was perfect. Let me know if you’d like a great holiday “recette.”
I’m not sure about the flour substitution, Marjorie. It’s worth a try. And sure, I’d love a new holiday recipe! Send it on!
Do you really use 3c of sugar? you have 1 1/2 c listed under wet and dry ingredents.
Oh! YIKES! Let me fix that right away! That should only be 1.5 cups! Thanks for catching that!
Just finished making the pumpkin muffins and they are so yummy! Thanks for sharing the recipe. It is so hard to find GF treats that actually taste good!
So glad they turned out well for you!
Loved this recipe. I am relatively new to the GF world so its exciting for me to find really good recipes that have ingredients which I can pronounce! I didn’t have your flour mix so I made my own because I do have a ridiculous amount of exotic flours. I figure its ok to have them till I get used to them and see which ones I like in my new recipes. I used 1/2 cup white rice flour, 1/2 cup sorghum, 1/4 cup tapioca flour, 1/4 cup oat flour and 1/4 cup brown rice flour. I am supposed to watch my sugar intake as well so next time I think I will cut the sugar a bit. I used 1 1/2 cups brown sugar. Thoughts?
Thank you so much!
p.s. just realized I inadvertently left out the oil. I used a whole 15 oz. can of pumpkin though so maybe that made up for the missing oil.
Carol, I have often substituted apple sauce for oil in my baking, so I suppose the pumpkin makes a good substitute, too. And I think cutting the sugar is totally doable. They are pretty sweet. But my kiddos love them that way.