July 27, 2005

  • One of the things that summer means up here in the formerly-frozen
    north (global warming, y’know?) is relatively cheap fruit.  In
    winter, we can get Chilean apricots, blueberries and raspberries, but
    the prices are way steep.  For anyone who lives in the Lower 48
    States, the summer prices we pay for California, Oregon and Washington
    produce would seem high, too. 

    Apricots at five dollars a pound, peaches three dollars a pound, plums
    two dollars a pound, cherries seven dollars a pound, it’s enough to
    sicken a California girl.  But at the peak of the season when the
    merchants’ philosophy is, “Sell ‘em quick before they rot!”, we can
    find some bargains.  I take advantage of such bargains.  Last
    week, Fred Meyer had blueberries in two-pound boxes for $5.99 and
    Safeway had seven-pound boxes for $7.99.  Which do you think I
    bought?

    Wrong!  I bought one of each.  I got a big box and shared it
    with Greyfox, who shared his share with Mike, his landlord.  On my
    next trip to town, since the leftovers from my big box were looking a
    bit shriveled and I still wasn’t sick of berries in my cereal, berries
    in pancakes and berries by themselves, I bought a smaller box.  It
    was time for a new batch of muffins (all my long-time readers know I
    live on these gluten-free muffins, bake several dozen at a time and
    freeze them, then nuke them for breakfast and snacks) and so –

    Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins


    Preheat oven to 425°F.  Line muffin pans with paper baking cups or
    grease pans.  Recipe makes about 44 regular-size (1/4 cup of
    batter) muffins.

    Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl until thoroughly blended:

    2 cups garbanzo bean flour
    1 cup corn flour
    1/2 cup tapioca starch
    1 cup almond meal
    2 cups non-fat dry milk
    1 Tbsp. baking soda
    1 Tbsp. double-acting baking powder
    1 tsp. salt
    2 Tbsp. Splenda baking blend (measures cup-for-cup like sugar)
    1 tsp. xanthan gum (makes them stick together, necessary in gluten-free recipes)
    2 tsp. cinnamon

    In a separate bowl, beat:

    6 large eggs

    Add to beaten eggs, beating after each addition:

    1/2 cup vegetable oil (for me, light olive oil is best)
    3 cups plain yogurt
    1 1/2 cups water
    2 tsp. pure vanilla extract (if you don’t have the real thing, do without — ethyl vanillin, yecchhh!)

    Add liquid to dry ingredients and blend with a few swift strokes until
    flour is moistened.  Just before blending is complete, add
    blueberries.  I used about three-quarters of a pound, which gives
    me three or four berries per muffin.

    Bake at 425°F for fifteen minutes, cool pans on racks for about five to
    ten minutes then remove muffins to racks until cooled to room temp,
    pack in freezer containers (I use big coffee cans) and freeze.

    Two muffins make a meal.  Three muffins make an overdose for me,
    meaning blood sugar spike followed by too-rapid drop in blood
    sugar:  reactive hypoglycemia.  These are dangerously
    good.  I must restrain myself.

Comments (5)

  • I’ve given your gluten-free recipes to my MIL who is celiac and she loves them.

  • thanks for posting that! isn’t in season fruit the BEST!!! so what’s an average july temp up there?

  • From the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle, I make my muffins with almond meal instead of flour. I’ll see if the co-op has garbanzo bean flour though — that sounds interesting!

  • i have no idea where i’d find all of that.
    alright.  yes i do.  i really should give them a shot.
    i love blueberry muffins.

    can/do you freeze the blueberries plain?  spread them out on a cookie sheet til they freeze and then put them in a container??  or do they get too mushy that way?

  • But I want a double chocolate fucking donut…..

    No sugar in my coffee…..

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