Adventures in Baking: Gluten-free, sugar-free fruit muffins

Brian and I have been experimenting with gluten-free baking. It’s a big thing to add to our existing dietary restrictions, which include no sugar and minimal dairy (zero cheese). He’s been working on a gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free fruit muffin recipe (adapted from Kitchen Rag) and I’m loving it! We’ve tried it a couple of times now, first with frozen blueberries and, most recently, with a collection of fresh raspberries, blueberries and strawberries that were just heading over the hill.

If you’d like to try it yourself, here’s the recipe:

Dry Ingredients

• 1 cu Trader Joe’s gluten-free flour
• 1-1/2 cu almond meal
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cu chopped pecans

Wet Ingredients

• 4 overripe mashed bananas, mixed well (we store overripe bananas in the freezer, then thaw for baking)
• 1 cu fruit of choice, small pieces
• 1/2 cu applesauce (no-sugar-added variety)
• 3/4 cu virgin coconut oil, heated so it will mix well
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon salt
• 1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease muffin tin with coconut oil.
2. Mix your wet ingredients and dry ingredients (excluding pecans) separately.
3. Add dry ingredients to wet and blend thoroughly, but not too much.
4. Add pecans & pour mix into muffin tin.
5. Bake for about 25 minutes. When toothpick comes out clean, the muffins are ready. However, they may stick to the pan due to the almond meal. Gently loosen them and remove from the pan to cool on a rack.

Enjoy, and please let us know how it worked for you!

Cheers,