All-Purpose Gluten Free Muffin and Pancake Recipe

Instructions

Basic Instructions:

• Mix dry ingredients together in one bowl. Blend wet ingredients together in blender. Then add wet ingredients to bowl with dry ingredients and mix well.

For Muffins:

• Bake in greased muffin tin at 375 degrees for 25-35 min., or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

For Cake:

• Bake in greased 9″x13″ baking pan at 375 degrees for 35-40 min., or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

For Pancakes:

• Ladle spoonfuls of batter onto a greased skillet on medium heat. Watch carefully, and flip when golden. When both sides are cooked, remove to warming plate. Keep in warm oven until ready to serve.

Notes:

• So, how do you use a recipe like this? Well, the advantage of this recipe is that you can easily adapt it to whatever you have on hand. For banana muffins, use one cup of mashed banana for the “1 cup of mashed fruit”. Do you have leftover butternut squash and applesauce in the fridge? Combine those for your “1 cup of mashed fruit”, add some cinnamon and nutmeg for the spice, and maybe a handful of raisins, and you have a yummy spice muffin!
• Now, when you tinker with the “2 cups gluten free flour,” you do need to have some understanding of how the different flours work. For instance, don’t use more than 1/4 cup of tapioca flour or your muffins will be too “gummy”. I have often made these muffins with just 2 cups of rice flour. But here is my favorite flour mix when I have all the ingredients on hand:

*Favorite Gluten Free Flour Mix:

• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup teff flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca or arrowroot flour
• 1/4 cup millet flour
• Another reason why this recipe is so great for me is that the mashed fruit or vegetable helps keep the muffins or pancakes soft, so I do not need to use xantham gum or guar gum, which can hurt some people’s stomachs. You can add it if you want to.
• You don’t need to do anything special when using this batter to make pancakes. However, tapioca flour and arrowroot flour tend to stick to the griddle a bit, so try not to use those ingredients in your flour when making pancakes.
• Please refrigerate your muffins or pancakes after the first day (or sooner, if your temperatures are hot). The mashed fruit and vegetables in the batter will spoil if left out too long. And these muffins taste their very best the first day they are made. They will still be good after that, but are usually best the first day (unless you used oats in the flour, which help keep the muffins moist). Ours are eaten pretty quickly, since everyone is waiting around the kitchen once they smell them baking in the oven. They don’t last long!
• Now, I will post some recipes as examples of how I use this basic recipe to make everything from muffins to pancakes and cakes.