Firstly, I'm not going to start by saying things like 'this is the BEST blueberry muffin recipe', or 'you HAVE to try this recipe'..
Frankly, I have trawled (not trolled) the internet in search of good muffin recipes, which are both gluten free and vegan, so that Mr Bakery Den and I can both enjoy them. Now, if there's one positive of this lockdown, it's given me more time to experiment. Some recipes that I've tried over the last few weeks, which have promised to be 'THE BEST', have been awful. Some have been Ok. But, I don't want an Ok muffin. I want a blueberry muffin, which is packed full of blueberries, which is moist, but fluffy, and spongey, yet has the denseness (is that a word?) of a muffin.
I don't think I'm asking for much? Anyway, I think I might have finally done it, and all because yesterday, I was feeling a bit blah. You know, that feeling, when you're in week whatever of the lockdown, you've just spent two hours cleaning the house, exercising the dog, and now there is no other use for you. What do you do?
My solution was to bake. Happily, it made me feel a bit more useful, as I know Mr Bakery Den is partial to a blueberry muffin. I changed up a recipe, because, I'm going to be honest here, the recipe I found, called for plain flour....have you seen any recently? Especially GF plain flour - I have less than one bag full left of plain flour, and was not prepared to use it. So, I switched to self-raising.
It also called for quite a bit of milk. And again, call me crazy, but I don't want to waste/use our dairy free milk in muffins, which are not essential. I would rather keep our milk for tea (I'm sure my Grandma would be pleased).
Another ingredient change with the recipe was eggs. I switched those out for flaxseed eggs, so that these muffins could be vegan.
So, lets just say, this bake could have gone two ways! Happily, it went the right way. And, to my surprise, turned out to be the nicest GF + Ve muffins that I've made to date!
And that's that. I'm not going to declare that these are 'THE BEST', or that you 'HAVE TO' try the recipe out. I'm just going to say, these blueberry muffins are actually really tasty. They have a crispy top, are packed full of blueberries, and are light, yet wonderfully moist.
Here's my recipe:
Yields 6 muffins (large muffin cases)
Ingredients
1 flax egg (1tbsp flax seeds to 2tbsp water)
60ml dairy free yoghurt (I used Alpro original)
90ml dairy free milk (e.g. soya or almond)
100g caster sugar
40ml vegetable oil
30g vegan butter (I used Pure margarine)
185g FF self-raising flour
1/8tsp xanthan gum
Pinch of salt
1tsp vanilla extract
100g fresh blueberries
Method
Pre-heat oven to 190ºC and line your muffin tray with large muffin cases or tulip cases.
Prepare the flax egg, and leave to stand for five minutes, whilst you gather your other ingredients.
To a clean bowl, add the caster sugar and yoghurt, and mixed together using a stand mixer, or handheld mixer until blended.
Add in the flax egg, and mix through.
Melt your vegan butter or margarine, and add this, along with the milk, vanilla extract and oil to your wet mixture.
In a separate bowl, prepare your dry ingredients - the flour, xanthan gum, and a pinch of salt.
Grab another small bowl and tip in your blueberries (hold back 12-15 berries). Sprinkle over a spoon of flour and shake around until each berry has a light dusting of flour. This helps the fruit to stay suspended in the muffin, rather than sink to the bottom.
Pour half of your wet mix in to the dry mix, and stir through, then add the remaining wet mixture.
Combine the mixture, but try not to over mix the batter. As soon as the batter comes together, stop mixing!
Add in your dusted blueberries, and again, carefully mix through, trying not to over beat.
Spoon the batter in to your muffin cases. I filled almost to the top (probably 4/5 of the case). These muffins don't rise too much.
Bake in the centre of your oven for 25-30 minutes, or until nice and golden on top.
Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for 5 minutes in the tray, before transferring to a wire rack.
Best enjoyed on the day you bake them (obviously), but can be kept for up to three days in an airtight container.
Enjoy!!
Holly @ The Bakery Den.