Lemon Muffins (gluten free or traditional)

Well, this lemon muffin has become my sister’s favorite. I invented this recipe one winter morning while visiting my folks. It was one of those “I need muffins” mornings, and I was feeling creative. Mom and Dad had some lemons that needed to be used so I thought that could potentially be a yummy muffin (Yep.).

I have a basic muffin recipe I use (I’m sure I’ll be sharing that at some point), and that is my jumping off point for making a new type of muffin. I tweak from there. But it’s a great guideline for remembering general dry to wet ingredients ratios and such. I tend to use whole grains whenever possible so my recipes generally reflect that. If you prefer, you can substitute more refined flours.

My sister likes to add blueberries if she has them. I’m sure that is delicious. I’d suggest that if you want to add fruit to a muffin that you add 1-2 TBS of additional flour or slightly decrease that amount of liquid by maybe 1-2 TBS. The fruit will add some moisture to the muffin so this adjusts for that. Also, if you add frozen fruit to a recipe, add the fruit to the already mixed DRY ingredients and toss. This way the fruit will stay separated and will mix throughout the batter because if you add frozen fruit to the already mixed wet batter they will likely melt together into clumps. Oh, one more thing about frozen fruit in batter, it will make the batter thick because it is slightly freezing parts of it so don’t start adding liquid to thin the batter. It will be fine…..Be aware that you baking time will also increase when using frozen fruit.

This muffin is so delicious. I’ve also used it as a base for strawberry shortcake. Very super duper!

Lemon Muffins (gluten free or traditional flour)

2 ¼ c. flour mix of choice- traditional wheat or otherwise (I use 50% “sweet” white sorghum flour/ 50% brown rice flour for gluten free)

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp xanthan gum (omit if using a traditional wheat flour)

1 c. sugar

¼ tsp salt (optional)

Zest of 2 lemons

Juice of 2 lemons (equaling ¼ to 1/3 c. lemon juice, you can use bottled juice if needed)

1 c milk of choice less amount of lemon juice

2 eggs

½ c oil (I use grapeseed oil)

½ tsp vanilla

Combine all dry ingredients and lemon zest. Stir with wisk to combine well. Wisk together wet ingredients. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and fold together until combined. Spoon into greased or paper lined muffin tins. Top with a sprinkling of sugar if desired (course sugars work best).

Bake 375 F for 18-20 minutes until muffins feel spongy and spring back when touched in the center  (I’m sure that thing people do with a toothpick would work too…with some crumbles). Cool in tins for 5-10 mins then remove to cooling rack if desired.

How I Started Tweaking Recipes

I have been adjusting recipes for years. I think I started doing it primarily to increase the amount of whole grains in my diet. So, instead of using white flour in muffins I’d use whole wheat for instance. Since then it has evolved into changing all kinds of ingredients. But what I have realized over the last few years is that I simply have very little respect for recipes. I tend to use them as a guideline and then change them to fit my needs and for some reason it didn’t occur to me until fairly recently that many people won’t do this. I have fun teasing some of my friends, “Ooooo, you put chocolate chips in your muffins. Was that in the recipe?”

I think some of the disrespect I have toward recipes comes from my mom and grandmother (aka Memere). As kids we grew up with both of our grandmothers living with us which we totally loved. And my dad’s mom was always baking something in the kitchen much to the delight of the rest of the family, especially the kids! Often, someone in the family would ask Memere what she put in a particular goody. More often than not the answer went something like, “Oh, I just followed the recipe…..except I cut the sugar.. and added some blueberries.. and halved the flour with whole wheat flour…and made it into a loaf instead of muffins.” Soooo disrespectful. I remember baking with her as I got older and would ask her advice about something I was doing, maybe how to measure something and I’d ask, “How about this, is this enough?” and the reply would be something like, “Sure. That’ll be alright.” Very scientific.

My mother is generally not a baker though she is a much better baker than she thinks she is, and she is doing a lot of her own recipe tweaking now. But Mom is a cook. She’ll “have a vision” for something and whip it up. I have almost never seen her follow a recipe for a meal. One of her signature dishes when I was growing up was Anything that Floats Soup which was simply anything that was leftover in the fridge thrown into a soup. It was never the same, but it always tasted good.

So, for me, as time has gone on I have become less and less recipe respectful and more creative with what I make. And what I have found is that most recipes will tolerate a lot of adjustments and are still delicious. Who says you can’t add chocolate chips to your muffins? Who says you have to put cheese in your pesto? I say let disrespect reign! Those recipes won’t know what hit ‘em.

Soy Free Chocolate Chips

Happy Wednesday everyone! Just have a quick post today but wanted to pass on this information. I heard from a friend of mine who saw yesterday's post and let me know that the Enjoy Life brand had a soy free, dairy free chocolate chips. I think most grocery stores carry some of this brand so it should be easy to find.

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies (Traditional, gluten free and vegan versions)

Ok. First blog post. Let’s make it fun and yummy! We’ll save the lessons for another day.

One of my biggest sellers (so to speak) is my Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookie. Many moons ago they started out as a traditional chocolate chip drop cookie. Then I made them with whole wheat flour, then I made them chocolate, later I made them gluten free and now I have a vegan version as well. All delicious, if I do say so myself. It’s a small batch. I always seem to end up with 18 cookies. If you choose to use wheat flour simply use the gluten free version of the recipe and replace the gluten free flours (brown rice and sorghum) with white or whole wheat flour, skip the xantham gum and follow the rest of the recipe as written.

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten Free version)

1/2 c. Butter or margarine (I use Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread Soy Free version)

1/2 c. “Sweet” White Sorghum Flour (Bob’s Red Mill)

1/2 c. Brown Rice Flour (Bob’s Red Mill)

1/3 c. cocoa

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. packed brown sugar

1/8 tsp xanthan gum

1/8 tsp baking soda (I’ve forgotten this before and they still come out fine.)

1 egg

2 TBS milk product of choice

1 tsp vanilla

Chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips which are dairy free but their other chips are NOT read the label to be sure.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix all dry ingredients together using a wisk and set aside. Using a mixer cream together the “butter” and sugars on medium speed. Add egg, “milk” and vanilla. Blend. With mixer running low slowly pour in the mix of dry ingredients. Mix until well blended add chocolate chips by the handful until it looks right (Yep, that’s how I bake.). I’m guessing about ¾ of a cup? Mix.

Drop cookies onto a baking sheet by the rounded teaspoon. Roughly the size of a walnut shell.

Bake 7-9 minutes until nearly set but not gooey. Remove from oven and let sit on sheet for a few minutes before moving them to the cooling rack. If they do not move well let them cool on the sheet for another minute or two. Cool briefly. EAT!! Mmmmmmm.

Next…

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies (Vegan, Soy Free version)

1/2 c. Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread Soy Free version (or other natural margarine)

1/2 c. “Sweet” White Sorghum Flour (Bob’s Red Mill)

1/2 c. Brown Rice Flour (Bob’s Red Mill)

1/3 c. cocoa

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. packed brown sugar

1/8 tsp xanthan gum

1/8 tsp baking soda (I’ve forgotten this before and they still come out fine.)

2 TBS milk product of choice (I use Rice Dream Enriched)

1 tsp vanilla

Chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips which are dairy free, but their other chips are NOT read the label to be sure. Also they do contain soy lecithin so if you need soy free chips I think Sunspire makes one.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix all dry ingredients together using a wisk and set aside. Using a mixer cream together the “butter” and sugars on medium speed. Add “milk” and vanilla. Blend. With mixer running low slowly pour in the mix of dry ingredients. Mix until well blended add chocolate chips by the handful until it looks right (Yep, that’s how I bake.). I’m guessing about ¾ of a cup? Mix.

Scoop dough by the rounded teaspoon (roughly the size of a walnut shell) and roll with hands into a ball. Place on a cookie sheet and slightly flatten to about 1/4 of an inch.

Bake 9 minutes until nearly set but not gooey. Remove from oven and let sit on sheet for a few minutes before moving them to the cooling rack. If they do not move well let them cool on the sheet for another minute or two. Cool briefly. EAT!! Mmmmmmm.

Hopefully, you find these recipes as yummy as I do. And I hope some of you can see how with a few changes you can tweak recipes to fit a variety of dietary difference. Recipes need not be sacred. Think of them more as guidelines and tweak ‘em! Happy baking.

Laurie