Gluten Free/ Dairy Free Blueberry Muffins

Takes 45 mins. Makes 12.

Picture this: It's a summer morning, you're on holiday, you've just been for a big walk and decide to stop off to a cup of tea at a cafe on the way back. You order a English breakfast with milk, no sugar. And then you see it. The most beautiful blueberry muffin you've ever see. You order it. It comes with a packet of softened butter. It's the best muffin you've ever tasted - not too sweet, loads of blueberries, crunchy top. You get one everyday for the rest of the holiday. The next year you come back, the cafe is gone.

You make your own.

Now that I've let you in on the motivation for this recipe, let me tell you a little bit more about it. I've baked a lot of gluten free muffins in the past, but they generally become quite dry within a day of being made, and unless you can eat 12 muffins in one sitting then you probably find it just as annoying as I do. On my first experiment with this recipe, I found a packet of almond flour in my pantry, and decided mix it in with my regular flour.

Game Changer!

Why use almond flour?

As much as finding alternative flours can be a bit of a hassle, they do have some extremely handy uses. Almond flour is great for gluten free baking, I have found that it stops baking from drying out, and keeps it wonderfully moist. It creates a light and buttery texture in baking that you just don't get with gluten free flour only. However, you don't need to only use almond flour, in fact it's better to use it in combination with other flours.

I N G R E D I E N T S

For the muffin

• 1 cup of gluten free flour

• 1 cup of almond flour

• 1/2 cup of caster sugar

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/4 xantham gum (omit if flour includes this)

• 1 tsp of baking powder

• 1 tsp of baking soda

• 1/2 Tbsp of cinnamon

• 1/3 cup of oil

• 1 egg

• 1/3 cup of coconut milk (or other alternative milks)

• 250 grams of blueberries

For the crumble

• 50 grams of butter (or dairy free margarine)

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 cup flour

• 1 Tbsp of cinnamon

M E T H O D

1. Grease a muffin tray, or prepare with muffin cases. Preheat oven to 180° celsius on bake.

2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl (gluten free flour, almond flour, sugar, salt, xantahm gum, baking powder and soda, cinnamon) and mix until combined.

3. In a seperate bowl, mix together the oil, milk and egg.

4. Create a well in the centre of the dry mixture, and pour the wet mixture in and mix with wooden spoon until there are no lumps of dry mixture.

5. Add in the blueberries, and gently mix to combine.

6. Spoon mixture into prepared muffin trays. The mixture should be roughly level with top.

7. To make the crumble. Chop your butter into cubes, and combine in a bowl with the rest of the crumble ingredients. If you are using a dairy free spread, don't worry about chopping and just add into the dry ingredients.

8. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients until a crumb has formed.

9. Sprinkle the crumb over the muffin mixtures and place in oven

10. Bake for 30 minutes.

11. Allow muffins to cool before taking them out of the moulds.