My family has been on a muffin kick lately. Who knew that my kids liked muffins so much? I didn’t! If I did, I would have been making a lot more for them. So this week, I made Gluten Free Blueberry Lemon Muffins. There are so many varieties and flavors of muffins and cakes these days, but today I just wanted a classic muffin flavor…Blueberry-Lemon. Sometimes you just need flavors that make you feel at home. Do you ever just crave the flavors of home? I just love the flavor of lemon and blueberry together. This is the kind of muffin I grew up on and it makes me feel at home. What is not ordinary about this muffin though is that texture is amazing! Let me tell you, when you, your kids, your family and friends bite into one of these muffins they will be begging for more and they will be saying gluten free is amazing! One of the things I promised 9 years ago when I started Gluten Free Mama and that was to ensure that gluten free can taste good if not better. This simple and classic muffin proves that gluten free can taste amazing!
The key to making the amazing texture in these muffins is the greek yogurt! Truly, yogurt offers baked goods a light and fluffy texture as well as added flavor. If you are dairy free, I recommend using So Delicious Coconut Yogurt. Choose either plain or vanilla flavors. I encourage you to try using yogurt more in your baking. It acts very similar to how buttermilk acts and the texture in your products will come out moist, soft, and light.
We also are using lemon zest for the lemon flavor in these muffins. So you will need a lemon zester. My favorite is the Microplane Zester. You can zest an entire lemon in seconds. Whenever I find a recipe that calls for fresh squeezed lemon juice, but no zest, I still zest the entire lemon first. Don’t waste that great zest! You can put it in Ziploc freezer safe bag and freeze it for up to a year and use it in a variety of baked goods, adding it to muffins, scones and cakes. Anytime you want that hint of lemon flavor, just use a teaspoon or two. It is also nice having lemon zest on hand when you want to make a recipe that calls for it and halfway through the recipe, you realize you forgot to buy lemons! No worries…you have some frozen. When a recipe calls for lemon juice, always use fresh squeezed lemon juice!
When baking with yogurt, buttermilk, orange juice and lemon juice you need to use baking soda in combination with the baking powder. If you don’t the baked goods will rise up nice, but fall shortly after removing from the oven. The acidic nature of the yogurt or lemon juice is the culprit. So if you would normally add 2 tsp. baking powder, switch it up and use 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. baking soda, and problem resolved. Just another helpful hint from Gluten Free Mama. One more hint…when using fresh blueberries, pop them in the freezer while you are gathering and measuring your ingredients. That will make them easier to fold into the mixture and less likely to fall apart. You can also use frozen blueberries, but keep in mind they may turn your batter slightly blue. They also taste wonderful with the dried blueberries that come in bulk from your local Costco or Sam’s Club.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family did! They are super easy to throw together. Mix a quick batch up after lunch and when your kids get home from school they have a healthy afterschool snack. Or need a mid morning snack at work. After dinner mix up a quick batch and then you have a perfect mid morning snack for break time at work. You can freeze these by placing in a Ziploc freezer bag. Just make sure they have completely cooled before putting in freezer.
Gluten Free Fresh Blueberry Lemon Muffins
Recipe Type: Muffins & Quickbreads
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 16 muffins
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter or dairy free margarine, room temp.
- ½ cup greek yogurt or *So Delicious Coconut Yogurt
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 tsp. lemon zest
- 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 egg
[br]
- 2 cups [url href=”http://store.glutenfreemama.com/gluten-free-flours/” target=”_blank”]Mama’s Almond or Coconut Blend Flour[/url]
- 1 ½ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- 1 ¼ tsp. xanthan gum
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. nutmeg
- ½ cup milk or dairy free milk[br]
- 1 ½ -2 cups fresh blueberries
- 2 Tbsp. sugar or raw sugar, for tops of muffins
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Add paper liners to a muffin pan.
- In a small bowl combined flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt and nutmeg. Mix together and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter until soft. Add yogurt sugar, zest, lemon juice and vanilla. Mix well. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add egg and mix well.
- Slowly alternate adding flour mixture and milk until both are mixed in well. Scrape down sides of bowl and mix for about 30 seconds.
- Add blueberries. Mix on low speed just long enough to evenly distribute through the batter. If desired, remove mixing bowl from mixer and just fold the blueberries in.
- Using a 2 inch scoop, add one scoop of batter to each paper liner. Sprinkle the tops lightly with sugar or raw sugar.
- Bake for 30 minutes. Muffins are done when you touch the tops and they bounce back when they are touched.
Notes
[b]GFM Tip[/b] Put fresh blueberries in freezer while gathering and measuring out ingredients. When ready to fold blueberries into the batter they will fold in without breaking or falling apart.
Mama Recommends
Mama uses Organic Sugar in all of our recipes.
2 Inch Scoop, Click Here. (large scoop 2 inches across the top) ~ Makes filling baking cups very easy!
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