Minute Muffin Mix and 7 muffin recipes!

I've been thinking a lot about how strange this form of communication is.  It's so impersonal!  Every other day I share a part of my life and a recipe I love and then shoot it off into cyberspace, hoping someone out there in the great unknown will enjoy it too, but never really knowing where it lands.  My experience when I got the recipe, however, was just the opposite.  As I go through my recipes to decide which one to share, I realize that nearly all of them are from friends who at some point in time had prepared a dish they loved and then served it to me.  I don't always remember the occasion, but the fact that I have the recipe indicates that I, in turn, also loved the dish and subsequently asked for the recipe, which they graciously provided.  The whole process was completely personal, from the preparation of the food to the sharing of the recipe!  Whenever I get a recipe, I write the name of the person I got it from on the top of the recipe card.  Then, whenever I fix that dish, I also get to savor the fond memories and thoughts of that person along with the food.  And so somehow, even though cyberspace is such an impersonal place, I hope that you, whoever you are, will feel that personal connection through the food you prepare from these recipes.

I recently realized that I have not included any muffin recipes thus far, so here are some I hope you'll like.  They are from Bette Hagman's book "The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread."  She provides a muffin mix that you can whip up and keep on hand to save you lots of time when you want muffins in a hurry.  She calls it Minute Muffin Mix.  For a 12-Cup batch of mix stir all these ingredients together and store in a container in your pantry:

Minute Muffin Mix -- 12 Cups

3 Cups garfava bean flour
1 Cup sorghum flour
4 Cups cornstarch
4 Cups tapioca flour
5 tsp baking soda
6 Tbsp baking powder
4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp egg replacer
1-1/3 Cups sugar
2 rounded Tbsp powdered vanilla  (if you can't find this, just add 1 tsp. liquid vanilla to the recipe)

Muffin Recipes Using Minute Muffin Mix -- makes 12 muffins
Basic Recipe:
2 Cups Minute Muffin Mix
2 eggs plus 2 whites or 2/3 cup liquid egg substitute (I usually just use 3 eggs)
4 Tbsp oil or melted butter or margarine
1 Cup buttermilk, milk, nondairy liquid, fruit juice, or carbonated drink
1 tsp vanilla if you didn't add powdered vanilla to the mix

Grease muffin tins or line with paper cups and spray lightly with vegetable oil spray.  Preheat oven to 375.

Place the muffin mix in a bowl.  In another bowl, beat together the eggs (or the liquid egg substitute), oil (or melted butter or margarine), and the liquid (and liquid vanilla, if using).

Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and beat until smooth.

Spoon into the prepared muffin tins and bake for 12-15 minutes.

The amount in the bowl above is a double batch of the basic recipe.  I wanted several different varieties so that I could freeze some, so I divided the above into four bowls (about 1-1/4 cups of batter in each), and then added the ingredients to each bowl for the first four variations below.  That way I ended up with 6 each of 4 different kinds of muffins!

Clockwise from top:  Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins, Blueberry Muffins (I didn't have fresh blueberries, so I used frozen ones), Nut/Fruit Muffins (I used chopped pecans and snipped dried cherries), and Lemon Muffins.  How's that for fast and easy? 

Variations:

Nut or fruit muffins:  Add 4 Tbsp raisins, nuts, mashed banana, kiwi, chopped dates, or fresh grated apple.

Lemon muffins:  Add 2 Tbsp lemon zest to the dry ingredients.  Use 3 Tbsp lemon juice as part of the liquid.

Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins:  Add 1 tsp lemon zest and 4 tsp poppy seeds to the dry ingredients.

Blueberry Muffins:  Add 4 Tbsp fresh blueberries to the dry ingredients.

Almond-Banana Muffins:  Add 2 Tbsp almond meal to the dry ingredients.  Use water for the liquid and, after the mix is beaten, fold in 1 banana, chopped.

Apple-Spice Muffins:  Add 1-1/2 tsp apple pie spice to the dry ingredients.  Use apple juice for the liquid, and after mixing, fold in 2 Tbsp chopped fresh apple.

Apple-Pecan Muffins:  Add 4 Tbsp almond meal and 4 Tbsp chopped pecans to the dry ingredients.  Use apple juice for the liquid.

One thing I've noticed about most of Bette Hagman's recipes is that she uses sugar sparingly.  These are not as sweet as commercial muffins, but are great when served warm with jams, jellies, or honey.