Sunday Morning Muffins

Before I had to eat gluten free, it used to be so easy to grab something quick and easy for breakfast - like a muffin or a bagel... I was always a Dunkin Donuts coffee fiend, and once in awhile I would grab a large, warm, freshly baked muffin for breakfast on my way to work.  The biggest problem with these muffins was that even the "low-fat" varieties had an obscene amount of fat and calories.  At the time, I knew these were not good for me.... but I had no idea how bad they really were for me.

Fast forward to now.... there's something so comforting about a fresh, warm muffin for breakfast.  But what I've found is that there's something way MORE comforting about mixing your own muffin batter and baking it yourself.  You can control what add to the batter and make it a little less of a guilty pleasure.

Leveraging some of the great gluten free baking and flour mixes out there, I played around with the idea of a muffin and what would be the best combination of flavors.  My Cherry Almond & Spice muffins have the warm flavors of cinnamon and nutmeg running through them with the sweet and tart flavors of dried cherries and a slight crunch of slivered almonds in there.  They are light and surprisingly moist for a gluten free muffin.

Here are the ingredients that I used (most of them... I may have left something out of the picture):

I thought it would be super cute to use this little mini loaf tray to make the muffins (I bought this tray for about a dollar at the Christmas Tree Shops, another of my guilty pleasures, hehe).

So here's the recipe and how to bake 'em:

Cherry Almond & Spice Muffins
1 cup Pamela's Pancake and Baking Mix (I'm guessing any gluten free flour blend will do, but this is the one that I keep in an airtight container in my fridge for my all purpose baking flour.)
1/4 cup almond meal
2 T flax seed meal
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp all spice
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup vanilla almond milk
1 6 oz. container of nonfat plain greek yogurt (I used Chobani, and all I had was the kind with honey added)
1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp vanilla extract (McCormick)
1 large egg and 1 large egg white
2 T honey or agave nectar (I used slightly less since there was honey in the yogurt)
1/2 cup dried cherries (I used Trader Joe's brand)
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted lightly in a dry pan on the stove.
optional:  sprinkle some granulated sugar or cinnamon sugar on top of the muffins before baking

First, preheat the oven to 350°.  Then add all of the dry ingredients to a large bowl - this includes the gf flour, almond meal, flax seed meal, baking powder and spices.  Whisk this together thoroughly until all of the ingredients are well incorporated.  In a separate bowl add all of the "wet" ingredients (almond milk, yogurt, brown sugar, vanilla extract, eggs and honey/agave).  Stir or whisk these ingredients together until they are well blended.  There is no need to use a mixer for this - as much as I love the snot out of my KitchenAid Artisan, stirring this by hand is just fine.  Add the blended wet ingredients to the dry mixture bowl and stir together by hand with a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula until everything is well combined.  Finally, stir in the dried cherries and the slivered almonds and the batter is complete.

This will be enough batter for a six (6) muffin pan or eight (8) mini loaves, as I've done.  Be sure to spray the muffin pan with some Pam non-stick spray... then pour the batter evenly into each of the muffin holders.  Throw the muffin pan into the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the muffins start to turn lightly brown around the edges.  Remove from the pan when they cool slightly and finish cooling on a rack.

Here are my beautiful babies, up close and personal:

I hope you enjoy these muffins as much as we do.  They are great just with a cup of coffee, but the challenge will be eating just one.  And now, just to show off a bit more.....  ;)