Muffin Mayhem

I spent the morning in the kitchen experimenting with different kinds of muffins. One important lesson was learned. The kind of rice you use to make the flour is very important! I've been using a short grain brown rice and it's worked wonderfully. Earlier today, I picked up a bag of sweet brown rice thinking it would be good to try for "sweet" foods like muffins. That assumption was WRONG. The sweet rice was way too sticky and I ended up with a gooey mess where I wanted blueberry-apple muffins. Oh well. Next time, I will have my blueberry-apple muffins! For now, I'll have to settle for Pumpkin-Quinoa and Pumpkin-Zucchini (I had pumpkin I needed to use up). On to the recipes ... which I actually wrote down as I baked to verify. For the record, I use a cheapie coffee bean grinder to make my own flours for my son's sake. I use Lundberg Short Grain Brown Rice and run the grinding cycle a few times to get the flour a little more fine. This is a textured muffin.



Instructions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a single bowl, mix together the ingredients of one of the following muffin types. Pour batter into a lined muffin tin. The muffins will stick to the pan, so liners are very important. Each recipe makes 6 muffins. I like to mix and match my muffins, so I keep the batches small. For full size muffins bake for 20-25 minutes. Mini-muffins take about 12-15 minutes.

Any Flavor Muffins

• 1 C brown rice flour
• 1/4 C brown sugar
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 3/4 C unsweetened applesauce
• 1/3 C water
• 1/4 C add-in ingredient of your choice (blueberries, apple, chocolate chips)

Rice Quinoa Pumpkin Muffins

• 3/4 C brown rice flour
• 1/4 C white quinoa flour (also home-made in a coffee bean grinder)
• 1/4 C brown sugar
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 C unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 C canned pumpkin
• 1/3 C water

Rice Pumpkin Zucchini Muffins

• 1 C brown rice flour
• 1/4 C brown sugar
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 C unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 C canned pumpkin
• 1/2 C grated zucchini (I use a food processor)
• 1/3 C water

Banana Rice Mini Pancakes

These taste like whole-grain pancakes, so unless you're some strange and elusive species of pancake hater, don't be scared of the title. The recipe is super simple and I have whipped up a batch when I was too time crunched to get a traditional dinner on the table before the time of inevitable baby meltdown.


When I learned of my son's allergies to wheat, peanuts, dairy, eggs, and soy I momentarily went into panic at the thought of trying to figure out what to feed both of us. Someone directed me to the book Food Allergy Survival Guide, by Vesanto Melina, Jo Stepaniak, and Dina Aronson. The book is geared towards veganism, but I've found it to be a great resource for wheat-free, dairy-free, egg free baking. Like the independently minded person I am, I always switch up recipes to suite my own needs. I've simplified things quite a bit based on what's in my kitchen right now and what have proven to be "safe" for my son thus far. You'll need:

• 1C uncooked Lundberg Rice (or other trace-safe rice)


• A cheapie electric coffee bean grinder. Just make sure it was never used previously to grind nuts or other allergens. If you're lucky enough to have a fancy flour grinder you can also use that.


• 1 1/2 teaspoon Clabber Girl baking powder (or other gluten-free, nut trace safe b.p.)


• 1 very ripe banana


• 3/4C water


• Bionaturae Olive Oil (or other nut-trace safe oil)

Place 1/2 the uncooked rice in the grinder. Set the settings to the finest grain possible. On my grinder this is "espresso". Run the grinder twice, or until rice is a flour-y texture. Then pour the flour into a medium-sized mixing bowl and repeat grinding instructions for the rest of the rice. In the bowl, combine the flour & baking powder, then mash in the banana. Pour in the water last. Work the ingredients together until you have a somewhat smooth consistency with some small lumps.

Drizzle a pan with the oil. Allow the oil to heat up for a few minutes, then use a large tablespoon to drop batter onto the pan. I use one tablespoon for the kid's pancakes and two tablespoons for mine. Cook a few minutes per side, until light brown. Serve warm with preferred topping. My son likes them plain, but I slather on Earth Balance and syrup. Note: Earth Balance contains soy.