Sunday Sides and Suppers: Gluten Free Blueberry Almond Muffins

I'll readily admit, this is pretty much the same recipe as the Cherry Almond Muffins. I was originally thinking of an Independence Day themed Sunday Sides and Suppers with recipe variations to make red, white, and blue muffins when I decided to try them.

Then I saw how blueberries went from purple to slightly green in the batter instead of blue. So far as I can tell, this color change is a reaction with the baking powder. It does make them a tad ugly, but they taste really good. It did put the kibosh on the Independence Day themed muffin post idea though.

They taste way better than they look, I promise.

1 1/2 Cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour

1 Can Blueberry Pie Filling

1 Cup Almonds (Chopped)

1 Egg

1/4 Cup Sugar

1/3 Stick Butter

2 1/2 Tbsp. Baking Powder

2 Tbsp. Coconut Oil (Optional)

2 Tbsp. Ground Ginger

1 Tbsp. Vanilla

Dash of salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt the butter and coconut oil together and pour into a large mixing bowl. (You can simply use 3/4 of a stick of butter if you don't have coconut oil, but having tried it both ways, I think the combination of the two just has a better taste and texture to it.) Cream in sugar, salt, ginger, vanilla, and the egg.

Add in flour, baking soda, pie filling, and almonds and stir until well combined. Spoon into a greased muffin tin and bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes or until centers test done, keeping in mind the fact your muffins contain whole, cooked blueberries.

Yields 15-18 muffins.

One tip. Have your oven hot and muffin tin (or better yet, muffin tins) ready to go. The faster you get them mixed, spooned, and into the oven, they better they'll come out looking. The color changing reaction is fast, but not instantaneous. They will likely be just turning greenish when you finish stirring. They won't get really bad unless you let the batter sit for a few minutes.

They might actually make for a decent April Fools Day prank if you went whole hog and added some green food coloring though. Make 'em look gross and tell whomever all you have in the house for breakfast are some old moldy muffins you found way back in the pantry.

And yes, once again, the recipe does make a lot, but they carry over well into the next day if you bag them up. Just warm them in a microwave for ten to fifteen seconds.

If you aren't on the gluten free diet, you can substitute 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour or 1 1/3 cups self-rising flour if you leave out the baking powder. Just keep a close watch on the muffins, because I haven't been able to test the cooking time on a non-Gluten Free version.