Gluten Free Cherry Almond Muffins

Yay! I'm finally back with a new Sunday Sides and Suppers!

Since we've made the move to eating Gluten Free, I've had to start rethinking a lot of our old recipes. There have been a few adaptations, and I've even started experimenting with Gluten Free baking.

When I say experimenting, I mean experimenting. There are a lot of mixes out there, but we tend to prefer the taste of basic recipes. However, cooking with gluten free flours is a lot different than cooking with wheat. It's doable, and like these muffins, you can sometimes just substitute flours. It doesn't always work, but that's another post.

Today's recipe is one I cooked up with Valentine's Day in mind. We usually don't do much if anything for the day in the E household. This is due in part to Hubby's birthday being the following day, and we'd rather celebrate that. The rest of it is we just kind of feel having a planned day to "show your significant other how much you love them" sucks the romance right out of it. Hubby and I are more likely to pick a random day to surprise one another out of the blue.

Still, it never hurts to do a little something. So in come the cherry almond muffins.

Gluten Free Cherry Almond Muffins

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

1 Can Cherry 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 cherries.

Yields 15-18 muffins.

Now, 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.

I know the recipe makes a lot, but if you bag them up, they do last very well for up to two days. Just warm them in the microwave for about twenty seconds.