Apple Muffins (Gluten-Free)

Monkey and I are on an experimental gluten-free diet but I'm unwilling to give up delicious baked goods, so I've been dabbling in gluten-free baking. It's surprisingly awesome! Several times a week, I try a different recipe that I make up or modify from a previous experiment, and about half the time they're decent. Monkey, though, never ate my most common concoctions -banana breads or muffins. Humph. Yesterday, I ran out of bananas so I decided to try apple instead and for once, he ate some! Woohoo! Unicorn loves them too. She saw them on the table while breastfeeding and immediately rejected me for the muffins. Sheesh.

Today's recipe:

• 2 apples, cored, peeled, shredded
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 c agave nectar
• 1/4 c ghee
• 1/4 c heavy cream
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 c Bob's Red Mill gluten-free baking flour
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt

Mix wet ingredients and the shredded apple in one bowl, dry ingredients in another. Combine, mix until blended. Divide into 12 paper lined muffin cups. Bake at 350̊ for 22 minutes.

This recipe turned out great, very moist but not dense. I tend to prefer less sweetness in my muffins (cupcakes are another story!) so these have a subtle sweetness from the agave and apple. To make it not gluten-free, just use regular wheat flour and omit the xanthan gum. And, I haven't tried it, but I'm guessing that substituting softened butter for the ghee would work about the same. Next time, I'll add 1/4 c applesauce for extra moisture. I meant to, but we were out. Dang.