I have been baking muffins since I was a teenager, and I consider myself kind of an expert on muffins. But baking gluten-free muffins is a whole new experience. I don't feel like an expert any longer--I feel like I am shooting in the dark. The problem is that it takes several different kinds of odd flours (some I never heard of) to duplicate the effects of wheat flour with gluten. The next problem, is that there is not a perfect standard. Every recipe I find is very different. Basically, you choose different amounts of two or three whole grain flours, then a smaller amount of a couple starch flours. And what you choose just depends on what you are baking--some flours are better choices for cookies, some for muffins some better for a loaf of bread. But really, you are encouraged by the recipe to "choose the flours that have worked best for
you" Well, David said I just need to start baking some muffins so I
know what works best for me. But I don't like going into a baking venture knowing that there is a good chance of failure--that's no fun! (and a waste of money and time I am thinking...).
After much studying of recipes, I decided on a muffin recipe (or more like a formula) that said to choose certain amounts from any variety of two different lists of flours, then there was a list of wet ingredients, and then a list of extras, like fruit or nuts. So I guess I was kind of just making up my recipe. I used quiona flakes, sorghum flour, potato starch, oat flour and xanthon gum. I threw in some blackberries I had picked last month, and just hoped I was not wasting them...
My muffins were not horrible, and they certainly are edible. If I were to rate them, I would say they taste like a beginner baked them with gluten flour and stirred the batter too much, so that the muffin texture got slightly tough. But I did eat two of them, one right after another, so they are acceptable...or else I was just ready for something that felt like bread! I will try a different mix of flours next time.
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