Gluten-Free Cranberry Muffins

Guys, I'm pretty well convinced that brown rice flour is the cure to any and all of your gluten woes. In terms of baking, the texture is right on as flour - plus you can feel slightly better about eating it since brown rice has more protein than regular all-purpose flour. These muffins get delicious flavor both from orange zest and orange juice concentrate (a trick I learned from an orange buttermilk silver cake I've made before) as well as cranberries that are fully reconstituted in orange juice. They plump up and have great texture - your mouth feels like it's actually eating some fruit.

Gluten-Free Cranberry Orange Muffins

1 1/3 cups (=one package) dried cranberries
1/2 cup orange juice

2 1/4 cups brown rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp orange juice concentrate
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 cup milk (soy milk works just fine)

First thing's first; combine the cranberries and orange juice in a pot over medium heat. Let the mixture barely come to a boil, then cover and remove from the heat. You can let this stuff sit for hours - it's important to let the cranberries fully reconstitute.

Next, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl. In another bowl cream the butter and sugar. Next add the eggs and vanilla. Finally, drain the cranberries, combining the delicious liquid with the milk (the combined total should measure about a cup), orange juice concentrate, and orange zest.

Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk/orange juice mixture to the butter mixture. You should begin and end with the flour. Once that is complete, fold in the cranberries. Divide amongst 12 muffin cups and bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, but oven temps vary, so watch (funnily enough I just checked on my own muffins remembering that the back of my oven cooks much faster than the front).



And there you have it - the mixtures bit sound complicated but it's just like making a cake, and the reconstituted cranberries provide real, fruit texture instead of the dried, chewy texture. I was wary at first adding pure concentrate but it really makes a difference, although I'm sure they're orangey enough without if there are any purists out there.



A bit on the flat-top side, they are also very much on the tasty-as-hell side :D