Want to make gluten free muffins but don’t know where to start? I just might have you covered, because today I’m sharing a new way to look at a muffin recipe and some tips and tricks to help your muffins look and taste delicious. 

I got to bake A LOT this week. Partly because I’m planning a fun summer camp and DIY kits for my GF Baking Club for Kids. I baked 2 different kind of gluten free muffins, apple cinnamon and blueberry. 

I hadn’t planned to bake blueberry muffins but I had some blueberries to use up and so I did. 

In my cookbook, The Big Book of Gluten Free Baking, the blueberry muffin recipe also has oatmeal in it. So it isn’t a traditional blueberry muffin recipe. When I went to create a new recipe, I remembered a strategy I created when I wrote my cookbook. I’m sharing this strategy with you today in the hopes that you can build upon it to bake just about any flavor gluten free muffins you want. Maybe there’s still one that you’ve still been missing.

You see, as I was researching for my cookbook, it felt like traditional recipes were all over the place with how much baking powder and baking soda to use.  I didn’t want that to be in my cookbook. I wanted a more strategic approach. One that would make sense and one that you could get used to using and say “that’s right, this is how much of that ingredient I need”. 

If you are reading this and you own my cookbook you can look back at all the muffin recipes and see that they have a very similar basic formula.

Let me also preface by saying, this is also written assuming you are using my SGF flour blend recipe that can be found here.

If you are using another blend you need to see if it already has xanthan gum. Do not add anymore if it does. 

Is this foolproof? Well, no. But anytime I am making gluten free muffins (except for using natural unsweetened cocoa and dutch process) these are my starting blocks. 

With the 2 different types of cocoa powder you have use a different ratio of baking powder and baking soda. With recipes that use Dutch processed you will use more baking powder (like the basic recipe below). Baking with natural unsweetened cocoa turns out better if you use more baking soda instead. 

My formula for gluten free muffins 

Again, this is just a starting point. If your batter is too thick you can add more milk or water. 

• 250 grams (2 cups) GF All Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup avocado or canola oil
• 100 grams (1/2 cup) sugar* 
• 100 grams (1/2 cup) brown sugar*
• 1/4 cup milk or Coconut milk beverage
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

*Sometimes I omit the sugars and milk and replace them with 1/2 cup of maple syrup instead. 

Now all you have to do is add the fruit or veggies and flavor like cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, etc. 

But to be honest, this formula isn’t the only secret to my muffin success. There are 2 additional things I learned to do.

Tips & Tricks

The first one is that I do not use an electric mixer. I use a whisk and spatula. That’s it! I whisk the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another, combine them with a spatula, then gently fold in the fruit or vegetables. Do not over mix your batter. 

I promise these are important steps that will really help you. 

The next trick that helps give the muffins a dome shape is to preheat your oven to 425, bake the muffins for 5 minutes, then, without opening the oven door, reduce the temperature to 350 and bake the muffins for an additional 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Again, How do I know this works? Because this is how I created 90% of the muffins in my cookbook AND I did it again with the blueberry muffins I made this week. They were perfect. But, I didn’t just add blueberries, I added other flavors to my flour mix as I mentioned above. You will have to play around with the flavor. The basic recipe above is NOT a complete recipe. It is a starting point for you and possibly a way for you to look at recipes a little bit differently. 

So I want you to try this with a muffin you’re missing and see how it goes. And please share your results with me. I would absolutely love to hear if this strategy works for you. 

I hope this finds you well and that life is slowly getting back to a new normal. Pictured with this post are my Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins from my cookbook. Yum!

And if you still don’t want to try it on your own, leave me a comment below and let me know what kind of muffin you would like to see me to bake next? What kind of muffins you craving?

As always, please reach out if I can help you on your journey!

Happy Baking!