these muffins = breakfast on the run - (gluten + fat)

• Light olive oil, to grease
• 3 eggs
• 200g apple puree
• 160ml (2/3 cup) low fat milk
• 80ml (1/3 cup) honey
• 1 medium banana, mashed roughly (the recipe calls for an apple, but I prefer banana – it makes the muffins really moist; the apple does go well with blueberries, though)
• 1/3 cup frozen or fresh blueberries (I usually substitute for a punnet of strawberries, which I cut fairly chunky; otherwise I use raspberries)
• 200g (1 1/2 cups) Orgran gluten and wheat-free self-raising flour
• 175g (1 1/2 cups) almond meal (I use the organic Woolworths Select one from the health food aisle because it’s really grainy and makes the muffins feel more substantial – I do, however, sieve it and leave out the really course grains)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• vanilla bean dusting sugar, to dust

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (I usually do just a touch under for fan forced and it’s fine at that temperature) and greeze a 12 hole muffin tin, or a 6 whole large muffin tin (I think they’re called texas muffins?).
2. Whisk the wet ingredients together, then add the mashed banana and berries.
3. Sift in the dry ingredients, stir to combine.
4. Spoon into muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes (larger muffins take a little longer – also, using banana instead of apple makes the mixture take longer to cook). Do the skewer-comes-out-clean trick.
5. I let them cool in the pan for five minutes, then turn them out and dust with the vanilla bean dusting sugar.

I haven’t tried freezing them, but they last really well in the fridge. By the way, the almond meal does boost the calorie count, so sometimes I’ll substitute some of it for whatever gluten free flour I’ve got on hand. But the meal really is good for boosting the filling-ness of these muffins, and it’s really yummy.

If you’re a gluten free eater, you should check out my friend’s new blog, gluten free lissy. She’s a lovely, warm person and her posts have those same characteristics. She’s quite a cook, too… think I might have to invite myself over for some of her baked chocolate swirl cheesecake really soon.

Another favourite blog of mine is Gluten Free Goddess – her photos are beautiful. I haven’t made many of her recipes, but do enjoy trawling there.

PS I should disclose at this point that I am a pretty crap baker. I have pulled these muffins off successfully every time I’ve made them, but yeah, my substitutions are probably not very conventional – do hope they work for you if you try them!