alexandra’s kitchen: Muffins Round 4: Vegan-Blueberry

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Muffins Round 4: Vegan-Blueberry

I believe this is my first attempt to bake anything vegan. I was surprised at how moist these muffins tasted but if I ever make them again — which I hope I do because I now have opened bags of tapioca flour, xanthum gum and potato flour in my pantry as well as a gallon of rice milk in my fridge — I would cut the amount of brown sugar. These were just a touch too sweet. I'm not sure how cutting the brown sugar will affect the texture of the muffin, but I think there's room for improvement in this recipe.

This recipe has been adapted from the Gluten-Free Goddess' recipe for Brown Sugar Blueberry Muffins but uses a different recipe for the egg replacement.

Vegan-Blueberry Muffins
Yield = 12 to14

For the batter:
1¼ C. rice flour, white or brown
½ C. tapioca flour
½ C. buckwheat flour 
1¼ C. light brown sugar 
½ tsp. kosher salt 
1 tsp. baking soda 
2 tsp. baking powder  
½ tsp. xanthan gum 
1 tsp. cinnamon 
½ tsp. nutmeg 
¼ tsp. allspice  
½ C. organic applesauce 
2 T. rice milk
½ C. canola oil 
1½ tsp. vanilla extract

For the egg replacement:
1 T. tapioca flour
1 T. potato flour
¼ tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. xanthum gum
½ C. water
2 tsp. canola oil

1 heaping C. blueberries, fresh or frozen

1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Place liners in muffin tin.

2. Whisk together all the ingredients for the batter until well combined.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the ingredients for the egg replacement until frothy. Add to the batter and mix until well combined.

4. Fold in the blueberries.

5. Spoon batter into muffin cups, place in the center of the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack very briefly.

For future snacking, wrap the muffins individually in foil, then freeze in a big zip-freezer bag. Re-heat in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 400ºF.

The Eggmobile

The eggmobile houses laying hens. It follows the herd of cattle, arriving to grass they've grazed on four days earlier.The hens peck at the four-day-old cow pies, eating various insects, larvae and parasites - rich sources of protein - and accomplishing a whole lot more along the way: By eating the fly larvae and parasites, they rid the land of potential pathogens and disease; by scratching through the droppings and spreading them across the grass, they enable the manure to sink into the ground and fertilize the soil; and by eating the pesky insects, they reduce the presence of one of the cows' biggest irritants.

The Barn

Joel Salatin stands in the open-sided shelter where his cows spends a portion of the winter. During the winter, the cows eat hay (dried grass accumulated throughout the growing season), and live on a bedding consisting of woodchips, sawdust and old hay to absorb the cows' excrement. When the heavy cows tread on their nitrogen-rich manure and on the carbon-rich bedding, packing it together, they allow the mixture to ferment (anaerobic composting). By adding corn to the bedding, Salatin entices his pigs to turn the bedding into compost: When the cows return to pasture in March, the pigs dig through the densely packed bedding, searching for the tasty fermented corn, aerating the pile and turning it into compost for the spring.

Corn Pudding