Lenten Lentil Muffins

On Monday I had another muffin vision.  It seems to take at least three rounds of tweakage to an existing recipe to achieve a muffinly vision.

Today's muffins were only round 2, and are therefore not the realization of Monday's vision. But these little guys seemed worthy of official muffinhood in their own right.

Lenten Lentil Muffins

Vegetable Ingredients
1 cup reasonably drained cooked green lentils (do not overcook)
1/2 medium sweet onion, chopped fine
4 oz frozen organic chopped spinach

Dry Ingredients
30 g. white rice flour
60 g. brown rice flour
30 g. garbanzo-fava flour
1 TBSP baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp each, slightly rounded: Rosemary, thyme, garlic, parsley
Freshly ground salt & pepper to taste

Wet Ingredients
1/4 cup soya powder (instant soy milk) mixed with 1/2 cup water
1 tsp cider vinegar
42 g. olive oil
1 egg

Topping
About 1/4 to 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 400 (f) and line a muffin tin with 12 muffin liners.
2. Saute onion and spinach in a small amount of olive oil until onion is translucent and vegetables appear dry, but extrude a small amount of liquid when pressed firmly with a spatula. Let cool and mix in the lentils.
3. Whisk dry ingredients together in a small bowl.
4. Whisk wet ingredients together in a medium bowl.
5. Add vegetables to wet ingredients and mix well.
6. Stir in dry ingredients, and add up to 1/4 cup water to get a nice batter consistency. The amount of water you need will vary depending on how much water remains in the spinach and how well-drained the lentils are.
7. Spoon mixture into muffin liners, then top with chopped walnuts.
8. Bake 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
9. Cool in pan for 2 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks.

The walnut topping is not strictly necessary, but GF muffins don't brown the way wheat-based ones do.  Using a topping adds visual appeal and helps disguise the lack of browning.

The muffins seem to have better texture after a few hours.

Blue Cornmeal Poppyseed Cookies

A while back, I saw a recipe for blue corn poppyseed cookies on the Bob's Red Mill site.  I was so excited to find yet another blue cornmeal cookie recipe that I didn't notice that it was ... a normal flour recipe. Blech.

Every time I leafed through my printouts of cookie recipes, there it was... Blue corn poppyseed cookies. The momentary excitement. The immediate disappointment. Oh, yeah. Gluten. Blech.

In December I finally got around to converting the recipe. I'm gaining confidence in my ability to do that. Sorta.  Trial #1: Use the GF King Arthur flour a friend had sent. Add a half teaspon xanthan gum.

Yeah, I know.  Bob has his own GF blend. Surely he wouldn't approve of my using King Arthur flour in Bob's recipe.  Had Mr. Red Mill have been there, he no doubt would have laughed when the cookies came out buttery, yummy, and... well... kind of powdery. (See, that's what you get for using some other guy's flour.)

So, a couple of weeks ago, it was time to branch out and start using my own flours. Much better.  Still maybe a little powdery, but kind of addicting, nonetheless.


Blue Cornmeal Poppyseed Cookies
(Adapted from Bob's Red Mill)

Dry ingredients

2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt*
1 cup blue cornmeal
1/4 cup brown rice flour
3 TBSP white rice flour (or more brown rice)
1/4 cup potato starch
1/8 cup tapioca starch
3 TBSP almond meal
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/3 cup poppy seeds

Wet ingredients

1/2 cup cold butter*
3/4 cup raw turbinado sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375(f) and grease cookie sheets.
2. Mix dry ingredients thoroughly in a small mixing bowl.
3. Cream butter and sugar in a medium mixing bowl.
4. Add eggs & vanilla and mix well.
5. Add dry ingredients.
6. Chill dough for at least 1/2 hour.
7. If you're going to make cut out cookies, roll out between sheets of plastic wrap, cut, and place on cookie sheets. Otherwise, just shape into small balls, place on cookie sheets, then flatten.
8. Brush tops of cookies with beaten egg (optional).
9. Bake at 375 for 6-10 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies and type of pan.

* If using salted butter, cut back on the salt to about 1/8 tsp.

The dough can be a bit sticky and tricky to use for rolled and cut cookies.