Here’s the trouble. Huckleberry cafe is smack dab between my home and office. So each morning it’s a conscious choice whether or not I’ll stop for bone broth or a cuppa Huckleberry brew and one of these life-alteringly delicious gluten-free muffins.
This is the kind of recipe that especially excites us to run: These are the foods we’re really eating out there in the concrete jungle of L.A. and want the whole world to have access to! Chef Zoe Nathan’s gluten-free muffins are the kind of health food we hope the future is made of. They’re better than any traditionally-made goodies we’ve ever tried, made with cleaner ingredients, and generally better for our bodies.
We’re thrilled to have Huckleberry’s gluten-free flour mix recipe and their gluten-free muffin recipe. For more of Zoe, check out our shoot at home with her making pancakes here!
If you like to bake gluten-free, whip up a big batch of this flour mix and keep it on hand. It lasts forever. You can use a store-bought gluten-free flour mix if you must, but your pastry will not taste nearly as good. I cannot stress enough what a difference this mix makes in both flavor and texture. If you don’t like the graininess of the cornmeal, you can always omit it and use a little more of the oat flour or potato starch.
There is nothing I hate more than a gummy pastry. For that reason I don’t like most gluten-free pastries out there, and I find it especially challenging to find a delicious gluten-free and vegan pastry. But once I realized you don’t have to use xanthan gum to make one of those said pastries hold together, I got hooked on the challenge of making this stuff actually taste good. This was the first gluten-free and vegan recipe I made that I really liked. And honestly, sometimes I prefer it to the white flour, butter-heavy devils I usually make.
gluten-free vegan banana chocolate muffins
Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients:
1 cup + 2 Tbsp Huckleberry gluten-free flour mix (recipe below)
6 Tbsp almond flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp kosher salt
½ tsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp flax seed meal
6 Tbsp canola oil
7 Tbsp agave syrup
6 Tbsp coconut milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 ripe bananas; 4 mashed, 2 sliced
3 Tbsp walnuts, toasted and ground
1 cup chopped dark chocolate, 60 to 70% cacao
Directions:
Position a rack near the top of your oven and preheat to 350°F. Line one 12-cup muffin pan with 12 paper liners.
In a large bowl, whisk the flour mix, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and flax seed meal to remove any lumps. In a small bowl or pitcher, combine the canola oil, 5 tablespoons of the agave syrup, the coconut milk, and vanilla. Whisk to combine.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk together by hand just until combined. Fold in the mashed bananas, walnuts and chocolate.
Lightly toss the sliced bananas with the remaining 2 tablespoons agave syrup. Fill the muffin cups almost all the way to the top. Top with about 3 banana slices per muffin.
Bake for about 25 minutes, until the muffins are browned and spring back slightly to the touch.
These muffins keep very well, tightly wrapped, at room temperature for up to 3 days.
huckleberry’s gluten-free flour mix
Makes 6 1/2 cups
Ingredients:
2¾ cups brown rice flour
1¾ cups oat flour
1¾ cups potato starch
½ cup cornmeal
Directions:
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until thoroughly blended.
This keeps indefinitely at room temperature
