Gluten-Free Savory Muffins Recipe. All Variations

My gluten-free savory muffins are my special gift:

When my grandson became allergic to gluten, I watched with great sadness as he went from eating bread, his favorite food, all day long, to having it yanked off his hands as “booboo bread”. This perennial tinkerer, doubling as loving Bubbie,  is tinkering more furiously than ever with gluten-free savory muffins and bread possibilities. Not only to my grandson (who already calls them “Bubbie Bread’) but to all of you gluten-free diners who want their gluten-free bread and eat it too.

Please take a look at my Gluten-Free Bread and Challah Recipe. I trust you will find it a very useful basic recipe, and you will see it is quite elastic and you can play with many kinds of flour.

These gluten-free savory muffins recipe is still a work in  progress.

I am constantly refining it, but the initial results are quite promising. I want something nutritious and minimally sweetened, even unsweetened whenever possible, throwing aboard as many nutritious ingredients as I possibly can. Here my ally is nutritional yeast. Not only does nutritional yeast give the gluten-free savory muffins a great umami cheesy flavor without any dairy, but it affords you a great treat right on the spot: No need to let dough rise, these gluten-free savory muffins and quick breads come in very handy, and you can whip up a batch at the drop of a hat, provided you have good quality gluten-free flours on hand in your pantry. My daughter in law has been exploring with gluten-free bread at home, and getting great results: I will share soon!

There’s plenty of room to explore with quality gluten-free flours.

Here I go all out with the wonderful gamut of flours, only the best: Oat flour is especially delicious and hearty; almond flour, coconut flour, rice flour, fine cornmeal etc…. Teff flour and Buckwheat flour will be good but extra dark and extra pungent, I would say use them in combination with the more delicately flavored flours just mentioned. Also, whatever flour combination you end up with, be sure to include the tapioca, as it is a great emulsifier.

As you can imagine, the end product made with these ingredients will leave commercial gluten-free bread products in the dust, loaded as they are with potato flour and other likewise worthless products (same goes for ready gluten-free flour mixes).

If you intend to explore with gluten-free baking more often, I urge you to look into Xanthan Gum: An emulsifier that will do in great part the job the gluten won’t be doing. Easy to use, dependable and widely available in health-foods stores.

Attention fellow frequent Gluten-Free bakers friends:

Gluten-free flours can err on the expensive side in health food stores. Explore online, and do as I do: Order 5-pound containers of any gluten-free flour at a much more reasonable price. You will do much better making your own Gluten-free bread flour mixture: Explore, mix and match with different gluten-free bread flours, taking good note as you go along, then when you arrive at the perfect keeper, make a large batch of your very own favorite delicious nutritious Gluten-Free Bread flour for future gluten-free  savory muffins and bread batches.

I will start with my savory pumpkin muffins, then list all variations. Makes 24 muffins, maybe a few more. Freezes perfectly.

Ingredients

• 6 cups gluten-free flour (I used equal part almond flour, coconut flour, fine cornmeal, but of course you can explore with other flours)
• 2 cups rolled oats (make sure they are marked Gluten-Free, in other words, that they were not processed in machinery processing regular grains)
• 1/2 cup Tapioca flour
• 1 tablespoon Xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon dry sage

• 4 eggs
• 3 1/2 cups canned all-natural pumpkin (about 2 15 ounce cans)
• 1/3 cup sucanat
• 1 cup olive oil or coconut oil
• 1 1/2 cups dairy-free milk (almond, soy, rice, oat etc) or regular milk, if you don't mind making them dairy

Instructions