pumpkin pecan muffins (gluten free!)

these muffins don’t have to be made gluten free, you can just substitute wheat flour for the other flours, and leave out the xanthan gum. similarly, i just grabbed the first 4 gluten free flours in my cupboard, but you could use others. i would not recommend using chickpea flour for baking though (or only a little bit if you do) because it retains it’s PEA flavour quite strongly. 

interestingly i use just chickpea flour when i make tempura, and somehow frying it totally gets rid of the pea flavour and you can’t even taste it. WEIRD!

our dear celiac friend was coming to visit, so i chose to make them gluten free! i find that with things like muffins, scones, banana bread, etc you can pretty much just substitute gluten free flour and a sprinkle of xanthan gum for the same amount of regular flour. it’s when it comes to yeast bread that baking gluten free gets really crazy!

anyway, i continue to include pecans in everything i bake. i especially like the 1/2 pecan on top - it gets all toasted in the oven and tastes EVEN BETTER than a regular pecan, if that’s even possible.

ingredients:

1/2 c rice flour
1/2 c corn flour
1/2 c arrowroot flour
1/2 c tapioca flour
2 t xanthan gum
2/3 c brown sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
1/4 t ginger
1 egg
1/3 c butter
3/4 c milk (i used almond, original unsweetened)
3/4 c canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling - unless you want them to be like cupcakes)
1/3 c chopped pecans
12-14 pecan halves

to make:

mix flours, xanthan gum, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in a large bowl.

in a separate bowl, melt butter, and add egg, milk and pumpkin. mix well, then add to the dry ingredients.

mix everything well, then add the chopped pecans.

spoon into muffin tins, top with pecan halves, and bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

EAT!!