{"id":2781,"date":"2013-09-13T11:53:36","date_gmt":"2013-09-13T18:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/?p=2781"},"modified":"2013-09-13T20:44:04","modified_gmt":"2013-09-14T03:44:04","slug":"gluten-free-casein-free-corn-apricot-muffins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/?p=2781","title":{"rendered":"Gluten-free, Casein-free Corn-Apricot Muffins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"frame-outer  \"><span><span><span><span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/siduri\/9737351308\/\" title=\"007 by Jo Shannon Phillips, on Flickr\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7395\/9737351308_f078b7d872.jpg\" width=\"415\" height=\"415\" alt=\"007\"><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The parents at Robin&#8217;s school have organized to contribute morning snacks to the classroom, and my first day to contribute was today. Now, here&#8217;s the restrictions I&#8217;m working within:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>UMCS is a nut-free school<\/li>\n<li>One child in Robin&#8217;s class is allergic to cantaloupe<\/li>\n<li>Another child has a gluten intolerance and a dairy intolerance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Robert Frost once remarked that writing poetry in free verse is like playing tennis without a net. And honestly, I&#8217;ve come to feel similarly about cooking and dietary restrictions. I <em>like<\/em> them. They give me a structure to work within. So when I hear &#8220;nut-free, gluten-free, dairy-free,&#8221; I think: Oh, this&#8217;ll be fun.<\/p>\n<p>On further investigation the dairy intolerance turned out to be a casein allergy. This is significant because it means that clarified butter (ghee) is okay. I decided to exploit that loophole and cooked up a batch of corn-apricot mini muffins for the Hummingbird classroom. They came out very well, so I thought I&#8217;d share the recipe! It&#8217;s adapted from Cook&#8217;s Illustrated&#8212;the original recipe called for all-purpose flour along with a stick of butter, 1\/2 cup milk and 3\/4 cup sour cream instead of the ghee and coconut oil. So you can backwards-engineer to the original if you like.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Corn and Apricot Muffins with Orange Essence<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Take a cup and a half of <strong>dried apricots<\/strong> and either chop them or run them through a food processor until you get chunks the size of raisins. Put them in a saucepan with 2\/3 of a cup of <strong>orange juice<\/strong> and turn on the heat until the juice comes to a simmer. Turn off the heat, cover the saucepan, and put it aside while you proceed with the recipe. The apricots will absorb the juice and plump up nicely.<\/p>\n<p>Adjust your oven rack to a middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease your muffin tins with <strong>coconut oil<\/strong> or nonstick cooking spray.<\/p>\n<p>Combine two cups of <strong>gluten-free flour<\/strong> (I like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kingarthurflour.com\/glutenfree\/\">King Arthur<\/a> brand), one cup of fine-ground, whole-grain yellow <strong>cornmeal<\/strong>, one and a half teaspoons of <strong>baking powder<\/strong>, a teaspoon of <strong>baking soda<\/strong>, and half a teaspoon of <strong>salt<\/strong> in a large bowl. Whisk it all together. Do note: cornmeal is naturally gluten-free but if you are baking for someone with a gluten intolerance you still want to look for a brand that is <em>labeled<\/em> gluten-free, because otherwise cornmeal is often ground in facilities that handle wheat and there&#8217;s risk of cross-contamination. You&#8217;ll also have to look closely at the label to determine whether your cornmeal is whole-grain or degerminated; whole-grain is better for you and will give the muffins a richer corn flavor. Arrowhead Mills makes a good fine-ground, gluten-free cornmeal that&#8217;s also organic. In general I like Bob&#8217;s Red Mill a lot too but the store only had their cornmeal in a medium grind. (First world problems: the baker&#8217;s edition!)<\/p>\n<p>In a second bowl, lightly beat two <strong>eggs<\/strong> and then whisk in half a cup of granulated <strong>sugar<\/strong> (I&#8217;ve started using raw sugar for most purposes on the grounds that less-processed substances are almost always better for you) and a quarter cup of packed <strong>dark brown sugar<\/strong>. Slowly (a little bit at a time, stirring after each addition) stir in a half cup of <strong>ghee<\/strong> and 3\/4 cup of <strong>coconut oil<\/strong>. (If you store your ghee in the fridge you will need to melt it first.) Lastly stir in about a teaspoon of <strong>grated orange zest<\/strong>, and the apricots, along with any juice that didn&#8217;t get absorbed, from the saucepan.<\/p>\n<p>Now fold the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring gently until the batter is just combined but not over-mixed. Use a large spoon to drop the batter into your muffin tins and bake until they are light golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the muffin comes out clean. If you&#8217;re doing mini muffins start checking after ten minutes; regular-sized will take a bit longer.<\/p>\n<p>This recipe made a platter of 24 mini muffins with enough batter left over for the eight full-sized muffins pictured above. Those are shown with a sugar topping (granulated sugar mixed with grated orange zest), which is delicious, but I left it off the mini muffins in order to make them more healthful for the kids. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The parents at Robin&#8217;s school have organized to contribute morning snacks to the classroom, and my first day to contribute was today. Now, here&#8217;s the restrictions I&#8217;m working within: UMCS is a nut-free school One child in Robin&#8217;s class is allergic to cantaloupe Another child has a gluten intolerance and a dairy intolerance Robert Frost [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2781"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2781"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2786,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2781\/revisions\/2786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}