Disappointing successes or successful disappointments

It all depends on how you look at it.

For Easter, I converted two Vault recipes to gluten free. The banana cupcakes turned out okay, but the frosting I used was *gag*.

The carrot cake was based on a recipe by Alton Brown. The cake was so moist that it was TOO MOIST, like I had loaded the batter up with pudding. But it sure looked pretty. If I try this again, I will cut back on the carrots - there were a lot of them and I think that's why the cake had the texture it did.

What DID work? Well, let me tell you!


Back before Bob's Red Mill began selling gluten-free oats, I attempted to adapt my absolute favorite blueberry "power" muffin recipe by using rice bran to replace most of the oats. Big mistake. These muffins are supposed to be heavy as they are meant to be used prior to or after a workout, but the rice bran turned these into bricks. Not good.

Now that I have oats, I attempted them again. The second try was a delicious success. Next time, to make them more "powerful," I think I am going to try splitting the amount of sweet rice flour with flax seed meal to see what happens.

Now remember, if you try these, that they are meant to be a bit heavy.

Blueberry Power Muffins
Adapted from a Cooking Light recipe

1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup teff flour
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup skim milk
1 1/2 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp egg substitute
3/4 cup fresh blueberries (I used wild blueberries, so these are chock-full - if you use wild berries, cut back to 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup slivered almonds, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a muffin pan with muffin papers.

Combine the flours, xanthan gum, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.; stir together with a whisk. Make a well in the center of the mixture.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the yogurt, milk, oil, vanilla and egg. Add the yogurt mixture to the flour mixture; stir together until all of the flour is just moistened. Fold in the blueberries and almonds.

Spoon 2 rounded tablespoons of batter into each muffin paper.

Bake for 18 minutes or until a tester inserted into a muffin comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove and serve.