Gluten Free Carrot Zucchini Muffins

This recipe is adapted from GDL's  Mini Carrot Zucchini Muffins  
 (click on the link to get the full recipe)



I was inspired to make these muffins for a co worker who is allergic to nuts, can't have anything with gluten in it, and she is Vegetarian. This girl has the works when it comes to food allergies and specifics.  So i obviously didn't use the almond flour as the original recipe calls for.

I purchased some Gluten free all purpose flour instead. I made my first batch and found out that GF all purpose flour is super bitter and has a really weird chalky taste at the end, So i bought another brand, thinking all brands are not made equal- Nope- still chalky. THEN ( dear lord! ) i found out that flour was made in a facility that processes nuts. CRAP! I just about exhausted all my fancy ingredients.

Finally, my solution was:

1 Cup Brown Rice Flour
1 TB of Coconut flour ( yep, just 1 tablespoon- i will tell you why later)
an additional 1/3 Cup of Unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup of water
2 TB of honey, for extra sweetness

 

I got these beauties from a coworker- tis the season for zucchini!

  

Pushing your dry ingredients through a sieve is really important, makes the batter less clumpy and more fluffy

I love the color of the maple syrup...this thing was the most expensive ingredient! I love that its such a great substitute for brown sugar.

Instead of using all oil i did half oil and half applesauce. i measured this by using displacement, i put in the applesauce first in the measuring cup- about half way up- and filled the rest with the oil, then added an additional 1/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce and 1/2 cup of water- I did this because coconut flour is very very absorbent. I found this out the hard way once. Save your money and time and trust me on this.

 

 

 

 The original recipe says to bake for 5 minutes, but i did more like 8 minutes, and since we are high altitude here in SLC, the temperature of the oven went up to 375 degrees.I think the oil and applesauce and the moisture from the veggies just needed the extra time.

the frosting is the best part! i could use this as a dip with apples and strawberries! i would swim in it if i knew how to swim ( yes, i do not know how to swim)

 

 

 

after all this was made, i found out my co-worker is also allergic to coconut..on top of that- the coconut flour was made in a facility that contained tree nuts and soy. OMG! I told her i was determined to make her these cupcakes- once i find the right nut free, coconut free, gluten free blend- i will, obviously, share :)