Gluten Free Lemon, Sunflower Seed and Blueberry Muffins

Spring has arrived in London!

We had such amazing weather at the weekend. It was coat off, park walking, beer garden kind of day on Saturday.

My friend Nat and I had already planned a few weeks back to explore one of London's parks and decided to head to Hampstead Heath. I don't think we could have picked a better day. We spent nearly 2 hours walking around the Heath and enjoyed this view from the Top of The Hill before heading to the closest beer garden to enjoy the remained of sun for the day.



Sunday wasn't as sunny, so I decided to do some more baking. I have baked a few recipes from this cookbook, but there are a number of recipes I still wanted to try. I had some leftover sunflower seeds and always have blueberries to hand. The recipe said it would make 8, so I thought I would use my smaller cases to get a few extras. It was so light and fluffy that it made three dozen! The trick with this recipe is to beat the sugar and eggs on high for the full 3 minutes and be careful when mixing in the other ingredients so you don't knock out the air. Did I mention these are also low in fat and gluten free… perfect treat for spring!




Lemon, Sunflower Seed and Blueberry Muffins
by Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache

2 large unwaxed lemons
3 medium free-range eggs
160g caster sugar
250g topped, tailed, peeled and finely grated courgette
180g white rice flour
160g ground almonds
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
60g sunflower seeds
150g blueberries

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line the muffin tray with paper cases.
Finely grate the lemon zest on to a plate.

Beat the eggs and sugar with an electric beater for a full 3 minutes until pale and creamy coloured. Add the grated courgette and lemon zest and beat again. Set the beaters aside. With the help of a spatula, beat in the flour, ground almonds, baking powder bicarbonate of soda, and salt until they are all mixed in. It is important to works as quickly as you can here. Equally fast, add the sunflower seeds and the blueberries. Give it all a good firm stir.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases so that the mixture (which will be quite lumpy and stiff) comes right  up to the top of each case. Place in the middle of the oven for 35 minutes.

Take the minutes out of the oven and cool on a wire rack. Don't be afraid of a blueberry-stained and slightly cracked muffin top.


Happy Baking x

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