I used to be one crazy baker back in the day. My favorite things were chocolate chip cookies (my special recipe), pumpkin bread and lots of other fruity breads (banana, berry, etc). I've got all kinds of silpats, a butter yellow Kitchen-Aid stand mixer, and all manner of colorful bowls and rubber scrapers.
One day (a very long time ago) my oven went on the fritz and I took an unexpected hiatus from baking. I've had a working oven for a while now and have been using it for lots of roasting and other radiant heat goodness, but no sweet baked treats.
Enter my very first CSA delivery of the season, and the rhubarb that came with it. Rhubarb! Oh boy did I want to make an ooey-gooey sweet treat with some rhubarb. After a little googling in search of vegan, gluten-free, low sugar delights made with rhubarb, I came across this recipe from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen:
Gluten-Free, Vegan Rhubarb Muffins!
Besides rhubarb, the recipe uses sorghum & tapioca flour (gluten-free), fresh squeezed orange juice and orange zest, plus a nice amount of cardamom. They are sweetened with apple sauce and I chose to use agave nectar. The recipe recommends putting turbinado sugar on top of the muffins to get that crispy crunchy topping, but I skipped it (still avoiding sugar). Using fresh, local, tart rhubarb was absolutely delicioso!
I've got a ton of bizarre ingredients now, so first I'm going to recreate these muffins and continue to experiment with gluten-free baking adventures!
Great post, Roz! I actually just picked up some rhubarb at Whole Foods yesterday. Thinking of making those muffins...and I like that they are gluten free. I am going to go for it! Like you, I tend to experiment with natural sweeteners and switch up the ingredients. :)
Posted by: Lisa Consiglio Ryan | May 31, 2011 at 09:48 AM