Gluten-Free Cornmeal, Fig and Orange Muffins Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best gluten-free flour for muffins? ›

Brown rice flour contains one single ingredient—brown rice. And while all brown rice flours are naturally gluten free, it's essential to check that the one you're using was made in a gluten free facility. In recipes, brown rice flour works best in bread, muffins and cookies.

Add more fat or liquid: It might just be that you need a bit more moisture in your recipe, especially if you're converting a regular “gluten-ful” recipe to gluten-free. Try adding anywhere from ¼ to ½ cup of liquid or fat to the recipe and see if that helps.

There are a couple of excellent substitutes that can help replicate the use of cornmeal, at least in flavour! The best two are corn grits, cornflour and polenta; they're all made from corn and have a different coarseness.

Dry or Crumbly Muffins:

If you have dry or crumbly gluten free muffins, you need more liquid wet ingredients in your muffin batter. Every gluten free flour blend will have a slightly different amount of liquid needed. Blends with dried milk powder will need less liquid, but a starchy blend may need more.

Gluten-free flours often contain fine starches, so they absorb more liquid than conventional flour. To address this, gluten-free recipes usually call for more liquid and produce looser batters. They may also call for a larger quantity of leavening, like baking powder, to help add volume and lighten the texture.

Brown rice flour is about as close to a 1:1 substitute for all-purpose flour as it gets since it provides structure and a “wheat-like” flavor.

Moisture – for some reason gluten-free cakes tend to get a little dry. Any gluten-free cake will dry out super-fast and get hard on the outside if it's not properly refrigerated and covered. I swear by always using buttermilk and adding a little more fat into the batter to compensate for the dryness.

Gluten-free baked goods often benefit from extra liquid to hydrate the flour blends, eliminate grittiness, and achieve a less dense or dry texture. However, it's very important to drive off this extra moisture during baking, or you'll wind up with a gummy texture. The best way to do this? Longer baking times.

Jiffy cornbread mix, in case you really are standing in the baking aisle wondering, is wheat flour mixed with some cornmeal, a lot of sugar, lard, baking soda, and a handful of preservatives. (Note that because of the wheat flour, it's not gluten-free.) Use it to make creamy, cheesy Corn Pudding.

What is a substitute for cornmeal in muffins? ›

There are some additional foods you can use in place of cornmeal. If you don't have any of the options above, you can consider ground oats, masa harina, bread crumbs, ground flaxseed, polenta flour, smashed cornflakes, homemade cornmeal, or hominy grits.

Both grits and polenta fall under the heading of cornmeal, which is essentially a coarse flour, or “meal,” made from dried corn.

Pudding will help the muffin keep its structure and give the texture a chewy crumb with a nice little bounce that won't crumble apart.

While visual cues like the toothpick test and pressing the top of the cake will still help, the best way to determine if your baked goods are perfectly done is with a timer and oven thermometer. This is because gluten-free treats often look underdone and slightly wet inside after baking.

Xanthan Gum adds thickness and viscosity to gluten-free breads and other baked goods. Without xanthan gum, your gluten-free baked goods would be dry, crumbly and flat. Because xanthan gum is gluten-free and vegan, it's the preferred thickener for those home bakers with food allergies.

You can use either all-purpose flour or pastry flour; all-purpose flour gives you a sturdier muffin while a pastry flour muffin will be lighter and more delicate. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, vanilla, vegetable oil or butter, and eggs. Make sure to blend them thoroughly!

When to Swap All-in-One Gluten-Free Flours for Regular Flour. These gluten-free flour blends substitute well in batters that use baking powder and/or baking soda to leaven—such as cookies, muffins, and cakes—along with batters that are wetter in texture, like pancakes and quick breads.

Quinoa flour is great for pancakes, muffins, and pizza and pie crusts. You can also use it to thicken soups and sauces. Quinoa flour is a grain-based, gluten-free flour that's high in protein, iron, fiber, and unsaturated fats.

If you want to buy just one gluten-free flour, we highly recommend the Pillsbury all-purpose gluten-free flour. Not only is it our favorite gluten-free flour, and easy to use in gluten-free recipes, but it's also one of the few gluten-free flours currently on the market that is recommended for baking with yeast.