Since trying to substitute gluten free flours for plain flour in baking I have become much more used to cakes which are crammed full of oats, nuts, seeds, fruit etc, and in my view they now taste nicer, and plain flour cakes seem to now luck sustenance. This is to the point that I found myself saying at Christmas, that I preferred Christmas pudding to bûche de noel, (thus going against 20-odd years of undying devotion to chocolate buttercream and butterless sponge). Josie does not agree and continues to make chocolate muffins and waffles with plain flour rather than succumbing to my suggestions to at least substitute wholemeal or rye for the plain flour, but these muffins below are some of my favourite. I think also with a bit of tweaking you could quite easily make these into gingerbread.
A note on buckwheat. It is not related to wheat at all but actually to rhubarb amongst other plants (!!) and its grains are milled to make the flour. It is used to make those lovely savoury pancakes in Brittany and grows well in cold climates, so is eaten in places like Russia and Scandinavia. It is naturally gluten-free but make sure when buying it that it is has been milled etc in a gluten-free environment, much likes oats. The only buckwheat flour I have found in shops here in the UK is Doves’ and it is not gluten-free. I would suggest the internet as a possible source for buckwheat buying.
If you can’t find buckwheat go for 100g of ground almonds.
These muffins are crumbly and you have to let them cool before taking them out of their cases if you make them in silicone ones like we did.
Makes 12 medium sized muffins.
50g ground almonds
50g buckwheat
175g oats
100g soft brown sugar
1tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 egg
120ml milk
60ml treacle
75ml vegetable oil
Turn the oven onto 200°C.
1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl beat the egg, milk, treacle and vegetable oil until it is well blended.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until it is just blended, do not overmix.
4. Spoon into muffin cases and bake for 15 minutes.
The Two Sisters' Kitchen 