Festive Holiday Muffins

Fat Free, Gluten Free, Vegan Cranberry Banana Muffins

Nov 7, 2009
Ryann Salik

Festive Cranberries Complement Holiday Muffins - Nadia Gossett

Delicately spiced with cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, these tender, fat free muffins are bursting with the goodness of cranberries. This recipe will be a holiday favorite.

The holidays are coming, bringing high calorie, fat laden goodies in their wake. But holiday treats do not have to be unhealthy. Choosing wholesome ingredients, flavorful spices and lots of delicious fruit can give holiday baking a healthful new spin. This recipe for fat free, vegan muffins is a guilt-free treat with health benefits.

Gluten-Free Baking

Gluten is the combination of proteins that remains when starch is removed from cereal grains, such as wheat (including spelt), rye and barley. About 1 in 100 people must avoid gluten due to celiac disease or dermatitis herpetiformis, diseases which cause the body to have an adverse auto-immune reaction to these proteins.

Brown rice flour is a fantastic alternative to baking with wheat flours. Naturally gluten-free, rice flour is a safe food for those adhering to the gluten-free diet, but everyone will enjoy the delicate crumb and dense, cake-like texture that results from baking with rice flour.

Since it is the gluten in wheat flour that creates the binding, elastic texture in baked goods, a thickener, such as guar gum, must be added when baking with rice flour. Guar gum is derived from plants and can be found in powder form at most natural food stores.

Vegan Cranberry Banana Holiday Muffins

Using an eggnog flavored non-dairy milk contributes to the festive flavor of these tasty muffins. If soy nog is not available, simply add a teaspoon of allspice or increase the nutmeg to 1/2 teaspoon for a similar effect.

This recipe yields 12 muffins.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup natural sugar or evaporated cane juice (substitute white or brown sugar if necessary)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp guar gum
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger or 1 inch grated fresh ginger
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup soy eggnog, such as So Nice Noel Nog, or non-dairy vanilla milk (traditional eggnog can be substituted for non-vegans)
3-4 overripe bananas, mashed
2 tsp lemon juice
1 cup unsweetened whole cranberries, fresh or frozen

Method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly spray muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, guar gum and salt. Stir until well mixed.
In a medium bowl, mash bananas until quite smooth. Stir in vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, applesauce, lemon juice and eggnog.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix very well. There is no need to worry about creating a tough finished product: these gluten-free muffins become more tender the better they are mixed.
Stir in cranberries. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean. Remove to rack to cool. Store at room temperature for 3 to 5 days.