Gluten Free Blueberry Streusel Muffins with Lemon and Olive Oil
Quick or Make Ahead Breakfast of Tender Gluten Free Cake filled with Juicy Berries
Hello friends,
This time of year I find myself in need of quick breakfasts on the go, mornings come early and a freezer full of muffins is a gift to myself that I’m never sad about. So I make up a double batch of these on the weekend - if you’ve got company even better, these company worthy cakelets are quick enough to pull together over coffee and it’s easy to make extra to freeze.
These muffins are so tender and soft, and for that we have the olive oil to thank. In some pastries, flakiness is the goal, but in a muffin I’m looking for a soft luxurious texture, and nothing can achieve that like olive oil. Don’t worry, these are not going to taste like olives, the oil lends a rich round flavor in addition to that supple texture.
I’ve used blueberries here, I can’t resist a classic, but I’ve also made these with pitted fresh or frozen cherries - delightful! Chopped peaches would make this taste like peach cobbler muffins, or raspberries would have a fun zing, really you could switch up the fruit with similar sized pieces of the fresh or frozen fruit you love!
The crowning joy of these muffins is the streusel top. I’ve included oats here, which we should have a quick talk about. Did you know that not all oats are celiac safe - even the oats that say gluten free on them? It’s true! Many oats are grown in the same fields as wheat - maybe rotating oat years with wheat years. Any of you who’ve had a garden will know, that sometimes last years plants come up again - they are called “volunteers” in the garden. So… when I got extra tomatoes in my garden that I didn’t plant - yay! However when wheat mixes itself in with the oats, not so great. Many companies use a visual recognition technology to scan and pull out the wheat so that the oats can be counted as gluten free… however can you imagine how easy it is to miss these tiny grains? Purity protocol is the name for oats that are grown completely separately and thus have no chance of wheat “volunteers” invading the gluten free oat stock, and THAT my friends is what I look for when buying gluten free oats, for streusel or oatmeal or really any application! Check out this list of purity protocol oat brands. If you’d rather just avoid the oats altogether you can always substitute 70 grams of gluten free flour for the oats and make a flour based crumble top - also fantastic!
Gluten Free Blueberry Streusel Muffins
with Lemon and Olive Oil
Yield: 12 muffins
2 cups (280g) gluten free pastry flour (recipe included) or One to One gluten free flour such as King Arthur Measure for Measure or Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free flour
1 ½ teaspoon (6g) baking powder
½ teaspoon (2g) baking soda
¾ teaspoon (4g) fine salt
2 large eggs
½ cup (100g) sugar
3/4 c (180g) buttermilk
zest and juice of one lemon
1 teaspoon (4g) almond extract
½ cup (50g) extra virgin olive oil
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
½ cup (45g) gluten free old fashioned oatmeal
¼ cup (50g) brown sugar
2 tablespoons (30g) unsalted butter, or coconut oil
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a large mixing bowl. Take out 2 Tb of the dry mixer and toss with the blueberries to coat them. Set aside.
Make a well in the middle of the the dry ingredients. Add all of the wet ingredients (eggs through oil) in the well and mix them all together with an electric mixer until well combined. Turn off mixer and stir berries into batter by hand.
For the streusel, combine butter, oats and brown sugar in small bowl using a pastry cutter or just clean hands. Keep doing this until the butter is distributed throughout and mixture resembles fine crumbs.
Place liners in a standard muffin tin. Divide batter equally among the 12 cups. Evenly distribute topping among 12 cups. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, or until an instant read thermometer reads 205F. Cool in muffin tin for about 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm, room temperature, or reheated with butter.
This flour is the perfect mix for the cookies, cakes, muffins, and quick-breads in your life. It’s light and feathery and gives you a light melting mouthfeel. Different brands of the ingredient flours have different grinds. Finer flours might pack into the cup – while courser flours won’t fit nearly as much in a cup, so weighing your ingredients will give you MUCH better results! On a simple scale put a medium to large bowl, shake or spoon on the flours and hit that “Zero” or “tare” button after each one. Voila! Cleanup is nearly nonexistent and you’ve got a much more reliable flour! Note- this flour is not meant to be used in yeast based recipes, breads and cinnamon rolls need a bit more strength and not as much tenderness. For more information on gluten free flours, please see my in depth explanation here.
Gluten Free Pastry Flour Mix
yield: 8 cups (1,177g)
2 cup (260g) sweet white rice flour (mochi flour or mochiko)
2 cup (256g) fine brown rice flour
2 cup (380g) potato starch
1 cup (118g) sorghum flour
1 cup (160g) tapioca flour
4 tsp (3g) xanthan gum
Scoop all ingredients into a large bowl and whisk well to combine. Store in an airtight container.
