Gluten Free Corn Muffins with Pears and Expandex

One of my family members was recently diagnosed with high blood pressure and requested  a batch of my low-sodium baked goods. Since their favorite fruit is pears I decided on my gluten-free pear corn muffins. Because they are not on a gluten-free diet and not used to heavy gluten-free food, I decided to experiment and add a little bit more tapioca flour (1/3 cup instead of 1/4 cup) and 1/4 cup of Expandex. Expandex also improves shelf life and helps save the texture of gluten-free foods while freezing. Wow!  They really expanded and rose very nicely. In addition, I noticed that muffins made with Expandex had a nice crunchy muffin top, where the prior muffins had a soft top even where brown.

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I created the original recipe before I discovered sorghum flour.  Next time I will increase the tapioca and potato starch and decrease the whit rice and brown rice flours and substitute it with sorghum flour.  The graininess of the rice flour was noticeable with the Expandex because it was not as dense as it was before.  I cannot wait until I use up all of my white rice flour so that I can try some super fine white rice flour.  Check out the link above to the original pear corn muffin recipe and you can see the difference in the photos.

Gluten-free Corn Pear Muffins made with Expandex

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Yield: Makes 1 dozen

Gluten-free Corn Pear Muffins made with Expandex

A delicious gluten-like muffin, though they are completely gluten free!

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup sweet rice flour
  • 1/2 cup white rice flour
  • 1/2 cup brown rice flour
  • 1/3 cup tapioca flour
  • 1/4 cup potato starch flour
  • 1/4 cup gluten free oat flour
  • 1/2 cup corn meal
  • 1/4 cup Expandex
  • 1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon + 3 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
  • 1 Tablespoon xanthan gum
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup grape seed oil
  • 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
  • 2 Tablespoon melted shortening
  • 1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon non-fat Greek yogurt
  • 2 ripe pears, chopped (1/4 cup reserved for tops + 1/2 pear reserved for pear sauce)

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
  2. Whisk all dry ingredients together in a large bowl; set aside.
  3. Peel pears; reserve one half for the pear sauce.
  4. Chop 1 1/2 pears into 1/4? pieces.
  5. Chop the other 1/2 pear about the same size; place into small sauce pan with 1/4 cup filtered water.
  6. Cook until tender (about 5 minutes).
  7. Run through mini food processor or mash by hand, makes about 2 Tablespoons.
  8. In a medium size bowl whisk eggs; add all wet ingredients together, including pear sauce, but not the chopped pears; whisk well.
  9. Add the pears to the mixture and fold in.
  10. Make a well inside the dry ingredients; and add the wet ingredients.
  11. Fold together until well blended.
  12. Oil muffin pans, and fill cups with mixture a little over the top so that they are rounded.
  13. Smooth out tops, as whatever they look like after being smoothed is somewhat the shape they will be after they are baked.
  14. Add the extra pears to the top of muffins; and push into dough half way.
  15. Bake for approximately 28 – 30 minutes or until slightly golden brown.
  16. Remove from oven and set muffin pan on a wire rack to cool for at least 5 minutes before removing from pan. The sooner you remove them the more fragile they will be, but I successfully lifted them from the pans after 5 minutes of cooling.

Tips

!Tips and Substitutions You may substitute the homemade pear sauce for unsweetened apple sauce, but it will have less of a pear flavor.

You may melt the butter and shortening together to make 1/3 cup. If you attempt to substitute the sweet rice flour for all white rice flour your muffins may be more dense.

If your pears are over ripe use less water when cooking the pear sauce.

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