Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Michael requested lemon poppy seed muffins, and I thought that I would try to figure out how to make them egg-free so Sabrina could eat them as well. It took a few tries, but I'm pretty pleased with this recipe now. I've been working on egg-free muffins since this summer, and I'm finally getting the hang of it. The secret ingredient is vinegar, or another acid like lemon juice. The combination of the vinegar and the baking soda causes the muffins to rise. In addition, the use of ground flax seed meal soaked in hot water helps the muffins to hold together and not crumble.

The other lesson I've been learning about gluten-free baking is the importance of sifting the flour. Before I started sifting the flour, I would end up with pockets of dry flour in my muffins. Finally it dawned on me that the flour pockets came from the lumps of flour in my batter. Since I didn't own a flour sifter, I improvised with a fine-mesh sieve, which I gently shook back and forth to help the flour go through the holes. Voila! No more lumps or pockets of flour! I just read on another blog that you also can use a whisk to mix the flour and other dry ingredients together until all the lumps are gone.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
makes 6 muffins

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Tbsp. Bob's Red Mill ground flax seed meal (and 2 Tbsp. hot water)
  
• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp. Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour, sifted
  
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 2 to 3 tsp. poppy seeds
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/3 cup granulated white sugar
• 1/2 cup rice milk, warmed
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract. Use Trader Joe's alcohol-free vanilla extract or another vanilla extract that does not have corn syrup and is preferably alcohol-free, since the alcohol could be derived from corn. Recently I have been using Rodelle Vanilla Flavor alcohol free all natural extract, which I found at Stop and Shop.
• 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• zest from 1 lemon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 6 cups in a muffin tin with canola oil. In a small bowl or mug heat 2 tablespoons of water and then stir in the flax seed meal.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds. In a small bowl combine the canola oil, sugar, warmed rice milk, vanilla extract, lemon juice, lemon zest, and the flax seed meal mixture. Stir the liquids until the sugar dissolves. Make a hole in the middle of the flour mixture and pour the liquid mixture into it. Stir with a spoon just until you don't see anymore flour.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin cups. Bake for 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into one of the muffins comes out mostly clean. Use a knife or small spatula to loosen the muffins from the tin. Then transfer the muffins to a cooling rack.