Normally, I’m the one who discovers new recipes to try out at home. Recently, however, I got an email forward from my husband that featured a recipe for Cappuccino Muffins. A few days after getting the email, I looked at the ingredient list and realized that I had everything I needed to make these muffins. And, since my husband doesn’t normally send me suggestions on what to bake, I figured I would give the recipe a shot. I’m glad I did! The original, which came from Taste of Home magazine, just needed a few tweaks to make them gluten, soy and dairy free. Even after the adjustments, these muffins were a hit!

Since these are really just muffins filled with chocolate chips and instant coffee, that's what I decided to call them. But don’t let the basic sounding ingredients fool you. These muffins--which happen to be a great reason to use any instant coffee granules you have sitting around in your pantry--are simply delectable. They have just the right amount of muffin squishiness mixed in with perfect little crunchy chocolate bits throughout. And the coffee granules round out the flavor with a hint of smokiness to complement the chocolate.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups gluten-free flour blend (see recipe below)
  
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 cup vanilla rice milk (or plain rice milk, soy milk, coconut milk or flax milk)
  
• 2 Tablespoons instant coffee granules
  
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance Soy Free Natural Buttery Spread, melted
  
• 1 flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flax plus 3 tablespoons water)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 3/4 cup gluten-free, dairy free semisweet chocolate chips (Enjoy Life brand is great!)
  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl, mix the rice milk and the coffee granules until the coffee is dissolved. Pour the coffee/milk mixture into the dry ingredients bowl, and then add the Earth Balance, flax egg and vanilla. Stir until nicely mixed and then fold in the chocolate chips.

Lightly grease a muffin tin and fill the cups at least 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Best-ever Gluten-free flour blend

I discovered this blend in a vegan/gluten-free cookbook I once borrowed through the library system. While I can’t remember the cookbook or the author, I can say that I think this blend is the best blend I’ve tried—it’s even better than many of the commercial blends, and ends up costing you less. The only adjustment I made to the original recipe was to use brown rice flour instead of white rice flour in the hopes that would make it somewhat more nutritious.

• 2 cups brown rice flour
  
• 2/3 cup potato starch
  
• 1/3 cup tapioca starch
  
• 1 ½ teaspoons xantham gum