I admire your tenacity.

I couldn't make your link work. But, sometimes, a recipe is just a clunker. :(

/tricia

Is your baking soda expired?

There is no recipe at that link. Is this it?

Ingredients:

3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup gluten-free old-fashioned rolled oats (do not use quick-cooking or instant)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (may be substituted with your choice of raw, unsalted nuts)
2 tablespoons ground chia seeds (see headnote)
1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1/4 cup cinnamon-flavored applesauce
1/4 cup agave syrup
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 ripe banana, mashed well
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 cup fresh blueberries
Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Use paper baking cups to line the wells of a muffin pan with regular-size wells.

Whisk together the brown rice flour, oats, walnuts, chia seeds and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Stir in the applesauce, agave syrup, almond milk, mashed banana and oil; leaving some lumps in the batter is okay. The consistency will be quite thick.

Gently fold the blueberries into the batter. Divide evenly among the paper liners, filling them no more than three-quarters full. Bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean and the tops are lightly browned.

Let them sit in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link

It may be the rice flour. For baked goods, use short- or medium-grain rice for flour - not long-grain rice. Long-grain rice flour is fine as a thickener or for dredging, but doesn't work the best in baked goods. Another reason to mill your own flour..... ;-)

I think I'll give the recipe a try tomorrow and use almond flour instead of rice flour. I'll report back.

-Grainlady

Pasted from clabbergirl.com....

Q. Reaction of Rumford Baking Powder (not single-acting but double-acting)
A. Rumford Baking Powder contains only monocalcium phosphate as a leavening acid. Due to the nature of how this acid releases carbon dioxide gas with sodium bicarbonate in the presence of moisture, two-thirds of the available gas is released within approximately two minutes.

Baking Powders differ in their reaction to moisture and heat depending on their formulation. Rumford Baking Powder's reaction is approximately 70% with moisture (or in the bowl) and the rest when heat is applied. Clabber Girl's reaction is approximately 40% with moisture and the rest when heat is applied. Some people prefer the Rumford brand because it does not contain the acid ingredient sodium aluminum sulfate.

I'd suggest trying a different brand of baking powder, for starters. You will probably get a better oven rise with another brand that reacts more to heat.

Argo is another brand of double-acting aluminum free baking powder. It's the only brand that I will use since developing a sensitivity to the metallic off-taste I experience with Clabber Girl & Calumet. (I tried Rumford when I couldn't find the Argo brand but went back to Argo the instant I found it again.)

Thank you all for your help and suggestions.
Sorry about the link, it is the recipe momj47 posted.
( wow that could so be my email name as well if I see where you are coming from)

so anyway I posted the link again below.

I've been suspicious of the baking powder, yes I bought new, but again it was Rumford, I do not think I have seen Argo around here--Seattle area. Just Calumet, Clabber girl and Rumford.

the Rice flour is all new to me, I bought Bob's Red Mill,
I'm not using this recipe because of gluten concerns, so I'm open to other options.

I did keep trying to make the muffins since my husband, who is overweight, does like them and he feels that 2 of them fill him up in the morning and keep him from eating too much at lunch time.

I did make some again today since I had a banana that needed to be used. I did add an egg and then also added 2 tablespoons of whole wheat flour to make up for the extra liquid. I also increased the baking powder from 1&1/2 to 2 tsp. and added 2 tsp of baking soda as well.
they did seem to rise better, at least a little above the paper, which may partly be due to the extra ingredients.

I'll be curious to see how grainlady's come out.
thanks,
Judy

Here is a link that might be useful: banana berry nut chia seed muffins

Plantknitter--I find the Argo baking powder at Wal-Mart so you might check there for it. No guarantee that it will be in any of your local WMT's but worth checking for.

The test is over....

As with most gluten-free muffins, they don't get the loft that you get when using wheat flour, but they did have the pebbly look with a nice round crown I like. They are a little larger than the dollop of batter when baked. Some gluten-free muffins tend to have a flat top, especially those I make with coconut flour, so I liked the taste, texture and look of these muffins.

I got 9 muffins instead of 12, and used my #16 portion scoop, which filled the muffin cups about 3/4 full.

Other changes I either made, or will make the next time...

-Reduced the sweetener to 2 T. and used coconut nectar instead of agave nectar - palm sugar could also be used. With banana AND sweetened applesauce, I thought 1/4 c. was too much sweetener. I also used a small banana.

-Reduced the almond milk to 2 T. and the next time I would eliminate the almond milk, unless I thought the batter was too thick.

-Used unsweetened applesauce + 1/2 t. cinnamon - to reduce the "sugar".

-Added 1/2 t. baking soda.

-The next time I make them I'll use 1-cup of almond flour. The reason I didn't use rice flour is because it's too high-glycemic for us. Plus, I make almond milk and I like to use the dried pulp in recipes. Almond flour is low in carbs, high in protein and fiber, and doesn't raise blood sugar like rice flour does.

This is what I'll do the next time:

1 c. almond flour
1/2 c. old-fashioned oats
1/4 c. walnuts
2 T. ground chia seeds
1-1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
2 T. coconut nectar, agave nectar OR palm sugar
1 (small) ripe banana
1 T. coconut oil
1 c. blueberries (I used dried blueberries)

Let the batter sit for 5-minutes to hydrate the ground chia seeds before portioning it.

Bake in a preheated 400-degree F oven for 20-22 minutes. Both agave nectar and coconut nectar tend to brown quickly, like honey does, so a lower temperature and increased baking time will work better for the almond flour recipe. The bottoms of the muffins were very dark, probably because of the high baking temperature.

-Grainlady

Well since I'm almost out of rice flour, I will try to find some of the almond flour for next time.
My husband like the "chewiness" of the heavy muffins anyway, so I guess I shouldn't be worrying about this.

I was wondering how long the almond milk would last and be ok in the fridge? I bought a 1/2 gallon and it still seems ok, but has been open over a month now. Our fridge is really cold, often gets a film of ice on the tops of things.

plantknitter-

1. If you have a spice/coffee grinder, you can mill your own rice flour and save a bundle of money; as well as control the kind of rice you use -- short-, medium- or long-grain, as well as brown or white rice.

2. Once open, commercial almond milk has a longer refrigerator life than homemade because of additional ingredients in it besides almond milk, as well as how it's processed and packaged, and commercial almond milk is generally good for 10-days to 2-weeks once opened. If you don't plan on using it within that time you can freeze it in user-friendly amounts and thaw what you need in the refrigerator overnight.

Homemade almond milk will last 5-7 days (depends on refrigerator temperature and how many times it's removed from the refrigerator and left at room temperature), but you have the option of making it in small amounts by making it yourself.

3. I generally make 1 cup of almonds into almond milk each week. I soak them in plenty of water (1 c. almonds in a quart jar, fill to the top with water + 1/2 t. sea salt) between 6-24 hours (a longer soak is better than a short one). Soaking them reduces hard-to-digest phytates and increases the nutrition. Adding the small amount of salt also helps remove phytates. Drain and rinse well.

At this point you can slip the skins off with your fingers if you'd like, but you can also leave them on - your choice.

Blend the soaked nuts in water in a high-speed blender. I generally make concentrated almond milk by blending 1-cup of soaked nuts in 2 to 2-1/2 c. of water. Strain the pulp out of the mixture by using a "nut milk bag" (or an extra-fine sieve or several layers of food-grade cheese cloth). Now I have the option of using the almond milk as-is, or thinning it with water. You'll find recipes on-line that suggest 3-4 cups of water (or even more) for 1 cup of almonds. Once again - your choice. The ratio I use fits in a brown glass bottle with a bail closure I have, and takes up less room in the refrigerator.

I prefer plain almond milk, but you can find recipes where dates, sweeteners or spices are also added.

4. I use the raw pulp mixed with a few other ingredients to make high-protein granola-like "cereal" or other things like cookies and crackers, or even almond butter. Or I dry the pulp in my dehydrator on the fruit leather sheets (it dries very quickly) to make almond flour, which I use in nearly any recipe calling for almond flour. Be sure to check out Elana Amsterdam's website for great recipes using almond flour - www.elanaspantry.com. Elana's recipe for Date Pecan Muffins in her book "The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook" is one of our favorites, and it sounds like one your hubby would also like. Chock full of chopped apples, pecans and dates.... :-)

I usually pulse the dried homemade almond flour into a fine powder in my Magic Bullet or my small food processor so it's more like commercial almond flour. Otherwise it's pretty coarse.

Commercial almond flour is also available from Honeyville Grain (my favorite - comes in 5# bags) or Bob's Red Mill (16-oz. bag). But it's less expensive to purchase almonds at Sam's Club and make your own.

-Grainlady

This post was edited by grainlady on Sat, May 11, 13 at 18:31

Er, Grainlady, you might want to edit that last sentence of paragraph 4 :-)

(my brain read the word correctly :)
thanks for all the wonderful information,
making your own almond milk sounds easier than I thought it would be.
can't find the pecan date recipe on her site, is it similar to this one below?

babysitting grandchildren today, sorry for the choppy or non-sentences.

Here is a link that might be useful: date pecan muffins

plantknitter-

Sorry about the mistake. Haven't a clue how to edit it.

BINGO! That's the same recipe. I don't bother with a blender or a food processor when making it. Just mix the dry ingredients and add the wet - muffin style. I cut the apples into 1/4-inch bits (or perhaps a little larger) and use coconut oil, but any oil or even melted butter would work. I usually make 1/2 a recipe (6-muffins) and bake them in my Convection/Microwave Oven in about half the time as a regular oven. We have muffins for breakfast every Saturday morning and the extras keep well wrapped in foil in the freezer.

-Grainlady

Just under the "Clippings" bit in the top right hand corner of your post is a "NEW! Edit Post" link
Click on that and your post will come up in editable form.

colleenoz- (aka spellcheck ;-)

Thanks so much. It's always good to learn something new. I also replaced the battery in my keyboard and now it is keeping up with my fingers again.

-Grainlady

I'm not sure what you edited, but it's not what I was referring to. It was this:
"it sounds like one your hubby would also like. Cock full of chopped apples, pecans and dates.... :-) "
Or do you know more about plantknitter's hubby than the rest of us ;-) ?

I edited the spelling of phytates in paragraph 4. You found the mistake in point #4 - and what a doozy. -Grainlady