Chai Spice Muffins

 

I am a teetotaler. I love tea. I never learned to enjoy the taste of coffee. It smells good when it brews but that bitter aftertaste just doesn't do it for me. I'm happy with a nice black, green, red, or white tea in the morning. Because I enjoy tea so much, I have a lot of different varieties, both in loose-leaf or bagged from all over the place. Needless to say, I need a shelf in the pantry just for my teas. One tea I enjoy is my Masala Chai. A friend of mine brought me back a bag of Masala Chai from a nice tea shoppe in New York City. I usually don't put milk in my tea but when I'm drinking Chai, I do. 

Not to long ago, I made some chai cupcakes and figured I would make some chai muffins when I had time. Well, I had time this past weekend and I decided to experiment with my cupcake recipe and make some muffins but not just any muffins; Chai Spice Gluten-Free muffins. Next time I make these, I'll add like a chai concentrate or add some more spices to the mix but for a trial run, these weren't bad.

Enjoy.

Ingredients: 1 3/4 c gluten-free flour*, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1.5 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp cinnamon, .5 tsp cardamom, .5 sea salt, .5 xanthan gum, 1/8 tsp ground cloves, 3/4 c light brown sugar, packed, 3/4 c unsalted butter, softened, 3 eggs, .25 c milk, 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions: (1) Preheat oven to 350F and prep a 12-c or 6-c muffin pan with liners or cooking spray. (2) In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, salt, xanthan gum, and cloves. (3) Beat brown sugar and butter in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Beat in milk and vanilla until blended. (4) Add flour mixture to egg mixture  and stir with a spoon until just blended. Divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups and bake for about 22-27 minutes or until tops are golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. Let muffins cool pan for a few minutes then completely on a wire rack.

*I some times use a brown rice flour blend with making gluten-free muffins. Here's a recipe I use and it usually makes about 3 cups.  2 c finely ground brown rice flour,  2/3 c potato starch, 1/3 c tapioca starch. Items can be purchased at some grocery stores in their organic aisle or at specialty health food stores.