Blackberry Lemon Ginger Muffins - Vegan And Gluten Free

Blackberries blend beautifully with lemon and crystallized ginger.

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Blackberries Everywhere!
If you live anywhere near blackberries, you know that they grow like weeds and around this time of year, they are everywhere! We have some growing all along a trail near our house which we occasionally nibble on but this year Doug discovered blackberries growing through our back fence. How exciting to have these healthful little berries right there for the picking!

Blackberries growing through our backyard fence!

One cup of these little jewels are only 62 calories.

They provide half the RDA of vitamin C and manganese and have 8 grams of fiber!

Blackberries are rich in polyphenols and anthocyanins and are very high on the ORAC scale which measures antioxidant properties.

Gluten Free Baking
After learning a lot about the effects of gluten on the body from Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo's lecture at the Raw Health Expo, I started to develop more gluten free recipes. Since we love making fresh muffins and other baked goods, I quickly had to find a substitute for wheat flour. It's hard enough to make vegan baked goods without butter or eggs, so I thought this was going to be an even greater challenge. But luckily, I found Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour . It works much better when you add Xanthan gum to the recipe. If you don't want to make the muffins gluten free, you can substitute your normal flour in this recipe (I suggest white whole wheat) and eliminate the xanthan gum.

For best results, add xanthan gum to gluten free flour.
For cookies, add 1/4 tsp xanthan gum per cup of GF flour.
For cakes, add 1/2 tsp per cup of GF flour.
For muffins/quick breads, add 3/4 tsp per cup of GF flour.
For breads, add 1 to 1 1/2 tsp per cup of GF flour.
For pizza crust, use 2 tsp per cup of GF flour.

Blackberries, Lemon and Ginger 
I love crystallized ginger. I pop a few pieces in my mouth, from time to time, like they were candy. So I thought they'd match well with the tartness of blackberries. In this recipe, I also add a little lemon zest to bring out the flavors even more.

Penseys is my favorite crystallized ginger.
It's minced into tiny pieces, each delicately coated in sugar.

Blackberry Lemon Ginger Muffins
[Vegan, Gluten Free]
makes 12 muffins
Earth balance for greasing muffin pan
2 cups Bob's Red Mill gluten free all purpose flour *
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum *
2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds
1 tablespoon aluminum free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup organic cane sugar or Sucanat
zest from one lemon
2/3 cup apple sauce
3/4 cup gluten free soy milk
1 teaspoon gluten free vanilla extract
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup fresh blackberries
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, minced
* For non-gluten free muffins, substitute either white whole wheat or regular multi-purpose flour for the gluten free flour and eliminate the xanthan gum.


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Generously grease a muffin tin with a vegan buttery spread like Earth Balance and set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, xanthan gum, flaxseeds, baking powder, salt and sugar and stir until combined.
In another bowl, mix lemon zest, apple sauce, soy milk, vanilla extract and olive oil. Blend with a fork, whisk or hand beater until combined.
Add to the flour mixture and stir until well blended.
Gently fold in the blackberries and crystallized ginger until they are uniformly distributed.
Scoop batter into muffin tins with a spoon and bake for 24 minutes at 350 degrees or until a toothpick comes out clean when placing it in the middle of the muffins.
Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 5 minutes.
Take a butter knife and gently go around the edge of each muffin. Remove muffins from pan.
Serve warm or place on rack until cool before storing them.


Per muffin: 163.1 calories, 5.8 g fat, 0.7 g saturated fat, 2.8 g protein, 27.9 g carbohydrates and 3.5 g dietary fiber.

Gently fold blackberries and crystallized ginger into the batter.

Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Serve warm!