The Spellshop | Gluten-Free Fruit Explosion Muffins
If a cozy cottagecore fantasy set by the sea with found family and a bookish main character who has a sentient spider plant as a best friend sounds like the perfect summer read, then let’s be friends.
“Jam,” he repeated. “You want us to build a new life based on…jam?”
Kiela is not a people person, she is a book person. When a revolution causes a fire to break out in the Great Library of Alyssium, she does what librarians do - she saves the (spell)books. Escaping to her abandoned family cottage on her home island of Caltrey, she uses the forbidden magic of the spellbooks to create a flourishing garden to make jam to sell to the local bakery and residents. She soon grows to love the island and the people and creatures inhabiting it and can’t resist using magic to help them. But each time she does, she puts herself and the whole island at risk.
“A recipe for raspberry jam. Like the pie, this one was in her mother‘s handwriting with notes from her father in the margins.”
Just like Kiela, I inherited my mom’s box of recipes and these Gluten-Free Fruit Explosion Muffins have always been one of our favourites. Even though my family isn’t gluten-free, we absolutely adore these muffins and looked forward to eating them whenever we visited. I made a double batch for my dad for Father’s Day, as he’s not a baker and I know he misses them. I used a bit too runny of a jam (this was my first time making them) so I would advise a thicker set jam if you want that true fruit explosion experience in the middle of the muffin. In my opinion, these muffins are worthy of a bakery and some gourmet jam and giving them to someone you love creates its own kind of magic.
What types of reads are your go-to in summer?
Rosella’s Gluten-Free Fruit Explosion Muffins
Makes: 12
Ingredients
2 cups gluten-free baking flour
¾ teaspoons xanthan gum
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 ½ cups dried cranberries
1 cup yogurt or sour cream
2 eggs
½ cup oil
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoon jam (not too runny)
Instructions
Stir together baking mix, xanthan gum, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cranberries.
In a separate bowl whisk together yogurt, eggs, oil and vanilla. Stir into dry mixture until well mixed.
Spoon enough batter into 12 paper-lined muffin cups just to cover the bottoms nicely. Spoon ½ teaspoon jam into the center of each muffin. Top with remaining batter.
Bake at 400ºF for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
Hi I’m Cheri, I’ve been staying up too late reading since I was a kid hiding under the covers with a flashlight.