Sourdough Blueberry Muffins – gluten free, refined sugar free
My sister and her baby recently came to visit my husband and I. She and I are both foodies and by the time we actually sit down to eat something, we’ve both been dreaming about it for days! We like being in the kitchen and enjoy eating healthy, nourishing food that doesn’t sit heavy on our stomachs and that tastes fabulous. Even before my sister set her suitcase down, we started talking about all of things we wanted to eat/make (my husband says my sister and I never actually stop talking about food, even in our sleep). We are also always discussing topics related to natural health and we really enjoy bouncing ideas of each other. It’s ok though because we already know we are weird 
Here’s a few pics detailing our adventures in the kitchen:
Sprouted Adzuki Bean Salad topped with homemade Saurkraut. My sis and I decided this tasted just like our grandmothers old fashioned bean salad she used to make.
Almond milk yogurt topped with cultured cherries, recipe coming soon!
Above: Baked eggs over a basil, parsley, sunflower sprouts, and arugula salad.
This is what my kitchen counter looked like the night before my sis arrived. Starting from the far left, gluten free levain starter culture, cows milk kefir (for my husband), soaked almonds for yogurt and milk, pickled beets, and cultured cherries.
Two of the interesting things we made were cultured blueberries, a recipe I will be posting soon, and cultured watermelon juice. Fermenting and culturing foods is becoming a norm for us both and I can’t tell you how I wished I would have known about cultured vegetables a few years ago–would have saved me a lot of time in getting healthy!
Filling our triple layer Gluten Free cake for my dad's birthday. Three layers of gluten free Vanilla cake, layered with raspberry jam and dairy free white chocolate mousse, topped off with a homemade chocolate butter cream frosting. This cake set the standard for all cakes I will eat from here on out, simply becasue it ws perfect and by perfect I mean perfect.
what our triple layer cake looked like after being sliced.
Getting ready to make pickles! We used wild dill which we foraged in my neighborhood.
Above: Homemade Peach ice Cream made with Coconut Milk topped with cultured blueberries.
Roasted asparagus with a garlic aoli dipping sauce made a great side dish for dinner one night
One of the few unique, blog-worthy creations we made were sourdough blueberry muffins. Before my sister arrived, I made a gluten free levain starter. Since we had the starter, we were free to make any gluten free sourdough treats that we pleased. We made sourdough pancakes and my sister even made savory green onion and lemon zest sourdough muffins. Once you create a gluten free starter, you can keep it indefinitely in the fridge as long as you keep feeding it. Fermenting grains allows them to become more digestible, which allows us to absorb more of their beneficial nutrients. Remember, digestible food = nourishing food.
My nephew, who is 1 1/2, absolutely adored these muffins and the entire batch was gone in 1 day. He is well-trained to enjoy the finer, more natural foods of life! In fact, we tossed him a marshmellow and he used it as a toy instead.
Gluten Free Sourdough Blueberry Muffins
I know what you are thinking, “So what, blueberry muffins? I can make those with my eyes closed!”. These baby blues are a totally different creature from the blueberry muffins of yesteryear. The beauties we make are much healthier than your standard muffin, because the grains are soaked and fermented which allows their nutrients to be easily broken down and absorbed. Remember, yes this is the second time I’m saying this in this post, digestible food= nourishing food.
Ingredients:
1 cup mature gluten free levain starter culture
1 cup brown rice flour (or your favorite whole grain gluten free blend)
1/2 water or whey
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup coconut palm sugar
1/2 cup arrowroot starch
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg or flax egg for vegan
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup grapeseed oil, butter, or coconut oil
3/4 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
Instructions:
1. The night before you plan to make these: combine the starter culture, the brown rice flour, and the water or whey. Stir well and let sit over night loosely covered.
2. The day you plan to make these: Preheat oven to 425 and line your muffin tin with cupcake liners.
3. In a large bowl combine the salt, baking soda, palm sugar, cinnamon, and arrowroot starch. Stir in the blueberries.
4. In a small bowl, combine the oil, vanilla, and egg.
5. Combine the starter culture mixture (overnight mixture) with the dry ingredients (blueberries included) in the large bowl. Then mix in the wet ingredients.
6. Spoon the mixture into a prepared muffin pan approx 3/4 full. Bake at 425 for 20 min or until golden on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Allow them to cool slightly before serving. We spread ours with Kerrygold Irish butter and they were insanely delicious!
This post is linked with the SOS Kitchen Challenge for the month of June, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday , Penny Wise Platter, and Gluten Free Wednesday.
-Melanie
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Hello Melanie-
Thanks for linking to my starter recipe. I’m so glad you had success with it! I’m going to try your muffins!
Best wishes-
Dori – Thank you so much for your detailed instructions on the levain starter culture. It was a huge success in all the recipes we made. You rock!
What an incredibly creative recipe! I just love sourdough breads and I am sure I’d love these muffins as well! Not to mention all those other fantastic foods you highlight here (great cake for your dad–and love that sprouted adzuki salad!). Thanks so much for participating in the SOS Challenge this month.
thanks Ricki! I’ve wanted to participate in the SOS challenge but it just never seemed to work out with my schedule. So glad I was able to participate in this one though, and I do love blueberries! The cake for my dads b-day was truly a labor of love and took 2 days to make! It was so worth it! I’ll soon be sharing my recipe for Sprouted Adzuki bean salad, it was spot on!
i love this post! i think it captures everything perfectly. i CANNOT wait to make those muffins again!!!!!!!!!
me either! today I made those carrot walnut muffins sweetened only with dates that you like. I subbed pine nuts in for walnuts, we’ll see how they turn out.
Wow! Everything sounds wonderful! The muffins look fantastic, and I can thing of a bunch of things I could use a sourdough starter for. Thanks for sharing!
Hey laxsupermom! thanks for stopping by! Having a gluten free starter culture in the house was incredible because it opened up a world of possibilities, not to mention everything we made with it tasted awesome!
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Melanie!! This a totally brilliant recipe! I absolutely adore the idea of the sourdough. I was born and raised in San Francisco and grew up on the most awesome sourdough breads. I think I will totally love these muffins!
Hey Kim! I love a good sourdough bread too, but haven’t made one since going gluten free. These muffins have gotten me on a sourdough kick, so sourdough bread may be in the works!! thanks for stopping by
I can’t tell you how excited I am to come across your blog and this recipe! I’ve been meaning to try and make my own gluten-free sourdough starter forever. This looks like a great place to start! Thank you.
P.s thanks for stopping by my blog!
Hey Emma! Thanks for your kind words! This starter has brought so many possibilities into my gluten free world! I hope you try it out and let me know what you think
i just love everything about this post. the pictures of all that food we had…i can taste it now! I’ve been craving these muffins lately so i gotta take care of that;) and the photo of the muffins with dimities hand in it is priceless!
Eating healthy…
[...]Sourdough Blueberry Muffins – gluten free, refined sugar free « The Grecian Garden[...]…
I noticed you keep all your cultures together on the counter. This can cause cross-contamination and your starters to weaken. They should be at least 7 feet apart.
Hi Keirsten! I actually put them all together for the pic. I’m aware of cross-contamination with starters as I have made sourdough breads without added yeasts. Thanks for the comment