Raspberry Lime Muffins (GF DF)

It’s one of the most eagerly anticipated times of the year for me in my garden, the time when my raspberry bushes produce their first crop of luscious juicy raspberries. I wanted to create a recipe where I could enjoy my beloved raspberries for breakfast (though truth be told I am not opposed to any baked good for breakfast). Muffins are the ultimate portable snack or breakfast in my opinion. Too often though, gluten free muffins are either too sweet and starchy or bland, dense and tasteless. These muffins are tender, delicious and yep, healthy. The secret to great healthy gluten & dairy free/vegan muffins in my experience is using the right blend of flours, as well as the right amount of liquids. Too high a liquid ratio (milk, yogurt, eggs) and you will have a muffin that is too wet and ends up gummy and falling in the middle during or right after baking. In my experience gluten free flour blends do not work well in muffins and quick breads/loaves. They are often too starchy which results in a gummy muffin. Or they are too dense and create a dry crumbly muffin. So when it comes to successful, delicious, beautiful gluten & dairy free muffins, it is worth it to use individual flours. The blend I use and have had the most success with is as follows: Kimmi’s GF Muffin & Quick bread blend (for every 2 cups of flour called for in a recipe)
1 cup ivory teff flour (you can sub teff flour, just be aware it will have a little stronger flavour and darker colour or sub buckwheat or quinoa flour ),1/2 cup tapioca starch, 1/4 cup coconut flour and 1/4 cup millet or sorghum flour. Ivory teff/teff flour, a drought tolerant sustainable grain, is my favourite in gluten free baking. One of the reasons, among many, is that it creates great loft and rise in gluten free baking. So I really encourage you to find some teff flour near you.
Another key is to use a binder. Since gluten grains are missing the natural binder found in wheat and other gluten based grains, it requires you to add a binder. Otherwise your baked goods will fall apart. Most often people use xanthan gum in GF baking. It is derived from corn (often GMO corn) so I avoid it. I use guar gum as my binder which is derived from a the gel forming seed of the guar plant. I have heard some individuals who cannot tolerate it as it irritates their gut. If that is the case you could try psyllium husk powder instead, use about 1/2 the amount of psyllium as you would guar gum. In my experience it tends to make the end product more dense and gummy vs guar gum, but definitely still a pretty decent end product.
Another key to great fruit based muffins is coating the fruit with tapioca starch. This prevents the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the muffin batter during baking. Also, if your batter is too high in liquids (you will use less liquid in gluten free muffins than you will in traditional muffins) it will result in a gummy and inedible muffin.