Master recipe for gluten-free muffins: millet, buckwheat, quinoa, sorghum, amarath

Our friend Rok offered a solution when we were looking for gluten-free bread-like recipes. It was his mom's buckwheat muffins. We tried them, and they were delicious!

Of course, I immediately glanced at our grain mill and flashed a big smile. It was game time!What variations of the recipe can one produce? It turned out that many variations worked well. This is intended to be a master recipe that one can use to exercise their own imagination.

We love the concept of savory bread-like muffins. We freeze them in muffin cups, and we defrost them one at a time: 44 seconds on high in our microwave seems to be a perfect time to get a hot fresh muffin!

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 2 TBS chia seeds soaked in 500ml = 17oz warm water
• 500g = 18oz gluten-free flour. Here are a few of the options that I have tried
• 500g buckwheat flour
• 300g buckwheat, 100g millet, 100g quinoa
• 200g buckwheat, 200g millet, 100g quinoa
• 200g buckwheat, 200g millet, 100g amarath
• 225g sorghum, 175g millet, 100g amarath
• Note: amarath is easiest to mill in a coffee grinder, the grain is super small
• 2TBS ground flax seeds. Grind them in a coffee grinder, NOT in the grain mill.
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 TBS vinegar
• 1/2 cup approximately sunflower seeds
• 1/3 cup approximately hemp seeds

Procedure:

• Soak chia seeds in the warm water for at least 10 minutes until they swell. Stir or whisk a few times to avoid clumps
• While chia seeds are soaking, turn the oven to 400F.
• Put paper muffin cups in a muffin pan. This recipe yields 12 muffins.
• Mix the combination of flours you are using. I mill them fresh straight into a mixing bowl. First I weigh the grains in separate bowls, so that I can mill them one at a time. Milling one type of grain at a time is important because the mill may need a different setting for each type of grain.
• Add ground flax seed if you are using it.
• Sift baking powder and baking soda in the bowl with the flours, add the salt and mix thoroughly. 
• Add the seeds (or nuts if you choose to use them) and mix well.
• Add the liquids: soaked chia seeds with all the water, olive  oil, and vinegar.
• Mix well.
• Divide equally into the muffin cups.
• Bake at 400F for 35 minutes. Note - 30 mins may suffice in your oven, I suggest to experiment.
• Cool and eat.
• Freeze in a ziploc bag, defrost one at a time in a microwave. 44 seconds  on high in ours, yours will be different.

Note: 

We make a double recipe in a 24-muffin pan. The baking time in our oven is the same, 35 minutes. We freeze the muffins as soon as they cool down.