Tag Archives: beets

Deli-style Gluten-Free Beet Muffins

Beet Muffin
Gluten-Free Beet Muffin

We have all heard of carrot muffins and don’t think twice about including the carrot vegetable into baked goods.  What is less commonly heard of is the use of beets for the same purpose. Today, I am sharing my newly-created and tested recipe for deli-style gluten-free beet muffins which are moist and packed full of wonderful flavor.  This is definitely in the category of “don’t knock it till you’ve tried it“!

Beets
Beets

Our garden did extremely well this year and our beets, in particular, grew very well….to the point that we had way more than what we could eat fresh or pickled.  I am always looking to add new gluten-free muffins to my recipe repertoire so, with an abundance of beets available, I figured this was a good time to experiment with them and I am very pleased with the results.  These deli-style gluten-free beet muffins have undergone several testings, in different ovens, and have produced consistently good results to the point that I am ready to publish my recipe here on my website.

Beet Muffin
Gluten-Free Beet Muffin

For those of you who follow a gluten-free diet, you are likely aware that it is often difficult to get good quality baked goods that reasonably replicate gluten baked goods and that are appetizing and tasty.  I have been doing a lot of experimenting with gluten-free recipe creation over the past while and am having very good results, particularly with muffins.  I love a muffin for coffeebreak at work every day and I absolutely detest any muffin with a flat top!  I expect my muffins to resemble deli-style muffins – those that are beautifully raised, with the dome top, and are a reasonably good sized muffin.

 Beet Muffins
Gluten-free Beet Muffins

In order to get that deli-style muffin, I have learned that gluten-free muffins take more leavening. This is probably due to the properties in the gluten-free flours and they obviously must take more leavening.  I find some gluten-free flours produce baked goods that have a “gritty” texture to them while others will result in a “gummy” textured product, and still others can have an offputting taste that is just not very appetizing.  I have come up with a flour mixture blend that alleviates these issues and I attribute a lot of that to my use of small amounts of almond and coconut flours in my baked products.  These flours cannot be used cup-for-cup substitutions for all-purpose flours because they react to liquid differently and, hence, the use of them in any quantity requires modifications to the liquid content in a recipe.  However, small amounts of them can be used and I find they do enhance both the texture and certainly the flavor of baked goods like cookies and muffins.

Beet Muffin
Gluten-free Beet Muffin

The other thing I have learned about gluten-free baking is that the addition of several flavor enhancers greatly improves the flavor of the baked product. This is where the use of yogurt, vegetables (such as beets), maple syrup, cocoa, and so forth come in. For this beet muffin recipe, I use a thick Mediterranean-style/Greek yogurt.  Many recipes will call for the use of plain yogurt and that certainly works in this muffin recipe.  However, I have also tested it with coconut and lavender (yes, lavender!) flavored yogurts and both are very good in these muffins.  Don’t substitute regular yogurt for the thick Mediterranean-style yogurt in this recipe as the regular yogurt will be too watery and will change the ratio of wet-to-dry ingredients in the muffins.

For this recipe, I incorporate beets in two ways – as a purée and in shredded form.  The purée should be of the consistency of applesauce or baby food and should look like this.

Beet Purée
Beet Purée

A small food processor or blender works well for the purée but I often use my immersion blender. If the beets are soft enough, the immersion blender will work. I use my tall 2-cup measuring cup when using the immersion blender to purée these beets as it contains any splatters – you really do see how red beets can be if you find splatters on the wall!

To shred the remaining beet(s) required for the recipe, I use a simple shredder like the one shown in the photo below. As you can see, the beets are shredded rather coarsely.

Shredded Cooked Beets
Shredded Cooked Beets

Some recipes call for shredded uncooked beets to be used in muffins; however, these muffins only take about 20 minutes to bake and, since beets are firm and take a while to cook I find, to ensure the beets are cooked in the muffins, I have better success using cooked beets in this recipe. Both the beet purée and shredded beets give these muffins flavor and moisture.

Beet Muffins
Gluten-free Beet Muffins

I love chocolate so have incorporated some cocoa and chocolate chips into the muffins as both add lovely flavor to the baked product.

While I cook the beets especially for these muffins, if you happen to have cooked too many beets for another purpose, these muffins would be a good way to use the left-over beets. Three-quarters of a pound of beets (weighed after leaves removed) are required for this recipe. The ones in the photo below are from our garden so, as you can see, they are of varying sizes! Just know that the bigger beet is going to take longer to cook to fork-tender state. Don’t split the beets before they are cooked as they will bleed and their goodness will be poured down the drain.

Beets
Beets

As always, make sure that all the ingredients called for in the recipe are gluten free.

Beet Muffins
Gluten-free Beet Muffins

These are great muffins to make in the summer and fall when you have fresh beets in the garden or can access them at local farmers markets or roadside farm market stands. These muffins freeze well.

[Printable recipe follows at end of posting]

Gluten-Free Beet Muffins

Ingredients:

¾ lb beets

1 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour (or gluten-free one-to-one flour)
1/3 cup gluten-free oat flour
¼ cup almond flour
¼ cup coconut flour
2 tbsp arrowroot starch
1¼ tsp xanthan gum
¼ cup gluten-free small flake rolled oats
5½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp ground chia seeds
1/3 cup cocoa
Scant 2/3 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
¾ tsp cinnamon

2 extra-large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
½ cup almond milk or whole milk
¼ cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
1/3 cup Mediterranean-style/Greek yogurt (plain, coconut, or lavender flavor)
4 oz beet purée (see method below)
2 tbsp maple syrup
1½ tsp vanilla
½ cup shredded cooked beets

½ cup chocolate chips (optional)

Method:

Remove leaves, leaving about 1½“ stems along with the roots on the beets. Wash beets. Cook beets in boiling salted water until fork tender.  Let beets cool enough to handle, then peel. Loosely chop 4 oz beets into a small food processor or a blender and purée until smooth (an immersion blender may also be used). Consistency of puréed beets should be similar to apple sauce or baby food. Shred remaining beets to fill ½ cup measuring cup.

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Use muffin tins with cups that have ½-cup holding capacity. Prepare muffin tins by greasing or spraying each muffin cup with cooking oil, ensuring the top of the muffin tin is also well greased. Alternatively, line with parchment paper cups.

In large bowl, combine the dry ingredients by whisking very well.  Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and set aside.

In separate bowl, or large measuring cup, whisk together the lightly beaten eggs, almond or whole milk, coconut oil, yogurt, beet purée, maple syrup, vanilla, and shredded beet.

Pour wet ingredients into well in the dry ingredients.  Combine just until dry ingredients are barely incorporated. Do not overmix. Gently stir in the chocolate chips, if using.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins, filling almost to the muffin cup rim.  Let batter sit for 5 minutes before baking.

Transfer muffins to oven and immediately reduce heat to 400°F.  Bake 20-22 minutes or until muffins are just firm to the touch and a cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Let muffins rest in muffin cups for 5-7 minutes then gently remove from pan and transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Yield: 15 muffins

Gluten Free Beet Muffins

Yield: 15 muffins

A deli-style gluten free muffin that combines beets with chocolate to create a moist, tasty muffin

Ingredients

  • ¾ lb beets
  • 1 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour (or gluten-free one-to-one flour)
  • 1/3 cup gluten-free oat flour
  • ¼ cup almond flour
  • ¼ cup coconut flour
  • 2 tbsp arrowroot starch
  • 1¼ tsp xanthan gum
  • ¼ cup gluten-free small flake rolled oats
  • 5½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp ground chia seeds
  • 1/3 cup cocoa
  • Scant 2/3 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
  • ¾ tsp cinnamon
  • 2 extra-large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
  • ½ cup almond milk or whole milk
  • ¼ cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
  • 1/3 cup Mediterranean-style/Greek yogurt (plain, coconut, or lavender flavor)
  • 4 oz beet purée (see method below)
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1½ tsp vanilla
  • ½ cup shredded cooked beets
  • ½ cup chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

  1. Remove leaves, leaving about 1½“ stems along with the roots on the beets. Wash beets. Cook beets in boiling salted water until fork tender. Let beets cool enough to handle, then peel. Loosely chop 4 oz beets into a small food processor or a blender and purée until smooth (an immersion blender may also be used). Consistency of puréed beets should be similar to apple sauce or baby food. Shred remaining beets to fill ½ cup measuring cup.
  2. Preheat oven to 450°F.
  3. Use muffin tins with cups that have ½-cup holding capacity. Prepare muffin tins by greasing or spraying each muffin cup with cooking oil, ensuring the top of the muffin tin is also well greased. Alternatively, line with parchment paper cups.
  4. In large bowl, combine the dry ingredients by whisking very well. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and set aside.
  5. In separate bowl, or large measuring cup, whisk together the lightly beaten eggs, almond or whole milk, coconut oil, yogurt, beet purée, maple syrup, vanilla, and shredded beet.
  6. Pour wet ingredients into well in the dry ingredients. Combine just until dry ingredients are barely incorporated. Do not overmix. Gently stir in the chocolate chips, if using.
  7. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins, filling almost to the muffin cup rim. Let batter sit for 5 minutes before baking.
  8. Transfer muffins to oven and immediately reduce heat to 400°F. Bake 20-22 minutes or until muffins are just firm to the touch and a cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
  9. Let muffins rest in muffin cups for 5-7 minutes then gently remove from pan and transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
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Beet Muffins
Gluten free Beet Muffins

 

For other great gluten-free muffin recipes from My Island Bistro Kitchen, click on the links below:

Deli-style Gluten-free Rhubarb Granola Muffins
Blueberry Muffin recipe
Deli-style Gluten-fre Rhubarb Granola Muffins
Gluten-Free Pumpkin-Mincemeat Muffins
Gluten-free Blueberry Zucchini Muffins
Gluten-free Carrot Zucchini Muffins
Gluten-free Banana Date Muffins

These delicious Deli-style Gluten-free Beet Muffins are made with cooked beets and chocolate to create moist,tasty muffins.

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Beet Muffins
Gluten-free Beet Muffins

Best Pickled Beets Recipe

Pickled Beets
Pickled Beets

I so love pickled beets.  They are something I grew up with and I make them every year.  It’s a bit of a messy job but, oh, are the results so worth it!  I look upon these as vegetable candy!

Pickled beets are really nothing more than cooked beets bottled with a vinegar-sugar-spice syrup. That’s it.

For pickling, I recommend cylinder beets if you can get them. They are long and slender and slice nicely for fitting in to the jars and also for presentation.  Regular ball beets can, of course, be used for pickling and, in fact, that’s all my grandmothers would have used – just the regular garden variety.  However, some of the round beets grow quite large and the slices have to be cut into two or three pieces to get them to fit in the jars and they don’t look quite as nice for presentation….same great taste, though.

Beets take awhile to cook so patience is required for this exercise.  Try to select uniformly-sized ones so they all cook at the same rate. However, if you have a mixture of sizes, place the larger ones in the bottom of the pot and the smaller ones on top.

Don’t peel the beets before they are cooked. Simply remove the leaves, leaving about 1″ stem and the root end intact.  Removing the stem or root end will cause bleeding and the vegetable will lose its vibrant color during the cooking process. The stem ends get removed after cooking and the beets get peeled after they are cooked. In fact, the skins will usually just slip off the cooked beets.

Because these vegetables are a bit messy to deal with, I use a portable burner and cook them outside so there is less chance of beet-spattered walls and counter in my kitchen. They do stain surfaces. I add a couple of teaspoons of cooking oil to the water in which the beets are cooked as I find it helps to prevent them from boiling over.

When the beets are starting to get along with their cooking, start the syrup to cook in a separate smaller stockpot.  The syrup should cook for about 18-20 minutes at a slow boil.  Don’t boil it too rapidly or for too long as it will evaporate and there won’t be enough syrup to fill the jars. This means more syrup has to be made and the syrup needs to go over the hot beets so timing is everything. For instructions on how to make the spice sachet used in the syrup, visit my posting on making mustard pickles. I also recommend that pickling vinegar be used. It will usually have 7% acidity, making it stronger than table vinegar and will help to preserve the beets longer.

You can give the cooked beets a quick rinse under cold running water. It does make them a bit easier to handle. However, they have to be bottled hot so don’t over-do the rinsing. I recommend slicing the hot beets about 1/4″ thick. Pack them well into the hot sterilized jars, leaving about 1″ headroom. Ladle the hot syrup into the filled jars, filling each jar with the syrup to within 1/4″ from the top. Use a non-metal object to remove any air bubbles that may have formed in the jars and add more syrup, if necessary, to fill up the jars to about 1/4″ from the tops. Seal with heated lids and screw on the jar bands just until resistance is met.  For greatest food safety, it is recommended that the filled jars be processed in a hot water bath following your canner manufacturer’s directions for your local altitude.

Traditional PEI Christmas Dinner
Pickled Beets with Roast Turkey Dinner

We enjoy these tasty morsels with cooked dinners such as the traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey dinners as well as with roast beef or pork dinners. They are also good served with cold meats.

Beets
Pickled Beets

[Printable Recipe follows at end of posting]

Best Pickled Beets

 Ingredients:

5 lbs cylinder beets, stem and root ends intact
Boiling water
2 tsp cooking oil

2¾ cups brown sugar
2¾ cups pickling vinegar
1 cup + 3 tbsp water
2¾ tsp pickling spice, tied into a small cheesecloth sachet
2 – 6” cinnamon sticks
¼ tsp salt

Method:
Remove the leaves from the beets, leaving about 1” stem in place.  Rinse under cold water to remove any clay.  In very large stock pot, place the larger beets on the bottom, then the smaller ones. Cover the beets with boiling water and add 2 tsp cooking oil.  Cover and cook over medium-high heat until beets are fork tender.

As beets are nearing the cooked stage, begin making the syrup by combining the sugar, vinegar, water, pickling spice sachet, cinnamon sticks, and salt into a small stockpot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat to medium low and boil, uncovered, slowly for approximately 15-18 minutes.

Remove cooked beets from water, rinse quickly under cold water, peel, and remove and discard stem and root ends. Slice hot beets into ¼” thick slices and pack into sterilized jars, leaving 1” headroom.

Remove and discard the pickling spice sachet and cinnamon sticks from the syrup.  Ladle hot syrup over beets leaving ¼“ headroom.  Using a non-metal object, remove any air bubbles from the jars and add more syrup as necessary to fill jars to about ¼“ from the top. Wipe each jar rim clean with a damp cloth. Seal immediately with heated lids. Screw on jar bands just until resistance is met.

Process filled jars in hot water bath according to canner manufacturer’s directions for the proper time for your local altitude.

Yield:  Apx. 6 pints

For more of my pickle and chow recipes, follow these links:
Mustard Pickles
Bread and Butter Pickles
Green Tomato Chow
Mustard Beans
Dill Pickles

Best Pickled Beets Recipe

Yield: Apx 6 pints

These tasty sweet pickled beets are easy to make, showy in presentation, and are a fine accompaniment to many meals. A Prince Edward Island favorite.

Ingredients

  • 5 lbs cylinder beets, stem and root ends intact
  • Boiling water
  • 2 tsp cooking oil
  • 2¾ cups brown sugar
  • 2¾ cups pickling vinegar
  • 1 cup + 3 tbsp water
  • 2¾ tsp pickling spice, tied into a small cheesecloth sachet
  • 2 – 6” cinnamon sticks
  • ¼ tsp salt

Instructions

  1. Remove the leaves from the beets, leaving about 1” stem in place. Rinse under cold water to remove any clay. In very large stock pot, place the larger beets on the bottom, then the smaller ones. Cover the beets with boiling water and add 2 tsp cooking oil. Cover and cook over medium-high heat until beets are fork tender.
  2. As beets are nearing the cooked stage, begin making the syrup by combining the sugar, vinegar, water, pickling spice sachet, cinnamon sticks, and salt into a small stockpot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium low and boil, uncovered, slowly for approximately 15-18 minutes.
  3. Remove cooked beets from water, rinse quickly under cold water, peel, and remove and discard stem and root ends. Slice hot beets into ¼” thick slices and pack into sterilized jars, leaving 1” headroom.
  4. Remove and discard the pickling spice sachet and cinnamon sticks from the syrup. Ladle hot syrup over beets leaving ¼“ headroom. Using a non-metal object, remove any air bubbles from the jars and add more syrup as necessary to fill jars to about ¼“ from the top. Wipe each jar rim with a damp cloth. Seal immediately with heated lids. Screw on jar bands just until resistance is met.
  5. Process filled jars in hot water bath according to canner manufacturer’s directions for the proper time for your local altitude.
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Beets
Pickled Beets
Pickled Beets
Pickled Beets