Gluten Free Apple Cinnamon Muffins

i've been on a bum baking streak lately. burnt things. poorly textured things. but here it is, christmas eve day, and i needed something delicious and baked and warm and cinnamon-y. so i tried again, developing a recipe that was SPOT.ON. my incredible husband has been working the world's worst shift for this week, so i gave him a little breakfast in bed. he actually asked me if i had gone out and bought them before he got up because they tasted so good. (thanks, honey!). i couldn't even be insulted.

gluten free apple cinnamon muffins

2 cups all purpose gluten free flour (i like trader joe's brand)

1.5 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp baking soda

.5 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 large eggs

.5 cup sugar

.25 cup dark brown sugar

.5 cup sunflower seed oil (any other nuetral flavored oil would be fine here, like canola or avocado oil)

.5 cup milk (any dairy or non dairy will work, i used whole milk)

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup applesauce

method: preheat oven to 350 degrees. dump everything in mixer and combine. (usually you would do all the wet ingredients and all the dry ingredients separately before combining. i did not in this case and it worked fine.) once combined on low speed (around 30 seconds), turn the speed up to medium high for another 30 seconds. fill prepared muffin tins to 3/4 full (these are sticky, use paper liners). i made a dozen regular sized muffins, and eleven mini muffins with this recipe. at this point, you could sprinkle the top with sparkly sanding sugar to make them pretty, but that's totally optional. if you do, use about 1/4 tsp per muffin. mini muffins make for around 9 minutes, and the full size will bake for around 13 minutes. keep an eye on them and don't overbake! use the toothpick test, it never fails.

notes: feel free to omit the cinnamon to have a basic muffin recipe. if making this WITH gluten-y flour, use all purpose flour in place of the gf all purpose flour and omit the xanthan gum. do not beat the batter on high for 30 seconds, just mix til combined (otherwise you'll get tough muffins. and that's nasty.)