Gluten Free Zucchini Muffins

Hi all!  How’s your day going?  We had a stormy night around here yesterday so I decided to try my hand at some gluten free baking.  The September issue of Chatelaine magazine couldn’t have landed in my mailbox at a better time because for the first time since I’ve been subscribing to this magazine…..and it’s been a few years….it was packed with gluten free recipes!  It also went into detail about which flours are gluten free and how to blend them together to get the best results.  With an abundance of zucchini coming from from garden I decided to try the recipe for “melt in your mouth carrot cupcakes”, but I subbed in zucchini!  The recipe was followed almost exactly with the exception of a few subs I had to make using what I had in my pantry;

• used a 1/3 cup of quinoa flour instead of teff flour
• used 2 tbsp of corn starch in place of tapioca starch
• used 1 tsp of guar guar in place of xanthan gum
• and, of course, 1.5 cups of grated zucchini in place of carrots

I won’t lie; I was pretty nervous that these would be a BIG fail!  I’m a spoon licker when I bake and the batter seemed “gritty” to me.  The mixture was also smoother than what I’m used to seeing in a muffin blend.  YIKES!!!
I let them cool for a good half hour before taste testing one.  The verdict?   AWESOME!  Jason and I both agreed that there really wasn’t much difference from a “regular” zucchini muffin that I would bake.  The 2 noticeable differences for me was that with 1 cup of sugar, they were much sweeter than I’m used to and because I used quinoa flour, the smell a bit like, well….quinoa!   All in all, I’m quite pleased with my first gluten free baking adventure.  This recipe has given me the confidence I need to try another knowing that there’s nothing to fear in using ingredients that are unfamiliar to me!
Tell me; is there an ingredient or style of baking that has had you intimidated to use/try, but once you took the plunge became a fan?
Bye for now!!