Chai-Spiced Muffins with Cacao Nibs and March Muffin Madness

Hey all. I’m participating in March Muffin Madness! This is the gluten-free muffin event “equivalent” of that other March Madness. Honestly, I’m much more excited about this March Madness. I don’t care about basketball, but I do care about gluten-free muffins.

March Muffin Madness is hosted by Shirley at Gluten Free Easily and runs through Tuesday April 5. There are 22 bloggers participating in MMM, so that means 22 delicious gluten-free muffin recipes. Plus there are giveaways throughout the event with prizes, including a very special grand prize, awarded at the end.

You can enter the grand prize giveaway via Rafflecopter below. The giveaway includes: ½ gallon of Hidden Springs Vermont organic maple syrup, USA Bakeware 12-cup muffin pan, Kettle & Fire bone broth (I figure not all of you are vegetarian), 5-lb bag of Honeyville almond flour, Cuisinart ice cream maker, Paderno World Cuisine vegetable slicer/spiralizer, Crockpot casserole slow cooker, Instant Pot pressure cooker, and, last but not least–the very special grand prize is being sponsored by Blendtec!–a Blendtec Designer 625 with Wildside+ jar and Twister jar. Yay smoothies!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In addition to the above prizes, Gluten Free Easily is hosting a daily giveaway. These giveaways include cookbooks, resource books, subscriptions, and meal plans. Visit Gluten Free Easily each day to enter that day’s giveaway and find the new gluten-free muffin recipe. In keeping with my recipe below, today’s giveaway is a copy of my cookbook and cacao nibs!

For my own recipe, I quickly settled on chai spices, but toyed a bit with the add-ins. I didn’t want a muffin that was very sweet. I ended up using cacao nibs because they add a chocolate flavor without adding sweetness. The final muffins are a nice blend of chocolate and spice.

Chai-Spiced Muffins with Cacao Nibs

• ¾ cup sorghum flour
• ½ cup millet flour
• ½ cup tapioca starch
• ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom (6 pods)
• ¾ cup warm soymilk
• ½ cup coconut oil, melted
• 1 egg, room temperature
• ½ cup cacao nibs

1. Heat the oven to 350ºF. Place liners in a 12-cup muffin tin.
2. Whisk the sorghum, millet, tapioca starch, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Whisk the soymilk, coconut oil, and egg in a medium bowl. Add the liquids to the dry mix, and stir until just combined. Add the cacao nibs. Stir until just incorporated.
3. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Bake for 16-18 minutes, until firm to the touch. Remove from the oven. Once cool enough to handle, move muffins to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Makes 12 muffins