Tasty Tuesday: Buttermilk Soaked Blueberry Muffins

I have been experimenting with alternative flours for years now, as we have gone Gluten free for the most part.  My son has been GF for these past five years.  He has healed up quite nicely, so I decided to see if his gut can handle some spelt flour when soaked in buttermilk.  Soaking your grains is very good for your digestive system and gut.  A friend of mine gave me an incredible cook book that addresses this issue.  It's called Nourishing Traditions.  I would highly recommend using it for healthy, home made, from scratch baking and cooking!  It fully explains why soaking grains is so important and nutritious.  You won't be sorry if you buy this book.  It has become my main stay in kitchen cooking.  We quite regularly use the recipes.  I have had to modify the ingredients as we bake with GF flours but the benefits of soaking your grains remain the same, even with GF flour.  It takes some planning to soak your grains but like anything, once the habit is established it is easier to keep up with it.

My son has dubbed these muffins my:  'famous blueberry muffins', as he quite likes them.  I make raspberry for my girls as they like them better then blueberry.  I place the fruit I am using on the top of the muffin before I put them in the oven.  The fruit falls down into the muffin as it bakes.  I have modified them a couple of different ways depending on the flours I have in the house at the time.  So far, he has tolerated the spelt flour quite well but I did not make them with straight spelt. The kids didn't like the taste of the straight spelt.  I didn't want to use whole wheat because of past issues with the straight wheat so I used a GF flour combined with the spelt.  I am going to give out the recipe, but the foundation recipe came from the Nourishing Traditions book.

Blueberry Muffins:

- 3 cups ground spelt, or whole wheat flour (I used 2 cups of Spelt, with 1 cup of El Peto's GF/corn free all purpose flour OR 1 cup Sorghum Flour, 1 cup Brown Rice Flour, 1 cup arrowroot or tapioca  startch/flour)

- 2 cups buttermilk

- 2 eggs

- 1 tsp salt

- 1/4 maple syrup (or honey or agave)

- 2 tsp baking soda

- 1- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 3 TBSP melted butter

- half a cup of whatever fruit you are using frozen or fresh

Soak the flour in the buttermilk in a warm spot for 12-24 hours.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  Butter your muffin tin or stone well and pour into the muffin mix until it is about 3/4 full.  Bake at 325 for 30-60 minutes, until a tooth pick come out clean.

Mine take about 30 minutes. I use a gas range.

ENJOY!