Namaste Gluten-Free Muffin Mix - Apple Cinnamon

We were in the Northern Virginia area a couple of weeks ago and were staying at a Residence Inn. Now that I'm gluten free, I prefer to stay at hotels where I have the ability to do some cooking. It makes it a lot easier to be gluten-free when you don't have to rely on restaurants.

Now that we were here, I needed to pick up some provisions for our stay. I stopped in at the Whole Foods in Falls Church, where I found a great array of gluten-free items. They carry things from Pamela's, The Gluten-Free Pantry, Ener-G and Namaste, plus their own bakery items in the freezer case. They even had fresh bread from Ener-G in the bakery!

Since I hadn't had a chance to try products from Namaste, I picked up one of their "No Sugar Added! Muffins Mix" to try. The muffin mix is free of: gluten, wheat, potato, soy, corn, dairy and casein. Once made, the mix will yield 12 muffins. The package also provides suggestions on other things to add to your muffins, such as fresh or dried fruit, nuts or seeds, zest or even substituting juice for some or all of the water used in the recipe.

I decided chose one of their jazzed up versions of the mix. I used apple juice instead of water and add dried apple bits to the mix. Then I topped the muffins with cinnamon and Turbinado sugar. I got all my ingredients together and whipped up the muffin mix.

At this point, I just had to try the taste of the muffin batter...hmm...the batter had a unique and not very pleasant flavor and it left a lingering bitter aftertaste. I decided to try and help it out by adding 1/4 cup of agave syrup. The taste was better. So, I went ahead and baked the muffins.

The muffins came out beautifully and have a slight aroma of apples. The texture is moist and holds together, so that when you bite into the muffin it doesn't fall apart. The agave syrup makes the muffin taste much better. My husband and I thought these muffins were okay, but they weren't a hit with the kids.

The next morning we had these for breakfast. I toasted several and served them with softened butter. They were pretty good.

To learn more about products from Namaste Foods, you can find them on the web at: www.namastefoods.com.