Today my girls asked me for some blueberry muffins.  I went to my recipe collection and realized I didn’t have one.  So I thought it might be a good time to create a delicious and healthy blueberry muffin.  A few things I want to note here.  I am using two new ingredients that I don’t use very often, and I have to say I am very pleased with how these muffins turned out.  One of the ingredients that I am showcasing in this recipe comes with some controversy.  Read further to make an informed decision on wether or not you will use this product.

The first ingredient is tapioca flour.  Tapioca flour also known as tapioca starch, is a gluten-free baking ingredient and an ideal thickening agent. Use tapioca for thickening a wide variety of baked goods, sauces, and desserts.

Tapioca is made from the root of the cassava plant, a shrub native to South America (in one South American indigenous language, cassava is known as tipióka, leading to the English word tapioca). The cassava root is very starchy, but gluten-free. The root can be processed into tapioca pearls, tapioca sticks, tapioca flakes, and tapioca flour.

According to Nuts Online tapioca flour is one of the most popular thickeners, and rightly so. It thickens at a low temperature and retains its consistency when frozen, making it easy to use in many recipes. Tapioca flour thickens so quickly that it can sometimes be used to correct the thickness of sauces right before serving!

When used as a thickener, tapioca flour becomes a clear, glossy gel - the perfect sheen for your dish. It is starchy and chewy, with a neutral taste that won’t compete with the other flavors in a recipe. Because tapioca flour is a fine powder, it will dissolve with a uniform consistency, unlike tapioca pearls.

Tapioca flour can be used to thicken muffins, cake, pancakes, soups, sauces, gravy, and puddings. It can be added as a sweetener to breads made with rice and millet flour, or used as a substitute for other thickeners, like cornstarch.  There are several places you can purchase this product on line.  If you don’t want to order on line, most local grocery stores carry tapioca flour for a reasonable price.

The second ingredient that I am using is unrefined coconut palm sugar.  Coconut palm sugar is naturally low on the glycemic index (GI about 35), unrefined and high nutrient.  A healthy alternative to high fructose sweeteners and processed cane sugars; Gluten free and Kosher.  Coconut Palm Sugar has a soft caramel flavor, similar to light brown sugar; Dissolves in liquid.  Read this article to learn more about this product at Big Tree Farms.

So I began to do some research on this product and I came across this really interesting article from Tropical traditions and thought I would share it.  It is always good to know all sides of a story or in this case product/ingredient, right?  Read both these articles, I think you might be a little surprised at what you might learn!  You will have to make the decision if you want to use coconut palm sugar or not.  I have given two different sweetener choices, so this recipe will work either way!  Want to discuss these articles in more detail?  Lets start a discussion in the comment section below this post.  I would love to hear your feedback and thoughts on this product.

** After I posted this post, one of our followers found this article about coconut palm sugar.  I think it is important to read this article as well from Coconut Secret  .  (Thanks Colleen)

 

 

Don’t have all the ingredients?  No Problem!  Click on links below to see about purchasing these products!