I started baking with cakes; it was my first form of cooking. I worked my way through the fancy cakes in my mother’s Southern Living cookbooks from age 10 until the end of college, so as a housewarming present for my first apartment, she bought me the newest version of the cookbook — it’s pretty good for basics, with some cook-to-impress recipes, and it’s chock full of desserts. However, as much as I love cake, as an adult who was suddenly in charge of feeding myself three meals a day, I pretty quickly discovered muffins. They’re pretty much breakfast cupcakes, right? Our college snack bar had really good biscuits, with every possible permutation of the classic breakfast ingredients — eggs, bacon, cheese, sausage. Between the SL cookbook and the biscuits, I can definitely forgive the southern version of green beans (which, in my totally untrained culinary opinion, are just boiled beyond death). Anyway, a savory breakfast muffin is almost the best of all breakfast worlds — like a breakfast biscuit, but in portable, make-ahead for the week form. All it needs for absolute perfection is some way to incorporate hash browns.
Geez. All that rambling to say that, basically, this is an awesome breakfast that, once I remembered it existed, I really needed to reform the recipe in order to make it safe for me to eat today. In order to make this one, you need to have safe-for-you versions of bacon, cheddar cheese, and non-dairy milk. I have never used Bac-Os, and I could not find an ingredient list on that page, but I seem to recall them featured in an “Accidentally Vegan” column in Veg News a few years ago, and they are soy-based. In a quick glance at the website, it appears you can bake with them. I think they might work in this recipe, and that would make these muffins vegan, but not soy-free. If anyone tries that, will you please let me know?
Allergy-Friendly Bacon “Cheddar” Muffins
Makes 10 muffins and probably a bit more than double the amount of flour mix you need for this recipe.
First, make a flour mix by weight. This one is based on the Gluten-Free Girl’s Whole Grain Flour Mix formula (and just in case you think it might also be the magic muffin solution, it doesn’t work well for blueberry muffins. I tried it and was disappointed. It is perfect for these savory muffins, though.):
- 110 g sorghum flour
- 115 g quinoa flour
- 125 g brown rice flour
- 75 g tapioca starch
- 75 g potato starch
Cook about 10 strips of bacon (or, if you’re me, fill your cast iron skillet, and call it good. That’s between 5 and 8 strips of bacon, depending on how wide they are and how creative I can arrange them).
Mix the dry ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups flour mix
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 cup Daiya cheddar cheese shreds
- 10 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
Mix thoroughly and make a well in the center of the dry mix. Then, separately, mix the wet ingredients:
- 1 chia egg (1Tablespoon of ground chia seeds and 3 Tablespoons of water — mix these first)
- 3/4 cup non-dairy milk (I generally use almond)
- 1/3 cup oil (I used canola)
Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until well-combined.
Scoop into lined muffin tins, and bake 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center of a muffin clean. Goes well with coffee. Store loosely covered for up to 3 days, or freeze to keep longer.
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