Giant Gluten Free Mango Muffins

Get a load of these giant gluten free mango muffins, y’all!! Gut health has been, as you might imagine, a HUGE part of my life. Celiac basically requires it, so here I am, intimately in-tune with my digestive system, which means noticing exactly which foods and amounts of things will push me over the edge and make the intestine + stomach combo very displeased. One thing I’ve found in the last few years that really helps is regularity, and that includes consuming things that soothe my tummy (and taste great) every morning (starting off on the wrong spoonful of whatever is NOT a recipe for success). I actually go for a kefir smoothie every morning – lightly sweetened so it’s not overwhelming, which is why I was STOKED to partner with Lifeway Foods, makers of the absolute best kefir I’ve found! And if kefir is a totally new thing for you, it’s essentially a yogurt-like drink, packed with probiotics (and for the one we used in this recipe, prebiotics as well!!). Lifeway Foods, Inc., which has been recognized as one of Forbes’ Best Small Companies, is America’s leading supplier of the probiotic, fermented beverage known as kefir. In addition to its line of drinkable kefir, the company also produces cheese and a ProBugs line for kids. Lifeway’s tart and tangy fermented dairy products are now sold across the United States, Mexico, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. They have awesome flavors (check out the one we used in the recipe below), and they’re great plain, with granola, blended in a smoothie, or baked into your favorite recipe (great replacement for buttermilk!!).

For those of your with Celiac or with other impacts on your digestive system, you’ll probably already agree with this on a molecular level, but what was once suspected as one-way communication (brain to gut) is now understood to be more of a two-way system. Thus, the health of our gut may directly impact the health of our minds. Meaning keeping your gut healthy by consuming probiotics (and prebiotics), is reeeeeaallly key to keeping the rest of our body healthy and stable.

Which brings us to today’s recipe! As part of the partnership, I really wanted to create something in our giant muffin series, and I’d been toying with the idea of mango + cardamom (reminiscent of a mango lassi), so when I found out Lifeway now makes a mango kefir with both pro- and prebiotics, I jumped in. Thus was born the GIANT gluten free mango muffins you see here!! So far we’ve made these giant poppyseed muffins, giant blueberry muffins, giant chocolate chip muffins, giant double chocolate muffins, giant banana nut muffins, giant strawberry rhubarb muffins, giant apple streusel muffins, these giant lemon raspberry muffins, giant cherry chocolate chip muffins, these giant coffee walnut muffins, these giant pistachio apricot muffins, these giant orange marmalade muffins, and these giant zucchini muffins!

As a reminder, ALL of this website, food photography, original recipes, food styling, tips, tricks, etc are FREE TO ALL OF YOU but certainly not free for us here at Sisters Sans Gluten. We spend TONS on ingredients, photography gear, photo editing gear, paying for this website domain, paying for plugins to make the website work more smoothly and be “up to date,” paying for props and food styling tools, and paying for it all over again when something breaks or needs to be redone. That’s why we survive off of paid partnerships: in this case, Lifeway is paying us for the development of a net new recipe using their product, the photography and video content that goes with that, and posts on all of our platforms. What we can guarantee you all, as our audience, is that we will NEVER partner with a company who’s product we don’t like. There are a lot of requests that come in from companies that have products that I roll my eyes at and would never want to promote on our website because, quite frankly, they suck. So, if you see a paid partnership recipe + post on here, you can bet that we love the product, actually use it ourselves, and feel confident sharing it with you all.

Tips for Fabulous Giant Mango Muffins:

A few tips for getting these to turn out just like you remember those muffins:

• Use the right-size of pan! Use these brilliant 4-inch cake pans. I never thought I’d be regularly using 4-inch cake pans but here we are. I’ll just need to make a bunch of tiny cake recipes next.
• Let your batter REST, per the recipe, for at least 30 minutes. For two reasons: 1) the batter thickens as it rests which is incredibly important for a muffin filled with chunks of things like mango! A thicker batter will help suspend all of the stuff you’ve added all throughout your muffins, ensuring every bite has the perfect ratio of fluffy muffin to add-ins; and 2) something somewhere said that baking powder needs a bit more time to “activate.” Don’t quote me on this, who knows if it’s actually true.
• Don’t over-mix your batter! Muffins need a lot of lift, especially these giant ones, and if you over-mix your batter, you’ll end up with flat or sunken muffins which is no fun.
• Use a good 1-1 gluten free flour mix! We use the Bob’s Red Mill one (the baking mix), though we’ve heard good things about Cup-4-Cup. We’ve only tested this recipe with this one so if you want them to turn out exactly like ours, we recommend snagging a bag of that specific 1-1 gluten free flour.
• Do NOT open the oven door during baking time. Tape it shut if you have to! You can certainly turn on the oven light and peek and the gloriousness that is a set of rising muffins nearly-ready to be devoured, but do not open that door! Opening the door will immediately lower the oven temp and prohibit your muffins from rising correctly. If you’re in the last few minutes of baking and need to test to see if they’re done, open the oven just a tiny bit and reach in and just tap the top of one – if it springs back it’s done, if it presses in like a foam mattress topper, it’s not and needs a couple more minutes!
• These will keep in an airtight container (or in ziplock baggies) for a week or so – and they freeze REALLY well! So if you want to make a batch and save a bunch, put them in a sturdy plastic container or a freezer plastic bag and pop them in there. Then microwave for about 30-45 seconds (from frozen) before eating! I even like popping mine in the microwave for 10-15 seconds from room temp to get them all warm and floofy again before eating.
• GLAZE: glazes are a super easy way to elevate your muffin game. The glazes we use are essentially just powdered sugar and a liquid – in this case, Organic Lifeway Grassfed Whole Milk Mango Kefir and melted butter. The key with glazes is getting the consistency right – you want to be able to drizzle or pour the glaze, so it needs to be able to move a bit, but you don’t want it to just pour off your muffins completely. You want to get to a thicker consistency (it should be thick when you stir it), that slowly pours when you lift up your stirring spoon. This will ensure that your glaze stays mostly on top of the muffin and that it stays opaque and doesn’t run off in a giant puddle. If your glaze seems to thin and runny, just add more powdered sugar! Vice versa if it seems waaaay too thick and you can’t even get it to pour, add a touch more kefir. This glaze is a bitt thicker because we’re using apricot puree and not a thin liquid, so bear that in mind.

Print Recipe

Giant Gluten Free Mango Muffins

These giant muffins are amazingly fluffy, packed with fresh mango, cardamom, and mango kefir!

Prep Time25 minutes mins

Cook Time50 minutes mins

Resting time30 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American

Diet: Gluten Free

Keyword: breakfast, cardamom, costco muffins, easy, giant, glaze, gluten free, healthy breakfast, kefir, mango, muffins

Servings: 6 giant muffins

Calories: 500kcal

Author: Amelia Farber

Equipment

• Six 4-inch round cake pans (link below to the ones we use)
• Cookie sheet

Ingredients

For the muffins:

• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/4 Cup white sugar
• 3/4 Cup pureed fresh mango no sugar added if using a container of puree
• 3/4 Cup melted salted butter
• 1 Cup Organic Lifeway Grassfed Whole Milk Mango Kefir
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 Cups gluten free 1-1 flour mix link below to the one we use – with xanthan gum included (if your mix does not have xanthan gum, add 1 teaspoon of it now)
• 1/2 Cup packed blanched almond flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 2 Cups peeled chopped fresh mango into 1/2 inch pieces
• orange food coloring optional

For the glaze:

• 1 1/4 Cup sifted powdered sugar
• 3-4 Tbsp Organic Lifeway Grassfed Whole Milk Mango Kefir
• 1 tsp melted salted butter
• 2 Tbsp powdered freeze dried mango instructions below
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• orange food coloring optional

Instructions

• First, make your muffin batter! This will need to rest for 30 minutes before baking. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, mango puree, melted butter, Organic Lifeway Grassfed Whole Milk Mango Kefir, and vanilla until thicker and smooth. Then stir in the gluten free 1-1 flour, blanched almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom, and salt until just combined (do not overmix). Fold in 2 cups of the chopped (peeled) fresh mangos (and the food coloring if you're using any), then let the batter sit either on the counter for at least 30 minutes before baking (you can let it rest in the fridge for longer if you want).
• Then preheat the oven to 425° Fahrenheit and grease your six 4-inch cake pans with cooking spray and place them all on a cookie tray. Carefully scoop batter evenly into the six pans (they will be about 3/4 full or slightly over). Bake for 5 minutes at 425 then immediately reduce the heat (WITHOUT opening the oven door!) to 350° Fahrenheit and continue to bake for 35-45 minutes or until the muffins spring back when pressed with the tip of your finger (try to only open the oven door once and very little to check if they're done). Then remove and let cool for 10-15 minutes before turning out onto a place or cooling rack.
• While the muffins are cooling, make the glaze! First, blitz up the freeze dried mango pieces in a blender/food processor/nutribullet until you get a fine powder. Then, in a medium cereal bowl, stir together all of the glaze ingredients until fully combined and very smooth (this may take some working) – start with 2-3 Tbsp of the Organic Lifeway Grassfed Whole Milk Mango Kefir and add more as needed to reach the right consistency. Check the consistency of the glaze: you're looking for a glaze that can drizzle over the muffins, but doesn't flow too quickly or it will simply run off and not hold on top of the muffins. Add more powdered sugar if it seems too thin/runny.
• Then use a spoon to drizzle the glaze over the muffins, and serve! You can let the glazed muffins sit at room temp for 30-45 minutes for the glaze to harden, then put into zip-top bags and keep in the fridge or freezer for up to a week. Best-served slightly warm, so pop them in the microwave for 10-20 seconds from room temp!

Tag @sisterssansgluten on Instagram if you snap a photo of your muffins!

Food photography and styling by Amelia Farber