I've got a lovely bunch of...

Coconut & Lime Muffins

I haven't been able to get that Harry Nilsson 'Coconut' song out of my head for days! I heard a patient singing it in an episode of House MD I watched a week ago and now I'm a bit of a head case. That, combined with the fact that the temperatures here have just changed from desiccating to delightfully balmy, saw me buy a coconut just because it looked all tropical island-y.

Armed with coconut (okay, I also had a bag of the ready-flaked sweetened stuff), I was picturing coconut cookies. But since I've had nothing but disasters when it comes to baking gluten-free cookies, I opted for muffins instead and decided to throw in the bowl of emergency mojito limes we had.

Now my muffin recipe took a while to get here. The quest, for any gluten-free foodie, is to bake something that rises when it should rise and doesn't dry out before the day is out. It was, in fact, while I was attempting biscuits the other day that I had my lucky break. While the biscuits were a flop - well actually, they rose up! - I made the most of the situation. I combined this cookie recipe with a muffin recipe of my mom's that stays soft and delicious for days, and I actually almost sang the song all over again with excitement when I opened the oven.

Shopping list...

2 cups all-purpose g/f flour

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 eggs

100g butter

1 tblsp sunflower/canola/corn oil

¾ cup sweetened coconut flakes

¼ cup desiccated coconut

7 tblsp coconut cream

40ml lime juice

zest of 3 limes

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. Sift your flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and zanthan gum together. In a blender, blitz the eggs and sugar together, then add the butter, oil and vanilla essence and blend till creamy. Pour into a bowl and add the dry ingredient mix slowly, stirring until combined. Now you add the flavour, with the coconut, coconut cream, lime juice and zest. The mixture should be sticky. If it's too dry add a bit more coconut cream, but you don't want a pouring consistency batter. Spoon the mixture into muffin cups, or straight into a greased muffin tray to about half way and then into the oven they go for 20 minutes.