Gluten-Free Cherry Almond Muffins

First of all, much thanks to my readers and fellow mofoers for taking the time to read my blog and offer your kind and encouraging comments.  I've had a lot of fun with Mofo this year and came up with some recipes I'm pretty proud of.  I've also loved reading my fellow vegan bloggers' posts over on the Vegan Mofo site and in my wonderfully overcrowded Google Reader.  The innovative recipes, gorgeous photos, and spirit of fun I see on other vegan blogs continues to inspire me.

Now that Mofo is ending I won't  be posting daily anymore, but you can expect to hear from me a couple times a week.  For now, my plan is to keep muffin Mondays and dessert Fridays going for awhile.  I also want to start trying out some of the many recipes from other bloggers that I've starred in my Google Reader this month.  And now on to the food:

These muffins were my first foray into gluten-free baking.  (I have no problem with gluten, but I'm all for variety.)  They turned out pretty good; a little crumblier than regular muffins, but nice and tall.  These aren't very sweet so if you have a sweet tooth you'll probably want to add a little more sugar.

The Ingredients:
2 1/2 c gluten free flour (I used Bob's Red Mill all purpose gf flour)
1/2 c sugar
1 T arrowroot or egg replacer
1 T baking powder
3/4 t xanthan gum
3/4 t salt
1 1/2 c almond milk
1/3 c oil
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 t almond extract
1 c dried cherries
1 c roasted unsalted almonds, roughly chopped

The Process:

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, arrowroot, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt.
3. Stir in almond milk, oil, and extracts.
4. Fold in cherries and almonds.
5. Pour into lightly-oiled muffin tins and bake about 20 minutes.