Teff flour is made from the seeds of a grass called Eragrostis Tef. With its origins in Ethiopia, it is one of the oldest crops in the world and is most commonly used to make the yeasted flatbread called injera. It's also found another use with celiacs as it can be used as a gluten free alternative to plain wheat flour.
To me, it looks a bit like a cross between potato flour and chestnut flour - it has the fine texture you associate with potato flour and the brown hue of chestnut flour. It also has a pleasant nutty aroma.
The consensus seems to be that if you're going to be substituting teff flour for wheat flour in your recipes, then try to keep it under 25% - due to the lack of gluten, your baked items might not rise as much as you expect.
With that in mind, I thought I'd try my hand at making muffins - I've tried to make these totally gluten free but I think you need to be wary of hidden gluten in baking powder. As the teff flour will weigh down the muffin, I've mixed it with ultra light potato flour. I've also adopted the principles behind soda bread and added baking soda and yoghurt in order to lighten the mix.
The end product was actually very satisfying - there's an almost chocolate like characteristic to the muffin, it's soft and light and kept moist by the nuggets of nectarine.
[Makes 6]
75 grams teff flour
25 grams potato flour
25 grams almond meal
50 grams soft brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
35 grams melted butter, cooled
¼ cup yoghurt
¼ cup milk, approx
1 nectarine, diced
demerara sugar, for sprinkling
Sift together the teff, potato, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda and soft brown sugar into a bowl.
Whisk the egg with the yoghurt and milk.
Make a well in the center of the flours and drizzle in the cooled, melted butter, followed by the egg mixture. Stir briefly before tumbling in the diced nectarine and then fold gently until just combined.
Divide the mixture into 6 large muffin cases, top each with a sprinkle of Demerara sugar and bake in a preheated 170°C oven until golden and cooked through - around 30 minutes.
Let them cool slightly before turning out onto a wire rack.
The muffins have quite a dark handsome look about them. And I'm quite intrigued by the flour combination you used here.
ReplyDeleteThanks Leaf - they do look a bit like chocolate muffins and turned out quite moist and soft.
DeleteI like teff flour a lot. I keep some because making injera is in my to-do list, but end up adding a bit of it to various baked goods. I like the warm color of your muffins!
ReplyDeleteI can see why you use it Simona - I'd like to make injera but I'm tossing up between trying the quick method or the more traditional method, I'l probably try the quick first!
DeleteMmm I didn't know the teff flour, but I try to do injera once with white flour.
ReplyDeleteThey came out good, but can imagine even better with the right flour.
To avoid gluten I often use Buckwheat and/or rice flour.
I probably won't find any teff flour here, so I'll go for the buckhweat variant.
:-)
Baciusss
brii
I should try making something with buckwheat and see how different it is to teff - I'll let you know
DeleteVery interesting-sounding flour. Simona, you how to make injera!? Very cool!
ReplyDeleteIt's a good flour to play around with.
DeleteLove teff, but only used it a few times. Wonderful flavor! Well, Haalo... don't know if you remember me, but I am back! Hope to get back into the WHB again. See you around :)
ReplyDeleteI certainly do remember you Marillyn - lovely to see you and your dried orange powder post last week. Hope to see lots more!
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