Brown Butter Carrot Muffins

If I knew how good gluten-free stuff tasted, I would´ve started sooner. I visited Wash DC in April this year, and one of my mandatory things to do was spend hours in bookstores. Going over cookbooks mainly. The occasional peak at the history section, or maybe see if there was a Ken Follett book I hadn´t yet read. But I´m sure that was all just to appear not so obsessed with the food aisle. Which by the way I am, and since I´ve come to terms with it, next time I won´t even try to deny it.

What I found is an obvious change in styles and ideas of what an appealing cookbook is now. It´s all about the author and his/her lifestyle as much as it is about the recipes. And the photographs of course. Is there a relatively new released book without pics, and great ones at that? I don´t think so. The days of the endless list of recipes with maybe a pencil illustration are probably over.

A new cookbook paradigm has emerged. I´m happy with it, it makes for so many interesting books.

One of those is La Tartine Gourmande, which I bought during this trip. I hadn´t planned to since it wasn´t on my radar. I´m not a make-lists-for-everything type of person. But I do make lists of all the cookbooks I want to buy when I travel. Since most never see the light of day in Spanish, I always have a pretty obsessive anticipation when I hop onto a plane. 
Then, when I finally make it to the stores (plural, I can go into a new one every single day of my trip, even though I know 80% of the material will be the same), I get hooked on many books I hadn´t considered. 

Well, Bea´s book was one of them, and the funny, or maybe even ridiculous thing, is that when I got to my friend´s apartment where I was staying, and started earnestly reading it I realized it was mostly gluten-free. I had never ever made a gluten free recipe, except by accident, like this flourless chocolate cake.

When I got back home from that trip, I immediately made the buckwheat chocolate cake. I think I bought the whole book because of that recipe… I know I sound like I´m loosing it, so maybe I am. Not that I care.

Anyway, I realized that alternative flours are incredible. They are versatile, healthier, and really add an extra depth of flavor to many recipes.

I was hooked, so in an attempt to continue with my GF baking, and not post Bea´s entire book in the process, I went to another extremely reliable source, Aran´s site.

There I found these muffins that, besides being GF, also have brown butter. That´s a big bonus. So here they are, carrot and apple, brown butter, gluten-free, feel healthy muffins.

For the recipe and the best pictures (I know where my limits are) go to this page. They´re worth it.

On another note, a great tutorial on brown butter, in case it´s your first time, can be found here.