Adventures in Cooking...Gluten Free Apricot, Cherry, Walnut Muffins

First I have to say, it is SO nice to have my gifted Kitchen Aid mixer back.

Isn't she a beauty?

Okay, maybe she looks a bit sad, and odd colored. Well she is, she was the HOT Kitchen Aid for the 70s. My mom received it as a wedding present and I was informed that the cream color was the IT color of the time and the only color my dad wanted. I think it's fantastic and totally retro. I just love it. In college I was misdiagnosed as having celiac disease. At the time it was just becoming known and there were not many baked goods around. So my mom gifted me her mixer so that I could at least make some baked goods from the meager supply of mixes stores offered. Over the years it has moved with me and gone back to my mom's at least once, until now. I finally have the room to have it and am so excited.

After 5 years of eating gluten free, and many doctor's tests later I found out that I'm only slightly intolorent, yay! However, the past few years have been hard, as I went back fairly quickly to a gluten heavy diet and noticed that I was sluggish again. So I have decided that I will try to be gluten free with my baked goods at home (mostly) and in home made sandwiches and only eat gluten out. Since I got the mixer I decided to start with some muffins. Plus, now I don't have to buy one when I'm at a coffee shop studying, I can just pack in my own and save some money.

Here is my recipe for Gluten Free Apricot, Cherry, Walnut Muffins

Ingredients:
1 Box King Arthur Flower Gluten Free Muffin Mix (this one happened to have a vanilla base)
6 Tbs Melted Butter
3/4 Cup Milk
3 Eggs
1 Cup dried Apricots, Cherries, Walnuts, diced, evenly split (1/3 each)

Directions:
1) Prepare muffin tin (spray or put in muffin cups)
2) Preheat oven to 375
3) Mix Eggs, Melted butter, Mix in mixer on medium
4) Slowly pour in milk
5) Add in Apricots, Cherries, and Walnuts
6) Pour into muffin pan
7) Bake for 18-22 minutes
8) Let cool and enjoy
This recipe makes 12 large muffins

Note: Next time I would make 16 smaller muffins as there was a lot of mix and I like smaller muffins. You can add in fresh fruit like blueberries or raspberries or other dried fruit or poppy seeds.