Sunday, November 9, 2008

Mostly Paleo Muffins

I say these are only mostly paleo because they do use baking powder/soda and flavoring extracts, which I doubt our cavemen buddies had access to. They are very tasty however, and and make a nice breakfast alternative to eggs or leftovers. I don't make them all the time, because let's face it, a muffin is a muffin! So eat these with care. I was procrastinating on writing this post because I have not felt the urge to eat pans of muffins myself, but I decided to just go ahead and write it anyway and try to find some old pictures to show you.

Note: I use maple syrup or raw honey as my sweeteners of choice. I do not use agave nectar because it can be up to 90% fructose; fructose is processed in the liver instead of the bloodstream and has many deleterious effects.



recipe makes 6 muffins

PUMPKIN CRANBERRY MUFFINS:
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1 1/2 cups almond flour
3/4 cup pureed pumpkin (you can used canned, but make sure to get just plain pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
1/4-1/3 cup maple syrup or honey depending on your sweet tooth
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped cranberries

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix together all the ingredients except for the cranberries until smooth. Fold in the cranberries.

Spoon batter into 6 greased muffin cups (I use coconut oil) and bake for 20-25 minutes.

These are very soft and cakey muffins. I think that cutting them in half and toasting them is very nice since it gives it little crisp edges.

Variations:
Banana nut muffins - use pureed bananas in place of the pumpkin, chopped walnuts in place of cranberries, and omit the pie spice.
Flax muffins - replace up to 1/2 cup of the almond flour with ground flax seeds

Recipe adapted from Eating Stella Style by George Stella.

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recipe makes 6 muffins

COCONUT MUFFINS:
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1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/4-1/3 cup maple syrup or honey depending on your sweet tooth
1 1/2 tsp coconut extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
2 T coconut oil

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix together all ingredients until smooth.

Pour into 6 muffin cups greased with coconut oil and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Recipe adapted from Eating Stella Style by George Stella.

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recipe makes 12 muffins

LEMON POUND CAKE MUFFINS:
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I don't have a picture for these. This is an experimental recipe. The original recipe is from a low-carb book and uses butter and Splenda. I am 99% certain that you can subsitute paleo ingredients and end up with a tasty product, but I have only tried the original version and haven't made the paleo version yet. If anyone wants to try making these, let us know how they turn out!

2 cups almond flour
stevia to equal the sweetness of 1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
scant 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup coconut oil (original recipe is 1 cup butter)
1/3 cup maple syrup or honey (original recipe is 2/3 cup Splenda)
2 T lemon zest, or about 2 medium lemons' worth
1 tsp lemon juice
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350.

Whisk together almond flour, stevia, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Meanwhile, melt the coconut oil.

In a food processor, process maple syrup or honey with the lemon zest until combined. Add lemon juice, eggs, and vanilla. Process until combined.

With the food processor running, add the melted coconut oil in a steady stream. This should take at least 20 seconds.

Transfer mixture to a large bowl and gradually stir almond flour mixture into the wet mixture.

Grease 12 muffin cups with coconut oil and distribute batter equally among the cups.

Bake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 and continue baking til done, keeping an eye on it, about 20-25 minutes. The time can vary a lot so be sure to keep an eye on it and don't let it burn.

Recipe adapted from 500 More Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender.

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Happy eating!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

So glad to see your comment about agave syrup. It seems to be showing up everywhere in processed snack foods at the "natural" food stores (yet they won't stock lard, go figure) and Trader Joe's.

Frederick said...

Hello Elizabeth! It seems like just when I thought that I have seen enough of coconut muffin recipes, another great one comes along. Got to try this.

Thanks a lot!

Cheers,
CoconutOilGuy
www.coconut-oil-central.com
Your Drugstore in a Bottle

calamity afoot said...

Hi! This blog is awesome. I took the plunge and made the lemon poundcake muffins after enjoying a batch of the pumpkin muffins. They came out really good, more like cupcakes really. I did have a few notes to share:

-I doubled the vanilla and lemon juice
-I added unsweetened flaked coconut on the top for some crunch
-These bake really fast! After 10 minutes at 350, I lowered to oven to 310 for another 10 minutes and they were done.
-the lemon juice and zest could be swapped out for orange!

for a picture check out my blog:
http://calamityafoot.blogspot.com/2009/06/paleo-lemon-pound-cake-mufffins.html

Elizabeth said...

Calamity, thanks so much! I'm glad the poundcake muffins worked out for you too. :) The pictures on your blog of them look really good.

Vikki said...

I made these this past weekend and they were amazing! You would never believe they are paleo. They reminded me of lemon cornbread. Be careful with the coconut oil. The recipe calls for 1 cup, but isn't specific about measurement before or after you melt it. You can actually get away with about 3/4 cup BEFORE melting. I used the almost the full cup after melting and once they sat for a day or 2, they were super oily and I couldn't eat a whole one. The batter was delicious, too. I would totally make these again!

Nikki said...

I have to write in... Just tasted the muffins I made from your pumpkin muffin recipe(used banana & walnuts instead of pumpkin)
DELICIOUS!! Thank you so much:)Kept everything else the same & used pure MN. maple syrup.
Thanks again!!

Lodo Denver said...

Making you more charming! I'll be visiting your site again to gather some more valuable information. Thank you for sharing them.

Claire said...

We have egg issues in our family - has anyone tried with flaxseed gel or other substitution? Or have suggestions?

Elliott Broidy said...

It's official. I'm obsessed.