On Bracken’s Birthday, we discovered a new family favorite recipe (the one I told you I would share with you.) I’ve made these muffins twice now and I can tell they will be one of those recipes I will have completely memorized before long.
We don’t eat “typical” desserts in our home. Even before our family started the GAPS diet, we had stopped eating sugar. Without refined sugar in all our food, our taste buds got acclimated to real food, foods from the earth. When we want “dessert” we usually have fruit, which satisfies our sweet tooth. Fruit tastes delicious and it’s good for us, which is how food is meant to be.
For Bracken’s Birthday, I wanted to make something special, that was different than our every day. And I wanted something to put his birthday candles in…. something cupcake-ish. I looked at different grain-free muffin recipes until I found one that was just what I was looking for. Grain-free. Check. Main “flour” being almond flour. Check. Sweetened with a little honey. Check. Nourishing, whole food ingredients. Check.
The almond flour was spendy, which made it special because it’s not something we purchase regularly. The recipe called for a little coconut flour, some pumpkin or butternut squash (I chose butternut squash), and eggs. It listed baking soda as an optional ingredient, which I added both times I made them because I wanted them to be “fluffy.” (Next time I might try without the baking soda and see how they are.) We used coconut oil, rather than butter, since we don’t eat dairy. The recipe called for freshly grated ginger. We didn’t have any, so I left it out. The second time I made them, Jeff reminded me that we had powdered ginger, so I added some of that. Both times I used less than 1/4 cup honey. (I figured if we wanted it a little sweeter, we could smear some on top ourselves.)
Well, I’ve been rambling on and it’s about time I share the recipe.
This is the recipe I used, from Cara’s Blog: Health, Home, and Happiness. She has a wonderful selection of GAPS recipes, there are so many more I would like to experiment with.
Jeff made this raspberry topping for them (shown in Bracken’s Birthday post where he is blowing out his candles.) It’s very simple: raspberries and honey, which he cooked down slowly on the stove.
So, it was basically like muffins with jam, but felt very special to all of us. We hadn’t had any baked goods in quite awhile. I enjoy baking and am excited for the new world of grain-free baking.
Not only did Jeff, Bracken and I love them, but my mom and sister loved them too. They were a hit all around. What I love about these muffins is that they have nourishing ingredients and we feel good after eating them (which we never did after baked goods made with grains, I wrote more about all that in this post.)
I’m looking forward to playing around with this recipe and making it with pear sauce, applesauce, zucchini…perhaps some pumpkin ones for Halloween…. so many possibilities!
(Now if we could just find an organic almond farm to do trades with for flour, wouldn’t that be nice?)
The second time I made them, we have eaten them different ways.
Warm out of the oven with coconut oil smeared on them (rather than butter.)
Cold from the fridge with some of that raspberry jam.
With some honey on top…
Yum, these muffins are delicious!
If you make them, hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
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P.S. We are not going to be at the Eugene Saturday Market tomorrow. We are in “holiday mode” right now, filling up our online shops for the holidays (Jeff has been posting so many things on our Mystic Orb shop) and getting things made for our Holiday Market booth. And it’s supposed to be pouring tomorrow, so we’d rather be creating in the shop.
And now it’s time for Friday Night Movie Night. Happy Friday Night to you friends!
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