Almond Muffins

So, yesterday I left you hanging at the tail end of the Chicken Taco Soup recipe with a reference to these almond muffins.  You may find that I do that now and again…but I’ll always try to get the referenced recipe up soon after the first one.

Shortly after we first started making the Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe, it seemed natural to serve it with something like sweet cornbread…kind of like how cornbread and chili just seem to be meant for each other.  It got to where the kids just expected to see cornbread in the oven while the soup was simmering.  If we failed to get started making it while we were preparing the soup, the kids would start pulling the ingredients out of the pantry and digging out the mixing bowls.  The meal just wasn’t the same without it.

The issue, of course, with sweet cornbread on the Primal diet is that the bulk of the ingredients are pretty devastating to our insulin sensitivity and our internal health.  Things like cornmeal, wheat flour, and sugar just don’t work well with our prehistoric digestive systems.  You can imagine the kids’ response, after adopting Primal eating, when it was announced that we weren’t having corn bread with the chicken taco soup…an alternative had to be found.  And luckily, we did.  One that mimics the texture, the buttery sweetness, and the comfort of those sweet cornbread muffins without all the offending neolithic ingredients.

Gather up:

• 2 cups natural (non-blanched) Almond Flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 cup pastured butter
• 4 eggs (fresh free-range if you can)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup honey*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grab a “standard” 12-muffin pan (or if you want mini-muffins, grab a 24-mini-muffin pan).  Either butter the individual cups, or put a little paper cup in each one.  Mix all of the dry ingredients (almond flour,  baking powder, and salt) together in a mid-sized mixing bowl.  Mix well.

Melt butter gradually in microwave or on stove.  Pour it into a separate bowl with honey and water and mix up a little.  Crack in the eggs and beat with a fork. The butter will likely start to congeal a little, but that’s fine.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.  It will seem a little runny compared to your usual muffin batter, but the extra eggs will take care of things.

Fill the muffin cups around 2/3 full (I went a bit too full here, as you’ll see in a minute.   Place in oven for 15 minutes.  When the timer goes off, check them with a toothpick – go a little longer if need be until the toothpick comes out clean.

And here they are.  You can see they don’t really “crown” like a muffin…  With the cups over-full like I had them, they spilled over the cups and out across the pan a little while they cooked.  It’s not a problem other than trying to keep them in one piece when you pull them out of the pan – it certainly doesn’t affect the taste (which is perfect for the taco soup).

You can use this recipe as a base for a lot of other muffins as well.  Toss in a cup of fresh (or frozen) blueberries or huckleberries for a tasty breakfast snack.  Try substituting the honey with homemade unsweetened apple-sauce for some tasty apple-butter muffins.  Try some chopped up dried cherries or cranberries.  Maybe even some finely chopped fresh rhubarb and strawberries…  Use your imagination!

*Honey, while considered Paleo/Primal, is a sweetener, and as such will trigger elevated insulin response and other effects the same as refined sugar.  It would have been consumed only occasionally by our evolutionary ancestors, and in very limited quantities (consider the effort and pain involved in getting honey from a hive in paleolithic times).  While these muffins do contain primarily proteins and fats (eggs and almonds), as with all sweetened “treats,” consume sparingly and in moderation.