Autumn's Best Muffins

I scored big with a super cute muffin pan from Michael's yesterday. Because I found a 70% off sale, I was able to afford this special pan. I do love my kitchen gadgets. This one doesn't meet my usual criteria of needing to serve more than one purpose, but at such a deal... I told myself I could make more than muffins, but then I don't think I have ever in my life had the motivation to make a tomato aspic or vegetable jello mold. Tomato aspic would be pretty, though. In my hometown, that was always a standard funeral side dish.

I made this batch of muffins for my Specific Carbohydrate kid. He cannot have wheat, so these muffins are made with almond flour. I adapted a recipe for the scd diet, from here, which allows honey as the sweetener. Bring the first time I tried it, I stuck fairly close to the recipe. I can't eat these or feed them to the hubby because of the honey. That can be replaced with your sweetener of choice though. I am betting the muffins would be a bit lighter in color too without the honey to darken in baking.

The house smells wonderful, and the leaf shaped muffins came out of the pan really easily. It is a quality brand--Nordicware. Amazing the difference with a good pan on some dishes! It seems like everything has been sticking on me lately. These smell so wonderful, in fact, I think I am going to have to go bake a batch we regular low carbers can taste. Then there are regular muffins for the carby boy...he will want some too. I had a meeting at church Sunday night, so I didn't get my prep day muffin batches made. Tuesday morning is a good substitute.

I will list the recipe as I made it, but add the substitutions you can make.

Pumpkin Muffins

2 eggs
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup honey (I will use about 1/2 cup sugar substitute equivalent, as I think they could be a tad bit sweeter since I will leave out the raisins for us)
4 Tbsp melted butter, or coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins (leave out to make low carb)

Preheat oven to 325.
Line a muffin pan with paper liners or spray tins.

Method 1-- using raw almonds
Use a food processor to finely grind almonds. I used my Ninja. To this add all remaining ingredients except raisins and walnuts. Blend well, scraping sides. Remove blades and add in nuts and raisins. Spoon into tins or muffin cups, making sure to smooth the tops and fill all crevices with batter. Bake between 15 and 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Method 2 --using prepared almond flour
Combine wet ingredients together, beating egg well. Stir in dry ingredients and spices. Lastly, fold in nuts and raisins if using. Spoon into muffin cups as directed above, and bake.

Makes 6 small to regular muffins and 24 mini muffins.