Baking with almond flour – Blueberry Muffins – 2

Fall is here and that means cooler temps so it’s time to start baking. Since I no longer use grains I’ve had to start learning about alternative flours and how to use them properly. The only almond flour they sell at my local grocers is Bob’s Red Mill. Not a bad product but pricey at $10 for a 1 lb package, so I decided to ask my foodie friends what brands they used. I decided to give Honeyville a try and found them to be cheaper if bought through the Honeyville website. I got this 5 lb bag for $30. I have to admit that while the Bob’s gives an acceptable product, the Honeyville is better <it gives a much nicer crumb> as well as cheaper even after including shipping. I doubt I will ever buy Bob’s almond flour again.

When buying almond flour you want to be sure to get blanched almond flour/meal. If its not blanched there will be lots of bits of the almond peel in the flour and from what I have read that totally changes the flavor and lowers the nutritional level of the flour.

Storing almond flour should never be done in a canister on your counter as it will go bad much faster than regular flour. Store it in the refrigerator or in the freezer instead. Be aware that cold almond flour tends to be clumpy so be sure to break up the lumps with a whisk if you are mixing by hand.

My absolute favorite fruit on the planet is blueberries. I love blueberry cake, blueberry pie, blueberry ice cream and especially blueberry muffins. Oddly enough I do not like fresh blueberries just to eat. I was totally thrilled to find I could make very nice blueberry muffins with almond flour. Since this morning is a bit chilly I decided to bake something to warm up the house and of course I wanted the house to smell good too so I dug out some blueberries and made muffins. You are gonna love these!

Blueberry Muffins – 2

1 3/4 C almond flour = 175 g

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 Tbsp stevia = 1/2 C sugar

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp water

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/4 C vegetable oil

100 g frozen blueberries – I always weigh my fruits as you just can’t be consistent trying to use a measuring cup with them

Preheat your oven to 350F and put muffin papers into your muffin pan. I got 10 muffins from this recipe.

In a large mixing bowl put all the dry ingredients and mix well with a whisk to remove the lumps. In another bowl put all the wet ingredients and mix them well with a fork. Dump the wet mixture into the dry and whisk to blend well.

Fold in the blueberries and fill the muffin papers about 2/3 full. Now pop them into your oven and bake for 35 minutes. They will come out a lovely golden brown 🙂

Let the muffins sit for a couple minutes in the pan then turn them out to cool. Do NOT eat them straight from the oven as the hot blueberries will burn your mouth. I give them at least 5 minutes before I shove one at my face. Warm muffins are so awesome!

Being a low carber I am much more wary of desserts than I am of meats and veges so I put my ingredients into fitday and here’s what I got for the batch:

calories – 1,766

protein – 56.9 g

fats – 157.6 g

carbs – 53.3 g

fiber – 21.6 g

net carbs – 31.7 g

So at 10 muffins in a batch that means each muffin is:

calories – 176.6

protein – 5.7 g

fats – 15.76 g

carbs – 5.33 g

fiber – 2.16 g

net carbs – 3.17 g

I think a 3 ncs muffin goes nicely with my coffee don’t you? My hubby is gonna love them too. So far everything I have baked with the almond flour has turned out rather fantastic. This excites me!

Have a happy!

TT