A rainy Sunday lead me directly into the kitchen for a little baking and catching up on The Splendid Table.
Spring has come so early (wait, did we even have a winter?) to Central Virginia this year that I wanted to savor what may be my last opportunity to use the oven until pumpkin season. Soon enough even the top burners will cause me to break a sweat and I will be relegated to salads and grilling.
But yesterday was dark and stormy and perfect for baking.
Yet Spring was still on my brain as cherry blossoms fluttered through the air, snowing down on the yard as the rain gently pulled them off the branches.
So I compromised and made a very Spring-inspired muffin while spending a winter-like morning in the kitchen.
I’m calling them muffins but they could easily be transformed into cupcakes with a little icing.
Coconut Lemon Muffins
Gluten free, grain free, refined sugar free
Makes 6
Prep time: Less than 15 minutes Bake time: 50-60 minutes
Preheat the oven to 350*
[These babies take a long time to bake so I highly recommend doubling up on your oven and throwing some potatoes/tofu/kale chips/lasagna/whathaveyou in there as well for more energy efficiency]
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup plain yogurt
- 1/2 cup honey
- zest and juice from 1 lemon
- 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 Meyer lemon, thinly sliced (optional*)
- whisk first three ingredients (the dry) together.
- stir in the wet, except the eggs
- add eggs and Meyer lemon if using (pictured below)
- stir until batter is smooth and even
- butter or coconut oil six muffin cups
- divide batter evenly between cups and put on top rake in the oven
- start checking after about 45 minutes, muffins are done when edges are brown but not black
- let cool in the muffin tin for about 10 minutes before removing and finishing cooling on a rack
Without gluten to hold them together these muffins are a little more delicate than most but they are moist and very reminiscent to cheesecake, thanks to the combo of lemon and vanilla.
*The Meyer lemon adds an extra burst of citrus and a nice little texture to the muffins but it is bitter with the peel and all so if that doesn’t appeal to you leave it out.
If you want to run with the cheesecake theme I fully support whipping up a cream cheese frosting. 🙂
Time to go plan my dance class! #iwillmovetoday
These look so lovely and spring-like. I love the photographs! I really like the new look of your blog as well.
Thanks Danielle! As far as the blog format, I had a great time doing a way-past-due redesign last week and I’m glad you like it!
These are totally right up my alley. Might need to make these for a friend of mine who loves lemon!
Yum! The cheesecake idea totally caught my eye! Gonna have to try them soon! 😀
Beautiful recipe and very eye catching pictures! 🙂
Thanks, I made this recipe again as a cake and added orange slices. It was a big hit at my dinner party!
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Finally some muffins/cupcakes that aren’t too much on the sweet side! Love the amount of citrus going in here.
Oh well, spring. We already had a little glimpse of it a couple of weeks ago but temperature are again around the 5° area (Celsius, that is) which does not quite feel like spring. The upside is that I won’t be having sweary problems using the oven for a little longer. 😉
Cheers,
Tobias
Does it work to double this recipe? I want to make a full dozen but am hesitant to double it. Baking can be deceptive at times. Should I just make two small batches? And it is just 1/2 cup coconut flour?
It should be fine to double it. Yep, it’s only a 1/2 cup of flour, it absorbs A LOT of liquid!
AWESOME. Thanks. I’ll let you know how they are received. I’ve never worked with coconut flour before, so here goes………
Really hope you love it! btw, they remain moist so it’s a little tricky to know when they are done when you first start to make them, just know that they don’t dry out the way grain flour does.
Made these last night – was out of coconut oil and sub’d canola oil. Made 10 muffins and they were AMAZING! My husband even liked them and is super picky with desserts – especially when using coconut flour. I will be making these again. Often. thanks for a great recipe!
These are fantastic! I forgot to tell you how much we enjoyed them a couple weeks ago. I think the only change I made was a vanilla bean (because I don’t have extract on hand), & doubling the recipe worked just fine. I had never used coconut flour & can’t believe how much moisture it sucked up! I thought, ‘wow this is a lot of eggs’, but it was perfect. I’m so impressed you created this recipe, because I would be so hesitant to experiment with this flour. Good work, Faith! I’m baking at 7000ft elev., so my goods never raise as much & look very pretty, but they were delicious none the less. Dave didn’t want to share with my family. 🙂
I love these muffins! It was my first time using coconut flour, and I’m so impressed with the results. My kitchen smelled heavenly while the muffins were baking, and I devoured one as soon as I took the pan out of the oven. Thanks for another great recipe!
Thanks for letting me know Justeen! I love these ones too, I should make some today!