Coconut Flour Muffins

DLD: Coconut Flour Muffins

As I have written about a couple times on this blog, my two sons have a condition called CSID—they lack the enzymes to digest sucrose and starch. It has been a trial to find recipes for them to eat, especially recipes for baked goods. So far, my only successes have been adapting some paleo recipes and some low-carb recipes. Believe it or not, the common solution to baking for people with digestive troubles—a gluten-free diet—is a pretty bad place to look for recipes for people with CSID. The reason for this is that most gluten-free recipes have a ton of starch in them to replace flour. But for people with CSID, the starch is the enemy, not the gluten.

Anyway, so low carb and a few paleo recipes are the way to go. Low carb recipes are generally the most easily adaptable to CSID because reducing carbs automatically means you have reduced sugar and starch. In screening recipes the only things to watch out for are nuts and fruits. Paleo diets require a little more scrutiny because a paleo diet, while eschewing refined grains and refined sugars, has no qualms about using fruits high in sugar—bananas and apples—or other ingredients which aren't CSID friendly.

This particular recipe was passed on to me from my older sister (the same one who gave me the recipe for my Caramel Chex Mix). Her brother-in-law is on the paleo diet, and she occasionally makes things for him. To give you an idea of how much my son loved these muffins, let me tell you a story about the first time I made these. Once the first batch was cool enough to eat (barely out of the oven in my opinion) I gave Jayson half a muffin, which was promptly engulfed. He then proceeded to pester me with his calls of "more, more, more," until I gave him the other half. I was hesitant to give him more, partially because he had never had some of these ingredients before, and partially because he doesn't need to have two or three muffins. So he took matters into his own hands and decided to eat the crumbs...and the muffin liner. Yeah, they are that good.

Skip the tutorial and go straight to the recipe.

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Step 1:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Step 2:



In a medium-large bowl, whisk* together 2/3 cup crystalline fructose, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 5 large eggs, and 1/4 cup melted butter.

Crystalline fructose can be purchased online from a variety of sources. Pick whichever one is your favorite. Fructose is sweeter than sugar, so you need less of it to create the same amount of sweetness. The other thing with fructose is that it browns significantly more than sugar, so baked goods made with fructose will be darker than goods baked without fructose.
Another comment relevant to this step is that some vanilla extract contains sugar. Screen yours and decide whether it is enough to bother you. Oh, and you don't have to use butter in this step—any delicious fat will do.
*Yes, I am lazy enough to whisk with a stick blender. But hey, it is fast, and it does a better job than I can, so why not.


Step 3:


Combine 1/2 cup coconut flour, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp baking powder, and 1/4 tsp baking soda in a bowl, plastic bag, or other container of your choice.
Normally I don't see a lot of difference in recipes if I don't combine the dry ingredients before adding them, but I recommend it in this recipe because you don't want to get a big bite of unmixed leavening or cinnamon in your muffins. Premixing your dry ingredients prevents this.

Step 4:


Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir, stir, stir. You cannot stir too much. The batter will seem very wet, but give it a few minutes of sitting time and it will thicken up considerably.
Why in the world would I tell you that you can't overmix this muffin? Everyone knows that you only want to mix until just combined to prevent tunneling and pointy muffins. Well, this normally is true, but only in muffins which contain gluten. There is nothing in this recipe that will blow up if you mix it too much. Fun, huh.

Step 5:


Fill 10 paper-lined muffin cups 2/3 full with the batter. You can also add whichever inclusions you want at this point. For this batch I am using some blueberries and some sugar-free chocolate chips. Just plop them on top and them push them under the surface of the batter.
Bake for 25 minutes in your oven which had been preheated to 350°F.

A word of caution—these muffins will get pretty dark in the oven, and you may think they are burning, but let them go the full 25 minutes. The reason they are turning so dark is because of a reaction between the eggs and the fructose called Maillard browning. There is no really good way to describe these reactions other than to say that when protein and a reducing sugar get heated up together you get golden brown and delicious. If you are really worried, take their temperature—you are looking for somewhere between 180°F and 190°F.

Download nutrition information.
Coconut Flour MuffinsYields: 10 Muffins



Wet Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
Wet Ingredients Dry Ingredients
Preheat oven to 350°F. Heat milk (ie: in the microwave) until hot. Add the Dutch cocoa and black cocoa and whisk to combine. Set aside to cool. Separate the eggs. Combine the egg yolks, dextrose, and 4 Tbsp fructose in a large bowl. Beat with a whisk until the eggs reach the ribbon stage and lighten in color. Add the chocolate/milk mixture, vanilla, baking soda, salt, and coconut flour and mix until completely combined. Whisk egg whites along with cream of tartar and remaining 2 Tbsp fructose until stiff peaks form. Lightly fold the egg whites, in thirds, into the chocolate batter. Scoop into 12 lined muffin cups and bake for 30 minutes, or until the top of the cupcake springs back when touched.


This recipe was printed from Dinner in the Life of a Dad (samslaugh.blogspot.com)
Coconut Flour Muffins Yields 10 cupcakes Easy gluten-free coconut flour muffin recipe. Add berries or chocolate chips for even more fun. 2/3 cup Fructose or Dextrose 2 tsp Vanilla Extract 5 Eggs 1/4 cup Butter, melted 1/2 cup Coconut Flour 1/2 tsp Cinnamon 1/4 tsp Baking Powder 1/4 tsp Baking Soda 1/2 cup Blueberries or Chocolate Chips

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