Let's talk Muffins

Muffins. Most people consider them the healthy cousins of cupcakes. Some recognize them for what they really are - cupcakes in disguise. Well, this week we had some "Cupcakes In Disguise", and they were delicious. The Wife found a banting muffin recipe some time ago, and we tried it out. They came out nice. Nothing spectacular, but nice. Last week she experimented with the basic recipe.

We had three different types of muffins. There were Lemon & Poppy-seed, Blueberry, and Carrot. My brother was here, as was my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. Needles to say, the muffins did not last long. Here is the basic recipe:

1/4 Cup Xylitol
1/2 Cup melted Coconut Oil
2/3 Cup Coconut Flower
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Vanilla essence
1 Tsp Baking Powder
6 X-Large Eggs, Room Temperature
1/4 Cup Water
1 Cup Dried Cranberries

Directions:
1) Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (375 degrees Fahrenheit).
2) Grease pan generously with butter or line with muffin liners (we use silicone cups).
3) Whisk the eggs until whites and yolks are well mixed. Stream in the coconut oil while continuing to whisk.
4) Add salt and vanilla essence.
5) Mix the remaining dry ingredients - coconut flour, xylitol, and baking powder - in a medium bowl.
6) Mix the dry ingredients into the wet.
7) Mix in the water, one tablespoon at a time. You want to get it to a consistency that will hold up the berries, but not be too thick. Add additional water (no more than 2 additional tablespoons) if necessary.
8) Gently mix in your berries, and divide among the muffin cups. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until just turning golden on top.
9) Cool and serve.

Now, for the fun parts. For Blueberry Muffins, just replace the dried cranberries with 1 Cup Frozen Blueberries. No other changes needed!

For Lemon & Poppy-seed, you replace the one teaspoon vanilla essence with five teaspoons of lemon essence, and add one tablespoon of poppy seeds. Add the poppy seeds to the dry ingredients in Step 5 above. Remove the berries.

Carrot Muffins take slightly more work. You take 1 large carrot, and grate it. The finer the better. You also need a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a teaspoon of mixed spice. Again, you remove the berries from the original recipe. You add the grated carrot to the wet mix in Step 4. The cinnamon and mixed spice gets added in Step 5.

And that people, is how you can have the great taste of muffins, with none of the carbs. And it's so easy, even I can make it!

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Weight-wise, we've had mixed results once again in the Hearn House. This time I was the one going the wrong way. I've picked up 0.8 kg last week, while The Wife lost 1.4 kg. That cancelled out her gain of the previous week, and also supported my theory that the gains she had over the previous two weeks was all water.

Eldest lost 0.9 kg last week, while Youngest had a tiny 0.1 kg loss. So, overall, The Hearn Family dropped another 1.6 kg total between us! Go Team Hearn!