Pumpkin Apple Muffins Gluten Free, Sugar Free

Moist decadent guilt free pumpkin-apple muffins to die for

The summer is now gone, fall crop all planted and this time of the year  baking can actually be a lot of fun!    The beautiful sight of orange and yellow leaves falling, the crisp air brings back memories of family get togethers on Thanks Giving, decorating for the fall, and if you celebrate Halloween that too, sipping a cup of warm cocoa, tea or coffee… Aaahhh the good old fall season.

Since the spirit of the falls season is here, my husband and I have been thinking about something baked, warm, soft, and sweet, but refuse to buy anything from the store. Partially hydrogenated oils, bleached flour, too much sugar; enough said.

As some of you already know I can cook, but I am not much of a baker. What I am in fact,  is a determined soul that will try everything once or twice specially if it means I can feed us something healthier (grin) –This time pumpkin-apple muffins it was.

So there I was Saturday night wondering…. How can I come up with a low carb pumpkin-apple muffin that is gluten, sugar and grain free?  Well, not so easy being that I rarely bake. However, since making life style changes requires some effort and a positive attitude–I took the plunge.   I remembered seeing these amazing looking muffins by Amy from Super Healthy Kids (hers look much prettier though), and then the light bulb came up,  I can attempt to make those beauties[Thanks Amy].

My Pumpkin-Apple Muffins Gluten Free,Sugar Free, Grain Free were adapted from Amys recipe, but  I’ve made some substantial changes to make it somewhat of a Low Glycemic Index muffin.

I recently received a complimentary kit from the awesome folks at  Swerve Sweetener my new favorite natural sugar substitute, went apple picking and got a sample of  pumpkin puree from the store….

Swerve Sweetener: Diabetic Friendly, No Artificial Sweeteners, guilt free sweetener.

I figured it was time to take the goodies out, and try and come up with some healthy muffin concoction or bread of both, of course that tasted delicious.

Now the trick to using almond flour and coming up with a soft, moist end result isn’t an easy task, at least not yet for me.   That is why I went to Carolyn’s All Day I dream about food blog because I know she has mastered the art of  reinventing several recipes.  Not only are they low in carbohydrates,  and sugar, but most importantly they look and taste amazing.

Carolyn came up with her own formula for cooking with almond flour, and there is where I got the right ratio of  the right amount of whey protein and almond flour.   Basically,you want to add half the fat, double the flour and  baking powder from the original recipe.   Then add some whey protein to make up for the gluten.  And so that is what I did.  Read more on about Low Carb Basics: Baking with almond flour.

Well, it seems that all of this adding and subtracting ingredients, concocting and baking returned a super moist, decadently sweet Pumpkin apple muffins to die for.  My friends that tried them had no clue they were flourless muffins.

Pumpkin Apple Muffins Gluten, Sugar, Grain Free. Don’t you love free stuff?

Here is an image of the ingredients I used:

Moist, delicate, guilt free pumpkin-apple muffins!

Here is the recipe:

Print Pumpkin-Apple Muffins: Gluten Free,Sugar Free, Grain Free

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Yield: 16

Serving Size: 1 muffin

Ingredients

• Dry Ingredients
• 200 grams (2 cups) almond flour
• 1/4 cup unflavored Whey powder
• ¾ Granulated Swerve Sugar
• 1 Tbs pumpkin spice or spice mix
• ½ Tbs baking powder (remember is almond flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• Wet Ingredients
• 1 can 15oz pumpkin puree preferable BPA free
• 2 Large eggs (preferably pastured for those Omega 3's)
• 1/4 Cup Coconut Oil
• 1 cup chopped organic apples (Remember dirty dozen?)
• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• For the Frosting (optional):
• 1 Package Cream Cheese {softened}
• 5 Tbsp carrot juice or carrot/pomegranate for a deeper color
• 1/3 cup Confectioners swerve sweetener
• ½ tsp turmeric {optional-see note}
• Optional
• ½ cup chopped up (or whatever you can do as it gets gooey:) coconut/almond (KIND BAR) on top of muffins for an awesome almond-coconut-caramel topping, _if you wont be making the frosting. They'll be just perfect.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Mix dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until well blended.
3. In a separate bowl mix wet ingredients.
4. Start off by beating the eggs, then add coconut oil, pumpkin puree and mix. Add apple slowly to the batter until you reach the consistency of a thick batter for muffins. I did it all with a hand whisker( Don't worry about over-mixing flourless muffins— usually the more you mix, the better!)
5. Line a muffin tin with unbleached muffin papers and fill each approximately ¾ with muffin batter.
6. It's important that you use muffin papers for this recipe! If you don't, the muffins will likely stick to your muffin tin- no fun!.
7. Bake on center rack for about 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
8. Cool muffins in the pan for 5 minutes or so and then on a wire cooling rack. They're also delightful when eaten warm!
9. Frosting
10. In a bowl mix cream cheese with a hand blender
11. Add carrot juice
12. Add confectioners sugar slowly for about 4 minutes or until it reaches a smooth thick consistency
13. Use your favorite decorating kit
14. Enjoy or refrigerated for later.

Notes

Apples~ I used my mini ood processor and chopped up apples to my desired size- I like mine chunky- see image.

Pumpkin~ Has one the highest contents of Vitamin A in any fruit or vegetalbe, Vitamin C and Riboflavin. Check out this Image Tips page for more.

Turmeric~ If you wanted to enhance the color and add a kick of anti-inflammatory properties to these muffins go ahead and add a dash of turmeric to the frosting. One word of caution though. I buy a certified organic- trade Turmeric that has a ginger-cinnamon taste which comes straight from shri lanka, and doesn't have such a strong taste like the store bought brand. And so that is why I used it in "this recipe" for coloring purposes as well. If you buy the store brand you may end up with a different flavor so test it on a tiny bit of frosting first.

Here the kind of : Turmeric that I use.

Sugar in Frosting Tip~ Because the carrots already have sugar, I cut down the amount of confectioners sugar to 1/3 instead of half (I tasted it as I mixed).

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Now is your turn.  Have you tried to make pumpkin muffins or a combo like the one above? I’d love to hear of more healing recipes.

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