Lemon-Raspberry Muffins [grain-free, paleo, gluten-free]

Cake. I like cake. I do not like baking a whole cake and having to eat it all myself. This is why I am sending a whole plate of pumpkin tarts to Mr. Foodie’s office tomorrow because I don’t want to eat any more of them. I won’t admit how many I’ve already eaten. Whoops. Cake in a mug hits the spot without those pesky delicious leftovers.

I love pumpkin cream cheese loaf, muffins etc. The Starbucks muffin used to be my favourite, until I tried this recipe and it made the sbux one taste nasty and slimy. I’m sure it’s made with all sorts of chemicals and preservatives anyway.

Fall is for soup. And pumpkin baked goods. And Pumpkin Spice Lattes. I may have an addiction. I first had a cake in a mug a few years ago when a forum I was addicted to was raving about it. I had somehow forgotten about it. Then I saw a pumpkin mug cake on PaleOMG and it inspired me.

This is stupid easy. The cream cheese “filling” is optional, but I like it. Depending on how you feel about sugar, sweeteners etc. you could sub out the stevia for Splenda, honey, maple syrup, real sugar. Whatever you want. Brown sugar gives a lovely caramelish topping to it.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese cake in a mug – serves one!

Ingredients

1 egg
1T butter
2T pumpkin
1 packet Stevia (you could substitute
2T almond flour
2T coconut flour
1/2t pumpkin pie spice
1/4t baking powder
2T Almond milk (You could use any type of milk)

Optional Cream Cheese filling:

1T cream cheese
1t brown sugar

Mix wet ingredients and stevia in a mug. Mix well. I use a 12 oz coffee mug. It is the perfect size.

Add the flours, baking powder, spices and mix well

Dig a little well in the middle of the batter.

Drop a tablespoon of cream cheese in there. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Microwave for 1.5-2 minutes (will depend on your microwave’s power)

Let it cool for a minute. Just enough time to get a hot cup of coffee to enjoy with it.

Dig in!

Yeah, so I’m not much of a baker. At all. All that pesky measuring and stuff? But I love looking at photos of food on Pinterest. Even the baked goods. However, I refuse to pin stuff that I know I will never make. Pin hoarding is a problem, people. Don’t be a poser… Make what you pin. How do we reconcile these facts of my life? Well we bake the damned muffins, that’s how. This recipe was inspired by Coconut flour chia jam power muffins and grain-free lemon poppyseed muffins. Both currently hanging out on my pinboards waiting for some love.

I brought them into the office and offered them up to my willing colleagues on the condition they give me some feedback about the recipe. We agreed they were fairly dense and could probably be a bit more muffin-like if we knew more about gluten-free baking. It definitely needs more lemon flavour. Next time I would add the juice and zest of two lemons. Our taste buds are so conditioned to that fake lemon flavour that we almost didn’t appreciate the subtle flavours in here. Everyone thought they were fairly moist and the raspberry filling was a hit.

This is the result of my baking experiment.

Lemon-Raspberry Muffins. Makes 12 large muffins.

Ingredients

1 cup coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
1/3 cup lemon juice (would add the juice and zest of two lemons next time)
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 cup of almond milk
1 teaspoon stevia powder (I used two little packets. It could maybe use more if you want them really sweet)

Chia Jam

1 cup of raspberries, pureed. Mine were frozen so I microwaved for a minute then stirred until they were a pulp.
3 tablespoons of chia seeds. Mix into raspberries. Let sit for several hours or overnight.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Assemble your cast of characters

Combine dry ingredients. Mix well.

Combine wet ingredients. Mix well.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Blend with a spatula. Coconut flour absorbs moisture so it is going to seem thick and sticky, yet easily pliable. Spoon half of the batter evenly into your muffin tins. I use silicone liners because they are reusable and they never stick!