Recipe: Strawberry-Vanilla Almond Muffins

Yeah, yeah, I know. This is really just an easy change to a recipe I just posted. So sue me. But this version was such a wonderful hit of spring that I had to share. Besides, I was swimming—SWIMMING!—in strawberries and I needed to find a way to use them before they decomposed on me.

These muffins reminded me of a few things. Valentine’s Day cupcakes. That cherry-chip cake you’d get sometimes at a friend’s birthday party. It felt like a warm, childhood memory, especially with huge slabs of butter melting all over it. If you were feeling fancy, you could probably put a dollop of fresh whipped or coconut cream on top and pretend it was a cupcake.

Strawberry-Vanilla Almond Muffins

2 cups almond meal/flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 stick butter, melted

4 eggs

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup honey

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup strawberries, diced into small pieces

1) Preheat oven to 350ºF. Whisk together all dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients (butter through vanilla).

2) Stir wet ingredients into dry. Fold in strawberries.

3) Either butter or place paper liners in a 12-cup muffin tin. Fill cups evenly with muffin mixture.

4) Place muffin tin in the oven, set timer for 15 minutes. Check the muffins at this time, but mine needed another five minutes. I always give them a pat on top and if they still sound and feel squishy, give them a few more minutes. But be sure and reset the timer for the new amount—I’ve been known to forget!

Makes 12 muffins.

NOTES: As anyone who bakes with almond or coconut flours knows, this stuff can be sticky and hard to get out of a pan in one piece. I just found some amazing muffin liners—If You Care’s baking cups. You have to let the muffins cool for a while for maximum unstickiness, but these peeled right off, unlike others I’ve tried. I highly recommend them.