Coconut Flour Blueberry Muffins (Secret Recipe Club)

It's Secret Recipe Club time! Each month SRC members are assigned a blog to make a recipe from and then we all post on the same day. Who got who is a secret until reveal day, which happens to be today!

This month I was assigned Flying on Jess Fuel, which has to be one of the best blog names ever. Jess is a navy wife and her blog is a fabulous collection of recipes shared from all over the US. Let me tell you I was really spoilt for choice this month. There were SO many recipes I wanted to make!

Unfortunately I can't have any dairy while feeding my son as it upsets his little tummy, so that cut out a few awesome sounding recipes that I have bookmarked for later on - Jess's Taco Salad, Cheeseburger Pizza and White Chicken Lasagna to name a few.

While browsing through her breakfast recipes I came across Jess's Coconut Flour Cherry Muffins. We happened to have a huge bag of coconut flour in the pantry and as I am trying to bake with less wheat and dairy this looked perfect!

Coconut flour has become a really popular ingredient lately as it allows you to bake grain-free, perfect for anyone following a gluten free or paleo diet. It works very differently from other flours though so you can't just sub it one for one with other flours. For example, for every 1 cup of wheat flour you would use only 1/3 cup coconut flour and lots of extra liquid.

I wasn't lucky enough to have a glut of cherries like Jess had when she made these, but I did have a bag of frozen blueberries so I used those instead. The only other changes I made were to use rice malt syrup as the sweetener instead of sugar, and olive oil instead of butter.

So how did they taste? Delicious! Slightly denser than regular muffins but very moist and with a very subtle coconut flavour. Similar to a friand made with ground almonds. These were a hit with my taste-testers and I've already made a second batch using pineapple and they were just as good.

This one's a winner, thanks Jess! :)

 Coconut Flour Blueberry Muffins (Gluten and Dairy Free, Low Fructose)
Adapted from Jess's  Coconut Flour Cherry Muffins

6 eggs
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup rice malt syrup
3/4 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Grease a muffin tray and set aside.

Add the dry ingredients to a large bowl and whisk to combine and remove any lumps. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, syrup and extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until smooth. Gently fold through the blueberries.

Divide the batter evenly between 12 muffin cups.

Bake 16-20 minutes, until the edges are just beginning to brown and the muffins spring back when touched gently in the middle. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin before turning out on to a cooling rack.

Rich Chocolate Cupcakes (Wheat, Egg, Dairy, Fructose Free)

For the past 7 weeks my husband and I have been eating incredibly well. We cleaned out the pantry at the start of January so we couldn't snack on junk even if we wanted to! And it's working. I have lost 3 kg and hubby is down over 5. But sometimes you just want a little sweet treat, you want to feel like you aren't missing out. Enter these amazing chocolate cupcakes!

Despite being free from wheat, dairy, eggs and fructose they taste incredible! They have a soft, light crumb and intense chocolate flavour that totally belies the fact that they are pretty good for you. You probably still shouldn't eat more than 1 or 2 but if you, it's not the end of the world.

We each had one for afternoon tea today and the rest are stashed in the freezer for a pick-me-up another day.

If you're looking for something chocolatey and delicious for Valentine's Day but without all the crap, these would be perfect!

Rich Chocolate Cupcakes
Adapted from Real Simple

1 cup white spelt flour
3/4 cup dextrose
1/3 cup raw cacao
3/4 ts bicarb soda
1/2 ts baking powder
1/2 ts salt
1 cup rice milk
2 ts apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 ts vanilla extract
2 tbs cacao nibs (optional)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius, fan-forced. Line a muffin tray with wrappers and set aside.

In a small jug mix together the rice milk and vinegar and set aside for a few minutes until it curdles.

Meanwhile, whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. To the curdled milk add the oil and vanilla and stir together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix until just combined.

Pour into the prepared tin and sprinkle each cupcake with cacao nibs.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the tops spring back and a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack.

Makes 12.