My first recipe post!

Our baking needs around here are pretty….specific. So I find myself adapting recipes to the point of unrecognizability more often than just using them as is–at least with baked stuff (which is pretty much all I do. Dave is the cook; I am the baker). We are all glutenless, for various reasons that mostly boil down to a lot of autoimmune stuff and things just going more smoothly health and behavior-wise when we keep it that way (no one, as far as we know, actually has celiac disease). And, owing to a personal history of gestational diabetes and a family history of type II diabetes, I try to keep carbs low for myself. And then I just prefer grain-free over not, though the kids wind up with plenty of grains in their diets, really.

So coming up with things that I can eat AND the kids like is sometimes challenging. But I made these muffins last night, and they’re a hit with the whole family (even muffin skeptic, Ari). I’ve been toying around with the recipe for awhile, and I think I finally have it how I want it, so I’m recording it for posterity before I forget how I made it. The result is a not too sweet but very chocolately muffin with a nice, non-crumbly texture. It would be REALLY good topped with the chocolate buttercream I have leftover from Dave’s birthday cupcakes, but I’m trying not to go there. For the BABY.

Food photography is not my thing. But this is what they look like:

Uhh, like chocolate muffins. The recipe is very, very loosely adapted from a King Arthur flour recipe. So loosely that I wasn’t sure I should even mention it.

Here’s what you need:
Makes around 16 muffins. Inconvenient, I know. That’s just how it turned out.

2/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons coconut flour
3/4 cup tapioca starch
1 1/4 cups erythritol
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 bar (more or less) 85% cocoa chocolate, chopped
3 eggs
1/2 tsp stevia
1 cup whole milk
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp vinegar
1 stick butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400. Prepare greased muffin tins or use silicone muffin cups (I LOVE my silicone muffin cups, btw).

Mix cocoa, coconut flour, tapioca starch, erythritol, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large mixing bowl.

In a smaller mixing bowl, whisk eggs and then mix well with other liquid ingredients. Pour liquid mixture into dry ingredient bowl and mix. Fold in chopped chocolate.

Fill muffin tins around 3/4 of the way full and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I am figuring, very roughly, that these come in at around 7-8 grams of carbs per muffin, assuming you zero out the erythritol. The tapioca starch is by far the biggest source of carbs. I use Ener-G brand, which, the nutrition info says has 63 grams in 3/4 cups, or just under 4 grams per muffin. The milk and eggs and chocolate all add a bit more. Most of the carbs in coconut flour are fiber, so another small amount of net carbs from that. And I’m probably forgetting something, but that’s what I’m coming up with.

A few notes on ingredients:

Coconut flour/tapioca starch: coconut flour is my go to flour these days. Combining it with the tapioca starch makes it hold together better, keeps you from needing to use a gazillion eggs like in a lot of coconut flour recipes, and just kind of gives things a more “normal” taste and texture. I don’t think you taste coconut at all in this recipe, but I may just be used to it. Cocoa does a good job of masking it, though.

Erythritol/stevia: my favorite fake sugar combo. Both because I like the way it tastes and because I haven’t found anything too scary about erythritol. Maybe there’ll be a study soon saying it makes lab rats grow an extra head, but for now I feel fine about eating it and giving it to the kids.