Today is Family Day, a holiday observed only in a few provinces here in Canada. I just so happen to live in one - YAY! So gather up the troops for the most important meal of the day - Coconut Cornmeal Mini Muffins! Or you may refer to it as breakfast
Coconut oil was a staple in our household growing up, so while it has recently been touted as the *new* thing in cooking, for me it's an old, familiar friend. Apart from food preparation, we grew up having it rubbed onto our skin and into our freshly washed hair to enhance our natural curls. But this is not a beauty blog...
So yes, me love coconut oil long time! 😉 Coconut flour, however, I know less intimately. It has proven to be quite the nemesis. It *catastrophized* a cake (yup, it was so catastrophic I needed to create a word), crumbled cookies and mangled muffins. Recently, however, a friendship of sorts has blossomed into little golden bites of deliciousness I call Coconut Cornmeal Mini Muffins. And I have eggs to thank for this turning point. YAY #2!
You see, coconut flour is a heavy drinker. I mean check into rehab and never leave DRINKER! An insatiable powdery lush! Add a liquid to it and watch it disappear at record speed - there ought to be an Olympic event for something that moves this quickly to absorb so much liquid.
In other recipe experiments, I tried adding more water, oil, apple sauce, sour cream... thirst unquenched! Then, while going through my notes from the Baking Arts course I took at the end of 2012, I was struck (figuratively, in case you were worried) - EGGS!!
We use eggs in recipes sometimes as a leavening agent, as a binder or for moisture and richness. HELLO!! Why hadn't I thought about this before... I now realize that by adding more water I was negating the above. DUH!
I am so pleased with the way these turned out. I'd say this calls for YAY #3! I have not fully worked out all the ratios and so forth, but as soon as I do I will share. Four eggs may seem like a lot for such a small batch of muffins, but as I kept adding eggs, it was at number four that the batter seemed to come together. I also decided to use coconut milk for additional richness and flavour. Buttermilk could probably be substituted if you don't like coconut milk.
Coconut flour is high in fibre, low in carbs, gluten-free and adds a nice flavour to recipes. It's lighter than almond flour, which is also gluten-free, which would make it great for cakes - once I've played around with it a bit more.
In the meantime, I hope you try these and let me know your thoughts. For a little variety, I topped some of these mini mouthfuls with pecan and maple syrup, cinnamon, shredded cheese and the remaining few were left plain and slathered with butter.
Ingredients
- 45 g coconut flour ½ cup
- 128 g cornmeal ¾ cup
- 7 g baking powder 2 teaspoons
- 2.5 g salt ½ teaspoon
- 85 g raw honey ¼ cup
- 4 large eggs
- 220 g coconut milk 1 cup
- 53 g coconut oil ¼ cup
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375ºF. Prepare a 24-well mini muffin pan by brushing with coconut oil, or lining with mini muffin/cupcake liners.
- Sift coconut flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the honey, eggs, coconut milk and coconut oil.
- Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture and mix until combined.
- Use a small ice-cream scoop to fill the muffin wells about ¾ full. If adding pecans or cinnamon, do so before baking.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly in pan.
- If adding cheese, do so while still warm. I also drizzled a bit of maple syrup onto the pecan topped muffins. Enjoy while still warm!
- If you try these, I would love to hear your thoughts. Please note that if you do decide to forego the coconut flour for regular flour, you will need to lessen the number of eggs to one or two.
- Have a wonderful week and I'll see you back here real soon!
I Sugar Coat It! says
Kismet! 🙂 I wasted a lot of quality ingredients trying to incorporate it into a cake. Serves me right though, should have experimented and researched before diving in. Some things never change... 🙂 I am not even that big a fan of eggs, but it would appear they are the magic in this coconut flour madness. Thanks for sharing what has worked for you.
Erin Schaafsma says
Isn't that funny - I was playing around with coconut flour just last week! I discovered I need three eggs for every 1/2 cup of flour for my cookie recipe. That's a lot! But it soaks it all right up! Your post has perfect timing!
Regina @SpecialtyCakeCreations says
Eggs truly seem to be the secret to make coconut flour work. These muffins look scrumptious. Love to see all your GF muffins and always loved your blue egg holder dish (whats the proper word?). Works great for mini muffins 🙂
I Sugar Coat It! says
Ah yes, I love those trays! Recently scored some other colours.
Clarity says
These were absolutely a hit at thanksgiving. Almost got eaten before dinner. Even the non gluten free guests loved them
I used almond milk instead of coconut milk. Fixing them again tonight to go with ham and beans
Debbie from North Carolina says
I followed your recipe. The only substitutions I made were these: I used half melted cooled to room temperature butter and half olive oil. And I used unflavored organic soy milk. I also made them into 12 regular muffins and baked them for 26 minutes until my toothpick was clean and they were barely tinged with golden tops. Absolutely delicious. Thanks so much for creating this recipe. It's a keeper.