Grain Free Pumpkin Cacao Muffins

I really love these muffins! They are GREAT for breakfast, dessert, or a snack. They are a healthy choice to reach for while also being VERY tasty!!! Instead of relying on Flour, Sugar, Butter, and Eggs which (as a whole) do not offer much in terms of nutrition, these muffins use an alternative mix of ingredients to give you a yummy source of power-packed nourishment.

Organic pumpkin is used instead of butter or artificial flavoring so the basis of the flavor is natural.

Coconut Oil and Coconut Flour combine to give you a beneficial form of fat that your body cannot store. Coconut fats are Medium Chain Triglycerides which are a mandatory “burn” for the human body. Because of this, the Coconut in this recipe acts as a long-burning fuel and gives you energy for many hours. Additionally, Coconut oil has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties while feeding the good bacteria in your gut. Although this is a saturated fat, it is a VEGETABLE fat and non-harmful. Organic Cacao is a strong Anti-oxidant and helps rid your body of damaging free-radicals.

These muffins are grain-free, dairy-free, and use a smaller amount of egg than seen in most recipes. I’ve already taken the liberty of substituting Apple-Sauce and Baking Soda for most of the egg content, but I do keep small amount in the mix to help it hold together and to put some protein into the mix.

This is a double recipe so all measuring sizes are already doubled: the first six muffins are pumpkin, and the 2nd six are pumpkin/cacao. They are very moist, and quite tasty! The coconut flour is dense and this will fill you up for a while! If you prefer to have Cacao in all of the muffins simply double the amount in the recipe and add to the entire mixture. If you don’t like Cacao, simply remove it and have pumpkin muffins.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups Organic Pumpkin Puree

¾ Cup Coconut Oil, softened (liquid is best..15 seconds in the microwave does the trick)

1.5 Cups Organic Coconut Flour

4 Organic eggs

1 cup Applesauce (organic, unsweetened)

2 Tsp Baking Powder

2 Tsp Baking Soda

2 Tsp Vanilla

½ Cup Organic Honey…can substitute stevia drops or supplement with them

½ Cup Shredded Organic Coconut

Sliced almonds

1 – 2 TBSP spices: your choice or blend of Powdered Ginger, Cinnamon, Pumpkin Pie Spice

*I use powdered Ginger only but only b/c I’m allergic to cinnamon

**4 TBSP Organic Cacao powder for last 6 muffins (this is ONLY added after you spoon 6 pumpkin muffins into the muffin cups in the muffin pan)

Muffin Paper Cups and Full-sized Muffin pan (12 muffins)

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees

Put all ingredients (except CACAO) into a large mixing bowl. Batter will be stiff. Be sure to mix the heated Coconut oil and Pumpkin first to ensure there are not oil lumps

Fill 6 muffin cups with batter...will be pumpkin/coconut flavor.

Add Cacao to the last half of the batter.

Fill remaining 6 muffins cups with Cacao blend.

Press sliced almonds onto top of muffins

Bake for 30 minutes.

Be sure to let them cool all the way. They are very moist, and will continue to firm up after cooling. The consistency is a bit different than a standard muffin, but the result is a dense, cake-like treat that is delicious and will fill you up with clean, healthy ingredients for a few hours!! Enjoy!!!!