Almond Muffins

Good evening!

This is my attempt at a ‘healthy’ muffin. No sugar, no butter! Whole-wheat flour! Maybe next time I’ll cut the eggs, too. The thing is: I bake a lot. Which means: we eat a lot of baked goods. Which is awesome. But every once in a while I simply feel better when I reduce my intake of fat and sugar a little… I have used agave syrup in pies before, but never in batter. I was skeptical – but it turned out ok. These muffins are not as fluffy and spongy as your usual ones; instead, they are rather moist and dense. I think they would go well with bananas, or maple syrup? We ate ours plain, and I cannot complain, either. Here we go:

Ingredients:
makes 12

1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup almonds, finely ground

2 eggs
1/2 cup agave syrup
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and almonds.
In a second bowl, mix the eggs with agave syrup, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mix.

Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Line your cupcake pan with paper liners; scoop out the batter.

Bake for approx. 20 mins., until a toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy!

xoxo, F.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Hello my dear readers,

just before Easter I present you this lovely recipe for some biscuits that would do well on any brunch table. I make these regularly, and they are always gone an instant later. The preparation does not require much time, one can well whip them up right before they are wanted.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour (I usually use all-purpose, which I was out of this time; all-wheat worked just as well)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350° F.

Combine all the dry ingredients. Add the butter, and knead into crumbles. Whisk the egg into the buttermilk, and stir into the crumbles. Try to combine everything into a nice dough; it will be sticky, but that’s great. Now is the time to add chopped nuts, raisins, dried cranberries, or other stuff you might want in your biscuits. Grated cheese, maybe?

With flour-dusted hands, form biscuits and place them on a bake sheet; I made 8. I wouldn’t suggest to make them bigger than that, I have made 12 out of that batch before and that worked well. Simply adjust the baking time: the smaller the biscuit, the shorter you bake it, obviously.

Spray or brush lightly with water before and once during baking. Bake for about 15 mins.; the biscuits are done when they are light brown and slightly cracked open.

Enjoy! We ate ours for breakfast, with jelly and cream cheese. Very, very good!!