Mini Blueberry Muffins

I've been striking it right on with the kid-approved food lately. The other night, I made a version of Kelly The Spunkey Coconut's Spinach and Artichoke Pies, and the three of us (me and my three year old and 13 month old sons) devoured half of them for our special dinner in front of the fire. Then this morning, I made these mini blueberry muffins, and as of the time of writing this at 2:15 in the afternoon, 19 of the 24 are gone... (yes they're mini, but 19 in one day for three people? That seems like a lot!).

But it is winter, and we are stuck inside, so I guess snacking on healthy, gluten free, high protein, high fiber, no sugar mini muffins is an ok thing to do.

...Right???!!!...

I'm experimenting more and more with stevia. Dr. Mercola sites it as one of the safest sweetners available; it has no calories and no impact on blood sugar levels. Since avoiding sugar is a major health endeavor of mine and my family, stevia is definitely a good fit. However, you can't just use stevia in the same proportions as you would sugar, as it is 300 times sweeter than sugar. So you have to get a little creative. I upped the stevia amount in these muffins to 1/2 teaspoon to try and decrease the amount of brown rice syrup. I was a bit afraid that the muffins would give off that unpleasant metallic taste that sometimes occurs when using stevia, but not here. It worked beautifully (as evidenced by the number of disappearing muffins on my counter...)! If you don't have stevia or brown rice syrup, you could substitute both of those for 1/4 cup of agave nectar (as agave is sweeter than brown rice syrup).


Mini Blueberry Muffins

Dry:
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon stevia powder
pinch salt

Wet:
1 large egg
1/2 cup almond (or other) milk
1/4 cup coconut oil, liquified
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4-1 cup frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 24 mini muffin tin with mini paper liners or grease muffin tin with coconut oil.

Mix all dry ingredients together in a medium size bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg, then add almond milk through vanilla and whisk again.

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredient bowl and stir a few times to incorporate.

Gently set blueberries on top of the muffin mixture and with a large spoon, carefully stir the mixture, starting from the bottom of the bowl, moving it over the blueberries until they are fairly distributed into the mixture (you want to be very slow and gradual in this step so as to keep the blueberries from turning the mixture purple).

Using a tablespoon, scoop out muffin mix and place into prepared muffin tin, coming up to the top of the paper liners.

Bake for 22-25 minutes, until muffins are golden brown on top.

Remove from oven and let rest for a few minutes before indulging.

Makes 24 mini muffins.

Part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays @ Simply Sugar and Gluten Free...