We are in full sugar-free swing here in our house -- 16 days. Nobody grumbles about not getting strawberries or raspberries or pancakes with syrup, and to say that I'm proud at how my little kiddies are handling the situation would be a grand understatement. All of the gnarly behavior we had during the first week from the sugar withdrawal is long gone, and both kids have started school this past week with great reports from their teachers.
During our first sugar-free week, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen in a sad attempt to reinvent our old recipes without the honey or syrup or fruit. And I failed. A lot. Chocolate popsicles with stevia? Not good. Sweet potato cookies with nut butter? Not so great. Coconut Creams? Too salty (whoops!).
Then, after a lot of frustration and worry that my oldest was not getting any vegetables in her diet, I finally scored -- a sugar-free muffin sweetened with a sweet potato. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not one who likes to persevere in the face of repeated failure, but I'm so glad I stuck with my recipe experiments -- good and bad. My apologies to my kids who suffered through some pretty bad tastes tests (those chocolate popsicles were gag-inducing).
Sugar-Free Chocolate Muffins
I recommend these muffins only after you've gone sugar-free for a week or so as your taste buds will become more sensitive to the very slight sweetness in this recipe. You can still make this with a hint of sweetener if desired -- 2 to 3 T of honey should do the trick nicely.
2 cups almond flour Makes 12 Muffins
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup cooked sweet potato, mashed (medium-sized sweet potato)*
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 T. vanilla extract
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl, combine almond flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, stir together sweet potato, eggs, coconut oil and vanilla until smooth. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until fully incorporated. Batter will be very thick.
3.Spoon mixture into lined muffin tin, filling almost all the way to the top for each cup.
4. Bake for about 25-30 minutes until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for 1 hour before serving.
*To get the maximum sweetness out of a sweet potato, wrap in foil and place in a COLD oven. Turn oven to 350 and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour depending on the size of the sweet potato until fork tender.
During our first sugar-free week, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen in a sad attempt to reinvent our old recipes without the honey or syrup or fruit. And I failed. A lot. Chocolate popsicles with stevia? Not good. Sweet potato cookies with nut butter? Not so great. Coconut Creams? Too salty (whoops!).
Then, after a lot of frustration and worry that my oldest was not getting any vegetables in her diet, I finally scored -- a sugar-free muffin sweetened with a sweet potato. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not one who likes to persevere in the face of repeated failure, but I'm so glad I stuck with my recipe experiments -- good and bad. My apologies to my kids who suffered through some pretty bad tastes tests (those chocolate popsicles were gag-inducing).
Sugar-Free Chocolate Muffins
I recommend these muffins only after you've gone sugar-free for a week or so as your taste buds will become more sensitive to the very slight sweetness in this recipe. You can still make this with a hint of sweetener if desired -- 2 to 3 T of honey should do the trick nicely.
2 cups almond flour Makes 12 Muffins
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup cooked sweet potato, mashed (medium-sized sweet potato)*
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 T. vanilla extract
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl, combine almond flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, stir together sweet potato, eggs, coconut oil and vanilla until smooth. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until fully incorporated. Batter will be very thick.
3.Spoon mixture into lined muffin tin, filling almost all the way to the top for each cup.
4. Bake for about 25-30 minutes until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for 1 hour before serving.
*To get the maximum sweetness out of a sweet potato, wrap in foil and place in a COLD oven. Turn oven to 350 and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour depending on the size of the sweet potato until fork tender.