GF Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

 

delicious with lemon curd

I made almond milk this morning, which meant that I was left with a cup of pulp. One of my go-to recipes for almond pulp is lemon poppyseed muffins, a delicious, soft, sweet yet tart offering that everyone in my household is happy to gobble up right out of the oven.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we visited Ryan's sister and her man near Santa Barbara. They have a very prolific lemon tree in their backyard which I greedily pillaged four large grocery bags worth of lemons from. Needless to say, everyone we know got lemon curd, limoncello, and preserved lemons in their Christmas stockings this year. The lemon curd was a big hit, and the recipe I used is right here. (I substitute coconut oil for the butter to make this delicious spread Ryan-safe.) Even after all that lemon-ing, however, I still had two large grocery bags of lemons left, threatening to go off. I sat down with a movie, a big bowl and a zester and zested the remaining lemons, and then juiced them all. I packed all that juice and zest into ziploc bags and tossed them in the freezer (Thanks to my friend Alejandra for that brilliant suggestion!) The lemon juice, when thawed, tastes fresh...and the zest really goes a long way.

These days, whenever I want to make muffins, my go-to is usually lemon flavored. Each time, before I begin I ask everyone, "Are you sick of these yet?" No one has said that they are...

Gluten Free Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins 

• 1 cup almond pulp
• 1 cup oat flour
• 1 cup flax meal
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 TBS poppy seeds
• 3 TBS chia seeds
• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1 TBS lemon zest
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla

Mix dry. Mix wet. Mix wet & dry together. Scoop into muffin tins (I like to use mini silicone muffin forms, which make it really easy to dip each muffin into a small bowl of sucanat. Sucanat is a raw form of sugar that is chunky, dry, and brown. It has a warm, natural flavor and makes a great crumbly topping for muffins all by itself. If you don't have silicone muffin forms or sucanat, no problem. These muffins are great plain, even when baked in a good old fashioned muffin tin!

dipping each mini-muffin into sucanat

 Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until firm to the touch and slightly golden.