As promised in yesterday’s post, I’m back with more ways to use goat’s-milk yogurt! Â This time, I paired goat with oat in the form of muffins. Â And since I used honey instead of sugar, these muffins are very moist and slightly crunchy on top – honey caramelizes more readily than sugar does, so baked goods made with honey get more brown on top. Â (When I say “readily,” I mean at a lower temperature. Â Honey-sweetened muffins will get more brown more quickly at 400F or even 350F than sugar-sweetened muffins will. Â So will honey-sweetened cookies, quick breads, scones…you get the picture.) Â Meanwhile, the oats lend the interior a slight chewiness.
And you know what the best part is? Â When you’re talking muffins made with high-quality ingredients – whole-grain flours, eggs from pastured hens, probiotic dairy products, natural sweeteners, unrefined fats, nuts, seeds, etc. – you’re talking a satisfying, delicious, healthy breakfast. Â Spend 30 minutes making muffins on Sunday, and you’ll have an entire week’s worth of grab-and-go breakfasts. Â The advent of muffin cups has made muffin-making so darned simple that there is no excuse not to make them, really. Â I guarantee that you can make your own muffins less time than it would take to go to the store and find a box of decidedly-less-healthy, muffin-like edible items.
Goat Yogurt & Almond Muffins
These are gluten-free muffins, but you can make wheat-based muffins by substituting whole-wheat flour (or spelt or kamut flour) for all of part of the gluten-free flours.
Dry ingredients
1/2 cup almond flour (I make fresh flour by briefly grinding sliced almonds in my coffee grinder – it’s easier, cheaper, and tastier than buying almond flour)*
1/2 cup sorghum flour*
1/2 cup millet flour*
1/2 cup brown rice flour*
1 T. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup rolled oats (make sure they’re gluten-free oats if you’re making g-f muffins)
1/4 cup sliced almonds
Dash of sea salt
Wet ingredients
2 eggs, preferably from pastured hens
1 cup goat’s-milk yogurt OR 1 cup standard buttermilk
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Preheat oven to 400F and line a muffin tin with muffin cups. I find that I almost always wind up with more than a dozen muffins, so I usually use two trays and 16 muffin cups.
Whisk together dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whisk wet ingredients together in another mixing bowl, then stir them into the dry mixture. If you’re using wheat-based flours, just stir until barely blended; if you’re using gluten-free flours, you can stir all you like and you won’t ruin the muffins by making them too tough. (Overdeveloping gluten makes for tough baked goods, but g-f bakers don’t have to worry about that. Yet another perk of baking g-f.)
Pour batter into tins and bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until muffins are golden-brown and pass the toothpick test.
Enjoy!
* Or use whole-wheat flour, or spelt or kamut flour.
Courtesy of The Cultured Cook.
© 2011 Copyright  Allison Stuart Kaplan  www.Askinyourface.com LLC
Looks and sounds heavenly—I am starving now; what can be used in place of almonds—I have a nut allergy.
For crunch….you could try wasabi peas (or the un-wasabied variety), toasted chickpeas, soy nuts….or for sweet, i recently found a container for maple toasted flax seeds, and i stir those into my yogurt or muffin mix. I’ve also heard people talk about hemp seed for the same thing. Hopefully, one of these options will work for you!