Going For Goat!

As promised in yesterday’s post, I’m back with more ways to use goat’s-milk yogurt!  This time, I paired goat with oat in the form of muffins.  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.  (When I say “readily,” I mean at a lower temperature.  Honey-sweetened muffins will get more brown more quickly at 400F or even 350F than sugar-sweetened muffins will.  So will honey-sweetened cookies, quick breads, scones…you get the picture.)  Meanwhile, the oats lend the interior a slight chewiness.

And you know what the best part is?  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.  Spend 30 minutes making muffins on Sunday, and you’ll have an entire week’s worth of grab-and-go breakfasts.  The advent of muffin cups has made muffin-making so darned simple that there is no excuse not to make them, really.  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

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