Almond Coconut Muffins

I've gotten back into a muffin baking craze. Well a craze in the sense of I always have home baked muffins, and I've been trying to modify muffin recipes to make them healthier but still tasty. I was quite happy with how these muffins turned out (though now it's got me thinking about these most perfect cupcake-masquerading-as-a-muffin banana coconut muffins which I have to make again).

There were three main reasons I loved this muffin. The first because it is quite coconut-y, using coconut milk and dried unsweetened coconut. (And I went to look up the health benefits of coconuts so I could feel good about eating coconut. Coconut oil is quite good for you and regular coconut milk - not light - is too. Dried coconut I'm not sure, but it's so tasty!) I was also really excited about this muffin because it was my first time using "flax eggs" in a muffin recipe. I was scared that I would end up with flat sad little muffins or muffins that had gooey centers and wouldn't cook, but no, you can't even tell that they're made with flax eggs. I'm so excited about using flax eggs in muffins now!

The third and last reason I loved this muffin was because it's a dry muffin! A dry muffin you say? Who wants a dry muffin? Well I've found that many of the healthier versions of muffins end up having "wet" tops the next day. Maybe due to the applesauce used to replace the oil, or other things like water from fresh grated carrots or blueberries (which also happens in recipes that are not as healthy). I was just ecstatic to have a muffin that continued to stay "dry" for the next few days. These are not the moist fluffy kind of muffin - they're more of a dense hearty muffin. I need to do more to play with the ingredients to try and make it healthier too. Maybe replace the olive oil with coconut oil even and see how that works, though I don't know if coconut oil can be used in baked goods like that. Oh and I put craisins in some of the muffins which is what those red things are, for the curious.

Soon I'll post about my other healthy muffin modification (the almond coconut muffin I didn't modify that much): 100% whole wheat blueberry coconut nut muffin. Yes I like to shove lots of things into a muffin.

Almond Coconut Muffins
modified from The Garden of Vegan

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup coconut milk
egg replacer, equal to 2 eggs (2 tbsp flax seeds & 6 tbsp water)*
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup chopped almonds

Preheat oven to 400F. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, coconut, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in the coconutmil, egg replacer, oil, vanilla and almonds, and stir gently until "just mixed." Spoon into muffin tins that have been lined with muffin cups and bake for 12-15** minutes or unitl toothpick comes out clean. Makes 10 muffins.

*To make flax seed eggs, grind the flax seeds up first in a food processor, magic bullet or something. Then add the water and grind it up a bit more. Now you have a flax egg! (From Post Punk Kitchen.)
**15-18 minutes for me.