Grain-Free, Sugar-Free Lemon Poppyseed (actually Chia Seed) Muffins

By far, this is the best muffin I have ever, ever, ever made.  Hands down, no contest.  And I have been making a lot of muffins lately.

MKG loves lemony treats and desserts.  I just bought a big bag of lemons, and with their fresh scent- so summery!  I also had recently purchased lemon extract, envisioning something just like this.  These muffins came out a zillion times better than I had hoped.  The Chia seeds are the perfect substitute for poppyseeds.  They look very similar and have so many wonderful health benefits.  You do not taste them either- and I would know if you could.  Chia seeds to me have a very floral taste, and these muffins are all lemon.

Grain-Free, Sugar-Free Lemon Poppyseed (CHIA!!) Muffins
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp chia seed
zest of one lemon
4 eggs (preferably cage-free, room temp)
1/4 cup walnut oil
1/4 cup plain non-fat yogurt
1/2 cup sugar-free liquid sweetener *see below for note
2 teaspoons pure lemon extract

In a mixing bowl, combine your flour, salt, baking powder, and chia seed.  Use a fork or whisk to get out any lumps.  Zest your lemon over the mixing bowl and incorporate.  In a separate bowl, crack your room temp eggs (I always notice a big difference in my baked goods when I take the time to bring my eggs to room temp- or you can place them in lukewarm water for 10 minutes) and measure your liquid ingredients into a measuring cup.  Mix your wet ingredients together and then add wet to dry.  This will be a very wet mixture, but not so wet that it's a pourable batter.  Bake at 325 until the tops are verrry golden brown.  As I have said many times- my oven is ridonk in terms of cook times- this took 45 minutes!  But other bloggers regularly say their muffins cook in 15-20 minutes, so go figure.  Want to use poppyseeds? Go ahead! 2 tbsp will do.  Why did I use lemon extract you ask?  Well, I wanted these to be sweet, not acidic.  I felt using straight up lemon juice would just make these sour, instead of lemony.  So use the zest and save the juice for lemonade.  These little guys make a great breakfast for S- with 4 grams of fiber, 5 grams of protein, and only about 125 calories- they are a great on the snack or quick toddler breakfast.  I got 8 decent-sized muffins out of this- so feel free to double your recipe.  Even better- make a lemon poppyseed loaf!

*Regarding the sugar-free liquid sweetener- I decided to try a little experiment today.  While I use my vanilla SF sweetener sparingly- it still bothers me that it contains sucralose.  Ick.  So I thought- it can't be that difficult to make my own sugar-free simple syrup with my own preferred sweeteners.  I chose to use an equal mixture of three sweeteners- stevia in the raw, xylitol, and erythritol.  In a deep sided pot- I added 3 cups of filtered water and 1 cup of each sweetener.  Brought to a boil and then simmered for about 10-12 minutes.  This resulted in 2 1/2 cups of SF syrup.  I wanted something totally unflavored- no vanilla, maple, nada- just a sweet simple syrup.  I used 1/2 a cup in this recipe and now have 2 cups to use in future recipes.  Stored in an airtight jar in the fridge, I think this will keep for quite some time.  This will probably be my go to SF liquid sweetener from now on folks.  It has no weird aftertaste, no odd mouth-feel, cooling affects, nothing.  So I'd encourage you to try making your own and combining different sweeteners. 

I'm so glad I tried this recipe for Fathers Day- because I know these muffins will be a big hit with M- whose only muffin related complaint is that they are too small.  Much love to all the dads, dads-to-be, grand-dads, step-dads, wannabe dads out there.  Happy Fathers Day to all! XoXoGFG