Sugar free, low carb almond flour berry muffins

My brother-in-law is diabetic.

Actually, let me back up a minute.

I've known and loved this man pretty much all my life.  He and my sister started dating when I was six or so, and he has been a constant fixture since then. He's family in all the ways that matter, so to stick an "in-law" on our relationship tag seems wrong somehow.

Let me try again.

A member of my family is diabetic.

Over the past few years, my sisters and I have slowly, slowly begun to increase our repertoire of diabetic-friendly recipes for family gatherings and such, but it was totally by accident (in my Runner's World magazine) that I stumbled across some information about almond flour.

Apparently it's really good for you.  It's nothing more than ground up almonds, and it can be used in place of flour in many recipes.  It has negligible sugar, low carbs and high fiber, so it's a great alternative for diabetic friendly recipes and cooking.

And more importantly, I found it in the gluten-free section at my local grocery, so I didn't have to make a special trip to the city to get some.

Yes, I said "the city." It's the boonies out here, y'all.

Anyway, these were deemed "really good" but "not very sweet," so if you prefer your muffins sweet, you might want to up the sweetener a bit.

[Printable Recipe]

WHAT YOU NEED:

1 cup of berries.  I used blackberries, but blueberries, strawberries or a mixture would be just fine
2 cups of almond flour
1/3 cup plus 1/2 cup Splenda or other sugar free sweetener
3 eggs
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
a couple pinches of salt


WHAT YOU DO:

Pour 1/3 cup Splenda over the berries and let them sit for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Grease or place paper muffin cups in your muffin pan. This amount made 9 full sized muffins for me.

Next, mix the almond flour, 1/2 cup of Splenda (or more if you prefer sweeter muffins), eggs, melted butter, vanilla, baking soda and salt in a large bowl until fully incorporated.  Fold the berries into the batter, being careful not to over stir.

Divide evenly among the nine muffin cups.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until springy to the touch.