"Almond Flour Cake" Muffins

I baked a cake recipe in a muffin pan and they turned out great! Delicious, not too sweet and under 100 calories! This shouldn’t be a big deal. The original recipe is from King Arthur Baking, my source for many recipes and baking ingredients such as Baking Sugar Alternative, Almond and Coconut Flours. I was forewarned in the recipe's reviews that releasing the recipe from the pan can be problematic but my dough looked like a bread machine's kneaded dough ball! 

 It did take a while to put the ingredients together and into the pan for baking but that is true whenever you separate egg yolks, whisk egg whites and mix flours before combining with other stuff.  Put on your fav music and enjoy the process and aroma.

 

I am recording this recipe in steps using two mixer bowls for a stand electric mixer. A portable, hand-held mixer would work just as well to prepare the whisked egg whites. I didn’t turn on the oven or prepare the pan until I was midway through preparation. 

 

Yield: 12 small muffins or one 8” cake 

Ingredients:

 

-  4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature

-  ½ cup + 2 TB granulated sugar or Baking Sugar Alternative, divided ¼ C + ¼ C + 2 TB

-  1 tsp vanilla extract

-  1 ¼ cups almond flour

-  1 TB coconut flour (can be replaced with ¼ cup Almond Flour, exchanges ¼ cup = 1TB)

-  1 tsp baking powder

-  ¼ tsp salt

-  ¼ cup sliced raw almonds, for topping

-  Butter or Baking Spray 

 

Instructions:

 

Step 1  Whisk Dry Ingredients

 

 Whisk together the dry ingredients – flours, baking powder and salt.

 

Step 2  Wet – Egg Yolks

 

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the egg yolks, ¼ cup of sugar, and vanilla until smooth.

 

Step 3  Wet – Egg Whites

 

Using an electric mixer, whip the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Slowly beat in the remaining ¼ C sugar. 

 

Step 4  Set oven temperature, prepare pan

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin cups, bottoms and sides, with Baking Spray (or lightly grease with butter). Sprinkle 2 TB of sugar into the bottoms of the muffin cups.

 

Step 5   Form Dough: Combine Dry Ingredients and Egg Yolks

 

Stir together the dry ingredients from Step 1 and Step 2 – Wet – Egg Yolks to form a thick dough.  

 

Step 6  Form Batter: Combine the Dough and Egg Whites

 

The original recipe states ‘Fold in the egg whites, ½ c at a time, incorporating them fully between each addition.  The final addition should result in a smooth fluffy batter dough.”

This did not work for me because my thick dough ball could not be manipulated by folding.

 

This is what I did next with the dough in the stand mixer’s bowl.  I poured the egg whites into the bowl and using the necessary speed setting, I combined both into a frothy mixture. It looked like the dough was in pieces afloat in the egg white foam.  Do not worry -this will work!

 

Step 7  Fill the muffin pans and sprinkle the almonds on top.

 

Step 8  Bake for 20 minutes or until the tops are lightly “golden” brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

 

Note: I baked these for low calorie (95 cal.) snacks but they would be great alongside a scoop of yogurt, ice cream, sliced fresh fruit or as a base for strawberries with whipped cream.