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SunButter Gingerbread Muffins

December 9, 2019 · Natalie 12 Comments

Sweet, spiced gingerbread muffins with moist fluffy insides and lemon glazed tops are the perfect healthier holiday snack. Vegan, paleo, and nut-free too!

SunButter Gingerbread Muffins (vegan + paleo)

THIS POST IS SPONSORED BY SUNBUTTER

I cannot confirm or deny that I ate five of these muffins in a 24 hour period last week. And already remade them. And cried a little when I had to give two away. All unconfirmed (but highly possible) facts here.

And that’s not just because I love gingerbread a lot (SO MUCH). Personally I think eating a muffin of any other flavor this month is practically criminal, but I understand that not everyone will agree.

But we can all agree that muffins should be ultra fluffy and make your kitchen smell amazing, right? And they should be tender inside but a little crusty on the top (especially those edges) in a deliciously contrasting way, yes? And that the best muffins are one-bowl easy and bake in less than 30 minutes, agreed? And while the lemon glaze drizzles are cute and all, nothing beats a just-baked, warm from the oven, burn your fingers getting it out of the pan but so worth it muffin, you with me?

Actually don’t answer that. I know it’s true. And that’s how I know you will love these SunButter Gingerbread Muffin. Because they are everything above and MORE.

While these muffins possess all the qualities of an ideal muffin in terms of taste and texture and holiday charisma, what makes them uniquely lovable is their ingredients. We have all the usual gingerbread flavors – cinnamon, ginger, molasses, vanilla, little bit of lemon – but it’s the healthier vegan/paleo/nut-free muffin base that I am obsessed with.

The key ingredients are:

Applesauce. See, health.
SunButter. Just my absolute very favorite of all the nut/seed butters and it has been for years now♡ And ooh does it make these muffins moist! If you’ve done any baking with SunButter you’ll know that it has a tendency to turn muffins green, but this recipe has the right ratio of baking soda to lemon juice to avoid that. Unless you want Grinch muffins…
Coconut sugar. Similar to brown sugar, the flavor just works so well here with all those spices.
Cassava flour. Look, I’ve done oat flour muffins in the past and they can be good. However cassava flour makes for a texture much more similar to regular flour, but it’s still gluten and grain free.

The glaze. You can skip the glaze. Or use straight coconut butter. Or whip up the simple four ingredient lemon glaze below because gingerbread + lemon = a DIVINE combination.

These muffins walk the line between healthier snack and holiday decadent in the most graceful way, and you definitely need a batch in your fridge all December long. Happy muffin making to you!

SunButter Gingerbread Muffins

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Author: Natalie
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Yield: 12 muffins 1x
Category: muffins
Method: baking
Cuisine: american

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Description

Sweet, spiced gingerbread muffins with moist fluffy insides and lemon glazed tops are the perfect healthier holiday snack. Vegan, paleo, and nut-free too!

Ingredients

Scale

1 cup (240g) unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup (105g) coconut sugar
3/4 cup (190g) Organic SunButter
2 tbsp (20g) lemon juice
1/4 cup (80g) molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups (230g) cassava flour*
2 tsps cinnamon
2 tsps ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Glaze

1/4 cup coconut butter
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp lemon juice
4–6 tbsp almond milk

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Whisk together applesauce, coconut sugar, SunButter, lemon juice, molasses, and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients. Stir to combine.
Divide into a lined (or oiled) muffin pan, filling each muffin to the top.
Bake for 25 minutes at 350ºF.
Cool, before glazing.
For the glaze, combine the coconut butter, maple syrup, and lemon juice (all should be at room temp or slightly warmer). It will seize up and become clumpy. Whisk in the milk one tablespoon at a time until smooth and drizzle-able.
Top with glaze (optional, they are delicious plain too) and eat!
Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze for longer storage.

Notes

*If you don’t have cassava flour, try these oat flour gingerbread muffins or this gingerbread cake recipe (which can be baked as muffins, just reduce bake time to 25-30 minutes) instead!

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 muffin
Calories: 249
Sugar: 21g
Sodium: 267mg
Fat: 9g
Saturated Fat: 0g
Carbohydrates: 40g
Fiber: 3g
Protein: 3g

Keywords: christmas, cinnamon, dairy-free, dessert, egg-free, grain-free, healthy, molasses, nut-free, snack,

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Cookie Dough Chocolate Bark

December 5, 2019 · Natalie 7 Comments

Decadent dark chocolate dotted with chewy chunks of vegan gluten-free cookie dough makes the perfect easy treat for holiday sharing!

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If cookie dough > baked cookies (which it is, duh), then cookie dough BARK is 100x > baked cookies. And arguably better than peppermint bark too, but I don’t want to get TOO controversial too quick.

Think: Chewy salty-sweet bundles of chocolate chip dough nestled into rich melted dark chocolate and drizzled with more chocolate then chilled until it snaps apart into perfect snack-able or share-able shards.

I say SHARE because we are kind people who want to give the joy of Cookie Dough Chocolate Bark to the ones we love. And I say SNACK because this stuff is really really hard to part with. So you should probably make 2 pans. Minimum.

In my opinion, the best kinds of gifts are either a) experiences or b) homemade. And this particular recipe is the perfect edible holiday gift for sooooooooo many reasons:

The holidays are all about cookies, and cookie dough is the best part of baking cookies.
It’s not peppermint bark. Because peppermint seems to be a love/hate topic, but I’ve never met someone who hates cookie dough.
It’s easy to make. You can double/triple/quadruple and give it to everyone you know. It’s no bake, since we are all a little exhausted with oven things by now.
It’s vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, and can be nut free in case you’ve got some picky people (myself included!) on your list.
The recipe makes a little bit more cookie dough than you necessarily need for topping the bark. And that, my friend, is for you.

This recipe was created in collaboration with Nielsen Massey Vanillas and their always so flavorful vanilla extract. For this particular recipe I used their Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract made from high-quality hand-selected Madagascar vanilla beans and cold-extracted to preserve all that sweet vanilla flavor.

I’ve used their extracts and powders and flavors for years for all my holiday and year-round baking. Because in life and in cookie dough, it’s the little details that make all the difference.

This Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract is one of a delicious trio of holiday extracts along with Pure Peppermint and Pure Almond in their Holiday Flavors Bundle. Snag all three and you could be making chocolate peppermint mousse and almond shortbread cookies to gift (or eat!) with your cookie dough bark.

My go-to cookie dough recipe is this one with coconut flour. But the holiday spirit had me feeling adventurous, so for this recipe I went with oat flour and adjusted the ratios until I found the perfect moist but not sticky cookie dough consistency.

I also used peanut butter for the cookie dough (highly recommend!), but other nut butters will work too. Or sunflower seed butter or tahini for a nut-free option.

For the chocolate bark, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips, but darker would be good too. I do recommend mini chips for the cookie dough, full size will get in the way of cutting those little dough chunks.

My favorite part of baking is not the eating but the process. Whether it’s with friends or family, being together in the kitchen creating something delicious is one of the best was to connect anytime but especially during the holidays. Which a recent survey found is true for most Millenials – it’s not about the taste it’s about the time spent with people you care about.

So visit NielsenMassey.com for more #BakeToShare recipe inspiration to make with or give to the good people in your life. And stock up on festive baking ingredients like their Holiday Flavors Bundle so you can bake your holiday heart out all December long!

And if you recreate this Cookie Dough Chocolate Bark, I want to see – tag me @feastingonfruit and @nielsenmassey on Instagram.