Circle B Kitchen

(Disclaimer... Good camera at home, so all photos courtesy of my iphone. Forgiveness would be appreciated.)

We're winding down our stay here at the Western Headquarters of the Circle B Kitchen. It's been an absolutely lovely 2 weeks, but home beckons and we will oblige. I've done a decent amount of cooking while here; it's mostly been about throwing a beautiful piece of fresh-from-the-sea Alaskan cod or king salmon on the grill along with some fresh veggies or whatever. All that to say that I haven't been doing much recipe testing.

But I did make these precious little almond flour muffins and we really did love them, so I thought perhaps you might too. The inspiration actually came from an old muffin tin that belonged to my Mother-in-law who passed away a few months ago.

You can't really tell from the photo, but this is a muffin tin size that I've never seen before (not sure they make it anymore). It looks to me like it's from from the 40's.

That's it up top. This one at the bottom is a standard-sized muffin tin and the one to the left is a mini muffin pan (they're all well-used and well-loved so no judginess on their condition, thank you). But I was so excited to have an in-between sized muffin that I just had to get these made...they're from Food and Wine magazine some time back.

I adore anything made with almond flour and these muffins have that signature squooshy texture that almond flour lends to baked goods. Sort of moist and dense without being heavy. The only change that I made to the recipe was to swap out the veg oil for coconut oil. Oh, and I may have added the cinnamon sugar drizzle. My bad.

These are super cinchy to make and don't take long to bake so I've put them in the category of weekend morning muffins. It's not easy to make it onto that list so I suggest you give em a go next weekend. Save some for the freezer if at all possible so you can pull one out whenever you find yourself with a cup of hot coffee and an empty plate. Here's the recipe...

Cinnamon Raisin Almond Flour Muffins

Click here for a printable recipe

Recipe Adapted from Food and Wine

Makes 12 standard sized muffins

Muffins:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 cup almond flour (not almond meal)
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used coconut oil)
1 large egg
1/2 cup raisins (I added more)

Streusel Topping:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature (really soft)
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
Kosher salt

Cinnamon-Sugar Drizzle
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon milk

Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray a standard-sized muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the 1 1/2 cups of flour, almond flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together the milk, oil (or melted coconut oil) and egg, then whisk the wet ingredients into the dry mixture along with the raisins. Divide the batter among the muffin cups.

In a medium bowl, work together the 4 tablespoons of butter, oats, 1/4 cup of flour, brown sugar and a pinch of salt, then crumble the topping over the muffin batter. Bake the muffins 20 to 25 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Let the muffins cool, then remove them from the pan and let cool.

Stir together the powdered sugar, cinnamon and milk. Add a touch more milk if need to make a sort of thickish consistency. If it’s too runny, stir in a little more powdered sugar.

Drizzle the glaze over the muffins and let sit for 15 minutes before serving.