My dearest blogiverse friends, I have something very special to share with you today: a grain-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, low carb, heaven in the mouth, macadamia nut coffee cake muffin.
I know that’s a lot of words. I know it sounds like a tall order. And look, I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that this is a simple “one dirty dish” kind of a recipe. But that’s because we’re not living a one-dirty-dish kind of lives now, are we?
This recipe has evolved from a much-loved macadamia nut coffee cake recipe from my grandma’s health food store The Third Street Market in Park Rapids, Minnesota (look it up, fall in love). After many iterations, many attempts, and many, many failures, we have managed to tweak her original recipe into paleo keto euphoria.
When you bit into these muffins, you will taste Midwest popover meets crumbly moist coffee cake meets all the tropical and rich flavors of Hawaii. It’s a sunny-day-good-day-worth-the-dirty-dishes-full-of-love type of a muffin. Sweetened only with banana, this high fat, highly caffeinated muffin is the perfect way to start your day with stompach-filling, brain-powering, taste bud-loving fuel. And the bonus secret ingredient? Bone broth. (Yes, I did just drop a superfood. Excuse me for a moment while I bend down to pick it up.)
Another bonus of these muffins is that when you describe the experience of making these to your friends (note: if you share the actual muffins with said friends, you are a better person than I) you will sound fancy af (can you say “banana espresso reduction”?). I can already see the beautiful Instagram captions in your future.
And finally, these muffins will hit you hard with a heavy shot of Vitamin D which means what my friends? Yes. They are a good mood foods <3 So without further ado, let’s get into this
Macadamia Nut Coffee Cake Muffins
Ingredients
Muffins
- 1/4 cup espresso
- 1/8 cup ghee (or butter)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup mashed bananas (1-2 bananas, depending on size)
- 3/4 cup almond flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 scoop bone broth protein (I used Ancient Nutrition’s Coffee Bone Broth protein)
- 1/8 cup macadamia nuts (chopped)
- coconut butter (for topping, optional)
- shredded coconut (for topping, optional)
Paleo “Fondant” – Scale as needed
- 1 tbsp ghee or butter
- 1 tbsp coconut flour
- 1 tbsp shredded coconut
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar (optional)
Instructions
Muffins
- Preheat oven to 350F and grease muffin tin.
- Mash your banana until it is smooth.
- Boil the espresso on the stove on low heat. This also takes approx. one hot minuto so keep your eyes on it. Once boiling, add ½ c of mashed banana and stir. Turn heat down so that the banana doesn’t burn and let simmer for 7-8 minutes. Take it off the stove and let it cool to room temp.
- Breathe in that amazing aroma of warm banana and espresso reduction. Toss in a dash of cinnamon if you’re feeling spicy.
- In a small bowl, mix almond flour, baking soda, baking powder, and bone broth protein. The bone broth protein I used is below. SUBSTITUTION: If you don’t have Ancient Nutrition Coffee Flavor bone broth protein, you can simply go to the store, locate this protein, take it to the cashier, buy it, bring it home, and put it in the muffin recipe because the flavor combo is THE BOMB DIGGITY. (jk you can use any protein or no protein, you do you)
- Separate the eggs and egg whites. Whip the eggs whites until they form a stiff peak.
- In a large bowl, cream butter, egg yolks, and banana espresso mixture.
- With your spatula, fold in half of your flour mixture, then, then the second half of the dry mixture, then the egg whites (I told you it was a touch tedious okay?!)
- Fold in your mac nuts.
- Spoon mixture into greased or lined muffin tin and bake for approx 20-25 minutes. I like to top mine with coconut butter and shredded coconut 🙂 Store in the fridge.
Paleo “Fondant”
- Combine all ingredients in a small bowl until well integrated (I just use my fingers). Flatten the mixture onto a flat surface and use knifes or cookie cutters to cut fondant into desired shapes. Store in the fridge.