Sugar Free Oat Flour Muffins, Sweetened With Dried Fruit

These sugar free oat flour muffins are now a staple in our family, and since my blog also happens to be a great place for me to store our favorite recipes, I'm now sharing this one with you, my dear readers!

NOTE: That said, this recipe is definately only for those on a quest for healthy eating, and who are willing to sacrifice some of the qualities they might expect in a muffin for something that is much healthier. (Not that these don't taste good, I find them irresistable!) And I'd also say that this recipe is a great one to experiment with until you come up with the right combination for your family! Continue reading for the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup oat flour
• 1 cup oatmeal (quick cooking, not instant)
• 1 cup sugar free applesauce
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup olive oil, or the equivalent in coconut oil
• 1/2 cup pitted and cubed (as small as possible) dates
• 1/4 cup unroasted sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup craisins (sweetened with applejuice or unsweetened)
• 1/4 cup nuts, almonds or walnuts chopped
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup water

Preparation:

Combine it all together, don't think order really matters in this case. Use a large serving spoon to fill the cups in a silicone or regular lined muffin tin. Bake at 180C/350F until nice and brown, about half an hour.

Note: Today I baked these muffins and didn't have some of the ingredients, like oatmeal, so I used the list below. The results were more like a dense cake of sort, but still good, next time I'll dry out the almond pulp first.

• 2 cups oat flour
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 cup almond pulp (left over from making almond milk)
• 5 medjoul dates
• 1/2 cup craisins
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup water

And the story behind these muffins, in case you're still reading?

At long last I have come up with a healthy "cake" solution for my husband who has been asking me for years to make him some cake to eat in the morning. (Yes, I've tried to tell him that a piece of fruit would be good....to no avail.) The thing was, I did not want to feed him something that was his idea of "cake", nor have said cake sitting around tempting me!, So for years the poor guy did not have any cake during the week. But that is HISTORY as I have now succeeded in coming up with a healthy muffin recipe which he just loves, and he even doesn't mind eating them frozen out of the freezer! Nor does he mind that they are a little different each time as I tend to throw in what I have on hand as far as dried fruit and nuts.

A nice happy ending to the cake dilemma, except now these healthy muffins are a temptation and get finished so quickly I'm making them a few time a week. My daughter likes them, and if the boys get on board too, (this is actually a great little meal to send off with them to eat as they're running out the door) I'll have to buy some more muffin tins!