Gluten Free Lemon Poppy Seed Pumpkin Muffins

Hi Your Fit Day Friends!

Well, spring is here in the Bay Area and the days are getting warmer and longer.

And with more warm weather comes sunshine. And as always, that means more lemons from my friend’s lemon tree. Actually, here in California we are blessed with lemons hanging all year round.

I love lemon-y anything!

So when life hands you lemons, what do you make?

Cakes, cookies, muffins and pies. That’s what!

And what goes with lemon? Poppies Poppy seeds, that’s what. And I love poppy seeds.

Those little crunchy poppy seeds with their bursts of nuttiness. There’s nothing like a sweet pastry, cake, cookie or dough laced and filled with poppies I mean poppy seeds!

I first developed this muffin a couple years ago, after my shoulder surgery, when I started using the Carnbite® Solution Plan, which I stayed on for about 1 1/2 years ( A little too long, but that’s another blog I’ll be following up with).

So it was during this time I was inspired to start baking more gluten free deserts for both me and my clients.

And I had a real yen for lemon poppy seed bread.

After many failed attempts, and a bunch of bricks, I finally came up with my own gluten free version for lemon poppy seed muffins, which are also delicious baked as small tea cakes.

I use Kabocha squash, also known as Japanese pumpkin, because of it’s rich creamy texture, and is my ‘go to’ substitute for fat in almost any baked good. But you can also use canned pumpkin, or another winter squash.

As you make more of my recipes, you’ll see that I use Kabocha in most of them. It’s super nutritious and packs a punch with vitamin A. It’s a bit starchy though, so a little goes a long way.

This muffin is by no means low carb, so it can be a great addition to your post workout protein to round out the meal.

But my favorite time to have this is for my desert after dinner, when I let those carbs coax me into a deep sleep, where I dream of…  poppies …I mean my next days challenge in the weight room!

Be careful though, as the Yum factor of this muffin is quite high, and you may find yourself stuffing your face with the whole bunch!

Let’s start baking!

Photo credits go to my good friend Jos at www.delightfultastebuds.com. Make sure to visit her site full of yumminess!

Gluten Free Lemon Poppy Seed Pumpkin Muffins
 
Prep time
Cook time
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A quick and easy gluten free lemon poppy seed muffin made with kabocha pumpkin squash and rice flour
Author:
Recipe type: Desert
Cuisine: American
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • ½ cup white rice flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt (I used fine sea salt)
  • 3 tbs sweet potato starch or potato starch. You can buy sweet potato powder(starch) at local Asian market or maybe on Amazon
  • 10 gram whey isolate (i use zero carb raw pastured from Z-natural)
  • ½ cup baked kabocha (Japanese pumpkin)squash that is pressed into the ½ cup measure cup. You can also use butternut or acorn squash. Canned pumpkin is an option too if you don’t have any winter squash.
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1 tsp coconut oil
  • 3 tbs lemon Juice
  • 2 tbs water or almond milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • ¼ Stevia, or to taste. Or ½ cup erythritol (I've also used about ½ cup granular Splenda )
  • 1-2 tbsp poppy seeds. Macros are for 1 tbsp
Instructions
  1. Mix dry together in small bowl, except sweetener and poppy seeds
  2. In medium bowl , using hand mixer, blend together wet ingredients and sweetener.
  3. Add dry to wet and mix with spoon until smooth and everything is incorporated
  4. Fold in poppy seeds
  5. Using approximately ¼ cup measure, divide batter into 6 silicon baking cups, or 6 paper lined muffin tins (note that rice flour baked goods will stick to the sides of paper liners and make it hard to peel off); or divide into TWO 3” non stick ramekins (or lightly oiled non stick ceramic ramekins)
  6. It should make 6 muffins. I think the last muffin was short so I took like ½ tsp out of others to even it out
  7. Bake 365 for 30-40 minutes depending on if you’re using small muffin cups or 2 larger ramekins. Smaller muffins check at about 25 minutes. Mine usually take about 35 minutes, but it depends on if my oven is running on the cooler side.
  8. Tops should be brown.
  9. Test a muffin by slicing out a small portion. If the center is still a bit gooey put back in oven for another 5-8 minutes. The toothpick test may not necessarily work with this muffin
  10. Cool muffins for 5 minutes before removing from cups
  11. These are amazing with coconut oil, coconut butter, or even a blueberry compote drizzled on top!
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 6 Fat: 2 Carbohydrates: 27 Protein: 2

How nice these would be with a some of my homemade lemon coconut butter spread!
How nice these would be with a some of my homemade lemon coconut butter spread!

 

Gluten free lemon poppy seed muffins
Lemon and Poppy Seeds…Yum! Photo: Jos www.delightfultastebuds.com