gluten-free eats

This is an adaptation of the classic Mediterranean cake recipe. I find it works better like this - easier to prep and handy to have as separate serve “muffins”.

The recipe makes 26 mini muffins. I use a 12-serve silicon muffin tray (twice) plus 2 small ramekins.

Ingredients:
2 oranges
6 eggs
1 heaped tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
3 cups ground almonds
¼ cup soft coconut oil or butter
1 to 1.3 cups raw sugar (less if you prefer them only slightly sweet, more to be as sweet as usual muffins)
3 Tbsp psyllium powder
1 tsp of well ground cardmom seeds or fresh ready-ground cardamom.

Directions:
Wash the outside of the oranges and remove any stalk remnant, then put the oranges, whole and unpeeled, in a large pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until very soft (1.5 hours). Drain and set aside for an hour to cool then rough chop oranges and put them in a food processor and blend to a purée. Scrape down once.

Spray-oil the metal or silicon mini muffin pan. Grind the cardamom seeds to powder with a mortar & pestle or spice grinder (or use ready-ground).

Break the eggs into a big bowl and beat them with the sugar. Add the ground almonds, cardamom, salt, baking soda and mix well. Turn on oven to pre-heat at 170C (340F). Add the orange pulp to mixture, coconut oil, psyllium, and the baking soda last. Stir well.
Spoon the mix into the mini muffin pans and bake for 40 min. Once the muffin tray has cooled, do a second tray, plus 2 small ramekins. Cover with foil for the last 15 min if you want them a lighter brown, but they don’t taste burnt.
Can store them in a bag in the fridge for a week or so.