How do you decide what ingredient gets top billing in a recipe name? For that matter, how do you decide on a recipe name at all? Do you try to be descriptive, calling it by its main ingredients or the ones that make it unique? Or do you get all metaphoric, conjuring up poetic images of holidays and family meals and wonderful memories? This is forever the food blogger’s dilemma. Personally, I favour the descriptive recipe names, calling a spade a spade and not mincing words. Really, that’s how I approach most things in life, so I suppose it’s fitting. I don’t think about SEO (search engine optimization) when I name my dish, which by many accounts I should. I just try to get at the heart of what the recipe is, what the dominant flavours are and how it’s made, without being overly wordy. I may not always be perfectly successful, but I try.
Some recipes lend themselves to naming more easily than others. Some are named upon the moment of conception, like a much-longed for child. For others, the name grows on you as you start putting the dish together. And still others jump out at you as you taste the end result. But some names elude you, remaining just out of reach no matter how much you struggle to put the words together. Or, as the case with this recipe, all the elements are there, but they won’t sort themselves into the right order. I can’t figure out which descriptor should go where, which ingredient deserves to go first. It rolls off the tongue better if I say raspberry jam almond muffins, or if I leave out jam altogether. But I don’t want to mislead. In my head, these are almond muffins, first and foremost, and the jam, while a delightful touch, is the less important flavour. I wanted them to be “raspberry jam-filled” muffins, but as the jam sort of melted away into the body of the muffin, that too would be misleading. So I think I am stuck with the less melodious, perhaps a bit clunky “almond raspberry jam muffins”.
Whatever you want to call these, they are lovely little muffins. I simply took the batter for my Almond-Crusted Butter Cake, filled muffin cups halfway, spooned some sugar-free jam inside, topped it with more batter and sprinkled on some sliced almonds. I didn’t have a moment’s hesitation that these wouldn’t be good. In case you haven’t noticed, that cake may just be one of my all-time favourite recipes here on ADIDAF and I am determined to use it to my advantage. I did rather hope that these would be the sort of surprise-inside type muffins, where you bit into them to discover a little hidden jewel of jam. But although the jam soaked into the batter during baking instead, the results are still delicious. Raspberry and almonds are always wonderful together and these muffins are no exception.
Almond Raspberry Jam Muffins:
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3 cups almond flour
1/3 cup unflavoured whey protein powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated erythritol (I used Swerve)
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp almond extract
20 drops stevia extract
1/2 cup almond milk
1/4 cup Raspberry Chia Seed Jam or other sugar-free raspberry jam
2 tbsp sliced almond for garnish
Preheat oven to 325F and line a muffin tin with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour, protein powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat butter until smooth. Add granulated erythritol and beat until lighter and well-combined, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at time, scraping down beaters and sides of bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Beat in almond and stevia extracts.
Beat in half of the almond flour mixture, then beat in almond milk. Beat in remaining almond flour mixture until well combined. Fill each muffin cup to about 1/3 full with batter and create a small well in the center of each. Spoon 1 tsp raspberry jam into well, then top with remaining muffin batter. Sprinkle with sliced almonds.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until tops is golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan 5 minutes, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Serves 12. Each serving has a total of 9.5 g of carbs and 4 g of fiber. Total NET CARBS = 5.5 g.**
**This will depend on what jam you use. I use Polaner’s All Fruit with Fiber.
lizeckel says
what a beautiful looking muffin!
think honey could be subbed for stevia?
Alison Lewis says
These sounds so good! I am amazed at how you can come up with so many great gluten free ideas
KatrinasKitchen says
Sometimes I just serve it up and wait to see what others call it 🙂
The_Mom_Chef says
I let the magazines decide on the names for the recipes. 🙂 These look amazing. I love raspberries above all other fruits and am happy to see them paired with the almonds.
jamielifesafeast says
Your post actually rings a bell with most food bloggers – me certainly. I have to laugh cause my husband gave me a book to read on SEO and choosing names and words and I thought – but as a food blogger this doesn't always work. So happy to see that I am not alone, that the food comes first. But no matter the name, these muffins both look and sound so delicious! Great recipe!
spiffycookie says
Haha I have a hard time naming things as well, especially when there are so many ingredients at play that I don't want to leave out of the spotligjht! I find I have this problem most when coming up with fun new toppings for pizza. The names always end up sounds long and not very exciting because they arn't a creative name, but heck it says what it is after all! But I agree, no matter what you call these muffins, they definitely look like winners.
Karen says
Yes, whatever you call them, they look delicious! But it is funny how much thinking goes into naming a recipe…I know the feeling!
RavieNomNoms says
Those look so awesome!! I love that they have almonds in them. So yummy!
food_dreamer says
Sure, honey would be fine. A few Tbsp would work.
Carolyn
Blog: All Day I Dream About Food
URL: https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com
Brian says
The almond/raspberry combo is so lovely. I have no doubt that I'd love these muffins!
healthyfoodie says
Mmm, love the slivered almonds on top! These sound like a great sweet treat!
Choc Chip Uru says
These muffins look gorgeous – I love the wrappers you have used which compliment them beautifully 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
theharriedcook says
Raspberries and almonds sound yummy! I recently made banana almond muffins, but this one sounds much more interesting! I love the use of the jam! <3 Great post, Carolyn!
justangiesrecipes says
A couple of these gorgeous muffins for the breakfast would be marvelous!
Baker Street says
Raspberry and almond were just meant to be together! What a great recipe C! Thanks for sharing.
Jeanette says
I love the name Carolyn no matter how they turned out. The combination of almonds and raspberry sounds so good.
sweetsugarbelle says
These are the perfect combo, Carolyn!
lisamichele says
Raspberry and almond always conjures up Viennese pastry for me. I loved your almond cake, so I can only imagine how delicious it is with raspberry jam. As for SEO, I just use whatever words suit my post and leave it at that. If I thought too much about it, it wouldn't be 'me'. 🙂
Maureen says
Gotta love a good muffin. I love this combination and they're cute too!
Jeanine says
Whatever you want to call, they look like the perfect breakfast or snack to me!
claire says
Oh I love this. Just…love it. Almond is my favorite.
JanetFCTC says
I have some almond flour I have been needing to use up… what a great way to do so!!
stephday says
These muffins look great! And almonds and raspberry are a great combo!!
kita says
I like easy names – like you calling a spade a spade. I have when the names get too long and wordy and it's hard to tell if we are talking about a tablescape or a muffin. I have some raspberry jam leftover and muffins calling my name ;D
Marcia says
I am in the process of making these right now. They are currently in the over. But I had some discrepancies with your instructions. The batter was very, very thick. Is it supposed to be that way. Also, I use 2 6-muffin silicone pans and I started by filling them up 1/3 full and then had tons left over so I filled them to the tops and still had some that didn't fit. I'm hoping I didn't screw them up.
One question: I have heard/read that Elana Amsterdam's recipes your'e supposed to pack the almond flour. I've never read your position on this. I did pack the cups, so perhaps that's why I had so much.
I love your recipes. They are a great boon to my low carb diabetic life. Thank you.
food_dreamer says
Oh dear. I never pack my almond flour, I scoop it up loose. And this recipe in its cake and muffin form has performed admirably every time, so I think the packing must be why it ended up so thick and you had too much batter.
Muffin pans can really vary a bit in size, so if you think you have too much batter, hold some off and when the first set of muffins is done, make a few more. I thought I would end up with more than 12 muffins with this recipe and it made exactly 12 with my muffin pan.
Carolyn
Blog: All Day I Dream About Food
URL: https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com
Marcia says
Thanks for replying. Next time I'll know. They still turned out well and I will enjoy them.
Emily @ Life on Food says
I go with the descriptive names too. Better to know what you are getting up front. This sounds delicious. How could it not when you take cake batter and make it for breakfast.
Kim - Liv Life says
These look amazing!! I'm a sucker for raspberry anything and these little beauties would not last long in my kitchen (especially if i was home alone!!)
Ann says
Question: You use stevia extract drops but I only have the NuNaturals stevia powder. Is there a way to calculate the equivalency?
Kapu says
What can I use in place of the oat flour?
Carolyn says
Hi! these don’t have oat flour in them. Were you referring to a different recipe?
Kapu says
Yes, I was thinking about another recipe but just made these and they are yummy. Now I wish I could remember the recipe with Oat flour I was looking at. 🙂
Carolyn says
Typically, you can replace the oat flour with coconut flour, but you will only need 1/4 to 1/3 of the coconut flour.
Kapu says
These are the best muffins by far!!!! Can’t wait to try the Macha Green Tea version.
Kapu says
Ok, I’m one messed up cookie. I must have been looking at another recipe that called for a bit of oat flour. Sorry, Im def making these today.
Adam Hosman says
Looking lovely. You might want to try freezing the jam in an ice cube tray next time and popping the frozen cubes into the muffins. Maybe the batter sets before the jam melts and then it gives you more of that “filled” effect. Possibly a little xanthan in the jam, if it can take it!
Destiny says
Hi Carolyn,
I know you made these a while ago, but do you happen to have the total macros for these? (calories, fat, etc)
Thank you SOOO much! (btw these are my breakfast this morning and they are delicious!!)
Trish says
I can’t use Whey protein what can I substitute for that?
Carolyn says
Egg white protein is the best sub.
Lulu says
Thank you for the recipe!
I make my own no-sugar freezer jams. Could one of these be used or do you think they might go too runny once heated?
Thanks.
Carolyn says
If they are really runny, try adding a bit of chia seed to bulk them up. But I bet it will be fine.