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:

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.

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44 Comments

  1. Whatever you want to call, they look like the perfect breakfast or snack to me!

  2. Gotta love a good muffin. I love this combination and they're cute too!

  3. 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'. 🙂

  4. I love the name Carolyn no matter how they turned out. The combination of almonds and raspberry sounds so good.

  5. Raspberry and almond were just meant to be together! What a great recipe C! Thanks for sharing.

  6. justangiesrecipes says:

    A couple of these gorgeous muffins for the breakfast would be marvelous!

  7. 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!

  8. Choc Chip Uru says:

    These muffins look gorgeous – I love the wrappers you have used which compliment them beautifully 😀

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru

  9. The almond/raspberry combo is so lovely. I have no doubt that I'd love these muffins!

  10. RavieNomNoms says:

    Those look so awesome!! I love that they have almonds in them. So yummy!

  11. Yes, whatever you call them, they look delicious! But it is funny how much thinking goes into naming a recipe…I know the feeling!

  12. 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.

  13. 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!

  14. 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.

  15. These sounds so good! I am amazed at how you can come up with so many great gluten free ideas

  16. what a beautiful looking muffin!
    think honey could be subbed for stevia?

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