Lemon Honey Muffins

April 21, 2014 By SimpleGreenMoms 35 Comments

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These perfectly sweet Lemon Honey Muffins were made for Jimmy Buffet. Not that we know him personally or anything but there is just something about the tang of lemon zest that tastes like a tropical vacation in paradise. So, I guess you can say these muffins were inspired by Jimmy Buffet…Either way, they are fantastic!

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Lemon and Honey

There is something about the combination of honey and lemon that I have always loved. The saccharine sweet, rich flavor of honey combine with the tangy, brightness of lemons is just one of the most perfect marriages out there. It really should be used in more foods….like maybe every food.

I was thinking about this one day when I decided that lemon honey muffins were a necessity. I needed to make them and I needed to make them now. I am a big fan of creating healthy muffins (check out my recipe for healthy peanut butter banana muffins here!) and i will frequently sit down to come up with a new muffin recipe. However, my dietary restrictions at the time also required these honey lemon muffins to be completely gluten free.

While many people may think gluten free muffins turn out dense and not very moist, that is a completely wrong assumption. In fact, I have made many healthy, gluten free muffin recipes that rival any ‘normal’ muffin recipe out there. So I was not afraid of the challenge to creat a perfect, tender, gluten free honey lemon muffin. Oh no, I could definitely make it happen!

So I was off on a muffin recipe quest:

Intense honey, lemon flavor
Gluten free
Easy to make (because who has time to make muffins that take all day!)
Delicious
Was all of this even possible? I think so!

Gluten Free Lemon Honey Muffins

Making any baked good gluten free is a challenge. There aren’t many substitutes for all purpose white flour that produce quite the same, fluffy muffin results. Thanks to the new wave of gluten free eaters, there are many, many more options now than there ever have been. There are whole sections in the grocery store with various gluten free flours and many different blends that work well with a variety of baked goods.

When it comes to baking, almond flour and coconut flour are two of the main go to’s. They both work fairly well and have great flavor along with some added nutritional value. I am also a big fan of oat flour which is just rolled oats that have been ground until they are light and fluffy. However, for this recipe I was considering almond flour or coconut flour, the two mainstream, gluten free options. Yet they both make muffins that are denser in texture than your regular, run of the mill muffin. Was that something I wanted? Would a dense texture go well with a honey lemon muffin?

A dense, flavorful lemon honey muffin sounded perfect to me. In fact, I would rather have a hearty muffin than one that crumbles away, leaving me still hungry minutes after eating. So, for this recipe, I chose to use all coconut flour– dense these muffins will be but that coconut brings out that tropical flavor even more (remember, inspired by Jimmy Buffet!).

It is also quite interesting to try to create your own coconut flour rather than just buy a bag. Sure this is a little more labor intensive but it is very cool and a good way to learn how ingredients are made. It will definitely make you appreciate coconut flour even more! And, when you are done, you will have some of the freshest coconut flour around! Take a look at this video to see how it is done!

Healthy Lemon Honey Muffins

What I also love about lemons and honey is that they are both quite healthy. Lemons are loaded with vitamin C which can help prevent stroke, regulate blood pressure, boost your immune system, improve your circulation…the list goes on and on and makes you want to eat more and more lemons!

Honey, on the other hand, is a natural sweetener that is used by almost every diet out there as a healthy way to sweeten foods. Honey is full of antioxidants, can help lower cholesterol and can even help heal burns (what! Crazy!). Even diabetics consider honey to be a ‘less bad’ sugar.

Why not keep the health trend going with these muffins and make them even more nutritious? In addition to honey and lemon, I opted for almond milk to keep this recipe dairy free and to get some of those almond nutrients in there too. Coconut oil rather than vegetable oil or butter since it is also so much better for you and, of course, gives you that tropical flavor once again!

Clearly, all of my ingredient choices were spot on as far as choosing the healthiest option available. They all sound like they would pair well and, in my head, these muffins were about to turn out fantastically. Now for the true test- actually making the muffins. The ingredient decisions were done, the recipe was written, now it was time to bake!

Lemon Honey Muffin Batter

Once all the ingredients were chosen and I was really craving these muffins (after all, I just spent a lot of time thinking about all the yummy ingredients and the perfect honey lemon flavor combo…), I started cooking! It only takes a few minutes to put this batter together and soon you will be scooping it right into the muffin papers and baking! In fact, you don’t even need to use a mixer, you can mix the whole batter by hand with a simple rubber spatula and one bowl- talk about easy!

Honey Lemon Muffins

The second I put these muffins into the oven, my house filled with the smell of honey and lemon and I was in heaven. When I finally took them out of the oven and took one bite, pure bliss. These muffins made my day, my week, my year! I had created an amazing gluten free, tropical flavored, lemon and honey muffin.

Oh, and it was healthy- like seriously healthy! I’d say that is considered a total win. I think Jimmy Buffet would agree.