From Lauren: Today’s recipe is from my friend Alison Marras, a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner who shares her gorgeous recipes at Food By Mars.
Hoarding cranberries and freezing all the bags during this time of year is one of those activities that makes me feel a bit devious… because they are my absolute favorite and I want to have them on hand all year long! I have always loved that tart lip-smack a good cranberry juice, cranberry sauce, or… Flourless Cranberry Chocolate Muffin gives you!
To balance the tart out, I, of course, had to add some delicious dark chocolate and one of my favorite sweeteners: maple syrup. I’ve also tried this with monk fruit sweetener which works well too. Enjoy this easy and delicious recipe!
More reasons to love cranberries and unsweetened cranberry juice:
- Great for digestion, one cup of cranberries has approx. 4.6 grams of fiber
- Can help prevent an overgrowth of Candida
- High in vitamin C, and can give your immune system a boost when you feel a cold coming on
- Prevents urinary tract infections
- Higher in antioxidants than other fruits and berries
- Lower in sugar than many other fruits
- Great for oral health, the PACs that help fight against UTIs and Candida also prevent excess bacteria in the mouth
- Can lower LDL cholesterol
Flourless Cranberry Chocolate Muffins (Paleo)
Author: Alison Marras
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup creamy cashew or almond butter
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 2 large eggs (pasture-raised preferably)
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ cup fresh or frozen cranberries (more for topping)
- ⅓ cup shaved dark chocolate, unsweetened chocolate chips, or chocolate chips (Enjoy Life is a great allergen-friendly choice, it does contain sugar)
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350f degrees and line a 12-cup muffin liner or 24 minis. (I ran out of liners! So, I simply greased with a little coconut oil and they came out easily after resting for a few minutes)
- Mix all ingredients together (except cranberries and chocolate) and combine well until you have a smooth batter. Taste and adjust any spices or sweetener as needed (I use as little sweetener as possible, so if you like it sweeter - taste to confirm).
- Pour in the chocolate and cranberries, folding them in with a spatula by hand.
- Evenly distribute the batter in your muffin pan and sprinkle in a couple more cranberries on top with chocolate chips to get a nice topping if you’d like. Place in the middle rack in the center of your oven and bake for approx. 20 minutes.
- Let muffins rest and cool on a rack for 10 mins or so. Serve immediately or you can store in the fridge or freezer and re-heat! Enjoy!
About Alison Marras
Alison Marras is an NYC-based Holistic Nutritionist and Food Blogger over at Food By Mars where she whips up healthy and delicious recipes. She is dedicated to enabling her audience to take control of their health in the kitchen while trusting their body. All recipes are all gluten-free, predominantly paleo (grain-free, dairy-free) with an emphasis on wholesome and seasonal ingredients.
Living with Hashimoto’s Autoimmune disease and PCOS, Alison began her food blog after realizing the importance of food as medicine in helping her heal and in keeping symptoms under control. She combined her love of cooking with her health journey in creating recipes everyone can enjoy! To connect and follow along, visit Alison on social: @foodbymars on Food By Mars, Food By Mars, Facebook and Twitter and sign up for her newsletter for a free eBook and recipes delivered right to your inbox on www.foodbymars.com!
There is no flour here of any type. Is that correct?
That’s correct, the eggs and nut butter is what replaces the need for flour! Enjoy.
These are delicious! I used honey as didn’t have maple syrup.
Do you have the nutritional info or did I miss that?
Thanks!
That’s perfect, Laurie! So glad you liked them 🙂 I didn’t create nutritional info for this, but if you plug it into MyFitnessPal or a similar app you should have the info if you need it. Thanks for trying them!
I love this recipe but unfortunately just couldn’t get them cooked all the way- advice? I think maybe the applesauce is keeping them from growing firm.