Trygve's Low-carb Almond Poppyseed muffins

Just as a general warning, cooking for special diets (and low-carb more than most), lots of subtle variations in mixing and baking techniques will affect texture and mouthfeel significantly, so you may want to do some experimenting and see what makes them turn out the best for you.

Low-Carb Almond Poppyseed Muffins

makes 12 muffins less than one gram of carbohydrate per muffin, depending on which brands of the ingredients you use

• 4 oz dry curd cottage cheese
• 4 oz water
• 3 eggs
• 3 of those 70cc scoops unflavored whey protein
• 1 tablespoon plain psyllium husk powder
• 3/4 teaspoon guar gum
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (not soda)
• sweetener to taste (after baking the muffins tend to be a little less sweet than the batter)
• 2 teaspoons almond extract
• 1 teaspoon butter extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 325. Place a pan of water on the bottom oven shelf; without the pan of water, instead of a light and slightly crispy top, the top of the muffin will form a hard, airtight shell that will pull away from the rest of the muffin and the texture will suffer.

Put dry curd cottage cheese, water, and eggs into blender and blend until curds have disappeared. Add whey protein. While blender is running, slowly sprinkle in psyllium and guar gum (don't add them before the protein powder); add baking powder, sweetener, and extracts until everything suits your particular taste buds (with the proviso that the baked muffins will taste less sweet and less strong than the batter). Add poppy seeds to blender last.

Fill muffin pans halfway with batter; there'll be enough for a dozen medium-sized muffins. (I personally get best results with a nonstick muffin pan and a quick spray of Pam.) Bake for 18 minutes at 325, then turn off oven and leave oven door partway open for a few minutes. Don't worry if you spill some of the batter on the muffin pan next to the cups; small drips of the batter will turn into very light and crispy cookies (doesn't work for cookie-size drops; just for little bitty ones).

I personally think they're great topped with cream cheese, but I'll let you use your imagination; store leftover muffins in an airtight container to prevent drying and reheat in covered container if possible.

For variety, try:

substituting apple extract with a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg for the almond extract and poppy seeds

as above, but caramel and hazelnut extracts

instead of poppy seeds, use freshly ground nutmeg

sprinkle slivered almonds, chopped walnuts, or other interesting crunchy things on top of the muffins before you put them in the oven.

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