Cardamom & Sunflower Muffins

It’s Thursday morning and Elsa and I are packing our bag, we are flying to Barcelona in a couple of hours. Correction, I am packing while Elsa is unpacking the same things (apparently it’s very funny). Luise is already there with some friends, so we are meeting her up to have a family weekend before we begin to shoot our book. And talking about the book, we have cooked up a whole bunch of great recipes lately. We still work on the recipe list – loosing one recipe, adding another. But at the moment we feel pretty satisfied with the mix.

The day before Luise left, we packed a basket and went on a picnic in the beautiful park Rosendals Trädgård in Stockholm. It was almost too early for that kind of picnic, since half the park wasn’t even properly opened. But we found a bench around a tree where we could enjoy muffins, strawberry & bean salad and an arrangement of different pies. Everything tasted so gooood!

These muffins are not monster big or heavy like the american version. They are quite small, very light and filled with a wonderful cardamom flavor. They totally melt in your mouth! And they are gluten free. We got the idea for these after trying a pistachio muffin recipe from Bea’s wonderful cookbook. We wanted to make something similar but with a new set of ingredients and flavors.

We will post the recipes for our gluten free coconut pies (which you can see in the first photo) as soon as we are back from Barcelona. Now you have to excuse me, I need to pick up all the sweaters that Elsa has thrown out of the bag.

Cardamom & Sunflower Muffins (Inspired by a recipe from the La Tartine Gourmande Cookbook)
Makes 10 muffins

½ cup (90 g) sunflower seeds, shells removed
½ cup (60 g) walnuts
1 tsp baking powder
salt

50 g butter
4 tbsp agave syrup OR honey
1/2 vanilla bean OR 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cardamom, freshly ground
4 egg whites

Set the oven to 350°F / 180°C. Immediately put the sunflower seeds on a sheet in the oven. Roast for 8-9 minutes, until slightly darker but not burnt. Remove from the oven and let cool down. Grind the walnuts and the roasted sunflower seeds into flour using a mortar, coffee grinder or food processor (if you use a mortar you may want to grind a little at the time). Sift in baking powder and salt and set aside. Melt the butter in a small sauce pan. Add agave syrup, vanilla and cardamom.
Set aside and let cool off. Beat egg whites for about a minute, until very foamy. Stir down the nut flour and pour over the melted butter. Divide the batter into muffin molds, about 2 dollops in each mold. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden on the outside and baked inside. Don’t bake too long. They will become a little firmer when cool.

36 Comments

  • Eliz
    I've started the new year with ambitions to make more new recipes rather than always my trusted reliables-these are PERFECT every day muffins! I will make again...I wondered if I can try pumpkin seeds in place of the sunflower seeds?

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