These Amaretto Muffins are one of my new favorites! Everybody that had a chance to taste them raved about the flavor. I used Amaretto liquor in the muffin itself and also a little bit mixed with the sliced almonds in the topping. If you didn’t want to use Amaretto liquor, I’m sure you could use a little bit of almond oil and then more rice milk to make up the difference in liquid from the 1/4 cup of Amaretto.
I saw a recipe on Chow.com for Amaretto Pound Cake. It sounded incredible but it had 2 sticks of butter and 1 cup of sugar, plus another 3/4 cup of powdered sugar in the glaze. That quantity of butter and sugar is very normal for a pound cake but I wanted to make something a little healthier.
When I transitioned their pound cake concept into my muffins, I only used a total of 3/4 of a cup of sugar instead of 1 and 3/4. I used 1/3 of a cup of grapeseed oil instead of the pound cake’s 1 cup of butter.
This Amaretto Muffin recipe is a great example of how I love to take a flavor concept and then tweak it to make it healthier and also gluten free (or not!)
These muffins are gluten free, but could be made with “regular” flour in place of the gluten free flour mix that I use. I also used flax meal and ground almond meal to give the muffins a more complex and rich flavor.
I do have one suggestion for you if you make these muffins- use a cookie sheet underneath to catch any drips that come from the Amaretto, sliced almond and brown sugar topping!
I shared this recipe with Slightly Indulgent Tuesday at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free, Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager, The Hearth And Soul Hop at 21st Century Housewife, Gluten Free Wednesdays at The Gluten Free Homemaker, Real Food Wednesday at Kelly The Kitchen Kop, Allergy Friendly Friday at Cybele Pascal Allergy Friendly Cuisine, Sweets For A Saturday at Sweet As Sugar Cookies, March Muffin Madness at Gluten Free Easily
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place paper liners in 3 mini muffin pans. This recipe makes 33 mini muffins.
Stir together dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
1 and 1/4 cup GF Flour Mix*
(or “regular” flour if you don’t have an issue with gluten)
1/4 cup ground flaxseed meal
1/2 cup ground almond meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
In large bowl, use mixer to combine “wet” ingredients.
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup grapeseed oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup Amaretto liquor
1/2 cup rice milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
Add flour mixture to wet mixture and mix gently by hand to get rid of pockets of flour.
Spoon muffin batter into prepared mini muffin pans.
Stir together topping for muffins in a small bowl.
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons Amaretto liquor
1/4 cup sliced almonds
Divide topping evenly over top of muffins.
Place muffin pans on top of cookie sheets to bake (to catch drips!)
Bake muffins for 20 minutes total at 350 degrees, switching pans from top to bottom midway through the baking time.
Remove muffins from muffin pans as soon as possible because any drips will cause muffins to stick to the pans.
Gluten Free Flour Mixture*
The GF flour mixture that I use is pretty standard. I use Authentic Foods gluten free flours because they are ground more finely than commercial brand GF flours that you can buy off the shelf. This results in wonderful baked goods that do not have that “gritty” feel when you chew them like so many products that we all tried in the beginning!
GF Flour Mixture
2 cups AF Superfine Brown Rice Flour (available in the amazon.com store on my blog)
2/3 cup AF Potato Starch Flour (available in my store)
1/3 cup AF Tapioca Flour (available in my store)
I make up several batches of this mixture at a time and keep it in a canister. I keep all of my other GF flours in the freezer.
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Your muffins sound wonderful! Amaretto is such a lovely liqueur, and you’ve used it in a really delicious recipe. I really like the idea of the topping as well. It’s great that there is a gluten free option as well. Thank you for sharing such an excellent post!
Mmmm…I love amaretto anything. These are bookmarked!
Thank you so much for your nice comments April!
Thank you Renee! Let me know if you try them!
Stopping by from the Hearth & Soul Tuesday Blog Hop! http://queenofsavings.com
Thanks for stopping by Justine!
You had me at Amaretto liquor. Looks delicious!
Thank you Lisa! I am really happy with this recipe!
What a lovely muffin! Amaretto is such a unique and flavorful combination for muffins.
Thank you so much Alea!
I agree. The amaretto sounds delicious! Great job adapting the recipe.
Thank you Linda!