Almond Flour Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

As I mentioned in my last post, I was asked to give a class on dehydrating last Thursday, and one of the things I discussed was how to use almond flour as a white flour substitute.

Now, I know you probably have two questions. What is almond flour and how do I get it? Almond flour is the dehydrated, processed pulp leftover after making almond milk. If you've never tried to make your own almond milk, I would highly recommend it. It's very tasty and the fat in almonds is much, much healthier than the fat in cow's milk. Click HERE if you would like to see how I make it ..

So to make almond flour, take the leftover pulp from your almond milk and spread it out on the Teflex sheets of a dehydrator tray. You could probably also do this by spreading it out on wax paper and dehydrating it in the oven at the lowest setting with the door propped open with a wooden spoon.

Once the pulp is completely dry, process it in a food processor until it's a powder. Store this in the freezer.

Now, about the recipe. Because I was in a huge hurry to prepare these cupcakes for my class, I didn't have time to make the coconut frosting that goes with them, so I simply threw together some refined powdered sugar vanilla frosting. I know, shame on me. However, the next time I make these, I'm going to use THIS recipe from Elana's Pantry. If you want tons of ideas on how to use almond flour, you're going to want to check out her site.

Anywho, here's the recipe for the version I made...

Ingredients

* For the cupcake:
* ½ cup almond flour, sifted
* ½ teaspoon sea salt
* ¼ teaspoon baking soda
* 6 eggs
* ½ cup avocado or grapeseed oil
* ½ cup agave nectar or honey
* For the frosting:
* 3 cups powdered sugar
* ¼ cup softened butter
* 2 teaspoons vanilla
* 2 tablespoons milk (or more if needed)
* pinch salt
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine almond flour, salt and baking soda.

2. In a small bowl, blend together eggs, oil, agave and vanilla.

3. Mix wet ingredients into dry and blend with a mixer or hand blender until smooth.

4. Pour batter into well oiled muffin tins.

5. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.

6. Cool completely.

7. To make frosting, beat all ingredients until smooth.

8. Spread onto cupcakes when they have cooled.


Direct recipe link: http://keyingredient.com/recipes/304657/