baked almond spice muffins

You've heard my complaints lately about all the crap I've been eating, right? And I'm sure you all realize that I have not made a single dish (aside from asparagus on a George Foreman grill) for myself in two whole weeks, which is ridiculous. I also haven't really been with it enough to actually think about food, or recipes.

That alone tells you things are odd around here. I've been thinking about food, though. I have in fact promised Momma Bunny some home made macaroni and cheese soon. I'm also thinking about fried rice (because you know I love it) served up with some frozen pork and vegetable dumplings kicking around my mom's freezer. There's also this hunk of really good parmesan cheese in the fridge in Toronto that I'm itching to pick up, and grate over some fresh pasta, or roasted vegetables. Or turn into fettucine alfredo. Or anything. (That cheese has ingrained itself in my mind. So badly. I want to just bite into it and it is so far away.) I miss my mini-ramekins and spinach dip for dinner nights.

These muffins, though, are the last thing I baked. They were supposed to be donuts, but didn't quite work out that way. I took that chocolate donut recipe that I'm crazy about, found more inspiration online, changed a few things around, added a bunch of spices and almond extract and called them "almond spice muffins" at the end of it all. Making them again, I'd add a half cup of almond pieces into these, or maybe some slivered almonds on top, to reinforce that flavour.

Because I started with a donut recipe, these are slightly unconventional muffins. They're very airy, and have a strong spicy bite (you may want to decrease the spices. I like the mix though). I almost wanted to put a cream cheese frosting on them, actually. That wouldn't be too bad.
Almond Spice Muffins
adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour, or finely ground almonds
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 3/4 cups milk
• 1 tbsp butter, oil or shortening

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325* F.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and garam masala until evenly combined.
3. In medium bowl, mix together milk, eggs, oil, and the vanilla and almond extract.
4. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, until everything is evenly distributed.
5. Portion into 12 muffin tins, filling about 3/4 of the way.
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the edges are golden and the muffins spring back to the touch.
7. Cool for about 5 minutes before removing from the tray.
8. Eat. Enjoy. All that usual stuff.