Paleo Chocolate Apple Gingerbread Muffins

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients:
• 2 cups Just Like Sugar Brown natural chicory root sweetener, or your favorite sweetener.
• 1 3/4 cups shredded unsweetened coconut flakes (not coconut flour)
• 6 tablespoons pure cacao powder
• 1/2 heaping teaspoon unprocessed salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 2 -3 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• Pinch cayenne (Optional. If you’re nightshade intolerant, skip this)
Wet Ingredients:
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature. See The Best Eggs are Pasture-raised Organic
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• Zest of 1 orange
• 2 teaspoons unfiltered live apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup fresh ginger root to taste, chopped (40 - 50 grams)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted but not hot
• 1 teaspoon Mt. Hagen organic decaffeinated coffee (Optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon maple flavoring (Optional)
Pulse in last:
• 1 large tart apple (like Granny Smith) unpeeled, cored, in 1/2-inch pieces (c. 200 grams)

Instructions

Dry Ingredients:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 12-cupcake pan generously with coconut oil and dust with cacao powder.
2. In a dry food processor fitted with the “S” blade, grind the sweetener and shredded coconut to a very fine powder. Spin it for a minute until a very fine powder. Open the lid, stir the bottom, replace the lid, and grind again until the powder is uniformly fine.
3. To the ingredients in the food processor, add the other dry ingredients: cacao powder, salt, soda, and spices. Mix well.
Wet Ingredients:
4. In any blender, blend the eggs, vanilla, orange zest, ginger root, vinegar, coconut oil, coffee, and maple flavoring, if using. Blend well until the ginger is liquefied, and then add this mixture to the dry ingredients in the food processor. Pulse in the chopped apples very briefly so they remain in large pieces.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 22 – 27 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool for 1/2 hour in the pan. Enjoy!