hummingbird muffins

How adorable are these PALEO HUMMINGBIRD muffins? It’s the drizzle, or maybe that crumbly streusel topping right!? They have such a delightfully delicate texture and the flavor combo of pineapple and banana is spectacular! 

I’d never heard of or made a hummingbird cake. So it was time to check out the history of this treat and learning is alwasy an adventure. A must before recreating a recipe! Like most origin stories around food, this one is quite interesting. Found a very fun article from Jamie Olive (aka the Naked Chef) linked here so you can read about it. Here is a little snippet:

Originally, it was called the “Doctor bird cake”, a nickname for a Jamaican variety of hummingbird called the Red-billed Streamertail. The name came from the way the bird’s long beak probes flowers, like a doctor inspecting a patient. So what does that have to do with a pineapple and banana cake? Some say the cake was named after the bird because it was sweet enough to attract hummingbirds (who eat only nectar), while others say the yellow streaks of banana were reminiscent of the bird’s plumage. Either way, the Doctor bird was about to take flight…In 1968, the Jamaican tourist board decided to try attracting tourists by sending out press kits to the US. In the packs were a few recipes from the island, including one for the Doctor bird cake. Over the next few years, similar recipes started to crop up in local papers and community cookbooks across the South under various different names, including the prophetic “Cake that doesn’t last”…Most food historians agree the first printed recipe for Hummingbird cake was by one Mrs L H Wiggin. She supplied the recipe to Southern Living magazine in February 1978, but even before then there are countless references to the cake in county fair reports and baking competitions across southern America.

The ribbon layer of streusel in the middle of these PALEO HUMMINGBIRD muffins is amazing! The flavor is unlike anything I’ve tasted before. Little hints of banana and pineapple, swirly around your taste bud with a little bit of cinnamony undertones mixed in…could be the new favorite over here. Everyone that sampled them came away with a HUGE “oh wow, that’s delicious!”

It’s important to use canned crushed pineapple in this recipe. It was tested with fresh chopped pineapple and it didn’t bake up well at all. Guessing the bromelain in fresh pineapple messes with the protein in the muffin. Similar to what it does with any kind of gelatin based product. So, look for an organic crushed pineapple in a can and you will not be disappointed.

You can make 10 larger muffins or 12 smaller muffins, choice is yours. We like a grand muffin top, so we make 10 and are basically smitten!

Enjoy a few of the more than 14 muffin recipes here on Back Porch Paleo:

• lemon curd muffins
• berry crumble muffins
• pumpkin chocolate chip
• chocolate chip muffins

hummingbird muffins

Recipe by MichelleCourse: BreakfastCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Muffins

12

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

22

minutes

Ingredients

• streusel filling/topping

• 2 tbsp cassava flour

• 2 tbsp coconut sugar

• 2 tbsp maple sugar

• ¾ tsp ground cinnamon

• ⅛ tsp fine sea salt

• 2 tbsp ghee

• ¼ cup pecans, finely chopped

• muffin

• 1½ cup cassava flour

• 2 tbsp coconut sugar

• 1½ tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp baking soda

• ½ tsp fine sea salt

• ¾ cup mashed banana

• ¾ cup crushed pineapple, canned (fresh wont perform as well)

• ½ cup honey

• 2 eggs, room temperature

• 1 tsp vanilla

• ½ cup coconut oil, melted & slightly cooled (or grass fed butter or ghee)

• drizzle

• 1 ½ – 2 cups organic powdered sugar (or maple powdered sugar, details below)

• 1-2 tbsp water (can sub full fat coconut milk or nut milk)

Directions

• Preheat your oven to 385° and line muffin tin with parchment liners and set aside.
• In a small bowl make the streusel by combining the cassava flour, sugars, cinnamon and salt. Fluff with a fork then cut in the ghee using a pastry blender or your fingers until you have the consistency similar to wet sand. Toss in the chopped pecans, stir to combine and set aside.
• In a medium sized bowl, mix up the dry ingredients for the muffin. Add the cassava flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk together to fully combine and set aside.
• Next up, mix up the wet ingredients in a small bowl by adding the banana, pineapple, honey, eggs and vanilla. Whisk well to combine until the eggs are well incorporated. While whisking, slowly pour in the melted fat until it is completely mixed in. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and stir to combine using a rubber spatula, cleaning the sides as you go. Once ingredients are fully mixed, let it set for about 5 minutes.
• When ready, fill each muffin liner with around 2 tablespoons of the batter and then sprinkle about 1½ tsp of the streusel on top of the batter. Spoon the remaining batter into the muffin liners then sprinkle with more streusel, (reserving a tablespoon if you want to add a bit more streusel after you add the drizzle.)
• Bake for 20-22 minutes or until tops are golden and center springs back when lightly touched. Remove from the oven and let the muffins cool in tins for 4 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack.
• While they cool, mix up the drizzle by adding powdered sugar and water to a small bowl and stirring until you have a nice “drippable” consistency. Once muffins are cool, add your drizzle and a lil’ sprinkle of streusel if you saved some and ENJOY!