Muffin Monday: Pecan Praline Butterscotch Muffins

A few weeks ago, I heard via my trusty Starbucks app that there was a new drink flavor called Chestnut Praline for the holidays. I immediately had to go get one. I got my usual Trenta iced coffee with soy, and added the chestnut praline. It was so super yummy!!! I’ve had pralines and cream ice cream, but didn’t know what a praline actually was. Immedately, I wanted to make a muffin flavored with them. I thought maybe I could healthify it! So I looked up the recipe, and quickly realized that there is no such thing as a healthy praline. The main ingredients are sugar, brown sugar, butter, pecans and condensed milk. Yeah….not even *I* could help that one! 

I think I spent a good two or three weeks thinking about how I was going to make these muffins. It dawned on me that I had butterscotch chips that I hadn’t used yet, and that they could go really well with a recipe like this. So I decided to make pralines to sprinkle on top, and incorporate a few praline ingredients into the muffins. They turned out AMAZING!!!! They were gluten free, except for the butterscotch chips. I’m not sure how much gluten is in them, but the package says “contains wheat.” 

I’ll link to the recipe I used to make the pralines. If you don’t want to make a whole batch (I had a ton left over), you could probably just heat some sugar, brown sugar and butter in a pan, and then let it cool and solidify. Just crush it up and sprinkle it on the muffins later. 

Here is what you’ll need to make them:

2 cups gluten free flour of your choice (or regular flour if you prefer)

1/2 cup almond flour

1 TBSP baking powder

1 tea baking soda

1/2 tea salt

2 tea cinnamon

3/4 tea nutmeg

1/2 vanilla Greek yogurt

1/4-1/2 cup condensed/evaporated milk (depending on how dry mixture is)

4 eggs (or 2 eggs + 4 egg whites)

1.5 cups brown sugar 

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 cup pecans

1 cup butterscotch chips

(The recipe I went off of called for 2 cups each of chips and pecans. Feel free to indulge my friends :-D)

Praline topping or the abbreviated version I mentioned above

Mix all of the dry ingredients together, up to the nutmeg, in one bowl. Combine ingredients from yogurt through coconut oil in a standing mixer. Add dry ingredients slowly while mixer is on low. Pour in pecans and butterscotch chips, and fold into batter. Fill 24 pre-greased muffin cups with batter, divided evenly. 

Bake at 350F for about 18 minutes. Remove muffins from oven, sprinkle on praline topping, and then bake for 5 more minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack. Enjoy!!

Here is what the pralines look like. I don’t have a candy thermometer, so I had to guess when to take them off the heat and let them cool. Hopefully you guys own one!

Have a great week y’all!!

Happy Trails,

Stacey