Vegan Cornbread Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups room temperature canned lite coconut milk (shaken well first ) I
  recommend the Thai Kitchen or Sprouts brands
• 4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 1 1/2 cups medium grind coarse cornmeal (I use this one) THIS IS CRUCIAL TO
  THE TEXTURE
• 3/4 cup raw pecans, ground into flour
• 1/4 cup superfine oat flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a muffin pan with 10 nonstick liners. I like parchment
   paper liners or the Reynolds Staybrite foil liners. Both never stick.
2.  Make sure the milk is room temperature and the can is shaken well first before measuring.
   To a medium bowl, add the milk, vinegar and syrup. Whisk well.
3. Add the cornmeal to the to the milk mixture and leave to sit for 5 minutes only. This helps
   to soften the coarse cornmeal some and yield a wonderful texture to the muffins. Do not
   skip this step.
4. Grind the pecans in a vitamix or food processor into a fine flour, being careful not to
   overprocess into a paste. Scrape the sides if needed for any chunks of pecans. Should
   only take a few seconds.
5. To a large bowl, add the the ground pecan meal, oat flour, tapioca, baking powder and salt
   and whisk very well. If adding the optional sugar for a sweet muffin, add it as well. See
   NOTE blow.
6. Add the reserved milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until well mixed and smooth.
7. Divide the batter into exactly 10 nonstick muffin liners. This will yield the perfect size
   muffins.
8. Bake for 15 minutes only. They should be beautifully risen, golden and have a clean
   toothpick from the center of a muffin.
9. Cool 15 minutes before eating. Store at room temperature sealed well. These have the
   best texture the first day, but are still good the next. Rewarm if desired with a bit of vegan
   butter or drizzle of syrup. I like these savory because you can drizzle a tiny
   amount of syrup for sweetness and I like to eat a savory muffin with chili or soup.

Notes:

• Medium grind coarse cornmeal: This is not the standard cornmeal you see in most
  recipes. This is a more coarse cornmeal, giving a really hearty, amazing texture. This is
  crucial to these muffins. Regular cornmeal does not work here. If you prefer a regular
  cornmeal texture, then I have the best cornbread recipe ever in my cookbook. That uses
  regular fine cornmeal and readers say it’s their favorite cornbread ever.
• These muffins are not very sweet at all. There is only a tiny amount of sweetener. This is
  because I don’t like sweet cornbread since I like to pair it with savory recipes like chilis and
  soups. It is only very mildly sweet from the syrup and natural sweetness from the pecan..
  So, if you’d like yours a bit sweeter, add 2-3 tablespoons of dry sweetener (not more
  syrup) to the dry ingredients.