Grain-Free, Paleo "No Corn" Corn Muffins with Bacon & Ham

A huge thank you to Kara over at The Primal Home, for sharing this awesome, mouthwateringly-delicious recipe for the paleo equivalent of a grain-free corn muffin!  One of my girlfriends has already replicated the recipe, and my freshly-baked batch is being devoured before my eyes.

These are totally gluten-free, and made with just a few basic, healthy ingredients, including the miracle that is coconut flour.  Coconut flour is just ground-up, dried coconut.  Surprisingly, the coconut flavor is not overpowering, and the muffins came out with a great, fluffy, moist texture.  If you don't tell your friends they're grain-free, they probably wouldn't even notice.

I made a few tweaks, including substituting the cooked bacon for diced deli ham.  Just like Marie Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond, I keep a "jar of fat" in the fridge, so the bacon grease was already on hand.  That saved a little prep time, but you can always follow Kara's method and render three strips of bacon.  Here's how I just created our batch of these awesome little muffins:

Ingredients:

3 tbsp bacon grease
5 slices deli ham, diced very small
6 eggs
1/3 cup local, raw, organic honey
1/2 cup organic coconut flour
1 tsp fresh Italian herbs, chopped fine (optional)
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line your muffin tin with nine paper liners.

Melt bacon grease in a large Pyrex mixing bowl, in the microwave.  Heat until mostly melted (do not overheat).

Whisk in honey with the melted bacon grease.

Add the six eggs and Italian herbs, and continue to whisk.  Add the ham.

Add the coconut flour, and mix thoroughly, breaking up any lumps.

Once blended, whisk in the baking soda.  Immediately scoop the batter into muffin tin, filling 3/4 of the way, and bake for 15 minutes.

Transfer muffins to a cooling rack.

These came out so delicious, even my reluctant-caveman husband went back for seconds!  I'm trying to keep myself from going back for a third.  This is going to be a regular baked-good item in our Paleo household ;)