These are special Paleo muffins – they're delectable cinnamon muffins with an ooey gooey cinnamon sugar middle. These gluten-free treats will make your breakfast or snack time special!
Just imagine the cavemen seven thousand years ago. A cave, maybe some fire, a few berries and some leaves, and…. cinnamon roll muffins. Ha! Yeah, seriously, I know. I obviously follow the modern version of the Paleo diet, not the “exact recreation of what cavemen ate” version.
But in the spirit of this modern day Paleo diet, some blogger friends and I participate in a Caveman Love Muffin Swap each year. This year I decided to tackle making some Cinnamon Roll Muffins, and man, am I glad I did! Yummmmm-ie.
These gluten-free muffins are amazing. Cinnamon combined with pecans and coconut sugar give them the flavor that you are eating a warm cinnamon roll. They a bit different than any muffins I usually have and/or make since the centers of these don't completely set, leaving you with ooey gooey goodness in the middle.
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Here is the recipe for these muffins.
Paleo Cinnamon Roll Muffins
Ingredients
For the Muffins:
- 1.5 cups Almond Flour
- 1/2 cup Tapioca Flour
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/4 cup Coconut Sugar
- 2 tbs Coconut Oil melted
- 2 Eggs
- approx 1 cup Coconut Milk or other dairy-free milk
For the Topping:
- 3/4 cup Coconut Sugar
- 1 tbs Cinnamon
- 1 cup Pecans chopped
- 3 tbs Coconut Oil melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Place muffin liners in a standard 12-cup muffin tin.
- Mix together the dry ingredients for the muffins.
- Crack the 2 eggs into a measuring cup, whisk with a fork, and then fill up to the 1.25 mark on the measuring cup with your choice of dairy-free milk.
- Add the 2 tbs of coconut oil and mix.
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix JUST until everything is wet.
- Mix together all of the ingredients for the topping.
- Add half of the topping ingredients into the muffin mix and fold in gently. It can be kind of swirly, no need for it to be entirely mixed.
- Scoop into prepared liners, filling about 3/4 full.
- Sprinkle the remaining topping on the muffins.
- Bake for 22-24 minutes. A toothpick in the center should come out mainly dry, but you might get some of the gooey center so try to check it slightly off-center.
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Fact: these muffins are AMAZING. Confirmed from experience by my tastebuds and those of three of my friends 🙂 Can’t wait to make them for myself!! Thanks again 🙂
Thanks so much Dana! I’m glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Wondering if you have calculated the macros for them? I plugged the recipie into MFP & it doesn’t seem right. I was just wanting a comparison! They are DELISH! Thank you!!
Hi Hannah- unfortunately I haven’t calculated that, sorry. Glad you liked them though! 🙂
Could I make these without pecans? Can I use almonds instead?
You sure can!
These look amazing! I can’t eat nuts at the moment (I’m AIP) but I’d love to make these for my children – they’ll love them. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Thanks Jo! I hope your kids enjoy them!
AHHHH these muffins look insanely delicious! Perfect with coffee in the morning!
Thanks Bethany! 🙂
These looking amazing! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much!
I can almost smell how delicious these are! 🙂 Can’t wait to give them a try! xoxo
Thanks Kelly!
Oh man I want to try these but no Tapioca four for me. Can I just increase the almond flour & coconut four?
Hmm, can you have arrowroot? If you can, I’d sub that 1:1 for the tapioca. But if not, yeah, just increase the almond flour and maybe 1 tsp coconut flour or skip the coconut flour altogether. They may indent a bit more in the centers but still taste great. Let me know how it turns out!
Sweet…I can do arrowroot! Thank you so much! I can’t wait to make these.
Made these for my crossfit friends and they loved them. The muffins even passed the test of my 17 year old sister. That’s how you know they’re good! I used almond milk instead of coconut milk and walnuts instead of pecans (because this is what I had onhand) and they still came out great! Will definitely make them again.
I’m so glad everyone loved them! Walnuts sound like they’d go really well too, I might have to try that!
These are absolutely delicious!!!! Have you tried subbing flax eggs for the eggs? Curious if I can make them for some friends with egg allergies. Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Lydia – No, I haven’t tried do that, but since there are only 2 eggs I’d say it would be doable. Any more than that it probably wouldn’t work at all, but 2 could work. If you try it let me know how they come out please!
I just made these muffins used sorghum and coconut flour, maple syrup and macadamia nuts they smell fantastic I’ll let you know the outcome
Oh interesting! Yeah, please do let me know!
I baked them last night and had one for dessert. Very yummy. Will definitely make them again. Am going to serve them to my card playing group. Should these be refrigerated after cooling. Thank you.
Oh nice! Glad to hear you enjoyed them! I personally do refrigerate them just so they last longer, but will reheat in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds before serving to get them nice and warm again.
I have a gluten free all purpose mix. Could I use that in place of the flours?
Hmm, I’d say you could, but you might have to adjust the ratio of liquid to dry a bit. In other words, I have no idea how it would come out unfortunately. If you want to give it a go, I’d replace the almond flour + tapioca flour with 2 cups of the gf mix and see what happens. If the batter looks too runny, add a tad bit more flour. If it looks dry, add a bit more coconut milk… At least, if I was converting it that’s where I’d start and see what happens. Let me know how it comes out though if you do try!
Oh my goodness! These muffins are so delicious…even with the pecans (I only use half of what the recipe calls for because I don’t really like nuts too much). I make them with unsweetened vanilla almond milk. I have already made them twice and I will be making another batch this weekend. I make a batch and put them in the freezer and get them out one at a time to eat in the morning with some fresh fruit. They really are amazing. I feel like I am not supposed to be eating them on my “diet” because they are just that good! Thank you so much for a great recipe. I will definitely be making these over and over and over again. <3
Oh I am so glad you like them! Thanks for letting me know!
Would these turn out as mini muffins? TY
I don’t see why they wouldn’t. I just wouldn’t bake them for nearly as long. I’d start checking them around 12 minutes.
Thank you! I made them a couple weeks ago and took them to my ladies church group and they Loved them, so want to make smaller portions for our easter outreach, they are sooo yummy!!!!!
Such a fun treat! I’m keeping this one in my back pocket for birthday morning breakfast celebrations!
Wow! These muffins look fantastic – I don’t cook treats very often but this is something that’s likely to tempt me to do so. Great to see something so quick and easy to make and that will satisfy my taste buds – thanks!
These look so good! Just in time for Mother’s Day.
Nice! I like the super-gooey centers, definitely trying these.
Omg these look amazing! Can’t wait to make them when I’m done with my Whole30!
What a yummy muffins recipe! Thanks for sharing!
Yummy!!!! So much good gooeyness there!!!
OMG Michele I almost ate my screen – these look divine! Total comfort food <3
You had me at Cinnamon Roll! YUM! Can you please send one my way? Pretty please!!
I’d love to have this every single morning ! YUM !!
These muffins look amazing and that gooey center looks to die for! Pinning these to try!
Oh. Em. Gee. That center!
Oh my goodness! These cinnamon roll muffins sound so good! I wish I had them to bake tomorrow morning, my family would love them.
The texture of these little cakes looks so good and those flavours, I love cinnamon.
I can’t wait to try these out, my mom made the best cinnamon rolls growing up and I’ll never get over my cravings for them, so I definitely need a healthy substitute!
Oh good lord… these could get dangerous really fast!!
I just love pecans in muffins! Bet these are so good!
What a great breakfast treat or after school snack! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
These look so quick, easy, and delicious! I’ll have to make some soon.
I made this for my son’s birthday weekend and they were a HIT! Kids of all ages and adults alike scarfed them down! Fantastic recipe that I’ll be making again and again!
Awesome! I’m so glad you liked them!
Anyone sub stevia for coconut sugar? Will that work?
I have not tried it because I personally can’t stand the taste of stevia, but there seem to be plenty of resources that explain how to convert sugar amounts to stevia amounts on the internet (you can look for just regular sugar to stevia conversion – the amounts of coconut sugar to cane sugar would be the same). If you try it let us know how it goes – I’m sure there are others wondering the same thing.
Made these the the other day and the toughest critic in my home (my husband) said “Can you make these all the time, please?” WINNER! Kids loved them too!
That’s so great to hear! Made my day 🙂
This sounds so good but I cant have coconut oil ….what can I use to replace it ?
You really can use any oil or butter in place of the coconut oil. Melted butter or ghee, avocado oil, melted lard, melted palm shortening, olive oil (though it might have a stronger taste), etc…
Absolutely amazing. I doubled the recipe to freeze some and I’m so glad I did. My entire family loved them. Pecans are a must. They add a nice texture.
I’m so glad you liked them! Thanks so much for letting me know 🙂
Wow, these are so good. I took it a step in a different direction and made waffles. This recipe makes the most delicious waffles. Thank you for the recipe.
OMG, I never thought to make waffles with this but now I NEED to do so! What a fantastic idea!!
Do you know how many carbs and calories are in these muffins. They sound delicious but I am diabetic and have to count carbs.
Sorry, I unfortunately don’t know 🙁
Michele these muffins are amazing, thank you so much!
I made these for our hike yesterday to Lake Helene in RMNP here in beautiful Colorado. Everyone thought they were amazing and loved them just as much as your blueberry lemon scones I made last week for our hike. They have told me I have to keep making and bringing your amazing treats. LOL!
I used arrowroot flour with no problems. Again thank you so much for the wonderful and oh so yummy paleo recipes.
Nice! So glad you all like them 🙂
Hi. If I ant to bake them before work to take for a birthday, do you think it will be ok to mix up the batter the night before and refrigerate? Or not refrigerate? If refrigerate, do you think it would have to come to room temp first? Thanks!
Hmm, good question! I’ve never tried holding the batter for any amount of time with these, but since there’s such a small amount of baking soda (the part I’d worry about) in it I’d think it’s fine to refrigerate overnight and then just cook from refrigerated. I just wouldn’t put the crumb topping ON the muffins until right before baking. You can make that and store it separately and then just put it on right before you put it in the oven. Hope it works for you – enjoy!
Thanks for the tips!