Pancake Muffins (S) with Easy "Maple" Syrup Sugar Free (S,E, FP)

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I've been thinking about how to make sugar free maple syrup that conforms to the Trim Healthy Mama diet since...well...since last year, when I started this diet. For one thing the pancakes on this diet are REALLY good!  I mean some are better than others, but I've made three different recipes for them and they were all winners.  Okay, I like the E style cottage pancakes in the book probably best, but I have to eat those for lunch or supper since I MUST have cream in my coffee in the morning.  I have always kept in mind that this syrup needed to work for S or E, additions and tweaks could be made later, but the basic syrup needed to be versatile, stable and tasty!  This one fits my requirements so I hope it fills a need that many of you have to be able to enjoy your Trim Healthy breakfasts with an easy homemade maple syrup!

Another thing I wanted to do is put these wonderful pancakes on a level where even the busiest (or hungriest) would have the ability to enjoy them more often. I have ended up going with a pancake recipe that I have tweaked into a muffin.  I thought that this would make them so much easier for hectic breakfast days, like Sunday when the family can gather for breakfast time before church, or when company is in for the weekend.   With a muffin styled pancake we mama's can have our pancakes and have time to eat them too!   One note of warning, these are not particularly light and fluffly "muffins" they are pancakes in a muffin shape and they taste and act like pancakes, which is what I like about them.  Convenient, portable, cookaheadable, pancakes...

Pancake Muffins
Dry Ingredients
1 cup almond flour 
1/4 cup ground golden flaxseed
2 tablespoons coconut flour
2 tablespoons truvia type sweetener or 1 tablespoon THM Sweet Blend
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Wet Ingredients
1 cup low fat greek yogurt thinned out to buttermilk consistency with water (about 1/2 yogurt  to 1/2 water I have found)
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted and cooled
1/2 to 1 teaspoon maple flavor

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees while you whip this easy recipe together.  In one bowl stir together all the dry ingredients VERY WELL .  The almond flour especially likes to clump so I usually end up spinning the flours together in my mini processor because I have gotten lumps before and I do not want that to happen again!   However you accomplish this just be sure you get them out.

Next, in a small bowl, beat together the wet ingredients with a fork until well combined, then add them to the dry ingredients and stir till it is just blended;  do not over stir.  Grease a muffin pan with coconut oil (I use my silicone muffin pan for this and it works perfectly, but if you do not have a good nonstick pan just use paper baking cups.

Bake these for 15 - 20 minutes, they will be golden brown and well set so you won't have any trouble telling that they are done.

NOW for the MAPLE SYRUP!
This recipe came about through much trial and error because I really don't think that the stevia sweetened kind was going to fit the bill for me, but the erythritol can be very unstable if you try to make a traditional simple syrup with it.  By the way though you CAN make a traditional sugar syrup with xylitol and it will be very sweet and syrupy for a few hours if you really need that sort of syrup fix.
I chose to go with the erythritol/stevia combination because it offered a finished product that can be put in a bottle and poured for days without hardening or turning to jelly if you use the right thickener.  So here goes:

1 cup water
1/4 cup truvia-erythritol/stevia blend  (Which is 1/4 cup erythritol and 1/4 tsp THM stevia)

Now this is important---Do Not Boil the Water!  Get it warm enough to dissolve the truvia only and then remove it from the heat.  This prevents the erythritol from transforming into a crystaline substance a little later on.
Immediately, while the mixture is warm sprinkle on:
1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum 
Whisk it around for just a minute or two and it will start to thicken up.  You cannot sub glucomannan here, I tried, it will just continue to gel more and more and can't be thinned enough, which is a pity because I like the initial consistency better with the gluccie.  Check at this point and see if the consistency is thick enough for you, everyone is different on this and I don't like a particularly thick syrup.  You can always sprinkle more on at this time and get it a little thicker..be careful though.
Now add in the flavorings:
1 dash of salt
1 teaspoon maple extract (I bought watkins maple extract at walmart)_
1/8-1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pour into the container of your choice I put mine into an old maple syrup jar and it has maintained it's consistency for days now.  Actually the flavor may be getting a little better.

You can also use other flavors, I made a caramel one just now by substituting caramel flavoring for the maple and keeping the butter flavoring the same.