sweetgreenkitchen

Double Chocolate Mini Muffins

Author: Sweet Green Kitchen’s Jen Jones

This recipe is adapted from “Giada’s Feel Good Food” Chocolate Muffins.  Not only are they gluten free, they’re oil free too, plus super chocolatey and delicious!  I’ve replaced Giada’s oil, apple sauce and maple syrup with non fat Greek yogurt, secret ingredient Avocado and Natural Cane Sugar.  Plus I reduced the amount of chocolate chips, while still maintaining a ton of chocolate flavor. The yogurt adds protein and calcium while the avocado contributes healthy mono unsaturated fat and fiber, both keep the muffins nice and moist.  It’s a nice way to give my kids (and myself) a special treat, while not filling us full of empty calories.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Brown Rice Flour

½ Cup Almond Flour

½ Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

½ teaspoon fine Sea Salt

½ teaspoon Baking Soda

½ teaspoon Baking Powder

½ Cup Sugar – Natural Cane Sugar is what I use

½ Cup Plain Non Fat Greek Yogurt

½ Avocado – mashed

2 Extra Large Eggs

2 teaspoons pure Vanilla Extract

½ Cup + a little extra Semi Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray mini muffin tins with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, sift in the Brown Rice Flour, Almond Flour, Cocoa Powder, Salt, Baking Powder and Baking Soda and Sugar.  Whisk it all together. 

In a small bowl mash the Avocado, then add in Yogurt, Eggs and Vanilla.  Mix together with a fork or electric hand mixer until no lumps of Avocado remain and the mixture is smooth.  Add the Avocado mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until blended.  Stir in 1/2 cup of the Chocolate Chips.

Using a mini ice cream scoop or Tablespoon measure, scoop the batter into the sprayed muffin tins.   Sprinkle a few extra mini chocolate chips on top of each muffin if you like.

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 15 minutes.  Unmold and repeat with remaining batter if needed.  If baking in batches, spray the pans again before adding more batter.  Remove from the muffin tins and cool on a wire rack.  Muffins can be stored at room temperature in an air tight container for a few days.  Enjoy!

Makes about 32-34 mini muffins.

Recipe Notes:

A note about sifting – I am usually not one to take extra steps, I’m a little bit lazy and don’t really like creating extra dishes to wash, But in this case it really is worth the extra effort.  Almond flour, cocoa powder and sometimes even natural cane sugar can get a little bit lumpy.  Sifting will remove any chance of lumps in your finished product.  When you get towards the end of your dry ingredients in the sifter where the lumps remain, press them through as much as you can, breaking them up with either your fingers or the back of one of the measuring cups you’ve already used. 

These muffins taste great just as they are, BUT, if you want to go over the top and make them extra special, top with this easy Raspberry Mascarpone topping.  In a medium bowl, add 1 cup defrosted frozen Raspberries, 4 ounces each low fat Cream Cheese/Neufchatel Cheese and Mascarpone Cheese, about 1-3 Tablespoons Sugar (depending upon how tart your raspberries are and how sweet you like things) and a splash of Lemon Juice.  Blend together with an electric hand mixer. Note, there will be a bit of crunch from the raspberry seeds, if that bothers you try straining the seeds out before blending with the other ingredients. I like to top each muffin to order, keeping extra topping in the refrigerator until needed.  This is also a really tasty topping for pancakes and other muffins.