Cereal Muffins

Hi, all!

This post is a bit different for me. It marks a transition of sorts.

Today is Secret Recipe Club reveal day, which is always exciting. I love finally getting to post what I've spent a month thinking about,and I love going through all of the blogs in my group waiting to see who shared a recipe from my blog.

But today's post marks my last with the Secret Recipe Club.  At least for now.

I'm sure you've noticed that my posting has slowed down significantly. And for that I apologize. This blog has been such a wonderful thing for me for so long.  Through this blog, I have been a part of amazing communities and have met some really wonderful, true friends.

As time goes on, though, things in my life have changed, and what is best for me at this time is to take a little break. Not from cooking and baking - that is something that I'll always do. But for a little while, I am going to do it just for me and my family.

It was with a heavy heart that I handed over the reins of The Daring Kitchen, and now, that I take a break from SRC.

Knowing that this would be my last SRC post, and that I'd only be posting sporadically for a while at this point, I wanted to make sure to choose something special. Which was made easy by the fact that my assigned blog this month was From Grandma Loy's Kitchen. This blog is always amazing, and has such fantastic recipes, collected over a delicious lifetime and shared with love.

There were so many things that I wanted to try, but one caught my eye and I just couldn't get it out of my head. Simple as it sounded, it also sounded absolutley perfect: Cereal Muffins.

I mean, with two kids, all kinds of activities and very busy mornings, what could be better? Two easy breakfasts, all rolled into one!

The recipe is pretty simple. It recommends using bran cereal, Cheerios or corn flakes.  I chose to use multigrain Cheerios.

To start the recipe, pour milk over the cereal and let it sit.

While those soak, I prepared the rest of my ingredients. I did make one change. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of oil. No problem, But. What goes great on cereal, that can also be used as an oil substitute? Bananas! Little man helped me mash.

Soaked cereal, mashed banana, some dry ingredients and one beaten egg.

Yup - ready to go. Now just mix everything together...

 ...and scoop into muffin tins!

And a short 20-25 minutes later...

Yum.

Now... while these were baking, I had a fun idea. Different cereal. Fun cereal. Leftover Halloween cereal!

Yes, I know that Frankenberry is completely against the way I usually food shop... food coloring, fake everything... but after Halloween when the supermaret puts in on sale for 67 cents a box... well, makes it hard to resist. And, so you know, we don't eat it for breakfast. After school snack only. Or... in muffins.

For theses, I used oil instead of banana, and the results were... colorful. And fun.

And absolutely delicious. I will say that both little man and I preferred the Cheerios version, but little miss absolutely loves the Frankenberry variety. Which is just fun.

Grandma Loy, thank you so much for this super fun recipe. I know I'll be making these with just about every cereal that comes into my house from now on.

And to the whole SRC crew - thank you. I can't even begin to tell you what it's meant to me to be a part of this group. You are all amazing bakers, cooks, photographers, bloggers and, most importantly, pepple. And I'm honored that I got to spend so much time being a part of this wonderful group.

An InLinkz Link-up

Cereal Muffins
(only slightly modified from Grandma Loy's Kitchen)

1 1/4 cups milk (I used coconut milk)
1 1/2 cups whole-bran cereal, or 2 cups Cheerios, or 3 cups corn flakes (or any cereal you choose! Choose the measurement listed for the cereal most similar in shape or consistency to the cereal you choose.)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar (if you are using a sugary cereal, you can reduce this)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil (can substitute mashed banana if the flavor goes with the cereal you choose!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a 12-well muffin tim with non-stick cooking spray.
Combine milk and cereal in a large bowl. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
Add beaten egg and vegetable oil (or banana) to the milk and cereal and mix well.
Add dry ingredients.  Mix only until dry ingredients are moistened (batter will be lumpy).
Fill prepared muffin tin cups almost full.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Enjoy!

Note: Grandma Loy provided the following yummy ideas for variations. Simply add any of these to batter before adding dry ingredients:
Blueberry - Add 1 cup fresh or unthawed frozen blueberries or 1 cup well-drained canned blueberries.
Apple - Peel and finely dice 1 medium apple (3/4-1 cup).  Toss with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.
Pineapple - Add 3/4 cup well-drained crushed pineapple.
Bacon - Add 4 slices crisp cooked bacon, crumbled.
Cranberry - Add 1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce.

Tweet

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins

Today is a big day in our house.

Today, little man has his orientation/meet the teacher day for preschool.

This might not seem like a big deal, but it is to me. 

For the last three and a half years, he's been my baby. But now he is starting school. Like a big kid. Once he starts, there's no stopping it. And that's scary. 

Yes, I went through this with little miss, too.

And now she's in third grade.  See? There is no stopping this.

BUT.

Back to school means one fun thing for a mommy-food-blogger.

It means after-school snacks!

(You were wondering how I was going to link this in, weren't you??)

My Secret Recipe Club assignment this month was Secrets From The Cookie Princess. I knew I'd love the blog just from the title. Cookies? Sign me up! And let me tell you, there are cookies galore - if you can dream it, Colleen can cookie it.  But there's also a great variety of recipes on the blog, too, from main dishes to appetizers and everything before, during and after.  Seriously, it's amazing.

When I started perusing the blog, I was actually looking for dinner ideas.  I was seriously tempted by her Butternut Squash and Black Bean Chili. And by the Acorn Squash Soup. And I totally plan on making both of those this fall, when those squashes are more readily available. 

But then I saw her recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins and knew I just had to try them. 

The muffins come together very easily. As you can see from the photos, little man helped me out, too. A lot.

I guess that is the silver lining of his getting older, right?

And the results?

Yummy.

Super yummy.

And, seriously, they're really not that bad for you. So much so that I had no guilt at all giving them as an after school snack. Or as a treat breakfast the next morning. Oh yes, I did. 

Colleen, thank you so much for your awesome blog full of delicious inspiration. I can't wait to try your S'mores Banana Bread, all of your snickerdoodle variatioins, and many, many of your cookies!! You are amazing!

An InLinkz Link-up

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins
(slightly adapted from Secrets From The Cookie Princess)

1 cup rolled oats (old fashioned)
1 cup milk, divided (I used unsweetened coconut milk beverage)
1 egg
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled (I used coconut oil, just above room temperature)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I used regular whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 12-well muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, combine oats and 1/2 cup milk.  Let soak for 5-10 minutes.
While the oats are soaking, whisk together the egg and brown sugar in a large bowl until smooth and caramel colored.  Gradually add the butter (coconut oil), constantly whisking to temper (I didn't have to temper, but I had to get teh consistency nice and smooth), then whisk in vanilla.
Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and stir to combine.  Add in oat mixture and stir in the rest of the milk, then fold in chocolate chips.
Divide batter evenly into the prepared muffin pan.
Bake at for 18 minutes or until tops are golden and a tester inserted in center comes out clean. I had to bake for three extra minutes, but I think that's just my oven.
Let cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely or serve warm.
Enjoy!

Tweet

Banana Bread Milkshake (smoothie) - an SRC bonus

I know, I know, I just posted my Secret Recipe Club post last week.  But when I learned that a member of this week's reveal group had a family emergency and needed help with her assignment, I couldn't resist volunteering.

And I was sosososo lucky that I did, too! The blog that needed help was none other than Mangia, written by the awesome Chelsy.  Sound familiar? It should! Because I actually baked from her blog before, when I made this pumpkin cake.

Now... if you look back to that post, you'll see that I wanted to make... umm... everything on her blog. And even attempted multiple recipes at the time.

So I had the same problem this time. 

I almost tried to make coconut butter again, but, once again, I didn't have unsweetened coconut.

But then I saw this. A recipe for a milkshake made out of a banana muffin. It was so intriguing that I knew I had to try it.

Now, Chelsy made her milkshake out of these muffins. They're grain free, vegan and super interesting. I was really tempted to try that recipe. But I didn't have all of the ingredients (like... umm.. .the coconut butter...). I was also a bit worried about whether little man could eat them, because coconut flour works very differently from traditional (wheat) flour and requires more eggs when used in baked goods. Little man is allergic to eggs. And while he can eat them in the correct proportion when baked into a recipe, this version used way more eggs in proportion to the rest of the ingredients, so I didn't think they'd work for him.  So I made these instead. 

With the intention of making them into milkshakes.

Which completely amused the kids.

Yup - just pop a muffin right into the blender.

Then add the rest of the ingredients. I kept this dairy free (coconut milk) and nut free (Sunbutter instead of the almond butter called for in the recipe) so that little man could enjoy.

And then just blend!

Seriously - that easy. And seriously - I'd never have thought to make a milkshake (okay, more like smoothie - I didn't freeze the banana first...) out of a muffin.

But trust me. I will definitely do it again some day.

Because...

YUM! These were quick, easy, fun and absolutely delicious. And you can customize it however you want - change the muffin, change the sweetener, use any kind of nut or seed butter... yeah - what an awesome idea. 

Chelsy, I am so glad to have had another opportunity to play with your blog. And I promise to make the coconut butter one day. For real :)

Banana Bread Milkshake (Smoothie)

(from Mangia)

1 banana muffin (I used my crumb topped banana muffins)

½ frozen banana (for a milkshake consistency. A non-frozen banana works, but it's more of a smoothie)

1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (from a carton, not a can)

1 tablespoon pure honey

1 tablespoon all-natural almond butter (I used sunbutter to make it nut-free)

1/2 banana muffin, for topping

Place the muffin, banana, coconut milk, honey and nut/seed butter (whichever you are using) into a blender and blend on high until creamy.

Pour the milkshake into a small bowl or glass.

Crumble the last 1/2 banana muffin over the top of the milkshake and serve.

Enjoy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tweet

Banana Crumb Muffins

The weather has been absolutely crazy this year.  I mean, aside from the fact that we had the coldest weather that I've ever seen (I'm in the Northeast US and we had temperatures and storms comparable to those seen in the Midwest - we are NOT used to that here!). As you can imagine, we were very excited for Spring to come.

But this Spring has  been so bizarre. We've had crazy drenching storms, record high temperatures, record low temperatures, and huge swings in between. Including one 80 degree day that ended up in a hailstorm. Seriously bizarre.

So this week has been super rainy. So we've been inside a lot more than I'd like to be in June.  As a result, I've been in the mood to bake. A lot. 

Today I was in the mood for muffins, and I had a few bananas in perfect baking condition in the fruit bowl.  Perfect!

Little man was super helpful, too.  First he helped me measure dry ingredients.

Then he helped me mash the bananas.

Then he helped me mix up the wet ingredients.

While he was doing all of that, I mixed up a crumb topping for the muffins. I mean, I had to do something while he was doing all the work, right??

I also scooped the muffins into the muffin tin. I probably should have let him do it. I will next time.

And then they baked! And the house smelled so good that I forgot to be upset about not being outside.

And let me tell you - they were delicious. Super moist, super flavorful, super delicious. They made a great after school snack for little miss. And her friend. And I even sent some home with her friend so he could share with his mom.

Now I need the sun to come back out. At least for a few days to give me time to finish up all the baked goods that have been keeping me busy!

Banana Crumb Muffins

(from Deliciously Sprinkled)

For the Muffins:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 bananas, mashed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup canola oil

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans (I omitted these)

For the Brown Sugar Crumb:

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter, room temperature

1/4 cup pecans for topping, optional (I actually used 1/4 cup rolled oats instead and it was great!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin liners. I actually got 12 muffins out of this recipe, so be prepared for that!

In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. 

In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugars,vanilla, egg and canola oil. 

Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture, mixing just until moistened. 

Fold in pecans (if using).

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. 

Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse crumble. 

Sprinkle topping over muffins.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. 

Sprinkle remaining pecans on the top of each muffin, if you chose to use them.

Store muffins at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Enjoy!

Tweet

Pumpkin Pie Muffins

A week and a half ago, a friend of mine had a baby. A super adorable, totally sweet, teeny, tiny, just-want-to-snuggle-her-all-day-long little girl. And, as luck would have it, she and her family let us come visit them a few days after they returned home from the hospital! Yay!

Now, I never like to go anywhere empty handed. Especially not when going to see parents of a newborn baby!. Really especially when they already have two older kids to chase around while operating on the schedule of  an up-every-few-hours newborn.

So, in addition to a super cute little sleeper for the baby, I also brought some muffins. I figured they could be breakfast or dessert or snack... something easy to grab, something they can eat with one hand if needed...

The muffins I chose were based on this pumpkin pie bread recipe. I simply halved the recipe, used a muffin tin instead of loaf pans and reduced the bake time.

And they came out really, really well.

But then little miss got sad.  Because, of the batch of 15 muffins, we brought a dozen to our friends. Leaving only three for home. One for her, one for little man, and one for mama.  And she wanted more than one.

So what's a mama to do?

Well, as "luck" would have it, we've had a bit of extra time on our hands the last few days thanks to the many, many inches of snow that have fallen. And frozen.  So today, we made more muffins!

The muffins call for pumpkin pie spice. but I generally don't keep pre-mixed spice mixes on hand, especially ones for which I need each of the componant ingredients on a regular basis. So I added each of my spices individually.

Which also makes for a cooler picture, don't you think? But do what works for you.

Then my mini-assistant whisked all of that together. He loves helping!

Then, in my mixer, I beat the wet ingredients, then added in the expertly-whisked flour mixture.

Once the batter was in the pan, I added my own little touch. I had a little bit of leftover brown sugar-chai masala mixture left over from my chai spiced cinnamon rolls, so I sprinkled some on top.

Yum.

And then they bake!

And then you receive an e-mail from your daughter's school regarding make-up school days for all the snow days they've had to call due to the crazy winter storms and totally miss the timer going off. Oops.

I was only a minute or two late. I promise.

But... I may just purposely make that mistake again.  The extra minute or two gave these a nice little crunch on the outside (not just the top, which I was expecting from the sugar topping), but the inside remained deliciously moist.

Yum.


Pumpkin Pie Muffins
(based on Pumpkin Pie Bread from allrecipes.com)

1 1/2 cup plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar (I used 1 cup white, 1/2 cup brown)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree (1/2 of a 15 oz. can)
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 12-well muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together sugar, oil, eggs, and pumpkin puree. Stir in flour mixture alternately with water. Full muffin wells about 3/4 full. This is actually enough batter for 15-16 muffins, so you can bake the extra in an additional muffin pan or in a mini-loaf pan.
I sprinkled mine with spiced-brown sugar, but this is optional. You can use streussel topping if you'd like, too - that'd be delicious!
Bake muffins in the preheated oven for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Tweet

October Sourdough Surprises - Quick Breads

This month's Sourdough Surprises challenge was the perfect choice for how busy things have been around here - quick breads! You know, muffins or other breads that can be started, baked and completely finished in darn near no time flat.

We love muffins in our house, and I've made plenty of varieties over the years. And have made quite a few sourdough quick breads, too, from sourdough beer bread to a sourdough chocolate banana loaf.  So despite sourdough's reputation for requiring lots of time, there is so much that you can do with it quickly, too!

I couldn't decide what to make for this challenge, since there are so many options to choose from, but decided, on a whim one afternoon, to whip up some muffins as an after school snack for little miss.

I started with my go-to site for quick sourdough recipes, then took inspiration from my favorite fall flavor - pumpkin!

With a hint of cinnamon and a swirl of pumpkin-y goodness, I quickly threw together sourdough pumpkin swirl muffins!

It's amazing how easy these are to make. So easy, in fact, that I completely forgot to take in-process photos. Oops!

But the most important part is that the kids loved them, and so did us parents. And they made a perfect after-school snack, and even a pretty good breakfast the next morning!

So what kind of quick bread did you make this month? Link up and show us!




Sourdough Pumpkin Swirl Muffins
(based on Smart Sourdough Mama)

1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 well beaten egg
1 cup sourdough starter (100% hydration)
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup pumpkin puree

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a 12-well muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a bowl and mix to combine. Make a well in the center. Combine egg, starter and oil. Add all at once to the dry ingredients. Stir quickly just till dry ingredients are moistened. If your starter is thicker you may need to add a little milk.  Once the ingredients are just combined, spoon in the pumpkin puree and stir just a few times, only to swirl the pumpkin evenly through the batter. Make sure not to fully incorporate the pumpkin or you will lose the swirl.
Fill greased muffin pans 3/4 full.
Bake at 400 F about 17-20 minutes. Makes 9-12 depending on the size of your muffin tins (I got 11).
Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Tweet

Rhubarb Muffins

Hooray for summer!

Little miss is officially on summer vacation and we are having fun just seeing where each day takes us.

Last weekend, the day happened to take us to our local orchard where we spent a really fun morning picking strawberries and rhubarb.  We wound up with quite a haul, finishing the day with 11 1/2 pounds of strawberries and 4 1/2 pounds of rhubarb.

Now, strawberries are pretty easy - we can add strawberries to almost anything and be good to go.

Rhubarb? I was a bit less familiar with. I mean, I've picked it before, but the only thing I've ever made with it is a strawberry rhubarb pie.

And, don't get me wrong... I made one of those.

But I wanted to find some new and fun ways to use rhubarb.  And you may (or may not...) be shocked at all of the delicious options! I decided to start relatively simply and I chose to make rhubarb muffins.

These muffins were pretty easy to put together, but did take a few bowls.

While I got the ingredients set up, little miss prepared the muffin pan.

The first bowl is for the topping - a simple combination of brown sugar, cinnamon and some melted butter.

The next bowl is for the dry ingredients, expertly whisked together by little man.

Then there's another bowl for wet ingredients, which are then stirred into those dry ingredients, and then comes the star ingredient - the rhubarb!

Into the prepared muffin tin and topped with some of the brown sugar topping...

...and soon were ready to roll!

These muffins were absolutely delicious.  Sweet crunchy topping, very nice texture, very good flavor from the rhubarb - and a veggie serving, to boot! (just agree with me...)

Little man ate two right away. I can't say I blame him.

What a great foray into the world of rhubarb!


Rhubarb Muffins
(only slightly adapted form Movita Beaucoup)

For the topping:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

For the muffins:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil (or other neutral flavored vegetable oil)
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature (I used coconut milk beverage instead)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups diced rhubarb

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease or line muffin tin(s) (recipe said that this would make 18 muffins, I was able to make 24).
Make the topping by combining the brown sugar, melted butter and cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside.
In large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
In separate bowl, blend the brown sugar with canola oil – use a whisk to break up the brown sugar if necessary. Whisk in the egg, then the buttermilk and vanilla. Stir the wet ingredients into dry ingredients, mixing only until just combined – avoid over-mixing. Gently fold in the rhubarb. Spoon the batter into muffin wells, filling about three-quarters full. Sprinkle the topping over the batter.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden and a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool in pans for 5-10 minutes before removing to let cool completely on wire racks.
Enjoy!

Tweet

Healthier Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Have you checked out Pinterest yet? It's a great site for bookmarking anything and everything that you find online. And, more than that, you can browse through the bookmarks (pins) of others - either the people you follow or everyone on Pinterest, by category or as a whole.  

As you can imagine, the majority of the links that I pin are recipes that I want to try. And since I can browse the ideas of so many people, I often come across ideas that I wouldn't have thought of on my own.

Which is how I came across a recipe for "clean eating," healthy chocolate-chocolate chip muffins. They had me at "healthy chocolate," so I decided to make them right away. 

The recipe is flour-free, and includes apple sauce and greek yogurt (I used coconut milk greek yogurt to make them dairy free for little man), which, I'd imagine, contribute to their "clean" status. The recipe also calls for a sugar substitute, but I used regular sugar.

Little man had a lot of fun helping me measure, scoop and stir. And he did a really good job!

Then the mixture is blended (I used an immersion blender) until smooth, divided into a muffin tin and baked.

As the muffins were baking, I started washing the dishes. As I finished up and was wiping down the counters, after the muffins had been in for about five minutes, I realized that I'd made a mistake. I'd forgotten an ingredient. The recipe calls for a cup of hot water. Which, as I wiped the counters, I realized was still sitting in the microwave. But the batter was already divided into 24, among two muffin tins, and had been baking for five minutes. Shoot.

I decided to keep going and just see what happened.

Now, aside from the forgotten water, there was one interesting thing about this recipe... it called for the muffins to bake most of the way, then to sprinkle additional chocolate chips on top, then to finish baking them I wasn't sure how that would work, but tried it anyway.

And then they came out of the oven and cooled for a bit.

Okay, those are pretty flat muffins. And those chocolate chips did not want to stay on them.

But, believe it or not, they were pretty good!

And little man really liked the melty chips on top.

But I wasn't done.

I wanted to try them the "right" way - using all of the ingredients. I was curious as to how they would be different, and if they would be better!

Once again, little man was happy to help me measure and mix.

(and yes, we kept the computer close this time, and checked, double checked and then rechecked the listing many, many times!)

I also decided to include all of the chocolate chips in the batter, rather than sprinkling some on top.

So what were the results?

These muffins looked so much better! They did need a couple extra minutes to bake, due to the extra moisture, but the results were definitely better. Not that they were bad the first time, but the texture was so much smoother this time.

One final note. When I first made this recipe, I followed the link provided on Pinterest. When I went to make them the second time, the Pinterest link was no longer valid. Same link, but it told me that the specific url was no longer valid. Weird. So I turned to Google, where I found what looked like the same recipe. There were a couple of minor differences - I thought that the original recipe called for a whole cup of sugar (substitute), but the second only called for 1/2. They didn't taste any less sweet the second time, so I may just have remembered wrong. The other difference is that the original recipe said to prepare and divide the batter between two 12-cup muffin tins, and the second said to use just one. In reality, the second time I made it, there was more batter than could fit in one 12-cup muffin tin - it made 17 muffins.  Either way, chocolate muffins I can feel good about and that the kids enjoy are winners in my book!


Healthier Chocolate Chunk Muffins

(from Dashing Dish)

1 3/4 cup oats (I used old fashioned)
3 egg whites
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup greek yogurt (or regular plain low fat yogurt) (I used greek-style coconut milk yogurt)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar (or 2 tsp. vinegar)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup sugar (or sugar substitute that measures in the same way)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with foil cupcake liners or spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
In a blender, food processor, or in a bowl with an immersion blender, mix all of the ingredients together, except for the chocolate chips. Blend until oats are ground and mixture is smooth.
Gently stir in the chocolate chips. Scoop the mixture into prepared muffin pan.
Place muffins tin in the preheated oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Alternatively, when you mix in the chocolate chips, only mix in half of them. After the muffins have baked for 10 minutes, remove muffins from the oven (but don’t shut oven off), and distribute the other half of the chocolate chips on top of each muffin, then return the muffins to the oven for the final 2-5 minutes. When I tried it this way, most of the chocoalte chips fell off from the tops, but if you can get it to work, it looks super cool.
Allow the muffins to cool before removing them from the pan.
Enjoy!

Tweet