Double Chocolate Muffins

How can a day go wrong if you start it with a fudgy, delicious and reasonably healthy muffin?  I really don't think it's possible.  These muffins are super good with their rich, chocolatey, brownie-like crumb and a sprinkling of chocolate chips.  They're filling for a small muffin, made with oatmeal as a make-at-home version of the popular VitaTop Muffin.  I used real sugar, but if you swapped that for a sugar substitute, you could really bring down the calorie count and have a VitaTop Muffin copy-cat for pennies by comparison.  And seriously, a decadent muffin is totally a way I want to start my day.

In perusing Pinterest, I spied this recipe from Katie at Dashing Dish and may or may not have drooled a little at the idea of a super chocolatey muffin that I wouldn't feel bad about eating for breakfast.  These are pretty similar to the Banana Oatmeal Muffins I made last week.  I love the idea of using oats to replace the flour, egg whites, applesauce, and Greek yogurt so that I could dump in some mini chocolate chips.  Awesome.  Additionally, I'd never used my blender to make muffins before, but it was a great way to grind the oats and mix the batter, rather than pulling out the food processor and the KitchenAid.  Now I always make muffins without liners, but this is important for this recipe: since there is no flour, the batter stills to liners, so either spray them liberally with cooking spray (all the way up the edges) or use the foil liners.   I just used my regular muffin pan and sprayed it with cooking spray without any issue removing the muffins.  And since this made so many muffins and I only used on 12-cavity muffin pan, I got to test the sprinkling of chips on top of the muffins in two ways--and neither was right.  The first time I baked the muffins for the specified 10 minutes and then sprinkled some chips on top.  Unfortunately, the tops had already set up, so the chips didn't really adhere to the center of the muffin and just kind of rolled to the edges, where they melted to the top and the sides of the pan.  The second time, I put the chips on top before baking at all and they just melted and baked right into the top. I noticed no taste difference or change in texture--I just didn't get the fun mini chip topping.  My suggestion would be to bake for about 7-8 minutes, then toss on the chips and bake the rest of the way.  Or just stir all the chips into the batter and call it a day.  Either way, you'll want to make these and have a wonderful start to many great days.

Double Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups oats
3 eggs whites
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup hot water (not pictured)
1 cup sugar or equivalent substitute
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, divided

In a blender or food processor, add all ingredients except chocolate chips.

Blend until oats are fine and all ingredients are incorporated.

Transfer batter to a medium bowl and stir in 1/4 cup of the mini chocolate chips, reserving the rest for topping.  Alternatively, stir in all the chocolate chips and forgo the topping.

Divide batter among greased muffin cups (Note: The original recipe says a yield of 12 muffins, but I filled my cups about 2/3 full and ended up with 24 muffins.)

Bake at 350 degrees F for 7 minutes.  Remove from oven and evenly distribute mini chips over muffins before return to oven to bake for another 5-7 minutes.  Alternatively, bake for 15 uninterrupted minutes. 

Remove from oven and let cool in pan for about 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to complete cooling.

Muffins can be stored in an airtight container and frozen.  To enjoy, thaw in microwave for 20-30 seconds.

Makes 24 muffins.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

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