I sometimes feel January is a month where people punish themselves and deprive themselves. Yes it is a time to cut back from the excesses of Christmas but why suffer! A life without chocolate is very sad! This weekend, my other half requested chocolate muffins and so my challenge was to make healthy ones so I could indulge too! Pinterest is full of american recipes that use apple sauce instead of butter so using this premise, I attempted these. I also used porridge oats instead of flour. It is a bit experimental but trust me, they taste great! You can make 12 full size muffins or 36 mini muffins, depending on what you feel like!
Skinny Chocolate Muffins:
If serving 12 – 3pp per muffin
If serving 36 – 1pp per muffin
- 140g Porridge oats
- 80g Cocoa powder
- 110g unsweetened stewed apple*
- 110g 0% fat greek yoghurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 egg whites
- 1 1/2 tsp Bicarb of soda
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 240ml water
- 1 cup of sweetener – Easier in cups with this one!
- 80g chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celsius.
- This is just about the most difficult part of this recipe. If you have a food processor, blitz the oats until they have a powdery texture. If not, dont worry the muffins will just be more coarse.
- Add all the other ingredients to a bowl with the oats and stir together, except half of the chocolate chips.
- Stir everything well together, making sure everything is well blended.
- Spoon into muffin cases. These will not rise hugely so you can fill large muffin cases quite full. Mini muffins tend to overflow a little so I fill them less.
- Bake large muffins for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven, sprinkle a few chocolate chips on each and then bake for a further 3 minutes, checking the cakes with a skewer.
- For mini muffins, I bake for 8 mins, top with the chips and the bake for a further 2-3 minutes, depending on the size of your cases! These really do taste a little naughty, try them!
- * To make apple sauce, peel and chop up bramley/cooking apples, stick in a saucepan with a tablespoon of water and cook on low until all the apple is mushy! Thats pretty it! It will need some sweetness and I use Splenda but you can use brown sugar!