Late fall is the perfect time for hearty, dark chocolate, gluten free muffins. The taste of these muffins actually reminds me of an oreo cookie. Deeply chocolate, with just a touch of sweetness. I think our early snow this year prompted me to make muffins. During warmer weather I'm not a muffin fan. I'd rather have a smoothie... but when it's chilly and you need something to go with your mug of hot tea... this rich chocolately muffin fits the bill!
These muffins are also incredibly healthy. Rice free, corn free, soy free, egg free, xanthan gum free, dairy/casein free, gluten free, with very little refined sugar. If you like to make food for holiday gifts this muffin mix would be perfect! You can place the dry ingredients in a jar and then create a recipe card that includes the wet ingredients & instructions for baking.
The muffins themselves are a tad bit crumbly simply because I do not include xanthan gum or guar gum in this recipe (more for simplicity's sake than anything else) but feel free to add 1/2 teaspoon - 1 teaspoon for a more traditional muffin texture. For less crumbly muffins, allow them to rest on a wire rack to cool for at least 20 minutes and longer if possible.
Gluten Free, Vegan Dark Chocolate Muffins
free of gluten, dairy/casein, soy, corn, eggs, gums, rice, yeast
created by Carrie @ www.gingerlemongirl.com
printer-friendly recipe
Makes 12 regular muffins, or 24 mini-muffins
Dry Ingredients:
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup blanched almond flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon chia seeds
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup applesauce or pumpkin puree
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil -or- canola oil
1/3 cup agave nectar, maple syrup, or honey
1/4 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Add In's
1/3 cup Enjoy Life Allergen Free Chocolate Chips (these are minis - which work great for muffins!)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners. (I HIGHLY recommend using paper liners for this recipe.) In a large bowl whisk together all dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl mix together all wet ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix together until you have a wet batter. Allow the batter to rest for 5 minutes to thicken. (The chia seeds & ground flax seeds will thicken the batter and give it the texture of a "regular" muffin batter.) Stir in the chocolate chips. Fill the paper liners about 3/4 full of muffin batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out with very few crumbs, or until you can gently touch the top of a muffin and it does not leave an impression.
Carrie's Notes:
- As stated above, these muffins have a very tender crumb (which is often the case with vegan muffins). If you want more of a cake like texture, feel free to add 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum or guar gum for a thicker muffin batter.
- Oil: I added more oil to this recipe than I generally use for muffins. This really helps the muffins stay moist and overall it means that there is about 2 teaspoons of oil per muffin (for 12). If you don't want to use 1/2 cup of oil, decrease the amount to 1/4 cup and add an additional 1/4 cup of applesauce or pumpkin puree. The only difference may be that the muffins will not stay quite as moist by day 2 or day 3.
- Chia Seeds & Ground Flax Seeds: These are both magical ingredients in egg free baking! Chia seeds have seriously ridiculous gelling power and help thicken up the muffin batter. Ground flax seeds have a wonderful "gelling" property as well, though it's not as potent as the chia seeds. I do recommend keeping the chia seeds in this recipe, if you don't have them another tablespoon of ground flax seeds should work just fine though.
- Paper Liners: Because these muffins are delicate, I think it's definitely a good idea to use paper liners. If these muffins stick to the pan without a liner, they may be very hard to remove all in one piece.
- Millet flour & Sorghum Flour: If you don't want to use these flours, feel free to exchange them for another whole grain gluten free flour such as brown rice flour, quinoa flour, or even buckwheat flour!
