Vegan chocolate muffins with a peanut butter heart

Well hello again!

Now I’ve had one great week of absolutely doing nothing which definitely was needed after the matriculation exams/finals. Besides Netflix marathons and a bit of running I’ve been spending time in my most natural environment, the kitchen. Today I had this terrible craving for muffins and after a while of experimenting in the kitchen I came up with these delicious chocolate muffins.

I must say that very very rarely I succeed in making a good recipe on the first time but I guess today was a good day and somehow it happened. I’ve never created a muffin recipe myself before but I guess I’ve done SO many muffins from other recipes that it sort of came naturally.

Muffins do have a very special place in my heart (okay that sounds very disturbing) Ever since I was a little girl I’ve loved baking and muffins were probably the first and then most common thing I baked, sometimes with my little sister. They are just so easy to make and you can do so many different variations that you can’t get bored. Chocolate ones were my favorite, but you could also find blueberry-coconut ones in our home very often. There’s something very comforting in making muffins, I seriously recommend some muffin time if you’re feeling down or don’t know what to do. I mean look at them, they are so small and cute and warm and nice.

So I guess these are just a new, maybe a bit healthier and vegan version of those childhood muffins which I still sometimes do in their original form. But I promise these are just as good as your regular muffins, so sweet and yummy.

Much of the sweetness comes from the banana and dates. You can easily replace banana puree with I think any fruit puree like apple sauce or even sweet potato puree would work well I think. But if you want some extra sweetness just add coconut sugar, regular sugar, agave syrup, honey or stevia.

I think the thing in these is the peanut butter! It’s completely optional but when you find a little peanut butter heart in the middle of this warm chocolate goodness, it’s just heavenly. But I know, I probably had you at peanut butter. But really, it makes life so much better.

Vegan chocolate muffins with a peanut butter heart

about 15 muffins

1 dl of buckwheat flour (or just regular flour will do as well)

1 dl (heaped) of almonds and/or cashews (or walnuts, pecans etc.)

3 tbls of (raw) cocoa powder

1 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of vanilla powder OR a couple drops of vanilla extract OR some seeds from vanilla bean

a pinch of salt

1 dl of soy (or any natural) yoghurt

1 dl of almond milk (or any plant-based milk)

1 big ripe banana (or two small), smashed with a fork or a blender

5 fresh (or otherwise very soft) pitted dates

2 flax eggs, good recipe for example here (or one egg if not vegan)

some peanut butter

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 175C (so about 350 fahrenheit).

Smash the nuts until they are fine in a blender or a food processor. You could also use ready almond flour here if you want to. Then in a bowl mix all other dry ingredients well together.

Take your dates and remove the pits. Then with a fork smash them into this sticky and fine ”syrup”.

Take another bowl and mix all the rest of the ingredients and the date sauce together. Then add all dry ingredients into the wet mixture and stir well, making sure there are no lumps.

I prefer using silicon muffin trays so the dough doesn’t stick into the trays so if you use normal ones make sure to oil them first with for example coconut oil. First, put a little bit of dough to the bottom of a muffin tray with a table spoon and then put about one tsp of peanut butter in the middle. After that take a little more dough to cover the peanut butter and fill the tray about half way through so that there is room for the muffin to rise.

Put them in the oven for about 25 minutes but check them every once in a while by sticking a toothpick in the middle.

Let cool for a while (if you can 😉 ) and enjoy! When they are fresh you can easily freeze them as well so in that way they stay good if you can’t eat them all at once.

Love,

Julia xxx