As it’s Friday today, my dearest readers, it’s time for a little bit of indulgence and I happen to have a recipe that’s perfect for the job! I made a tray of double (or actually triple) chocolate chilli muffins that are both vegan and gluten-free, although you can always use wheat flour if gluten doesn’t bother you in the slightest!
These deep purple beauties owe their moist crumb to a magic ingredient that perfectly matches the earthiness of dark chocolate – yes, you guessed it, it’s beetroot! 😉 If you are not a beetroot fan, its taste doesn’t come through in these muffins, I promise, but it does keep these muffins nice and moist, effortlessly eliminating any need for eggs. I adorned my muffins with coarsely chopped dark chocolate but if you want to make them a bit less ‘whoa’ (i.e. sinful), you are welcome to skip that last ingredient altogether. Anyway, hope you’ll try them and be sure not to keep them in the oven a minute longer than they need as you want to keep them deliciously moist.
120 g / 1 cup buckwheat flour 30 g / 3 level tbsp rice flour 30 g / ¼ cup cornflour / cornstarch 1 tsp baking soda ½ tsp baking powder 100 g / 1 cup cacao powder 1-1¼ tsp hot chilli powder 100 g / 3.5 oz vegan dark chocolate or chocolate chips
If you don’t care about making these muffins gluten-free, skip buckwheat and rice flours, cornflour / cornstarch and chia / flax egg and use 180 g regular white wheat flour instead. Be super careful not to overmix the batter as the muffins will come out tough. This recipe is adapted from my earlier recipe for chocolate cupcakes.
