How can something with the words triple chocolate chunk in the title be good for you? It seems a little too good to be true, doesn't it? Well, do not despair, because these muffins are extremely delicious and satisfying, yet filled with the wholesome goodness of oats and the protein power of Greek yogurt. Yes, there is the addition of sugar substitute and chocolate chips to this, but anything in moderation is good.
Once again, this is one of those recipes found on Pinterest. A cute little 16 year old girl hosts a blog here. The link is no longer available via Pinterest because some users reported it as spam. I'm not sure what the deal with that is, because it seems like a legit site. Who knows? I'm just happy to come across this wonderful recipe, which my 7 year old devoured in 15 seconds flat!
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| You can see that my muffins didn't rise too much. It is important to fill up the cups all the way, if you want tall, rounded muffins. |
A few tips:
The recipe suggests to use foil cupcake/muffin liners. My foil liners were lined with paper, so I just used paper liners. All of my muffins stuck to the paper, and I wasn't able to remove them easily. (No worries, as neither my son or I have any trouble gobbling up the tiny leftover bits directly from the liners!) To avoid this, next time I think I will just spray my liners with a little cooking spray, or use silicone baking cups.
So every recipe for muffins/cupcakes that I have ever seen always recommends to fill the cups 3/4ths of the way up. I did this, and had so much batter left over. I was able to fill a little six inch silicone mold (which I sprayed, by the way and had no issues getting the mini cake out) and had a nice little cake along with my 12 muffins. I would recommend filling the muffin cups all the way for nice, tall, rounded muffin tops.
Finally, if you are not on any sugar restricted diet, I would recommend using 1/2 sugar and 1/2 splenda (or even all sugar - which means these will not be healthier anymore). Although still delicious, there is a slight after taste of the splenda, which I am not accustomed to yet.
Here's the recipe, with some of my changes and tips!
Triple Chocolate Chunk Muffin Knock-Offs of Whole Food’s 6 Dollar per 4 Chocolate Chunk VitaTop Muffins (via healthyisalwaysbetter.tumblr.com)
Ingredients:
1 3/4 c oats
3 egg whites
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (or regular plain low fat yogurt)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar (or 1-1/2 Tbsp. vinegar) (I used the vinegar)
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup hot water
1 cup sugar substitute (like Splenda granular) OR 1/4 cup + 2 tbs stevia OR Regular sugar*
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or use white chocolate or peanut butter chips!)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 (12-cup) mini muffin pans (or one large 12 cup muffin pan) with foil cupcake liners (spray liners with oil spray or use silicone cups also sprayed with oil spray), or spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
In a blender, (or food processor), mix all of the ingredients together, except for the chocolate chips. Blend until oats are ground and mixture is smooth.
Place mixture in a bowl and gently stir in 1/2 of the chocolate chips (set the rest aside). Scoop mixture into prepared muffin pans, filling all the way to the top of liner.
Place muffins tins in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove muffins from the oven (but don’t shut oven off), and distribute the other half of the chocolate chips on top of each muffin.
Place the muffins back into the oven and bake for an additional 2-5 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. *Note, you could skip this step by putting all of the chips in the batter, and baking the muffins for 12-15 min straight, but this method gives the muffins the traditional ‘VitaTop Muffin’ look with the chocolate chips on top!
Cool muffins before removing from pan. ENJOY!!!
Servings: 12 Big Muffins or 24 Smaller Muffins
Calories: 116 Calories Per large Muffin or 58 Calories Per mini Muffin *The calorie count will change if you use regular sugar.
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