Name: Chocolate Muffins Recipe
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 12
Cuisine: International
Ingredients: 330 g all-purpose flour, organic unbleached preferred; 1/4 tsp salt, Himalayan pink salt, or sea salt; 1 tsp baking soda; 85 g cacao powder, organic raw cold-pressed preferred; 1/3 cup dark chocolate chunks, optional, for garnishing; 5 egg yolks; 120 g avocado oil; 2 tsp vanilla extract; 4 tsp apple cider vinegar; 280 g whole milk, organic preferred; 5 egg whites; 3 tsp white vinegar; 300 g cane sugar, organic unrefined preferred

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Dark Chocolate Muffins featuring cacao powder, organic all-purpose flour, homemade meringue, and avocado oil is moist, yummy, and healthy.

What makes these Dark Chocolate Muffins Yummy and Healthy?

The first thing first is the superfood cacao powder

If you are not familiar with the difference between cocoa powder vs. cacao powder, here are quick takeaways.

Both cocoa powder and cacao powder are coming from cacao beans. Unlike cocoa powder, which usually uses roasted cacao beans and usually involves high temperature during the process, cacao powder is cold-pressed cacao beans. As a result, cacao powder has preserved all the goodies cacao beans have to offer.

The impressive health benefits of cacao powder include the fact that they are super rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. People believe they can help lower blood pressure too, making it a great DASH food. DASH stands for a dietary approach to stop hypertension.

Read here for more information about cocoa powder vs. cacao powder and the health benefits of cacao powder.

Recipe Ingredients for Chocolate Muffins

Secondly, this recipe for chocolate muffins incorporates homemade meringue

Meringue is essentially beaten egg white together with cane sugar till it expands the volumes multiple times and peaks. Adding a few drops of white vinegar will help the process and enhances the taste too.

Meringue makes these muffins super moist and healthy. It is healthy because meringue makes it possible for you to use significantly less oil.

Thirdly, avocado oil is such a perfect superfood oil for chocolate muffins

Avocado oil has a very high smoking point and is almost tasteless and colorless. This makes it perfect for cooking, especially baking and frying. No doubt I am a big fan of avocado oil.

Muffin vs. Cupcake

People often ask: what are the differences between muffins and cupcakes? I have been asking this question myself for quite some time. Well, here are my takeways.

In a nutshell, you can say muffins are poor man’s cupcakes. They have a rustic look and taste. However, just like wholegrain food used to be a poor man’s diet but is now a trend, muffins are increasingly gaining popularity too.

Let’s dive into the detailed comparison between muffin vs. cupcake:

Firstly, the texture is different thanks to slightly different ingredients

Think about a cupcake is essentially a cake in a cup. Therefore they are supposed to taste like a cake, which should be smooth and soft. This means cupcake often uses cake flour, and butter is mostly used for making cupcakes.

By the way, you can easily turn organic all-purpose flour into cake flour at home simply by steaming them for 10 minutes for Homemade Cake Flour.

Muffins, on the other hand, simply use all-purpose flour and may very well just use oil while skipping butter altogether. For example, This yummy dark chocolate muffins recipe uses only avocado oil.

Secondly, the appearance between muffins and cupcakes is different

Cupcakes have a fine smooth and moist look topped with frosting. Muffins generally have a rustic dry look without frosting.

Chocolate Muffins Recipe

Yield: 12 muffins

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Dark Chocolate Muffins featuring cacao powder, organic all-purpose flour, homemade meringue, and avocado oil is moist, yummy, and healthy.

Ingredients

For Dry Ingredients:

330 g all-purpose flour, organic unbleached preferred
1/4 tsp salt, Himalayan pink salt, or sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
85 g cacao powder, organic raw cold-pressed preferred
1/3 cup dark chocolate chunks, optional, for garnishing

For Wet Ingredients:

5 egg yolks
120 g avocado oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tsp apple cider vinegar
280 g whole milk, organic preferred

For Homemade Meringue:

5 egg whites
3 tsp white vinegar
300 g cane sugar, organic unrefined preferred

Instructions

Gather and Prepare Ingredients:

Ingredients for dark chocolate muffins

Measure and gather dry ingredients under "For Dry Ingredients" in a bowl.
Crack 5 eggs, one at a time over the stand mixer bowl. Use an egg separator to separate the egg white. Place the egg whites into the Stand Mixer and egg yolks into another large mixing bowl.
Add 3 tsp white vinegar into the stand mixer.
Add other ingredients under "For Wet Ingredients" into the large mixing bowl.
Measure out the cane sugar in a bowl.

Prepare Homemade Meringue:

Turn the Stand Mixer to medium-high, say 6 out of the 10 levels, and set a timer for 6 minutes.
After about 2 minutes, gradually add cane sugar into the mixer using a circular motion. Make sure all sugar is in by the end of 4 minutes. Stop the mixer once or twice during the process, scrape sugar off the mixer wall and mix together with egg whites in the mixer if needed.
When the egg whites have formed a peak and stayed in shape in that way, you know the egg whites are ready. Turn off the mixer. This usually takes about 6 minutes. The 6 minutes timer serves as a reminder.

Preapre Muffin Batter:

Use an electric hand mixer to blend everything in the large mixing bowl until smooth.
Sift the dry ingredients in using a flour sifter.
Use a silicone spatula to gradually fold the dry ingredients into the liquid base, until everything is well-blended. Use a fold motion instead of a stirring motion.
Add about half of the meringue into the batter, and continue to use a fold motion to blend.
Add the rest of the meringue into the batter, and continue to use a fold motion to blend until smooth.

Bake Chocolate Muffins:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Line the muffin pans with unbleached muffin liners. Slowly pour the muffin batter into 12 cups. Do not fill all the way to the top, leave some room for the muffin to rise. Garnish with dark chocolate chunks.
Bake for 40 minutes on the middle rack. Turn off the heat and wait for the baking pans to cool a little bit then remove them from the baking cups and let them cool on the wire rack.
Enjoy a super yummy and healthy Dark Chocolate Muffin!