Mocha Chip Muffins

Last week, I was browsing through a food magazine and saw a recipe for coffee-flavored muffins.  Although I’m not a big fan of coffee, I love coffee-flavored food (especially if chocolate chips are thrown into the mix!).  I used to be hesitant to even tweak recipes for baked goods, and I never would have thought I could come up with a recipe of my own.  I think I was convinced that there was some sort of baking magic that went on in the oven and that any deviation from the recipe would have very bad results.  Now that I’ve been cooking and baking for several years, I’m much more confident in the kitchen.  So I sat down and came up with my own recipe.  I was thrilled with how they turned out, especially given that this was really my first attempt at creating a baking recipe on my own.  I used an egg, since my parents have been providing us with amazing eggs from their backyard chickens lately.  But you could just as easily make a flax egg, so I included that option in the recipe.  I used coffee extract because I like coffee-flavored things.  If you prefer another flavor, you could probably substitute something else instead of the coffee extract.

These are relatively dense muffins.  I’ve found that most of the stuff I bake using almond flour and coconut flour is usually a bit more dense than stuff made with wheat flour.  But that’s just fine, because that’s how I like my muffins.  If you prefer light fluffy muffins though, these might not be your favorites.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a muffin pan (this recipe makes 12 muffins) or line with muffin papers.

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 cup almonds, ground in food processor
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup oats ground in the food processor (use gluten-free oats if you’re sensitive to gluten)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp powdered stevia (I just buy the loose ground herb from the bulk section)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1.5 Tbsp ground flax seed
• pinch of salt

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond milk (or whatever milk you like)
• 1 egg or a flax egg (I make flax eggs without heating them – works just as well as far as I’m concerned)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (I made my own in the food processor)
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp coffee extract

Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another.  Then mix them together and fold in:

• 1/3 cup miniature dark chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

The batter will be relatively thick and on the dry-ish side.  Spoon into 12 muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Enjoy!  These freeze quite well too.