*Healthy* Chocolate Muffins

Yesterday I said I was going to make these:

I first found this recipe here, but then noticed that the original recipe was from the site above. Here's what I thought the muffins would look like (from this second site where I first found them):

It's interesting how different the muffins look...mine look more like the originals, except that I didn't smother them with chocolate chips! Mostly, because I didn't have enough!

Here are how mine turned out...















So I ended up changing the recipe a little, mostly because of laziness or lack of ingredients. Here is my recipe (you can check out the original one if you'd like to make these healthier. The only thing to note is that the vinegar amount is different between the two recipes. I would assume you should use the original's amount. I used cream of tartar.) Oh and I decided to make these because apparently they were Vitatop muffin knock-off's. Not that I've had a vitatop muffin before, but apparently they are pretty good for you and cost $6 for 4! So here is my adapted recipe:

1 3/4 c rolled oats, measure and then grind them up in food processor, blender, magic bullet...
2 small/medium eggs
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (I used one of those little applesauce cups, and then filled the rest of the 1/2 cup measure with oil, as that's what the applesauce is replacing!)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup yogurt (it calls for greek yogurt...I just had activia, so I used vanilla)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar (or 2 tsp vinegar)
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup hot water
1 cup sugar (it actually calls for a substitute. I had Splenda but forgot I had it! So I just used sugar)
1/2 cup semi-sweet, white, or peanut butter chips (I had like 10 semi-sweet chips left, so I used those and then milk chocolate chips for the rest, and I used the whole 1/2 cup in the muffins and sprinkled extra on top)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with foil cupcake liners, or spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside. (I was only able to fill 18, so keep that in mind.)
In a blender, (or food processor), mix all of the ingredients together, except for the chocolate chips. Blend until mixture is smooth. I actually just used a handmixer. You really can just dump everything in and blend away!
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. The mixture will probably be thin, but don't worry!
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 rest 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 in my case almost 10 minutes), or until a toothpick comes out clean. *Note, you could put all of the chips in the batter, and bake 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 18-24 Smaller Muffins


I really enjoyed these muffins. They are quite moist (especially the next day), and it's a nice change to make them with the ground oat flour instead of wheat flour. I probably could have ground my oats even finer so that they completely resembled flour, but I enjoyed the texture. It was also nice to be able to just use one bowl to make these. I was going to do it all in my food processor, but it just wasn't big enough. These would probably be good as mini muffins too if you wanted to give your children a treat but still have a little bit of fibre in them!

If you did compare my recipe with the others, you will notice how they would be healthier--they used 3 egg white, all applesauce, splenda or stevia, and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Let me know if you try these, what you think of them, and how they turn out for you!