Muffins that taste like a decadent chocolate cake? Yep, these are it! Hard to believe these muffins are completely flourless and the main ingredient is cooked quinoa. A great friend of mine made a version of these and they were amazing! So I knew I had to give them a try. You won’t be able to tell there are quinoa in these! My 6 year old is Miss Picky, and she didn’t detect quinoa at all. They seriously just take like chocolate cake. Needless to say, these muffins aren’t lasting very long in our house.
Quinoa is pretty easy to cook and the grain to water ratio is similar to brown rice which is about 2:1 (water to grain). Lately I’ve been using my rice cooker to cook everything from rice to quinoa. I’m notorious for forgetting about it on the stove, so with the rice cooker, it does all the work and flips to warm automatically when its done cooking.
Once the quinoa is cooked and cooled, then its super simple…everything gets mixed in a bowl and poured into your muffin tins. These muffins are also perfect for lunch boxes and are school friendly as they are nut-free (and also happen to be gluten-free and dairy-free)
If you like a good slice of chocolate cake, I beg of you to make these. You won’t be sorry!
EDITED TO ADD: Alternatively, to lessen the appearance of quinoa in these muffins, blend all the ingredients in a higher powered blender or food processor rather than mixing it all in a bowl.
- 2 cups cooked quinoa (about a half cup dry will yield just over 2 cups)
- 4 eggs
- ⅓ cup milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ½ cup coconut oil, melted (or sub for butter, or another healthy oil)
- ⅓ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup stevia for baking (I used NuNaturals MoreFiber. Could also use xylitol) Or even coconut sugar, cane sugar or honey (nutrition will change)
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl or stand mixer (or a blender or food processor), put in all the ingredients and mix until well combined.
- Pour into muffin tins just over ½ full. Mist your muffin tin with oil, or line with silicone liners or foil liners to prevent sticking.
- Bake for 15-16 minutes until you press them and they spring back. The toothpick test doesn't work well on these as a bit of crumb will stick to the toothpick as they are so rich and moist.