A yummy bite-sized chocolate snack with some sneaky healthy ingredients! These easy vegan gluten-free muffins are filled with fruit, veggies, and protein, but all you’ll taste is chocolate!
So I wanted to do a chocolate mini muffin recipe with something green snuck in. Avocado? Spinach? Zucchini? All good ideas. But instead of making a decision (difficult), I decided to try out a mini muffin recipe with all three (shockingly yummy!) Oh, and in case that wasn’t enough produce for one little muffin, I added a banana to sweeten things up too. But don’t let that healthy ingredient lineup deter you, I promise all you will taste is fudgy double-chocolate muffin deliciousness.
How To Make Sneaky Healthy Mini Chocolate Muffins
We’re not mashing any avocados by hand, or grating and squeezing zucchini. No no, this muffin prep is much simpler. The basic gist is: blend the fruit/veggies/wet ingredients, whisk the dry ingredients, combine the two, and boom you have perfect vegan gluten-free chocolate muffin batter.
The Vegan Gluten-Free Muffin Ingredients
For the wet ingredients we’ll be blending:
Avocado. Soft and ripe, please. And the extra natural fat content helps to keep this recipe moist even though it’s oil free.
Zucchini. One of my favorite green ingredients to sneak into baking, it brings lots of moisture to the muffins too.
Banana. Great for binding, great for moisture, great for sweetness. Very ripe is best with lots of brown spots. You can swap in applesauce instead in a pinch.
Spinach. One big handful, I promise you’ll have no idea it’s in there after baking. You can also skip this, it’s not essential to the structure of the muffin, but I never pass up a chocolatey chance to add some extra greens into my day.
SunButter. This recipe is oil free, the combination of avocado and Organic SunButter add all the fat and richness these little muffins need to be super fudgy. And SunButter instead of a nut butter keeps the whole recipe nut-free too, perfect for packing in lunchboxes.
Flax eggs. For binding, or swap in real eggs if you aren’t vegan and want to.
Almond milk. Or milk of choice.
Vanilla extract.
And then for the dry ingredients, you will need:
Gluten-free flour. An all-purpose blend is best here, I haven’t tested with any single flours. Or if you’re not gluten-free, regular all-purpose flour will work too.
Protein powder. This is completely optional, but I wanted to test out swapping some of the flour for protein powder in case you wanted to boost the protein content of this sweet little snack. And it works wonderfully! I used an unflavored plant-based protein powder (linked in the recipe). Or if that’s not for you, just use more flour instead.
Cocoa powder. Of course we need to bring in the CHOCOLATE flavor, so plenty of coconut is whisked in the mix. Don’t worry there is still more chocolate to come…
Coconut sugar. Or brown sugar will work as well.
Baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Mini chocolate chips. Optional of course, but highly highly recommended!
Tips For Baking The Best Bite-Sized Chocolate Snack
Between the banana and the avocado in that blender, the mixture is going to oxidize and turn brown pretty quick after blending. So either whisk the dry ingredients first so they are ready to go, or just remind yourself that brown is the color of chocolate and don’t let that freak you out.
Use a cookie scoop to uniformly fill each muffin cup. I used a medium-sized spring loaded scoop, and it filled each muffin cup perfectly with an equal amount of batter.
Fill each muffin almost to the top with batter. Between 3/4 and all the way is ideal, remember since this recipe doesn’t use eggs they won’t rise as much while baking.
Add a few extra chocolate chips on top before baking! For aesthetics, deliciousness, and joy.
Let the muffins cool for at least 15 minutes in the pan before popping them out. They are fragile when hot, we don’t want any muffins broken by impatience.
Healthy Chocolate Mini Muffins (with fruit and veggies!)
Author:Natalie
Prep Time:15 minutes
Cook Time:18 minutes
Total Time:33 minutes
Yield:30 mini muffins 1x
Category:muffins
Method:baking
Cuisine:american
Description
A yummy bite-sized chocolate snack with some sneaky healthy ingredients! These easy vegan gluten-free muffins are filled with fruit, veggies, and protein, but all you’ll taste is chocolate!
Bend the avocado, banana, zucchini, spinach, milk, SunButter, flax eggs, and vanilla.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, protein powder, coconut sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry, and mix to form a thick batter.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
Scoop the batter into the muffin pan, filling each cavity almost to the top. Shake or tap the pan to even/smooth. Add a few more chocolate chips on top if desired.
Bake for 16-18 minutes at 350°.
Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes, then gently remove and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Repeat the baking process with any remaining batter.
Keep the leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week, or freeze for longer storage.
Notes
*You can also use real eggs if not vegan, tested with great results.
**Or regular all purpose flour if not gluten-free.
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