Healthy Chocolate chip muffins

 

The banana muffins I baked for this friend’s toddler last time did not reach the kid at all. Blame it on our schedules or whatever, but eventually, when we did meet, the muffins shouldn’t have been given to a toddler. So I had to make up for it , by making a new batch of muffins, this time Chocolate Chip ones. And since the main audience was a toddler, I decided to make these as healthy as possible.

Recipe inspired from Madhuram-Eggless Cooking's recipe here.

Ingredients

1 cup oat flakes, coarsely grounded in a blender
1/2 cup milk
2 bananas , mashed, to yield 1 cup banana puree
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
3/4 Cup brown sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1/3 heaped Cup Mini Chocolate Chips

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 185 C. Line the muffin paper cups in the muffin tray.
Measure the banana puree and milk so that they both together are 1.5 cups. To this liquid, add oil, sugar and vanilla extract and keep aside.
Sieve the grounded oat flakes, wheat flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder together.
Now pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix just enough. Gently fold in the choco chips Do not over mix.
Scoop spoonfuls of the batter and pour in the muffin cups.
Bake for 18-20 mins or till the tester comes clean.

My Notes
1. These probably are the healthiest muffins I will ever bake. Wheat flour and oat flakes add to the fibre content, bananas make up for the fruit and wet ingredient thus eliminating the need to add any more fat into this.
2. Next time , I will add rum soaked raisins to this , just to up the taste content. Bananas, Chocolate and Rum seem like a great combination in my head
3. My muffins were baked in 18 mins at 185C, but to be extra sure I baked them for 8 more mins at 170C. You can check what works for you depending on your oven.
4. The muffins were slightly dense because of all the heavy banana puree, and very moist the day I baked them. But since both oat flakes and wheat flour tend to get dry if not mixed with adequate amount of liquid, there was a slight dryness to the interiors of the muffin. So the next time, I will add a 1/4 cup more liquid and see how the muffin feels the day after baking.