Healthy Chocolate Muffins

Dee_84

Hello fellow chocoholics,

I was looking for a chocolate muffin to use up the pumpkin I had in my fridge and came up with the following recipe.
The muffins are yummy, not overly sweet and you cannot taste the pumpkin in them.
They stick to the paper liners on the first day, keep them in a container overnight and the paper comes off more easily.

Makes 18 muffins:

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup oats (I used quick oats)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (sounds like a lot but it really brings out the chocolate flavor)
2 scoops protein powder (vanilla or chocolate)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups, or line with paper muffin liners.

2. Combine flour, flax seed, oats, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, cinnamon, protein powder and walnuts in a large bowl.

3. In another bowl, beat the buttermilk, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry, mixing just until combined. Spoon equal amounts of batter into muffin cups.

4. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 15 -20 minutes.

Changes:
* If you want your muffins to be on the sweeter side, increase the sugar or add additional sweetener.
*To reduce calories you can leave out the walnuts and/or the protein powder.
*Replace walnuts with chocolate chips for a yummy treat that's not too horrible for you.
*Use wheat germ instead of oats.

Nutrional Facts per muffin:
Calories 135
Carbs 17
Fat 6
Protein 7
Fiber 4

Dee_84

This is what they look like:

Dee_84

... and I have no clue how to make the pic smaller but you get the idea on how they will turn out.