Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Muffins

It’s Labor Day Weekend. The official (but not really) end of summer.

A summer filled with memorable moments—some heartbreaking and some heartwarming.

Earthquakes, hurricanes, 5-day power outages, and monumental personal loss for many of my food blogger friends. Foodbloggers uniting in a way that helped bolster my faith in the goodness and charity of people. Many, many 8-second hugs.

There were many moments to cherish. The kid turned 21 and the beach house was filled with his twenty-something friends enjoying the surf, perfect weather and social scene. My husband and I spent time riding bikes, walking the beach, enjoying the sun and shore breezes.

Local travel took me to the Big Summer Potluck in rural Pennsylvania to spend a very cleansing weekend with friends—now more than just Twitter acquaintances—from across the country. I met up with some GF friends in Virginia and reacquainted myself with college buddies another weekend.

Doing all that and submerging myself in my day job consumed most of my waking minutes. So, needless to say, I neglected this blog and didn’t experiment as much as usual with cooking and baking. Some of the dishes I did come up with never made it here. No time for photos and writing up recipes and thinking about what I might write.

Truth be told I needed to focus on some other things so no regrets. But, I did miss the community that having a blog can bring so I hope to return to sharing recipes—and life—with all of you more regularly now that things are calming down.

Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Muffins

I’m enjoying my third season as a Community Supported Garden member. We get bags of freshly harvested organic vegetables every two weeks. It all comes from a spectacular little farm in western New Jersey.

We’ve been getting lots of beets—they’re a little on the small side. This week while the power was out as a result of Hurricane Irene I roasted the little babies on the grill. Scrubbed, wrapped in parchment, and then in foil they were roasted on the side with no flame with the grill cover closed. It took about as long as it takes in the oven—maybe 45-60 minutes. They were sweet and perfect. Some adorned my salad but I used a few for this recipe and was very pleased with how they turned out.

Now for the recipe…

Set the oven to 375 degrees. Prepare the muffin pan with liners. Makes about 12 cupcake-sized muffins.

Make a faux egg (flax gel) by whisking together:

1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
3 tablespoons warm water

In a large mixing bowl whisk together:

1 cup GF multi-blend flour (I tried out King Arthur’s GF Flour Blend)
1 cup blanched almond flour (Honeyville)
1/2 cups organic coconut or cane sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1½  teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules (like Starbucks Via) - optional

In a 2-cup measuring cup whisk together:

½ cup milk (unsweetened almond, hemp or other non-dairy alternative)
¾ cups beet/applesauce puree*
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
Faux flax egg prepared earlier
1/3 cup grapeseed or other vegetable oil

Pour about half the wet mixture into the mixed dry ingredients and give it a few turns with a spoon or silicone spatula. Add the rest of the liquid and stir until combined.

Add to the batter and mix in:

½ cup Enjoy Life chocolate mini chips

Spoon into the paper liners filling them about ¾ full. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and enjoy.

*I pureed three smallish roasted beets for this recipe. It did not quite come to ¾ cups of puree so I made up the difference with applesauce. You will probably need 3 or 4 medium sized beets to get ¾ cup of puree.

And, if you want to check out some other beet or muffin recipes try these:

Ruby Red Beet Cupcakes from Melissa at Gluten-Free for Good (GF and CF)

Apple Banana Carrot (ABC) Muffins from Shirley at Gluten-Free Easily (GF)

Hearty Maple Cinnamon Muffins from Alisa at Alisa Cooks (GF, CF, EF, and Vegan)

Pink Breakfast Bowl from Ricki at Diet, Dessert and Dogs (GF, CF, EF, Vegan and Sugar-Free)

Carrot Mini Muffins from Lillian at Lillian’s Test Kitchen (GF and CF)

Beet and Orange Salad with Basil Vinaigrette from Alat at Tasty Eats at Home (GF, CF, EF, and Vegan)

Golden Beet, Persimmon and Pomegranate Salad from Tia at Glugle Gluten Free (GF, EF, and CF)

And a recipe that’s not GF yet very interesting and begging for someone to make it GF!:

Asparagus Muffins with Cashew Cream from Cara at Cara’s Cravings (CF, EF, Vegan and Sugar-Free)

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Raw Rustic Nutella

Prior to making this Raw Rustic Nutella I wasn’t much of a nutella fan. I know. I know. The world is having a love affair with nutella and I’ve been on the outside looking in. I just didn’t get it….at first.

Then my foray into the raw foods world ignited a desire to experiment. Even if going raw is not for you it does makes sense to add more raw foods to your diets where possible. Raw foods are just that much more packed with nutrients.

So, experimentation commenced and raw nutella was born. Why Raw Rustic Nutella? Well, it isn’t the super creamy version. It’s almost fudge-like at room temperature. Not to worry…it’s flavor is superb.

This recipe is ridiculously simple and quick. Smear it on toasted GF bread, or to keep it really raw, an apple or celery. Eat it by the spoonful if you want!

Raw Rustic Nutella

Place in the bowl of a food processor (or a high speed blender such as a Vitamix or Blendtec):

1 ½ cups raw hazelnuts

Process until the nuts are ground into fine flour. The finer the flour at this stage the smoother the nut butter will be. My food processor did not get the flour as fine as I would have liked but it didn’t seem to hamper the result.

Add and mix in thoroughly, taking the top off the processor and scraping the sides from time to time:

½ teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch each of nutmeg, allspice and cloves
¼ cup raw cacao powder

Replace the top and turn on the food processor mixing until all the ingredients are combined and cacao butter is pulverized.

Scrape down the sides, replace the lid and while the processor is running add the following until the nut butter is formed:

4 tablespoons raw cacao butter (melted)*
2 tablespoons raw coconut oil (melted)*
3 tablespoons raw honey or agave

Place in an airtight glass container and store in the fridge for future use.

Best when served at room temperature.

Substitutes

If you don’t have some of the raw ingredients called for you can use more available ingredients.

Instead of …

…raw nuts use blanched or lightly roasted (unsalted) nuts.

…raw cacao powder use cacao nibs or dutched cocoa powder.

…raw cacao butter use coconut oil. (Based on a comment below add less & add slowly until it reaches the desired consistency.)

…raw honey use agave nectar.

…raw hazelnuts try raw cashews (or a mix of both kinds of nuts) for a different spin on an old favorite.

*How to “melt” raw coconut oil—or raw cacao butter.

Place the amount of coconut oil (or cacao butter) you wish to “melt” in a small glass bowl.

(If you’re melting cacao butter grate or finely chop it. I used a standard cheese grater for this purpose.)

Pour hot tap water (about 100-105 degrees) into a shallow pan and place the bowl holding coconut oil—or grated cacao butter—in it being careful not to allow the water to spill into the bowl holding the coconut oil. Gently stir the coconut oil until it has become liquid.

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