Yes, my muffin obsession continues. I can’t stop playing with recipes and trying out new ingredients. But, don’t be fooled, it isn’t all fun and tasty games, even though you don’t see it, there have been some epic muffin failures. Last week I attempted to make strawberry rhubarb muffins with a cinnamon crumble top and they turned out to be a sunken in soggy mess, boo! They were so delicious and full of flavor, but it appears my measurements weren’t correct and they just plain failed. So, we ate the soggy muffins and I vowed to redeem my muffin-loving self with a new recipe this week.

I have been craving a sweet breakfast muffin that was a little bit healthy and a little naughty. I mean, really who doesn’t love the concept of chocolate for breakfast. I actually usually prefer savory over sweet for breakfast but I had been craving something a little sweet, so I went with it. Since I added in chocolate chips, I took the sugar down to a mere 1/2 cup. I figured by taking down the sugar and adding in the flax-seeds, it would balance out the fact that I would be eating chocolate for breakfast. These muffins are perfectly moist and subtly sweet in my opinion. I left the flax-seeds whole, so there would be a nice little nutty crunch, you could grind them first or if you want to skip the flax-seeds altogether, you could just add in your favorite chopped nut or go without. I liked the idea of the flax-seeds since they add in fiber and some of those lovely, healthy Omega-3 fats.

Mark cannot get over that these muffins are gluten-free and every chance he gets, tells me they are better than any gluten-containing muffin like it that he has had. Talk about an ego boost!

*If you wish to skip the eggs to make these muffins vegan, replace the egg whites with 1 tablespoon Ener-G Egg Replacer whisked with 1/4 cup warm water till frothy.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Flax-Seed Muffins
makes 12 muffins

1 1/3 cups almond flour
1 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup potato starch or tapioca starch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 cup organic sucanat (dried cane juice)
2 tablespoons light olive oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 organic free-range egg whites (depending on the size, you are looking to get 1/4 cup of liquid), beaten until frothy*
1/2 cup warm water, more as needed, up to 3/4 cup
1/3 cup organic flax seeds, (I used them whole, you could certainly grind them first)
9 ounces of organic, semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375º F. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.

Whisk together the first 7 ingredients (up to and including the xanthan gum). Beat in the sugar, olive oil, vanilla, egg whites and warm water. Beat until it is smooth and like a thick cake batter.
Add in the flax seeds and chocolate chips. Stir briefly, until thoroughly combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake in the center of a preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden and firm to the touch. A wooden pick inserted into the center should emerge clean.

Cool the muffin pan on a wire rack for five minutes. Gently pop the muffins out to continue cooling on the rack (don’t cool them longer than 5 minutes in the hot pan they’ll definitely get soggy). Enjoy a muffin after they have cooled 10 minutes, you know you want to.

Freeze any leftover muffins in tightly sealed freezer bags and pop one out for a quick and easy breakfast.

*See above note about making these vegan.