Vegan Chocolate Walnut Muffins

Have a muffin.

Once you taste one of these, you might not believe they were vegan.

They were inspired by a recipe in Sweet And Natural Baking, which I picked up on clearance at a local bookstore. The recipes in the book mostly call for using a fruit juice reduction – concentrated, syrupy fruit juice – in place of sugar or other sweeteners. I haven’t tried too many things in it yet, but so far I’m fairly pleased with the results.

Muffins are cakes that you have a socially acceptable excuse to eat at breakfast. Chocolate muffins are really just chocolate cake. Socially acceptable though it may be, you might feel a bit guilty after your second one. But these are pretty healthy, particularly for a chocolate muffin. Low in added fat, no refined sugar or flour! And did I mention that they are very tasty?
These muffins are quite chocolatey, with a nice taste and moist texture. My tasters actually found these difficult to describe. One said that they were more muffin-like than cake-like. Another found them to have a vaguely brownie-like cakiness. Confused? Everyone agreed that they were great and much more satisfying than your average muffin. And that’s all that really matters.

Vegan Chocolate Walnut Muffins1

1 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup maple syrup
¾ cup vanilla soy milk (or plain, with ½ tsp vanilla added)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
½ cup chopped walnuts, plus 8 walnut halves

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 8 muffin cups in a baking tin.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a small bowl, whisk together maple syrup, soy milk and vegetable oil. Pour wet ingredients into flour mixture and stir until smooth, adding walnuts at the last minute. Do not over mix, but try not to have any pockets of dry ingredients left in the batter. Spoon into prepared muffin tins, filling each 2/3 full. Garnish each muffin with a walnut half.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the top springs back when lightly pressed.
Let cool slightly before serving. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack, before storing well wrapped or in an airtight container.
Makes 8 muffins