Triple Chocolate Muffins & A (almost) Healthy Recipe.

Muffins are probably in my top 5 cakes list. They are so delish and the possible recipes are just infinite so what's the guilt in eating one, or two, three muffins ?! Besides, they always make me remember of a Seinfeld episode in which Elain's boss goes crazy and opens a "top of the muffin" shop and at the end, Newman is hired to eat all of the bottoms. This final scene always makes me laugh, maybe because I would have loved being at Newman's place.

Anyway, this chocolate muffin recipe came up to my mind one morning as I passed before a pastry shop. The sweet smell of warm bread and cakes was just overwhelming and I actually did crave for pastry all day long then, so once at home, no need to tell you what I did, haha. For these muffins, I used a new ingredient. Indeed, last week, I saw a documentary on TV about a diabetic pastrycook who used agava syrup instead of sugar, and ground almond puree instead of butter. I actually use agava syrup for a couple of years now but I did not know about ground almond puree at all. She said it was almost as calorific as butter but way healthier since it was 100% vegetable. So I've tried it and the result is very conclusive. It doesn't change the taste as all and the muffins are even moistier so ground almond butter is definitely adopted !

Ingredients:
for a dozen
- 130g half-wheat flour
- 4 eggs - 4 yolks and 3 egg whites separated
- 90g brown or white ground almond puree
- 50g agava syrup
- 20cl half cream
- 150g melted dark chocolate
- 200g chocolate chips - white, milk, and dark chocolate
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven at 300°C/ °F
1) Melt the dark chocolate
2) Mix the yolks, ground almond puree, and agava syrup together to obtain an homogenous and onctuous cream
3) Add the flour, baking powder, and salt to the preparation, and mix
4) Add the melted chocolate, and mix
5) Whisk the egg whites to form stiff peaks and add them carefully to the preparation
6) Add the chocolate chips and keep some aside for the topping. Pour the preparation full to the brim and add some chips on top. Bake for about 20-25min.

Enjoy,
B.