Triple Chocolate Bran Muffins

Eating healthy foods is something I struggle with daily.

I also struggle with portion control. Which doesn’t always mean I’m having difficulty not overeating healthy foods. I’m a chocolate person. I love sweet things. I love baked goods!

The best I can do is make things slightly healthier.

Combine chocolate and healthy. Can it be done?

I was playing around with bran muffins, because you know, bran is supposed to be healthy and good for you and all that. I set out to find a bran chocolate chip muffin, only to find tons of bran muffins but no one putting delicious chocolate chips in them.

Though I suppose if you can toss raisins into a bran muffin mix, how tough can it be to toss in chocolate chips?

My mother used to make blueberry bran muffins a lot when I was younger.

I like blueberry muffins.

I like bran muffins.

However, I’m not too keen on them combined together. Why wreck a perfectly good blueberry muffin by adding bran to the batter?

I started playing around with a recipe for bran muffins where I could add chocolate chips. And then I really went for it and tripled up!

LUCKY 7!

My recipe makes 7 muffins. That’s using a regular size 12-muffin tin.

Though I suppose I could have made 6 muffins and just added an extra spoonful to a couple of the other muffins.’

Seven muffins might sound like an odd amount, but not so much if you’re working on portion control. I’m single. No one else eats my muffins. Seven was a perfect number for me. I have to do a taste test, so one muffin will be eaten shortly after coming out of the oven. The other six muffins can be frozen, or one can be set aside for breakfast the next day.

If you live in a larger household, seven muffins might get gobbled up quickly without ever knowing what it’s like to get frozen!

DOUBLE UP OR TRIPLE UP?

The Triple Chocolate Bran Muffins have three types of chocolate in the recipe – cocoa powder, chocolate milk, and chocolate chips. If you don’t have chocolate milk in the house, use regular milk and rename the recipe in your head. Double Chocolate Bran Muffins!

It works either way. I’m a big cheerleader of using whatever you have on hand. Recipes are all about being adjusted to suit your needs.

I use chocolate almond milk, but any milk will do. If you have regular milk and chocolate drink powder in the house, you can mix them together to make chocolate milk. Don’t stress too much about it. The recipe only calls for a quarter cup of chocolate milk!

This triple chocolate bran muffin recipe’s not too sweet. I hope you give it a try!

TIPS

A word on eggs. If you keep them in the house and want one in the recipe, go for it. I used Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer. One tablespoon powder mixed with two tablespoons water. You could also use ground flax seed with the same flax/water ratio.

I used dark chocolate chips. If all you have is semi-sweet, use them instead.

I never gave bran much thought but apparently it’s come a long way since my mother’s blueberry bran muffin days. Bran comes in oat, wheat, corn, and rice. Who’s have thought it? I used Bob’s Red Mill Wheat Bran but that’s only because I noticed it on sale the last time I was shopping on Amazon and added it to my cart. I’d have been just as likely to buy bran in the bulk bin at the grocery store, too. Whatever works.

The recipe calls for one tablespoon oil. I used vegetable oil, but it won’t make much difference what cooking oil you choose.

¾ cup oat bran

¾ cup whole wheat flour

¼ cup cocoa powder

¼ cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup dark chocolate chips

1 medium egg or egg substitute

½ cup applesauce

¼ cup chocolate milk (dairy or non-dairy milk)

1 tablespoon oil (any kind of oil)

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray
Stir all ingredients together until all dry ingredients are combined and moistened. Batter will be thick.
Scoop batter into muffin tin.
Bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick test comes back clean of batter.
Put muffins on wire rack to cool.
After 5 minutes, use spoon to tilt muffins sideways to allow cooling and avoid becoming soggy.