This recipe is based around rolled oats, Greek yogurt, and applesauce.

BOOM.

Not what you were expecting?

I had a serious hankering for tasty baked goods last week and planned to use up the last can of pumpkin that’s still chilling in my cabinet.  While I was trolling around Pinterest looking for a fun recipe, I found this recipe for chocolate chunk muffins and all pumpkin-y thoughts vanished from my mind.

The blog I found that recipe on focuses on a lot of healthy baking alternatives, but tends to take things a bit farther than I really care to (I am totally not on the Stevia train.  Eat real sugar.  Just don’t eat a ton of it.  Sorry for this long parentheses sentence.)

Another train I am not on is the overly-complicated-baking train (I will never have the patience to sift all my dry ingredients together), which is why I was immediately hooked by the fact that you make this batter by putting everything in the blender… and that’s it.  No separate mixing, stirring, or anything else.

So anyway, here’s my version.  I altered the recipe I found in a few ways, especially by using vanilla Greek yogurt instead of plain and omitting almost all the extra sugar/sweetener.

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

(adapted from Dashing Dish)

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup oats
• 3 egg whites
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 cup applesauce (I used unsweetened cinnamon which was great!)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup nonfat vanilla Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup hot water
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• chocolate chips… whatever amount you prefer.  I had about half a bag left so I used that.  Just roll with it.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray or line with cupcake liners, or both.
2. In a blender or food processor, blend all ingredients except chocolate chips until mixture is smooth.
3. Pour mixture into a bowl and stir in most of the chocolate chips.  Fill muffin cups 3/4 full with batter (you may have to use a spoon to evenly distribute the chocolate chips as the batter is pretty liquidy).
4. Bake muffins for 18-20 minutes or until mostly set.
5. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top of muffins and return to the oven for just a couple of minutes, until chips are soft but still hold their shape and a toothpick comes out clean.

These are awesome.  In my opinion, chocolate muffins are way better than chocolate cupcakes because they’re just as rich and chocolatey without being sickly sweet or too cakey.  So if that description is not vague enough to intrigue you, then I’m out of ideas.  But try these.  They’re spongy, dense, and fudgy.  So good.  Mom, you should make these.  Paul will not even know that they’re healthy.

I ate two of them for breakfast yesterday.  I don’t even feel bad about it.  Because of applesauce.