Chocolate Courgette Muffins
Chef: Zoe From: England Serves: around 12 muffins
Time: 10 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking time
Ingredients
1 apple
2 medium courgettes
200g of wholemeal self-raising flour or ground oats
50g of cocoa powder
100g of chopped dates
100 millilitres of plant milk
100 millilitres of vegetable, rapeseed or sunflower oil
1 banana, mashed
2-3 tablespoons of maple or date syrup
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
We made these cakes to give out at a family event – a sweet way of getting children to eat more fruit and veg. When making the cakes, Ayesha one of our Food Ambassadors tried to persuade her son to taste them, but having seen what had gone into them, he said that ‘he didn’t eat that kind of thing’. At the event the next day, he saw lots of other children eating chocolate muffins – not realising they were the same ones, he happily ate one, and it turned out he rather liked them!
Method
Set the oven to 200C/gas mark 5
Grate the courgettes and place them in a colander over a bowl, allowing any excess liquid to drain out.
Peel, core and roughly chop the apples. Cook in a medium saucepan with about 4 tablespoons of water, on a medium to low heat for approximately 10-15 minutes until the apples are soft. Leave to cool a little and then blend in a food processor or using a hand blender to form a fruit puree.
Soak the dates in hot water for 15 minutes to soften up and then drain.
Grease a 12 cup cake tray or line with cases.
In a large bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, oil, apple puree, mashed banana grated courgettes, dates and vanilla essence. These are your wet ingredients.
In a separate bowl mix together the dry ingredients: flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder.
Now pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients until everything is incorporated (but do not over-stir). Add 1 more tablespoon of maple syrup if you like it sweeter.
Pour the mixture into the cup cake tray and bake for between 20 to 25 minutes until a knife comes out clean.