Delicious and healthy-ish Chia, Banana and Chocolate Muffins

I will begin by stating that baking and I are not a good mix. We are terrible together. Which is one of the reasons why I had to pick my jaw up off the floor after tasting these muffins which I (thankfully) successfully baked. With my own, bake-useless hands. Delicious - seriously so. They even bounced on the floor as opposed to my normal muffin attempts which just dented the floor when they fell. Success indeed.

I got the recipe from one of my favourite cookbooks - Chrissy Freer's Supergrains. As I have mentioned in past posts, I am on a mission to lift my family's diet to ultra-healthy levels and so I thought I would give it a go. I was a little hesitant - I assumed the recipes would be a bit meh (bland, tasteless, dull) but thankfully, I was completely wrong. Chrissy's recipes are not only ridiculously healthy but in my house, they are kid and husband friendly - the marker of true success.

This recipe can be tweaked to make it that little bit more healthy. Use wholemeal flour instead of normal flour - gluten-free if you have a gluten intolerance.  You can use fine brown sugar instead of caster sugar and you can always leave out the chocolate but seriously, why would you? Everyone deserves a bit of naughtiness every now and then. 

The chia seeds are fabulous in this recipe - they're a bit like poppy seeds but in my opinion, better. The reason? Apart from being delicious, they also happen to have the highest plant content of Omega 3 fatty acids and are very high in fibre. Throw in the fact that they are gluten-free and you have the triple whammy.

So treat yourself and enjoy Chrissy Freer's delicious Chia, Banana and Chocolate Muffins.

Preparation time: Approx 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups (300g) self-raising flour
2 tablespoons of black chia seeds (yum)
1/2 cup (45g) of dessicated coconut
2/3 cup (150g) caster sugar
1 cup (240g) of mashed bananas
100g of melted and cooled unsalted butter
1/2 cup (125ml) milk
2/3 cup milk chocolate 'bits'
* I always try and use as many organic products as possible. Our local supermarkets have a great range of organic 'basics'. 

The 'How To'

Preheat your oven to 180C (350F).
Brush a muffin tin (12 hole) with melted butter to grease or line with paper cases.

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the chia seeds, sugar and coconut. Mix with a wooden spoon before adding the melted butter, banana, and milk. Stir to combine but don't over-mix. If you have any chocolate bits left after no doubt nibbling on them along the way, pop them in and carefully fold into the mixture.

Divide the mixture into the muffin holes and bake for 20 minutes. Lick the spoon and the bowl. 

As tempting as it will be to stuff one straight into your mouth, set aside for 5 minutes to cool and then pop them onto a wire rack. 

Delicious.