These delicious healthy chocolate muffins are low in added sugar, vegan, great for kids and have a secret ingredient in the form of kale. Perfect for lunch boxes and snacks.
This is one of my favourite hidden vegetable recipes – healthy chocolate muffins that contain kale. Do your kids eat kale? I’m forever seeing photos of children on instagram eating kale chips – well let me tell you that they are NOT my kids! I can sometimes get them to eat kale pesto, particularly if I put it in puff pastry, but any other form of kale is always rejected.
These chocolate muffins were a resounding success though. Are you thinking that it’s a bit weird to hide kale in a muffin? Well you could be right. However, my kids love muffins and sweet treats and I am much happier to let them eat them if I know that they contain plenty of goodness and nutritional value. These muffins contain kale and banana, which is more than I can say for your average chocolate muffin! The kids love them, I know they’re not too unhealthy – everyone’s happy!
I decorated some of these muffins with naturally coloured buttercream. This vibrant colour was made with spirulina and my kids loved them – the toddler licked all the icing off first of course.
Read more about my experiments with natural food colourings.
Here’s how to make healthy chocolate muffins with sneaky kale:
Healthy chocolate muffins with sneaky kale
Ingredients
- 160 g plain or wholemeal flour
- 40 g raw cacao powder or cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 50 ml sunflower oil
- 100 ml maple syrup
- 2 medium ripe bananas mashed
- 60 ml milk I used oat milk
- 50 g very finely shredded kale remove the thick stem first, process in a food processor to get very fine
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (fan)/200°C/gas mark 6.
- Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin cases.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together and set aside.
- Mix the oil and maple syrup together. Stir in the bananas, the milk and finally the kale, beating a little after each addition.
- Finally fold the wet mixture into the flour and chocolate mixture. Be careful not to overmix.
- Fill each muffin case to 2/3 full with the mixture.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack.
- I think these taste better the second day.
If you like this you might like my courgette (zucchini) chocolate muffins.
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