Late during the Fall of 2014, one of us was riding home from work with more than we could carry.  As ever, we remained undeterred on the bike – the solution was to simply stop for a shopping bag to manage the load and continue the journey.  Well it just so happened that the nearest store was a Lindt Chocolate boutique and to our great surprise and delight, that very night they were having an unannounced 50% off sale on all the inventory in the entire store.  Obviously there was only one thing to do.

Today, we’re about a third of the way through the Lindt shopping bag surprise bounty.  Here’s what it looks like at the moment:

My goal as we continue to tackle this spread is to try new recipes incorporating chocolate.

For this reason, and because warm muffins straight from the oven are about as good as it gets when a wintry mix is forecast for the entire day, I decided to make a batch of Chocolate/Walnut/Banana mini’s this morning.  This recipe marks a departure from all previous muffin recipes I’ve made in that there is *no* added sugar.  Thanks to two unaffiliated taste testers with discerning palates (thanks Hillary and Joe!), I can confidently call them share-worthy.

Time: 35 minutes

Hands-On Time: 15 minutes

Kitchen Equipment: Mini-muffin tin (or regular muffin tin), rubber spatula

Servings: 24 mini-muffins

Ingredients:

– 3 Very Ripe Bananas

– 1/2 Cup Chopped Dark Chocolate from a Bar, or Dark Chocolate Chips, 50% Cocoa or greater

– 1/2 Cup Finely Chopped Walnuts

– 1/3 Coconut Oil, Melted

– 2 Eggs or Flax Eggs

– 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

– 1/4 Cup Unsweetened Applesauce

– 1/4 Cup Greek Yogurt

– 1/4 Cup Almond Milk

– 1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

– 1 Cup All Purpose Flour

– 1 & 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda

– 1 & 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder

– 2 Tsp Cinnamon

– 1/2 Tsp Salt

Steps:

– Preheat oven to 325 Degrees F.

– In a large mixing bowl, add the walnuts, chocolate, flours, baking soda & powder, cinnamon and salt and gently whisk to combine.

– In a separate bowl, first place the peeled bananas, breaking into large pieces and then smooshing each piece once with the back of a fork.

– Add the coconut oil, eggs, vanilla extract, yogurt, almond milk and applesauce to the bananas and stir until incorporated.  Do not over stir or beat.

– Pour the wet ingredients into the mixing bowl with the dry, using a rubber spatula to scrape the sides as you go.

– Gently stir the wet and dry ingredients until incorporated but no more.  (Btw, why is there always a note not to over-mix ingredients?  It’s because mixing causes gluten to form, and over-mixing increases the gluten bonds, which leads to rubbery muffins.)

– Give the muffin tin a quick spritz of non-stick cooking spray or line with muffin cups.

– Spoon the batter into the tin and bake at 325 Degrees F for 20 minutes.

– Allow the tin to rest on a cooling rack or trivet at least 10 minutes before tasting.

Let me know what you think of these no-added-sugar minis!