Chocolate Flaxseed Muffins with Apples

So Halloween is over but let me tell you it was a special one. And let me warn you that I will be bringing it up quite often, within or out of context, bragging about what I did. I, ahem, carved my first pumpkin ever?a beautiful jack-o-lantern with a crescent moon and stars. It doesn?t sound all that scary, I know, but I?m still proud of it. It was quite a task and I cut myself twice but it sure was a monumental accomplishment for me. Admit it?s not so bad for a start, especially from someone who hasn?t heard about Halloween until she was twelve and hasn?t celebrated it she was twenty-three.



Besides my pride of my amateurishly executed pumpkin, I am happy about how these muffins turned out. They would have made a gorgeous Halloween treat topped with some orange frosting but of course I didn?t think about that until Halloween was well over, two days later. I love the seedy taste and coarse, husky texture of flax meal especially when combined with chocolate and softened by sweet tiny bites of apple.

Chocolate Flaxseed Muffins with Apples

Yields 12

1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup golden flaxseed meal
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 large apple, cored, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 12-muffin muffin pan with paper liners.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cocoa powder with the butter, sour cream, honey and vanilla extract until well combined. Beat in the eggs. Add the flax meal, brown rice flour and baking soda and mix again until you obtain a homogeneous batter. Fold in the cubed apples.

Distribute the batter among the 12 cups. Bake until set, 17 minutes.