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The lovely folks over at The Chocolate Tree and The Soul Tree sent me a huge hamper of their products to sample. Though I made quick work of their handmade honeycomb chocs and topcoated rice cakes, I am not even halfway through the basket. Such generosity! Along with a sampler of their snack range, they included their packaged rolled oats and almond flour, which are pretty much pantry staples these days.

I’m not gluten-intolerant but I do like to use alternative flours to introduce a bit of nutritional variety to my diet. I grind rolled oats and flax seeds in my mini food processor and add to pancake batters and brownies.

I totally winged this muffin recipe; adding ingredients to the bowl, writing down measures as I went along and praying it would all come together in the oven. I wanted to create a kind of cocoa-flavoured breakfast muffin, something filling with deep chocolate notes that wasn’t too sweet. The raw cacao paste worked well in that regard, helped along with additions of coffee and cardamom. If you don’t have any raw cacao paste on hand, use good quality cocoa powder.

Gluten-free Cocoa Breakfast Muffins
(An Ice Cream Everyday Original)
Makes 12 medium muffins

  • 1 and 1/2 cups finely ground rolled oats
  • 1 cup almond flour
  • 1/2 cup finely ground raw cacao paste
  • 1/3 cup ground flax seed
  • 1/2 cup xylitol
  • 1 teaspoon finely-ground coffee
  • 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup avocado oil (sub with an oil of your choice)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Mix dry ingredients together.
Stir in eggs, milk and oil until well-combined.
Pour into a lined cupcake tray.
Bake for about 15 minutes or until the tops of the muffins are cooked and spring back when pushed.
Enjoy as they are or with a dab of butter.

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