Desserts
Sour Cherry Dark Chocolate Muffins
These muffins are so yum! And they have two of my favourite ingredients, sour cherries and dark chocolate. Sour cherries are loaded with the phytochemical anthocyanins, which have been shown to dampen down inflammation in the body. Sour cherries are also a natural source of melatonin and have been shown to help with insomnia. I used green banana flour in this recipe as it is a great source of resistant starch. Resistant starch resists digestion, so instead of getting absorbed into the blood stream and elevating your blood sugar, it goes into the colon and gets fermented by the gut bacteria instead (making it low GI). Our gut bacteria LOVE resistant starch and they ferment it into short chain fatty acids which are great for our health. And of course this recipe has dark chocolate, a great source of polyphenols which are great for heart health.
Ingredients
Makes 12 muffins
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
3/4 cups green banana flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups milk (dairy, soy, or almond)
1/2 cup macadamia nut oil
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla paste
1 1/2 cups jarred pitted sour cherries (Morello), drained
85 grams dark chocolate chips
1 tablespoon rapadura sugar
Directions
Preheat oven to 190°C. Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with with cooking spray; set aside.
Mix the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
Whisk the milk, oil, egg, and vanilla together in a medium bowl until combined.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix with a rubber spatula until just combined. It is ok if there are some lumps. Fold in the sour cherries and chocolate chips.
Pour the batter into the muffin wells. Sprinkle each muffin top with 1/4 teaspoon rapadura sugar.
Bake until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean, around 17 to 20 minutes.
Cool the muffins in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.