If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past couple of weeks, it’s that a global pandemic drives people to bake banana bread. A WHOLE LOT OF BANANA BREAD. But what on earth do you when a childhood of mashed banana sandwiches (Mum, if you’re reading, you know I’m not making it up) leads to an in-built revulsion of all things banana flavoured for the rest of your life?
You bake something else, that’s what. I love how resourceful people are being, no longer taking for granted that we’ll find what we want in the shops, rather utilising what we find. I did a kitchen cupboard inventory (along with the entire nation I’m sure) and realised I had a lot of buckwheat flour, slightly expired and lying idle.
Turning to google, I searched for buckwheat recipes and ignored the 1,000 buckwheat pancake options until I came across this recipe from Wallflower Kitchen for Double Chocolate Vegan Buckwheat Muffins. Say WHAT NOW? And I decided to give them a go, with a few adjustments since I couldn’t find exactly what I was after in the shops.
Now, I’ve linked the original recipe but will give my version below. A word if you’re unused to either vegan baking or the taste of buckwheat flour. Buckwheat and cocoa powder can be quite a strong, almost earthy combination. These muffins whilst delicious will not be the same as the uber sweet ones you’d find in a coffee shop – vegan baking rarely is. It’s just about an adjustment of taste.
And lastly, apologies that I don’t use those fancy recipe layouts for blog posts and obviously, I’m NEVER going to be a food blogger. The images are just ya know, standard because taking pretty photos of homes is more my thing.
Double Chocolate Vegan Buckwheat Muffins – makes 6
Ingredients:
- 85 g buckwheat flour
- 50 g ground almonds or almond flour
- 4 tbsp arrowroot powder
- 4 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder (you can use gluten free here if you prefer)
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 80 ml vegetable oil
- 80 ml maple syrup, or agave nectar
- 120 ml boiled water
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 100 g dark chocolate chips or if you can’t find those I bought dark chocolate and just chopped it into small pieces
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. We have a fan only oven so I set it for 170. Oil a muffin tin or if you prefer to use cases go for it. I didn’t have any so went just with oiling.
- Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl until well combined
- In a smaller bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine thoroughly
- Lastly, mix through the chocolate into the cake mixture making sure it’s evenly distributed
- Spoon the mixture evenly between the muffin cases
- Bake for approximately 20 minutes, I checked mine at 15 as I didn’t know what the fan would do and ended up baking for around 23 minutes using a cake tester to check once it came out clean
- Leave to cool – if you’re baking them directly in the tray you may just want to edge round with a sharp knife whilst still warm so they’re easier to remove later
Enjoy with a cup of your favourite tea! I baked these on Monday and they’re still going strong on Thursday so should last a good few days unless you eat them all beforehand 😉
With thanks once again to Wallflower Kitchen for the inspiration.
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