My brother absolutely loves chocolate muffins, they’ve been his favourite breakfast for as long as I can remember and my mum’s been buying them for him on special occasions for just as long. Now that we’ve all got a little healthier in my family he doesn’t have them quite so often, but when he goes to stay with our mum she’ll still buy him a packet as a treat. It’s the same with Mr H and my mother in law, she always always buys him crumpets for brekkie when we come to stay, so maybe it’s something all mothers do for their grown up sons.

I used to be partial to the odd chocolate muffin too when they were on offer (although you had to be quick in our house or you’d miss out) so I wanted to create a healthier alternative that still tastes delicious but isn’t full of gluten, dairy, sugar and general processed crap. My brother’s fiance is allergic to bananas, so I wanted to make this recipe banana-free so that if she makes them for him she can enjoy them too! Sweet potatoes proved to be the perfect banana alternative as they make these muffins super moist and yummy (and I promise you can’t taste them at all)!

I really love these (Mr H does too, but maybe not as much as crumpets) – it seems a little naughty to be having such a chocolatey treat for breakfast but when you look at the ingredients you’ll see that they’re really pretty good for you and they’re great for giving your body that morning energy boost it needs! They’re also a fab take to work snack for elevenses or the 3pm slump or basically whenever!

Ingredients

• 1 cup cacao powder
• 1/2 cup porridge oats
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1 medium sweet potato (about 200g or 1 cup), peeled and chopped into small chunks 
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 flax eggs (2 tbsp flax seed left in 6 tbsp water for 5 minutes until it forms a gel)
• 1 cup dates
• 1/4 cup coconut oil 
• Optional: raw chocolate chips or melted raw chocolate to drizzle on top

Preheat the oven t0 180C. Place the sweet potato in a saucepan, cover with water then cook for 15-20 minutes on a medium heat until completely soft. Drain thoroughly and set aside. Pop the oats in a food processor or high speed blender and whizz for about a minute until they become a flour. In a mixing bowl, combine the cacao powder, oats and ground almonds and mix well, then add in the sweet potatoes and mash well, before adding  in the other ingredients and continue mixing until all smooth and lovely.

Spoon the mixture into cake or muffin cases and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a fork inserted comes out clean. Leave them to cool for a couple of minutes before you dig in and decorate with melted raw chocolate if you fancy an extra choccie fix!

Love, Mrs H xx