Such a rough day I had, making 6 batches of chocolate muffins! But I am willing to make these sacrifices for my tribe...;-)
So, all of these muffins had to be dairy free, gluten free, added sugar free AND egg free. I've never done any egg free baking before, so I had to experiment with several different methods.
Here they are in all of their "chocolate-y" glory" Let me tell you a little about each.
For #1, I used "The Neat Egg". I picked this up at Meijer for $5 and some change. It's ground chia and garbanzo beans. They tasted pretty good but were quite dry. And I think this'd be a pretty expensive way to go, considering applesauce, chia seeds and flax seeds are so available and easy to work with.
For #2, I used 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce for each egg in the original recipe. This translated to 3/4 cup of applesauce which made the muffins TOO moist. I baked and baked these and they just had a hard time coming together. Was worried I was going to burn them.
#3 got 1 tbsp of ground flax meal and 3 tbsp water for each egg replaced. Reviews were mixed. However, I do like the sweet shape of heart that this particular muffin developed.
#4 had the best, most consistent reviews. I brought it down to 1/2 cup of applesauce. It was still quite moist and I had to bake it for quite a while. #4 IS OUR WINNER!
For #5, I used ground chia (did nicely from seed in the Nutri-Bullet) - 1 tbsp chia/3 tbsp water for each egg replaced. Like #1, these were quite dry.
Then for #6, I used the Banana Flour I picked up the other day and used the 1/2 cup applesauce as the egg replacement. These got moderate reviews. They didn't taste overwhelmingly "banana-ey" either.
So here's the winning recipe. Congratulations, applesauce!
Egg Free (Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Added Sugar Free) Dark Chocolate Banana Muffins
Ingredients:
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup mashed bananas (I can't say 1 or 2 bananas, as they vary in size)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix all ingredients together. Put in muffin cups and bake for 20-30 minutes. Enjoy!
I've got plans to work on more muffins soon, so stay tuned! (Salsa Muffins are my next victim, I mean experiment.")
And thanks to Christa at "That Nutrition Blog" for the original recipe!