Chocolate Avocado Muffins

An Outrageously Good Low Carb Recipe I Accidentally Created at 11:30pm…

[WARNING: There is a long lead-in to this chocolate avocado muffins recipe for good reason. Grab a drink and read on…]

It was 11:30pm one Monday evening and there I was like a frantic mad woman, melting (almost burning) some organic Ghanaian 100% dark chocolate on my hob, whilst simultaneously trying to beat some eggs and mash avocado. 

I should have been going to bed but I decided to innocuously look in my fridge, just to peek at what I had in there and have a quick think about lunch and dinner for the next day. 

Hmm, eggs and mushrooms…omelette for lunch maybe?
Quite a lot of green veg left, maybe I could make a big soup, or a smoothie…

Oh hold, on – do I have any avocados? (Obviously avos are a smoothie staple in my keto alkaline kitchen.)

[Laura rummages around in the back of her fridge.]

Arghh!!! How did THAT happen??!

I found 6, yes SIX, overripe avocados lurking in a brown paper bag, like an alcoholic’s cider stash, right at the bottom underneath some lemons and spinach.

These were organic avocados too – you know, like $20 each (well, ok – $2 maybe).

One of my pet peeves as a fresh-foodie is produce going off. Every time I throw away a moulding banana or wilting lettuce, it feels like I’m burying a friend. And avocados are right up there in the food spoilage heartbreak stakes…

I can’t remember how many times I’ve patiently waited for my little green superfoods to soften and ripen, only to discover that I left it a day or so too long and they’d turned into a brown mush.   

This time around, I was not standing for it. I still had a window of opportunity of about 24 hours to get these into an emergency recipe and eaten soon after. The question was, what?

I couldn’t smoothie all six of them – I’d have to drink the most gigantic green smoothie ever, to the exclusion of most else and I just couldn’t face it…despite my spell as a raw vegan and veteran of Jason Vale’s juice diets. 

Guacamole? Salad? Same problem.

Hmm, what about avocado muffins? Chocolate avocado muffins even?

No, it’d never work. There’s too many of them. I have no recipe. I’m tired.

Right, I’m doing this!

In 5 minutes I determined that I’d be using organic eggs, almond flour, coconut sugar, stevia, baking soda, my best dark choc (another risk, since there was a high chance it could all end up in the bin) and the offending avocados. 

This was no time for overthinking, it was time for action. And then bed!

I was going for broke: If it went wrong, I’d be $15 worse off and have washing up to do in the wee hours of the morning, whilst lamenting the waste of a whole load of other perfectly good ingredients, as well as the original six avocados…

But, if it worked, I’d have some naturally healthy, chocolatey, low carb muffins and the weirdly high satisfaction that I get from trying a new recipe and it being a winner…AND I’d have a tasty treat for my 40th birthday in two days time!

So I mashed the avos, melted the choc, beat the eggs and threw it all in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients and gave it a good mix. It took 7 minutes tops. 

I had a *teeny* taste, just enough to affirm that it had a sweet flavour and reasonable consistency: It was almost midnight and that dark chocolate is potent, yo! The last thing I wanted after the shenanigans of a very-likely-to-fail recipe was insomnia.

So I poured the mix into my muffin trays and into the oven they went. I whacked it up to about 180 degrees (another quick guess and act of wild culinary abandonment) and left them for 20 minutes.

As I washed my dishes I prayed for them. Yep, I’m that type of person who actually prays to God for all the things. Hey, if the Lord of all creation can’t bake a good muffin, who can? 

20 minutes was up. I opened the oven and took them out. 

They looked pretty good. They had that nice egg wash type sheen on top of them and they were very dark brown…but in the low light I couldn’t be 100% sure that I’d not burnt them. So I tipped them out of their muffin cases onto a plate. Turned the light off, shut the kitchen door and went to bed.

After my Bible reading and prayers the next morning (and it was hard to concentrate on both), I went into the kitchen to see how my little baked fancies had turned out.

In the daylight, I saw that they were not burnt – they looked very appealing and smelt great.

Ok, so we need to actually try these things! 

I took a bite. Dear Lord, it was food heaven. Indeed, very chocolatey, moist, sweet, rich and velvety, just the right sweetness, density and consistency.
A huge WIN!

I briefly considered if a butter icing or chocolate cream cheese frosting would be the literal icing on the cake, but decided absolutely NOT. These were near perfection as they were, naked, unadulterated and supremely delicious.

The next day was my 40th birthday, yeay! If nothing else, when reflecting on my life thus far, I could say that I’d ticked the box of ‘awesome impromptu chocolate muffin maker’ at this grand old age, phew!

But I did wonder if other people would agree? I had seven more muffins to dispatch of today…

I met my mum for a lovely afternoon walk by the sea and she tried one…and loved it!

Later that evening, after a lovely meal/party with my church family, I gave one each to my friends Matt, Simon and Monsef.

They LOVED them. So much so, Matt felt compelled to message me the next morning…

The next question was; could I make them again, since I threw the ingredients together and guesstimated each amount?

Well, after a couple more re-runs of the chocolate avocado muffins, I’m relieved to say that I found the measurements that gave the same taste and consistency as that first rogue batch.

I tried making it with erythritol instead of coconut sugar too – to make it keto-compatible. That works too, just not quite as delectable.

So these muffins were a win and a big crowd pleaser…My 40s began swimmingly I’d say 🙂

You should definitely try these. Not only are they DEEE-LICIOUS, they are supremely healthy – much more so than originally meets the eye.

How so? Let’s take a look…

The healthy ingredients in these chocolate avocado muffins…

Avocados – A great source of mono-unsaturated fats, plus a boatload of potassium. Remember, most people are vastly potassium-deficient. Each avo has 1,000mg which will bump up your daily amount, which needs to be around 3,500-4,700mg per day. (If you’re not eating avocados for Potassium, where are you getting it from? Bananas only have around 400mg.)

Eggs – High in good-quality protein, saturated fat, iron, vitamins D, B6, B12, selenium, zinc and disease-fighting lutein and zeaxanthin.

Almond flour – Contains lots of healthy polyunsaturated fats, protein, a good source of Magnesium, Vitamin E and Manganese.

Coconut sugar – Contains iron, zinc, calcium and potassium, along with some short-chain fatty acids and antioxidants. It’s also low GI and is wayyyyy better for you than regular sugar, for a million reasons, not least because it contains inulin fiber, which slows glucose absorption.

Stevia – Probably the best of the few safe and healthy natural sweeteners with zero calories, zero glycemic load and is around 300 times sweeter than sugar. A little goes a long way and it helps to boost the sweetness and complement the coconut sugar, but keeps the recipe low carb.

And as important as what’s in them is what’s NOT in them – sugar, flour, soya, industrial seed oils (such as rapeseed, vegetable, soybean, canola oil etc). Because of this, they are anti-inflammatory and won’t cause big blood sugar spikes like regular baked goods.

[ASIDE: You can read more about what low carb and keto foods to eat and avoid here.]

And did I mention, these avocado chocolate muffins are totally delightful to your tastebuds?!

You could adapt this recipe too to make chocolate avocado brownies or a flourless avocado chocolate cake…Probably just throw the same mixture into a loaf tin? (Let me know if you try this and it works out, or not!)

Try adding some frosting (if you really must) to make a delicious low-carb chocolate birthday cake?

It’s so good, I found myself daydreaming about setting up a cake shop and exclusively selling these muffins – and it made millions in my mind! (If you steal my idea, at least consider calling your shop ‘Laura’s’?)

Anyway, here’s the recipe. You’re welcome.

The Recipe – Keto Chocolate Avocado Muffins

Low Carb/Keto Chocolate Avocado Muffins

Ingredients:
3.5 oz/100g 100% dark chocolate
4 very ripe avocados
3 eggs
3.5 oz/100g almond flour
2.5 oz/70g coconut sugar (or erythritol to make it keto)
10 drops liquid stevia (or another 30g of coconut sugar)
1 heaped tsp baking soda (gluten and aluminium-free variety)
1/2 tsp of salt
dash of vanilla essence

Directions:
1. Melt the chocolate in a bain marie (posh name for a bowl in a pan of boiling water).
2. Peel and mash the avocados.
3. Beat in the eggs.
4. Add in the melted chocolate and the rest of the ingredients and mix well. 
5. Spoon into muffin cases and bake at 160°C/320°C for 20 minutes (or until a knife through middle of a muffin comes out clean).
6. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Oh and I have a whole recipe book bundle on special offer – you get these three books for the price of one (80% off):

#1: SUGAR-FREE CHOCOLATE DESSERTS RECIPE BOOK
#2: SUGAR-FREE COOKIES RECIPE BOOK
#3: SUGAR-FREE MUFFINS RECIPE BOOK

You can download my Free Quit Sugar Plan and then you’ll be taken to the info page, or you can go straight to the Sugar Free Dessert Recipe 80% off bundle here. 

Oh and when you try this chocolate avocado muffins recipe, be sure to leave a comment with your thoughts – do you love them as much as me and my friends? 

I think you will!
Laura “impromptu chocolate muffin maker extraordinaire” Rimmer