Cacao banana maca muffins

These marbled muffins are sweet, moist and very delicious. Vegan (as always), refined sugar free and easily made gluten free if you sub the spelt flour for buckwheat or gluten free oat flour.

I included organic cacao powder and maca powder for an extra boost. Raw cacao is made by cold pressing unroasted cocoa beans. This process means the living enzymes in the cocoa are maintained but it removes the fat (cacao butter). Cocoa powder is made when raw is roasted at high temperatures. This changes the structure of the cocoa bean, reducing the enzyme content and lowering the overall nutritional value. Basically cacao means you can get the most health benefits from chocolate, which has to be a good thing! Maca is a great energiser, mood enhancer and balances hormones. It also has a gentle caramel flavour that really works in these muffins. I love the stuff!

I’d love to hear what you think if you try this recipe, it’s a firm favourite here!

Recipe – Makes 12 muffins

• 3 large mashed very ripe bananas (about 1 cup)
• 3/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 2 tsp Organic Burst Maca powder
• 1/3 cup non dairy mylk (I used almond)
• 1 1/2 cups spelt flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp himalayan pink salt
• 4 tbsp cacao powder
• 6 tbsp boiling water

1. Boil kettle and preheat oven to 180•c. Line or grease your muffin tin.
2. Mix mashed bananas, coconut sugar, coconut oil, almond mylk, maca and vanilla in a large bowl until smooth.
3. Mix spelt flour, baking soda and salt in gently. Don’t overmix- it’s okay if you can still see some flour.
4. Put one cup of batter into a small bowl. Mix in four tbsp of cacao and three tbsp of boiling water with fork. Add another three tbsp of boiling water to the original banana batter and mix well.
5. Put 2 tbsp at a time into each muffin case/tin until the mixture is evenly distributed. Swirl through a chopstick or knife to make pretty swirl patterns.
6. Bake in your preheated oven for 20-22 minutes, or until a chopstick comes out clean. Cool and enjoy, or eat slightly warm with peanut butter (couldn’t help myself).