Double Chocolate Avocado Muffins

Today I’m sharing with you my favorite chocolate muffin recipe, but with a small change. These muffins are rich, moist, chocolatey, and they are made a little healthier with the use of fresh, California Avocados.

One of my favorite ways to use avocados is as a baking substitute for butter or oil. The rich flavors California Avocado won’t interfere, in fact the baked goods taste just as delicious (sometimes even better in my opinion!). Substituting California Avocado for butter reduces the calories and fat in your baked goods. Plus you also gain all the nutritional benefits that exist in avocados. 

For best results, I usually do a half substitution. You can do a 1:1 substitution, but because avocado doesn’t spread as much as butter, I sometimes have to adjust the other recipe ingredients if I try to do a 1:1 (avocado:butter) substitution. However, the baked goods bake up virtually the same with the half substitution.

To substitute, if a recipe calls for ½ cup butter, you use ¼ cup butter and ¼ cup mashed California Avocado instead. Everything else stays the same as you just need to make sure that your avocado is fully pureed into the batter. I combine the mashed avocado with the other liquid ingredients in the recipe and mix it in a blender until smooth to ensure that there are no little chunks of avocado in the batter.

Substituting out ¼ cup butter might not sound like much, but it actually makes a big difference. ¼ cup of butter has approximately 407 calories and 46 grams of fat. In comparison, ¼ cup of avocado yields approximately 92 calories and 8 grams of fat. 

These are some of the prettiest double chocolate muffins I’ve ever baked. The avocado substitute actually seemed to make the chocolate look darker, glossier and richer too.  
So next time you are about to make one of your favorite baked goods, try substituting out some of that oil or butter for avocado and see for yourself!

Double Chocolate Avocado Muffins Recipe

Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients

• ⅔ cup dutch process cocoa powder
• 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
• 1 ¼ cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup fat free milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp vinegar
• ¼ cup melted unsalted butter
• ¼ cup mashed avocado
• 1 cup + ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with muffin/cupcake liners.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk together until completely combined.
3. Add eggs, milk, vanilla, vinegar, butter and avocado to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into flour mixture and whisk until batter is smooth. Stir in 1 cup of chocolate chips. 
4. Using a large ice cream scoop, divide batter evenly amongst the 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle tops of the muffins with the remaining chocolate chips, pushing them half-way into the batter.
5. Bake for about 20-23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.