Double Chocolate and Coconut Muffins

Saturday. Late afternoon.
A rainy and homely afternoon.
The house is unusually quiet: M.'s playing around the dining room feeding and nursing dolls and puppets.
In a few hours a couple of friends and their 4-year-old kid will come over for dinner and I'd like to cook a special but simple treat for the children and parents.
“Shall we make chocolate muffins?”, I suggest.
My daughter's face brightens up.
“May I help you, mum?”, she asks, opening the cupboard and looking for muffin paper cases.
She loves weighing ingredients, greasing the muffins tray, and – above all – licking the spoon after I pour the melted chocolate into the batter...
It is something my mother allowed me to do when I was a little girl, and I still remember that moment as the best part of it all...the moment I looked forward to... I guess it's the same for my daughter...

This is a simple, lactose-free recipe. Once cooked, you can keep the muffins in a tin for 3 or 4 days. Just in case you don't eat them all in the first 24 hours...

Ingredients (for 12 muffins):

flour: 1 and ½ cup (230 gr.)
eggs: 2
blond sugar cane: ¼ cup (100 gr.)
sunflower oil: ½ cup
oat milk drink: ½ cup
(or, alternately unsweetened soya milk)
coconut cream: 2 tablespoons (45-60 gr)
dark chocolate: 60 gr, melted
baking powder: 2 teaspoons, scant
cocoa powder: 4 tablespoons
coconut powder: 2 tablespoons (for garnish)

Preheat the oven to 200° C. Lightly grease a 12-hole muffin tray and line with muffin paper cases.

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a large bowl.

Place the eggs, the sugar, the coconut cream and oil in the food processor bowl and whisk until frothy, then gradually whisk in the milk and the melted chocolate. Pour the dry ingredients into the food processor bowl and blend until the ingredients are combined but the batter is still lumpy.

Spoon mixture into muffin cases and put the tray in the oven for at least 20 minutes until the muffins are dark and cracked at the top (a cake tester inserted into centre should come out clean).

Gently remove the muffins and cool on a wire rack.

Dust with coconut powder and serve.