Chocolate Quinoa Flax Muffins – A Healthy Halloween Treat

Holidays like Halloween really make me miss the States. In Paris, halloween is not celebrated, so it makes it difficult to get decorations, go trick-or-treating or organize a party for the children. But with some parents, we organized a trick-or-treating after school and then ended up eating some treats at our place.

The air was bitter cold, and it began to rain, but we had a lovely time running from block to block with the Parisians looking at us like in surprise.

I knew Magnus would spend the day enjoying candy corn, lollipops and other halloween treats which I did not want to deprive him of, so I prepared some muffins with chocolate and quinoa, to give an extra boost for the dressed up super-heros and princesses after a long day of celebrating.

Quinoa is a great source of protein, iron, calcium, folate and magnesium, and combined with flaxseeds, eggs and some good dark cocoa powder, the muffins contain DHA Omega 3, anti-oxidents and other good things. So it is not an empty carb-treat, and a great snack.

For some of them, I made white chocolate glaze, but most of the kids preferred them without the topping – just plain muffins with a glass of milk.

Happy Halloween!

Chocolate Quina Flax Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon ground flaxseeds

3 eggs

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup yogurt

1. Preheat oven tot 350 degrees and line muffin molds with paper or lightly grease the bottom and sides.

2. In a bowl, combine the flours, soda, flax, cocoa powder and salt.

3. In another bowl, whip the butter with the sugar until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes with a hand mixer.

4. Add the eggs one by one to the butter mixture. Then add the vanilla extract, then the yogurt.

5. Slowly combine the butter mixture with the flour mixture. When well combined, being careful not to over mix, pour the mixture into the molds.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Serve warm.

Tags: DHA Omega 3, Healthy Snacks, Muffins