Cho-co-conut mini-muffins for snack time (vegan, whole-wheat)

 

Summer holidays are here! That means kids are always asking for more snacks, and they do not get tired at all. Makes me exhausted and long for the beginning of the school year again!

One way I engage my kids is while baking. Yes, they do make a mess of things at times. My 3-year-old plays with cupcake liners all the time, bends them out of shape. Once he almost closed the oven door on my hand when I was taking out a hot muffin pan. 😦 My daughter and I sometimes wait till he naps, which is not very likely these days, since he is getting out of that stage. The television is a good short-term distraction; at other times we just let him play with favorite kitchen utensils while we’re busily mixing batter on one side. But of course, he wants to get involved. It is an adventure! In the end, if the baked product comes out well and they love it, it somehow makes the effort worth it.

The past few days, I had some fresh coconuts with me. Decided to make mini-muffins with chocolate flavor. They turned out really delicious! I’m taking these sweet treats to Fiesta Friday #19.

Here’s a quick tutorial on making fresh shredded coconut: Use a knife to take out chunks of coconut from a coconut broken in two. Use a peeler or knife to remove the brown outer layer from the pieces.

Use a good blender to shred.

I used 3/4 cup of this in the muffins and stored the rest in the freezer.

Here’s the coconut added to the wet mixture.

A peek in the oven before baking:

cho-co-conut mini-muffins

• Servings: 20
• Time: 40 minutes
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

fresh/frozen shredded coconut- 3/4 cup; 66 g

whole wheat pastry flour- 1 cup; 116 g

cocoa powder (unsweetened)- 1/4 cup; 20 g

baking powder- 1/2 tbsp.

salt- a pinch

unsweetened applesauce- 1/2 cup

almond milk- 4 tbsp.

oil- 1/4 cup

raw sugar- 1/2 cup

vanilla extract- 2 tsp.

 Method:

* Preheat oven to 350 °F. In a mixing bowl add applesauce, oil, raw sugar, vanilla extract, nut milk. Stir to dissolve sugar. Stir in shredded coconut.

* Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt) in another bowl. Add dry to wet mixture.

* Line a mini muffin tray with parchment cups and spoon batter into it three-quarters full.

* Lightly sprinkle shredded coconut on top.

* Bake for 25-27 minutes.

* After cooling well, store in an airtight box for up to 3 days.