Allergen Friendly Double Chocolate Muffins are free from top allergens and gluten free but not free of taste. Moist and delicious these muffins are a favourite to make for groups so everyone can enjoy them, despite food restrictions.
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These dairy free double chocolate muffins are one of our favourites. Born out of the kids' love for anything chocolate. The recipe came about from two main parts.
The first was the request of our EoE child asking for chocolate muffins like their friends at school. How could we refuse? We set off to experiment on our traditional muffins I had been baking for years and came up with the adaptations that are now our standard chocolate muffins.
Convincing the Kids to Try Allergen Friendly
The second drive in this recipe was one of our kids was struggling with the idea of giving up the foods we used to eat with some of the restrictions we needed to follow. It was a pretty drastic cut for us. We found out about the allergies and need to make the changes asap but this one child wasn't happy with the changes. They were convinced that nothing could taste good that was not the food we used to have.
We made the muffins, tweaked the recipe, made them again, and more fine tuning until we came up with this recipe. When we served them to the kids they got them individually and the child least happy with the food changes thought these were the original recipe muffins! They were so happy to tell me how good the old food is. That is when I mentioned these aren't the old recipe, they are safe for all of us and foolw our food restrictions.
They were shocked at first but after another bite they decided the new foods weren't so bad after all. It was in that moment I really felt --We did it! This isn't going to be as bad or as hard as I thought. don't get me wrong. There are still tough days, there are still long days where everything needs to be made from scratch but we lived in that moment. The perfect double chocolate muffin moment. The moment we won all the kids over to the new way of eating for us. We made food restrictions fun and tasty again.
That is what the allergen friendly double chocolate muffins means to us.
Ingredients
The double chocolate muffins use top 8 allergen free ingredients.
- Gluten Free Flour
- Cocoa powder
- Granulated, Organic Sugar
- Baking powder, Gluten Free
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Apple sauce
- Coconut oil
- Oat milk, Gluten Free
- Apple cider vinegar
- Safe Neutral oil, we use canola
- Vanilla extract
- Mini chocolate vegan chips
- Chocolate chunks
See recipe card for quantities.
Notes on Ingredients
Make sure to check your cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and oat milk are gluten free.
Finding vegan and free from top allergens chocolate chips can be difficult in Canada. We like the Enjoy Life Foods Chocolate Chunks and Chocolate Mini Chips. There are quite a few different brands in the United States, Walmart makes a line in their store brand that is safe for some with allergies. Always check the labels and with the manufacturer to make sure they are suitable for you.
Instructions
Toss the chocolate chips and chunks in 2 Tbsps flour. Mix oat milk and apple cider vinegar to form a vegan buttermilk.Melt the coconut oil so it mixes properly.
In a large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together and mix. Make a well in the middle of the mix.
In a separate medium bowl whisk all the wet ingredients together, including buttermilk and melted coconut oil. Pour the wet ingredients into the well in the dry ingredients. Mix until combined. Do not over mix.
Add in the chocolate chips and chunks. Just the chips and chunks, not the extra flour they were tossed in, reserved 2 chunks for each muffin.
Preheat the oven to 425° F. Do it here if it takes 5-10 mins to preheat your oven as you want the batter to rest in the bowl.
Fill greased muffin tins with 1 scoop of batter (we used a medium scoop and get the right amount for our tins and yield 18-20 muffins)Pop the muffins in the oven at 425°F for 2 mins then lower the heat to 350°F for 15 mins or when the skewer comes out mostly clean not totally as they will be overdone and dry.
Let muffins cool in the tins for 10 mins on a rack then turn out and let cool all the way on a wire rack.
Combine all spices into a large bowl and mix thoroughly into lean ground beef.
Hint: Using very ripe to over ripe bananas works best in this recipe to help bind the mix.
Substitutions
Oat Milk
If you cannot use oat milk or like me it is getting harder and harder to find gluten free oat milk, other kinds of plant milk can be used. We often use rice milk in place of oat in baking without any issues.
Apple Sauce
If apple sauce is not a safe food for you it can be replaced with ½ a banana for each ¼ C of apple sauce. The substitution will give the muffins a banana taste but less so than in non chocolate baked goods.
Coconut oil
Many people cannot have coconut products in addition to the top 8 allergens. In Canada it is not classified as a tree nut, so we do tend to use coconut as an ingredient and are still top 8 free. In place of coconut oil here a neutral oil like canola or rapeseed can be used, if it is safe for you. We do not recommend vegetable oil as most of the ones we have found contain soybean oil.
Variations
Mint
Around the holidays we add mint extract to the batter to flavour the muffins for a festive taste that goes well with a hot chocolate.Other flavourings can be used to reflect the different times of year.
Dried Fruit
Cherry flavouring added and dried cherries in place of the chocolate chunks will give a nice black forest flavoured muffin. Other dried fruits like blueberries, cranberries, or a chunks of fresh bananas to top instead of chocolate chunks are a a great way to jazz the muffins for different occasions.
Flavourings
We like to use the Lorann flavouring oils, which are safe for us. It is always best to check with the manufacturer if they are safe for you as they do contain natural flavours.
The amount of flavouring to get a hint of the flavouring required will vary from product to product as some need only a few drops and others need a full teaspoon. If using less than the vanilla in the recipe and omitting the vanilla add the flavouring to safe oat or rice milk to make up the quantity of vanilla replaced.
Equipment
For Mixing
The easiest way to make the Allergen Friendly Double Chocolate Muffins is to use a stand mixer. I often prefer to use it just for the ease of it. I can have it do all the work, walk away and save my energy for other things I need to do. It also makes it easy for the kids to make the muffins on their own. You don't need a stand mixer though. A hand mixer , or a spoon and bowl work well here too. They just take a bit more elbow grease, like a kitchen workout.
For Baking
We use non stick dark metal pans for our baked goods for the most part. They are what the baking times are based on. If you use shiny metal pans watch the bake closely as the gluten free double chocolate muffins will bake quicker in them.
Ceramic and stonewear baking tins take a bit longer to heat and I recommend lining them with cupcake liners if you are using one for these gluten free double chocolate muffins. The gluten free bakes tend to stick in them. We do not recommend using ceramic and stone bake wear that has been used for non allergen baking. they can retain the allergens in hard to clean spots.
We have pans we got specifically for our allergen free baking.
Storage
Store the allergen friendly double chocolate muffins in a well sealed container with a piece of paper towel. If storing the muffins in the fridge or freezer let come up to room temperature or thaw before eating for the best taste. Always let baked goods fully cool before storing to avoid extra moisture in the container. Extra moisture will shorten the shelf life of the muffins and promote mould to grow.
Counter
Store dairy free double chocolate muffins for up to 3 days on the counter in a sealed container. If moisture develops wipe it all up and store in the fridge instead.
Fridge
Store for up to one week in a sealed container in the fridge. This is our preferred and recommended method of storage for safety reasons.
Freezer
Wrapped ensure the dairy free double chocolate muffins in an extra layer of plastic wrap, to store in a freezer.
Top tip
We like to say that gluten free baking requires pampering.
What we mean is... Let the batter rest in the cooking pan for 10 mins before baking. Do this to reduce the gritty texture of some rice based flours. Before popping the gluten free double chocolate muffins let them cool in the pans for 10 mins to firm up. Removing gluten free bakes too early from their baking tin can risk them breaking apart. Letting them cool a bit and then putting the muffins on the cooling racks will allow them to firm and hold their structure.
Other Recipes You May Enjoy
Allergen Friendly Chocolate Cake
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ C Oat Milk gluten free or other vegan milk
- 2 tablespoon and ¼ teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2 cups Gluten Free Flour Cup for Cup with xanthan gum, (see notes)
- ¾ c Cocoa Powder gluten free
- 1 ¼ c Granulated Sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ C Apple Sauce
- ¼ C Coconut Oil melted
- 1 teaspoon Safe Neutral Oil we use canola
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ C Mini Chocolate Vegan Chips See notes
- ½ C Chocolate Chunks plus 40 chunks for topping
Instructions
- Mix oat milk and apple cider vinegar to form a vegan buttermilk. Set aside for 5 mins.
- Melt the coconut oil so it mixes properly. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients (Gluten Free Flour, Cocoa Powder, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, and Salt) together and mix. Make a well in the middle of the mix. Set aside. *Keep 2 Tbsps of gluten free flour to coat the chocolate chips and chunks.
- In a separate medium bowl whisk all the wet ingredients together,Oat milk with Apple cider vinegar, Melted coconut oil, Granulated sugar, Apple sauce, Vanilla extract, and Neutral oil.
- Pour the wet ingredients, into the well in the dry ingredients you had set aside.
- Mix until combined. Do not over mix.
- Toss the chocolate chips and chunks in 2 Tbsps flour.
- Add in the chocolate chips and chunks. Just the chips and chunks, not the extra flour they were tossed in, keep 2 chunks for each muffin.
- Preheat the oven to 425° F. Do it here if it takes 5-10 mins to preheat your oven as you want the batter to rest in the bowl.
- Fill greased muffin tins with 1 scoop of batter (we used a medium scoop and get the right amount for our tins and yield 18-20 muffins)
- Pop the muffins in the oven at 425°F for 2 mins then lower the heat to 350°F for 15 mins or when the skewer comes out mostly clean not totally as they will be overdone and dry.
- Let muffins cool in the tins for 10 mins on a rack then turn out and let cool all the way on a wire rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Food safety
- Always use proper heat protective oven mitts or gloves when touching hot pans
- Do not use the same utensils on allergen friendly foods as ones that have touched allergens
- Never eat raw flour or uncooked batter containing raw flour
- Never leave cooking food unattended
- Let the muffins cool as the chocolate chinks may cause burns if handled when hot
- Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
See more guidelines at USDA.gov.
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