Monday, March 8, 2010

Let Me Twist Your Arm


I may be mild-mannered in most respects, but I do possess one skill which borders on super-hero quality - I'm really good at rationalizing. If you're on a budget, you don't want to go shopping with me. I have freakish powers of persuasion when it comes to getting friends to buy things they want but know they shouldn't spend the money on. I can set out a line of reasoning which, when followed to the end, leads to the inevitable conclusion that to buy the dress (purse, shoes, handbag, or 20 lb. brick of chocolate) is not only reasonable, it's downright sensible.

I know that I must use my super-power only for good, so I try to reign it in when I know friends are really attemptin to watch their pennies. But my super skill is not limited to shopping; it carries over to eating.

I was the first person I knew to propose that chocolate is actually health food. Long before there was all this talk of antioxidants, I held that chocolate came from beans, and everyone knows beans are an important component of a healthy diet. Therefore, it was prudent to include chocolate in your diet every day.


Everyone knows muffins are healthy, right? Cupcakes are decadent treats, but muffins are just bundles of nutrition, appropriate for any time of day. But if you add chocolate to the muffins, you're making it super food, the dietary equivalent of a bullet train, speeding nutrition and antioxidants to your body. And if you add chocolate in three forms, plus buttermilk, plus whole wheat flour, well, don't walk to the kitchen to make these - RUN!

Double Chocolate Chocolate Muffins
- adapted from The Complete Muffin Cookbook

1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
6 Tbsp cocoa powder
1-1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup coarsely chopped milk chocolate

1-3/4 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract



1- Preheat the oven to 400 deg. F. Grease a muffin tin. This recipe yields 12 big muffins or 18-24 average size muffins.

2- Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the chocolate chips and chopped chocolate and sitr to combine.

3- Whisk the wet ingredients in a medium bowl or blend in a food processor. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture. Stir just until mixed. Do not overstir.

4- Spoon the batter into a greased muffin tin. Fill each cup nearly to the top.

5- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

6- Cool the muffins at least 10 minutes before removing from the tin.

25 comments:

Dolce said...

Being a bean, chocolate is a vegetable so yes, it is healthy and we need to eat at least 5 servings of vegetable a day, right? ;)

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

I have no need to be convinced of the healthy properties of chocolate Lynn:D

Marysol said...

Lynn, no arm twisting is necessary, when you're equipped with chocolaty super powers. And a Double Chocolate Muffin is quite the weapon.


So thanks for proposing chocolate as a health food. I'm with you 100%.


And while you're at it, could you be a dear, and nominate Bacon as health food? Thanks.

Roving Lemon said...

I like the way you think...although I will definitely not be taking you along the next time I go to Target!

Jennifer Jo said...

Your reasoning ROCKS!

Melinda said...

You're my kind of woman.
(Snicker bars are packed full of peanut protein energy. I can rationalize chocolate too.)
Your healthy muffins would do me loads of good.

Katrina said...

Ow Ow, Ouch, my arm, my arm, stop....I agree there must be some chocolate in your arsenal everyday! ;)

Aimée said...

I'll take a dozen, please, no arm-twisting required!

Unknown said...

I am so that person too! I convince everyone to buy and eat things that they know they shouldn't

Kitchen Corner said...

Delicious chocolate muffins! Yes, dark chocolate is good for us. I like those recipe with dark chocolate which will add a bit of goodness to my body.

Anonymous said...

I think I'd like shopping with you! I definitely track with that kind of logic :-) Beautiful, rich-looking muffins -- I can taste the chocolate from here!

Homemade Heaven said...

I have a rubber arm when it comes to muffins - hence my muffin top!

grace said...

"the dietary equivalent of a bullet train"--ha!
phenomenal post, lynn--i laughed, i nodded, i sighed, and my tummy growled. no arm-twisting required here. :)

Anonymous said...

When I first read your blog title, I got slightly worried-had someone made you so mad that you wanted to hurt themn?

Then I realized thst we both have the uncanny ability to make everything seem more logical than it alredy is. My friends now know that budget shopping with me isn't the most effective and diets really don't exist.

Love chocolate, I mean, beans, for breakfast!

Barbara said...

Always been a fine line between muffins and cupcakes...but I'm going with your definition. Besides, with canola oil, whole wheat flour and healthy chocolate, this can be considered good for you. A must, in other words. And a good excuse to eat chocolate for breakfast!

CookiePie said...

Um, I do not need convincing when it comes to those muffins. Pass them right over!

Anh said...

Chocolate muffins are my things. I actually prefer the texture of muffins (more rustic?) than cupcakes. Plus I never like the icing and deco in cupcakes anyway.

Cindy said...

We think alike! These look yummy!

kickpleat said...

Wow, those are some serious powers! I like that they are healthy because of the ww flour, right? Looks delicious, regardless!!

Bruce Craig said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bruce Craig said...

Advice for the day "With great power comes great responsibility".

The Blonde Duck said...

Ben is going to love me forever when I make these.

Elle said...

best health food I've seen in a long time :) Sound totally yummy and layer of chocolate flavor make them irrisistable.

Abby said...

How could it EVER be considered ridiculous to buy a 20-pound brick of chocolate? Of course we all need one of those. (No joke!)

And I have the opposite shopping power. Together we could be a force to be reckoned with...

eatme_delicious said...

Haha great rationalizing. ;) These muffins don't look too too unhealthy actually.