{"id":4592,"date":"2014-04-03T05:55:56","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T12:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oneingredientchef.com\/?p=4592"},"modified":"2017-02-18T13:53:30","modified_gmt":"2017-02-18T21:53:30","slug":"orange-hazelnut-muffins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oneingredientchef.com\/orange-hazelnut-muffins\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Orange Hazelnut White Chocolate Muffins"},"content":{"rendered":"

What we’re doing here is illegal on SO many levels. Not only do these muffins break some important laws of baking, it’s generally accepted that anything this delicious (and healthy) must<\/em> be illegal in some way…<\/p>\n

These muffins start out innocent enough with a simple base of whole wheat flour infused with orange and hazelnut, but they soon take a few wild turns. Instead of adding lots of sugar, they’re sweetened mostly with pureed dates. And (stay with me) the only fat we’re using is from cacao butter \u2013 you know, the part of the cocoa bean that is used to make white chocolate.<\/p>\n

\"Orange<\/p>\n

Cacao butter might be one of my all-time favorite ingredients both for its taste and versatility. I mean, the fact that it has the flavors, aromas, and mouthfeel of chocolate is good enough. But it is also an incredibly interesting fat that is solid at room temperature, making it ideal for many vegan baking applications.<\/p>\n

So these incredible muffins don’t have any white chocolate, per se, but they taste like white chocolate because of the cacao butter, which we’re using in a very particular way… If you simply melted this stuff down and added it into the batter, it would cause problems. The butter is rock hard at room temperature and the muffins would turn out very hard and rubbery once they cooled. But what we’re doing is chopping it into tiny chunks that melt in the oven just as the batter is rising, thus bathing these orange hazelnut muffins with the melt-in-your mouth flavors of white chocolate from the inside out. And lest you think these are really unhealthy, the total fat content is lower than if we used typical oil, while the sugar is kept to a minimum by using dates. Win-win-win. <\/p>\n

The thing is, cacao butter can be notoriously difficult to source. Even though I live in a pretty large city with plenty of healthy options, this is one ingredient I’ve rarely been able to find locally. Thankfully, my friends at Vitacost.com<\/a> sent me an entire block of the Navitas brand Raw Cacao Power<\/a> and I’m overjoyed:<\/p>\n

\"Cacao<\/p>\n

Vitacost also sponsored this recipe and sent along the vanilla<\/a>, flaxseed<\/a>, and hazelnuts<\/a> used here. I like shopping at Vitacost because they’re like your local supermarket, except they have everything you can never find, cheaper prices, and free shipping on orders over $49. For cooks who use some unusual ingredients (Andrew raises his hand), Vitacost.com<\/a> is a great place to find these things.<\/p>\n

Makes 12 muffins<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Ingredients:<\/h4>\n
\n