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Monday, January 19, 2009

Chocolate "Dirt" Muffins


The thing about belonging to a CSA (community supported agriculture) is that you get to try new things. Like, root vegetables that taste like dirt, according to my husband. He hates beets. Or so he says. This morning he ate no less than seven Chocolate "Dirt" Muffins, as he calls them, so he must not hate them too much. (He said the butter he slathered on helped.)

Last winter, some of the beets that came in our produce box ended up feeding the compost bins. I felt bad about that, but couldn't figure out how to eat them all myself. Then I started adding them to my Roast Chicken and Root Veggies recipe. Yum! My mom made sure she was always around to help me gobble up the beets, since Scott and the boys wouldn't touch them.

We got three more in our box this week, and I wanted to finally try a recipe posted on our CSA's website for Rich Chocolate Beet Muffins. Sounds weird, I know, but they were a HUGE hit! Who wouldn't want chocolate muffins for breakfast? My middle son said I should make them instead of chocolate cake for dessert sometime. Now that's kid approval! I'm actually going to plant beets this year!

So, here you go. I started last night by halving three beets, and roasting them in the oven, cut-side down in a glass pan with 1/2 inch of water, for 75 minutes at 400 degrees. Then I scooped them out of their peel and pureed them this morning.

Chocolate "Dirt" Muffins

2 1/2 cups beets, pureed
1/2 cup water or reserved beet juice (if you boil instead of roasting)
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat Oven to 350ยบ. Line muffin tins with paper or grease them. In a large bowl, combine beet puree, beet juice or water, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. In a separate bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add the beet mixture, chocolate chips and nuts to the flour mixture.

The batter will be maroon in color but the cooked product will be dark fudgey brown. Fill muffin tins ¾ full and bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Makes two dozen. You may use 2 loaf pans as an alternative and make sweet bread instead of muffins.

I used my mini muffin pan instead, baked them for 10 minutes, and made 60 little muffins, which we gobbled up with scrambled eggs (from our hens) and kiwi (also from our CSA box).

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:07 AM

    Oh, no! Now, I'd like to find some way to get my hubby to eat eggplant. I did convert him to sweet potatoes lately, though.

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  2. My hubby wouldn't eat eggplant, either, until I made my version of eggplant parmesan. I bread and fry up the eggplant, use my own roasted tomato sauce, and use LOTS of cheese. YUM!

    What did you use for sweet potatoes? My kids still won't eat them!

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  3. Hey! I didn't get one. I live right next door and there wasn't at least one muffin left for good ole Mom? Boy, they must have been good for you not to share one with me.

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  4. Anonymous2:59 PM

    I'm with your husband on the beets tasting like dirt. Hehe. :) But maybe I'd like these muffins.

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  5. You weren't home, silly! And they were on top of the fridge all afternoon!

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  6. Those sound really good. I will have to look for some beets at the farmers market Saturday.

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  7. Ok, now you've given me one more incentive to join a CSA...I was always afraid of what to do with the veggies (and beets were at the top of the list) that we didn't normally eat. Guess I just need to sign up and depend on the internet (and you:) for recipes!

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  8. Thanks for the muffins this morning. They were truly delicious. I would have never known that they had beets in them, if you hadn't told me. Simply delicious!

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  9. beets are yummy.

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  10. wha??? kiwi in a csa box?!? that is amazing!
    so i too had to make a kid/husband friendly beet dish. i made a beet chocolate cake. and it was fantastic! probably a lot like your yummy muffins. (i have the recipe somewhere on my blog if you want it)
    also- we've been getting kohlrabi and turnips. so here's my new favorite winter recipe:
    roast sweet potatoes and your other csa root veggies. you can even throw in broccoli and cabbage if you want. roast in a covered pan with a slightly peeled (just the top layer) whole head of garlic. roast on 400 for about 45 minutes. pull out and remove garlic. squeeze out the garlic into 3/4 cup greek (or just a tangy) yogurt. add some olive oil, salt, pepper to taste. serve over brown rice with garlic sauce drizzled. SOOO delicious! my 4 year old said 'can we have this every night!?!' so yeah, really good!
    sorry for the longest comment ever

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  11. We're so spoiled in CA. We really do get kiwi in our CSA box -- in the middle of winter!

    And Mandi, your roast veggie recipe sounds delicious!

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  12. Yum Yum Yum!! I can't wait to try these. By the way, I can't find a button to follow your blog? Do you know how to add one? If not, I'd love you clicked it on my blog so then I can automatically get updates in blogger dashboard to read your new posts! Thanks and take care.
    Warmly, Kat

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