Dark {Recipe}

I am going through my 'diet' recipe books - to find recipes that are good enough to pass for non-diet, but also minimise the number of points I add to my weekly allowance. It usually means that I have to change the number of portions - or the way they presented. I usually try to have individual pieces rather than a whole cake - so that it is easier to stop at one piece rather than be creative about the size of my slices.  

UK peeps may remember the TV show 'cook yourself thin' that showed you how to make yummy recipes to apparently loose weight. This recipe comes from the book published after the TV show. It is supposed to be a cake for 16 people... I am not planning a big party around the one cake, so I divided by 2 the amounts, and made 9 dark chocolate muffins out of them... It is still quite a lot of points - 8 per muffin to be precise - but honestly half of one of those sorts out your chocolate fix .. AND a chocolate muffin from a store is usually around 13 points, so it is still a better deal if you are going to have one... 

The cooking time is the killer of this recipe - as well as the long list of ingredients, although except for the vanilla pod and the beetroot I had everything - I seem to accumulate ingredients.. 

So here it goes, you will need (for 9 muffins):

• 125 g dark chocolate (I tend to take 70%)
• 1 1/2 medium eggs (slightly annoying as I divided the amounts by 2)
• 125g light muscovado sugar
• 1/2 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp clear honey
• 20g self-raising flour
• 20g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 12.5g cocoa powder
• 25g ground almonds
• 125g raw beetroot, peeled and finely grated (not that easy to find, I used cooked beetroot, but it is not ideal but clearly possible)
• 50ml strong coffee (I used some nescafe, added water et voila)
• 15ml sunflower oil

for the fudge topping (which makes this a real chocolate fix)

• 75g dark chocolate
• 1 1/2 tbsp strong black coffee
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 1/2 tbsp clear honey

What to do?

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C/ fan 140 C
2. Grease your muffin cases (if needed). Melt the chocolate gently in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until all dissolved, then set aside to cool. In  a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, the scraped-out vanilla seeds, the maple syrup, and the honey for 3 minutes until pale and fluffy (I put it all in the KitchenAid to the maximum speed...).Gently fold in the flours, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cocoa and ground almonds until fully incorporated. 
3. Using some kitchen paper,dab the grated beetroot thoroughly to remove some of the excess moisture. Fold in the beetroot, cooled chocolate, coffee and oil, with the help of a spatula until thoroughly mixed together. 

4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and cook in the middle of the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes. After this time, cover the cake with foil and bake for another 30 minutes. Test the cake by inserting a skewer into the centre to see it is comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack. 
5. To make the fudge topping, melt the chocolate gently in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, then remove from heat and add the coffee and the vanilla essence. At this stage the chocolate will seize up slightly, but it will relax back once you add the honey and gently mix in. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes before icing the muffins.

I managed to take the pictures in between the rain - it feels like summer in a plate! Did you notice (one of) my latest charity shop purchase? I love that plate, and at 49p it was a bargain!