Vegan Chocolate White Bean Chia Muffins with Cherry Jam

Who doesn’t love a good muffin?!?

But many store-bought muffins contain unnecessary amount of sugar and saturated fat. Even homemade muffins tend to contain more refined sugar than they should. Hence, I am always on the look out for refined-sugar free or low sugar content muffin recipes and/or creating muffins with low sugar content, low amount of saturated fat and higher fibre content so that my body will thank me for it.

I came across this muffin recipe when I purchased chia seeds from The Chia Co. I made a few changes to the recipe to create a higher in fibre and lower in sugar content muffins. I have made these muffins now a few times. They have turned out really well every single time! They are moist, high in fibre so they are filling and have a gooey surprise in the middle (yes, that’s right a SURPRISE). And you won’t believe this but they have cannellini beans in them! These muffins are now my go-to fuel after a long run or when I am hungry.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I have. As always, let me know what you think of this recipe. If you like what you see on my blog, please follow me on this blog and/or follow me on Instagram for some food porn.

For those of you counting calories or macros, please use the table below as a guide.

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

For the muffins:

1 x 400g can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (or 1.5 cups cooked cannellini beans);
1 banana, ripe;
1 cup unsweetened almond milk;
2 tbsp. coconut oil, melted;
2 tbsp. coconut sugar;
1.5 cups self raising wholemeal flour;
1/4 cup vanilla protein powder;
1/4 cup chia seeds; and
1/4 cup vegan dark chocolate chips.

For the filling:

Homemade cherry chia jam or if you are pressed for time, any low sugar store-bought jam.

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 degree Celsius and line a muffin tray with muffin liners or grease the tray with olive oil;
In a food processor, place the cannellini beans and banana and process until the mixture is nice and creamy;
Then add the almond milk, melted coconut oil and coconut sugar to the food processor and continue to process until well combined and creamy;
In a large bowl, place the wholemeal flour, protein powder, chia seeds and chocolate chips and mix until well combined;
Then, add the cannellini-banana mixture to the bowl and stir together until well combined;
Half fill each muffin liner with the muffin batter. Then, top the muffin batter with 1-2 tsp of cherry jam. Then add 1-2 tbsp. of muffin batter on top of the cherry jam filling;
Once, you have fill each hole in the muffin tray, place the tray in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown;
Once baked, remove the tray from the oven and allow to cool completely; and
Enjoy the muffin with a cup of freshly brewed tea. The muffins can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 week.