Egg Free & Flourless Chocolate Muffins

I recently hosted some friends at my place for dinner, one of who,  has an egg allergy. If, like me, you haven't had much experience in cooking without eggs, you are probably wondering where to start?? I thought the same..... until I stumbled across a recipe to make egg free meringues, using...wait for it..... TINNED CHICKPEA WATER to replace the eggs. A handy trick to have up your sleeve... especially when you enjoy entertaining.
Apparently it works. Truthfully.. I opted no to use my guests as guinea pigs on this particular occasion, but it inspired my experiment to try to design a recipe that was a little healthier incorporating natural sugars, no egg and flourless ingredients. I love dark chocolate and have been thinking about a healthy treat to make using a raw cacao, coconut and hazelnuts and decided to combine all these ingredients to create a egg free and flourless chocolate muffin. 

You can make it dairy free too, by simply purchasing a dairy free/vegan chocolate (available at most supermarkets these days)

The end result is a dense chocolate muffin that is sure to satisfy the most desperate of chocolate cravings.

Utencils required:
Bowl, wooden/mixing spoon, 12 hole muffin tin


Ingredients: 

• 2 cups chickpea water (drained from canned chickpeas, you may require 2 cans) 
• 1 cup coconut flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup raw cacao
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup hazelnut meal
• 1 tbs coconut oil
• 3/4 cup dark chocolate buttons (ensure they are small sized button or chocolate pieces broken down to small pieces)
• 1 tbs baking powder (note: not all baking powders are gluten free, check the label for more info)
• 1 cup luke warm water  
• Olive oil spray

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
2. In a bowl stir all of the dry ingredients together.

3. Heat the coconut oil until it is warm to touch and add to the dry ingredients along with maple syrup and chickpea water.
4. Stir until all combined.

5. Add the luke warm water and stir through. The mixture must be wet but not runny. Add more water if needed.
6. Spray the olive oil into the muffin tray (you may prefer to use greaseproof patty pans. Spoon the mixture into each muffin pan,  filling to the top.

7. Place into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Note: These muffins don't rise very much when baking.

Enjoy!