Pete’s Magic Muffins

These will always be known as Pete’s Magic muffins, even if I have converted them to gluten-free and significantly reduced the sugar. I can’t exactly say that I have healthified the recipe as they contain copious amounts of white chocolate and there’s no getting out of that one!

White chocolate is not really chocolate at all but a derivative of chocolate as it does not contain the cocoa solids, the nutritional constituent of chocolate liquor—chocolate in its raw, unsweetened form. During the manufacturing process, the dark-coloured solids of the cocoa bean are separated from its fatty content, as in milk, semi-sweet, and dark chocolate. But, unlike those other chocolate types, the cocoa solids are not recombined. As a result, this wonderful fat; cocoa butter, is the only cacao ingredient in white chocolate. Because it contains no cocoa solids, white chocolate lacks the antioxidant properties of dark chocolate, such as thiamine, riboflavin, and phenylethylamine. So you can’t even eat it and feel vaguely virtuous about it except that it contains trace amounts of the stimulants theobromine and caffeine, if that’s your thing!

Good quality white chocolate will contain cocoa butter that is not deodorised, retaining its lovely strong flavour and will contain some natural anti-oxidant as vitamin E, but cheaper white chocolates are deodorised via steam stripping and flavour is artificially added (usually in the form of vanilla). Fake white chocolate, known as confectioner’s coating (think yoghurt coated sultanas), is made from inexpensive solid or hydrogenated vegetable and animal fats, and are not at all derived from cocoa.

Anyhow,  real white chocolate is sweet and creamy and buttery and a delicious foil for the sharpness of the fresh strawberries in this recipe. You could substitute dark chocolate for the white and use any other berry instead of the strawberries, but this is my favourite combination.

So why are they called Pete’s magic muffins? The original recipe was gleaned from an old colleague when I worked in the art department of a local school. Peter was a fellow art teacher whose zest of life and all things creative was insatiable. He was considered by far, the coolest of teachers by the male student body!  He couldn’t believe that a recipe as simple as this, made muffins that tasted like ‘pure magic’! The original recipe had rolled oats and all-bran cereal with double the sugar – needless to say, I have made a few tweaks here and there, but I think they are still magic!

160g gluten-free SR flour

120g sorghum flour

80g rapadura sugar (or Natvia)

5 tabs flaked quinoa

60g shredded coconut

2 teas baking powder

170g white chocolate chips

4 eggs

260g milk (or nut milk)

100g oil

250g fresh strawberries, sliced

In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients together.

In the TM bowl (or in a jug) whip the wet ingredients together on SP 6 for 10 seconds. Add the mixture with the sliced strawberries to the dry ingredients and mix very lightly. It will be quite runny and lumpy.

Sprinkle the tops with a little extra sugar and bake at 170°C for about 25 minutes. It makes about 13 muffins so the recipe can easily be halved for an after school snack! They are best eaten warm out of the oven but freeze well.