These Chocolate Beet Muffins are a real surprise! The beets make these muffins incredibly moist and hearty. The earthy flavor of the beets highlight the rich chocolate taste. It’s the perfect breakfast muffin with a dose of vegetable and touch of chocolate.
Here’s a secret when you’re the main cook in the household. Booby trapping food can give you so much joy!
My husband hates the combination of fruit and meat (ie. pork and apples). If you tell him the meal had fruit and meat in it, no matter how fancy schmancy the meal was, or no matter how many hours I spent cooking the meal, he automatically won’t touch it.
These Chocolate Beet Muffins are packed with beets, which give it its scarlet hue
So it became a thing to booby trap his food. If I made meatloaf, I would grate an apple into it.
When I made turkey for Thanksgiving, I filled the unseen cavity with oranges, apples and cranberries. When I made ham, I infused it with pineapple juice. Little did he know, it became a game for me to see how much fruit I could hide in his food before he noticed.
This recipe for Chocolate Beet Muffins is a real booby trap because it looks like it could be an unfrosted red velvet cupcake.
But instead, the muffin is packed with beets, which give it its scarlet hue. The beets also makes these muffins so moist and hearty, so don’t be expecting a fluffy muffin that’s light as a cloud and will leave you hungry an hour later.
Chocolate Beet Muffins make a delicious breakfast for the entire family
The secret ingredient makes this Chocolate Beet Muffin breakfast worthy and a bit healthier than a red velvet cupcake too. The beets add a natural sweetness, meaning there is less sugar in the recipe as compared to a red velvet cupcake, and you get a dose of vegetables to start the day.
You can see in the picture of the ingredients above that I grated the beets into rather long strips. I preferred it this way because it kept the texture of the beets in the muffin.
If you wanted to, you could grate the beets into smaller pieces to make it less obvious that the muffin is packed with grated beets.
I have to point out that the earthy flavor of the beets does run through these Chocolate Beet Muffins. So while it looks like a red velvet, it has a more complex taste that is carried by the shredded beets, though complemented by the chocolate.
The beets add a natural sweetness to these muffins and you get a dose of vegetables to start the day
This isn’t a red velvet knock-off, so keep in mind that if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it doesn’t always mean it’s a duck. Beware of the booby traps! ;)
Chocolate Beet Muffins
These Chocolate and Beet Muffins are a real surprise! The beets make the muffin incredibly moist and hearty. The earthy flavor of the beets highlight the rich chocolate taste. It’s the perfect breakfast muffin with a dose of vegetable and touch of chocolate.
Ingredients
- 2 medium-sized beets (250 grams beetroot)
- scant 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (175 grams)
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup whole milk (60 milliliters)
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar (75 grams) - lightly packed
- 1/4 cup caster sugar (55 grams)
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter (55 grams) - room temperature
- 1/4 cup sunflower oil (60 milliliters)
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (150 grams)
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 355°F/180°C.
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Peel the beets and grate in food processor with a grating disc. Set aside.
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In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.
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In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk.
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In a large bowl using a hand mixer on medium speed, cream together the sugars, butter and oil. Using the hand mixer on low speed, beat in the egg mixture. Slowly fold in the flour mixture.
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Using a spatula, mix in the grated beets and chocolate chips.
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Evenly divide the batter into 12 muffin cases. Each case should be about ¾ full.
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Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the muffins are springy to the touch. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Recipe Notes
Recipe adapted from goodfood.
I always use golden beets, they are less bitter. I bake a lot of them, skin them, mash them, freeze them, and then use them for muffins. I just put everything in one bowl, substituted carob for chocolate, omitted the caster sugar, mixed it with a fork, baked them. Delicious.
Thanks for the tip about baking these with golden beets!
Hi Tina! I just made this for my family and friends yesterday and it is soo good! I used beetroot puree instead of grating it because I want a smooth texture, and some of my friends couldn’t even guess there is beetroot in it. LOL! Thank you so much for this great recipe!
Hi Tina! Just baked a double batch of these and while they taste amazing (thank you for the recipe!) I have a couple of questions and observations:
I couldn’t get mine to look as scarlet. The muffins turned out more light brown. Perhaps this is because i chopped up chocolate buttons to make chocolate chunks instead of chips, so perhaps the finer crumbs have the muffins their colour too.
Did you drain the juices of your grated beet? I was in a big dilemma over this one. I didn’t want my muffins to be a soggy undercooked mess, so i pressed the grated beets on a sieve. Collected about half a cup of juice from this! Should i not have done that?
Hi Faye – I’m so glad that you enjoyed the muffins! Thanks for the observation about clarifying the recipe. I do just add the beets without pressing out the beet juice. I just grate the beets and add everything into the mixture without pressing or separating the juice. That may be one reason why the color of your muffins turned out to be more light brown. But beets also slightly vary since they are natural (in color and how much beet juice each one produces), so it’s good you used your judgement and left out some of the beet juice. Perhaps next time you can leave in some more beet juice to help the color be more vibrant. Since this recipe is made with all natural coloring from the beets, it will look more muted than a cupcake made with artificial coloring though.
Prima! Superb! Absolutely great taste when u combine beetroot with chocolate
Hi Tina, the contrast of white muffin cases against the scarlet red yummy muffin is visually attractive. Thinking of using beetroot purée ( which i have just prepared as i was planning to bake a cake with it ) instead of grated beetroot in your recipe. Wish me luck
Hi Karin – please do let me know how it turns out with the puree. I haven’t tried that before, but would be keen to do it that way next time if it works out! Happy baking!
Hi again, Prima! Just as u had described ….one bite into this muffin….. , light earthy flavour that allows the chocolate taste to linger at the tastebuds.
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I did it today. As I had only 200g purée, i add another 50 g of chopped coooked beetroot . ( I think this gives it a different texture rather than a total smooth one. If using grated raw beetroot , I assume u would get another interesting texture) Of course I added another Tbsp of cocoa powder.
Definitely will pass this recipe to my daughters once they are keen to take up baking .
Cheers,
Truly awesome cupcakes !!!
I just made these they are so delicious!
i even made 3 batches of them :D
Thanks for this great recipe!!!!!!
Hi Jannah, thanks for sharing! I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed the recipe!