Vegan & Glutenfree Muffins

For many people the Christmas season is their favorite time of the year (of course there are exceptions and people who don’t especially like Christmas). It definitely is however, a good time to take a look back on the year that is coming to an end, to be thankful for all the things that we have achieved and the opportunities that we have received.
One of the most important things this month is the food, wouldn’t you say so? In many cultures it is the time to reunite the family, meet friends and eat together! (Insert angels singing).
So this is the reason why I wanted contribute this recipe. As we all have different types of people around us and of course, we want to invite them all, including vegetarians / vegans. Cooking for them is not always easy, especially when one is not vegetarian or vegan and so often we have no clue what to prepare for them. Luckily now we can find delicious and easy recipes on the World Wide Web and in books.
So if any of you still have no idea what dessert to make when inviting a vegan person, I’m sharing my favorite Vegan and Gluten free chocolate muffins with you. They are super easy and fast to make and they are very very delicious!
If you don’t want to do small muffins, you can also turn them into a cake.

So here we go!
INGREDIENTS (6 muffins)

• 1 ½ cup of gluten free Oatmeal
• 1 cup of Almond flour
• 2 cups of Cashews
• 1 cups of Raw cocoa powder
• 1 cup of Dates

• Disclosure: You can also use ½ cup of Maple syrup (or to taste) or mix Dates + maple syrup.

• ½ cup of Coconut oil
• 3 cups of Almond Milk (no artificial sugar added) or Coconut milk
• 1sp of Vanilla
• 1sp of Baking powder
• 1 Dark chocolate bar (90% cocoa) (if you want to boost the chocolate taste).

PROCESS
1._ Turn on your oven 180 °C / 356 °F .
2._ In the blender put your cashews and mix them with 1 cup of water to make a thick cream. Mix them until no traces. If you see that it is hard to blend use another cup of water. Once you have the cream, add ½ cup of Maple syrup and 1 tsp of vanilla, so we can use half of this cream for the muffin’s topping (if you don’t want topping just avoid this step).
3._ Now you have cashew cream in your blender, so start to add the rest of the ingredients and PATIENTLY blend. You can use one more cup of almond milk to make it easier but the result should be a thick cream, not liquid.
4._ Fill up your muffin form with the mix (more than half but not until the top) and bake them for 25min –  180 °C / 356 °F.
5._ In the photo you can see the deco-topping, I used:

• Dark chocolate 90% cocoa in little pieces
• Cashew cream (We talk about this in step 1)
• Raspberries
• Almond powder
• Fresh mint.

It’s really easy!
Note1: If you are not vegan or vegetarian you can use cow milk and eggs and if you don’t have problems with gluten you can use average oatmeal.
Note2: This is a non-artificial sugar recipe so is a healthy option as a dessert 😀
Please enjoy this recipe and feel free to customize it – have fun!