The chocolate chocolate chip muffin recipe below uses fair trade chocolate chips, cocoa powder, and sugar. Instead of hiding abuse and colonialism, these muffins hide a different blood-red secret that’s good for you: beets! By also replacing much of the sugar from a typical muffin recipe with agave nectar, and most of the oil with pureed apples, these muffins are a sweet treat you can feel good about.
Ingredients
- 3 medium beets
- 2 medium apples, cored and medium diced
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup fair trade evaporated cane juice (or fair trade granulated sugar)
- 1/2 cup agave nectar
- 4 tbsp melted butter
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 cup sifted, unbleached, unenriched all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sifted whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup fair trade cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/3 cup fair trade chocolate chips
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Prepare the fruits and veggies: Boil the unpeeled beets whole (cutting off the greens if still attached first) in a saucepan until easily pierced by a fork, about 30 to 40 minutes. Put into a food processor or blender with the chopped apples and puree until smooth.
- Prepare the wet mixture: Beat the 2 eggs with the sugar until frothy (about 3 to 5 minutes on high). Mix in the agave nectar, melted butter, vanilla, beet/apple mixture and water. Mix just until well combined.
- Prepare the dry mixture: Stir the sifted flours, cocoa, salt, and baking soda until well-mixed. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Fill greased and floured muffin tins two-thirds full with batter. Bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
The story behind conventional chocolate is truly dark and bitter -a tale riddled with evil players and injustice. In response to disparate free trade practices, an alternative – fair trade – has taken hold to bring artisan crafts, coffee, bananas, and of course, chocolate, to the United States without devastating the regions that produce them. While not without its own problems, this form of trading goods improves the environment, the social welfare, and the relationships between producers and consumers around the globe.
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