Pretty Healthy Mocha Muffins

This morning, I made some mocha muffins to have for breakfasts/snacks/desserts over the next few days. I haven't made these in a while for some reason, but I used to make them fairly often and always at this time of year. The other day, I thought of them and decided to make them again. I love them just heated up a bit so the chocolate gets slightly melted. In the past, I've had these heated up with ice cream on top. I gave some to someone years ago who loved them cold.

These are yet another variation of the soaked oat muffins, the original of which is from The New Laurel's Kitchen Cookbook and is called Lynne's Muffins. It's a convenient method, adaptable in so many ways. Here's this version:
Mocha Muffins
Place 2 cups of jumbo oats (old-fashioned rolled oats in the US) in a container and cover with 1 1/2 cups of strong coffee (if you don't like/want coffee, you can just make these plain chocolate--in that case, replace the coffee with milk, soy milk, buttermilk or soured milk, or even chai). Cover the container and leave it for several hours or overnight (if using milk, refrigerate).

When ready to make the muffins, place the soaked oats and any liquid still in the container into a mixing bowl, then add:
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (or almond, if you prefer)
1 egg
1-2 tablespoons drinking chocolate (this is a mix of sugar and cocoa--I use this because I have it in the cupboard--you could use sugar and baking cocoa instead)

Stir into the oats, then blend in:
1 cup wholemeal (whole wheat) flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Finally, stir in some chocolate chips and nuts. I used 100 grams of small chocolate chunks, because that's what I found in the store. They're extra dark, but you could use whatever kind you want. I crushed up 100grams of walnuts (minus the few I threw into my porridge this morning) and added those. You could use other nuts, if you prefer.

Spoon batter into greased or lined muffin tins.

Bake at 180C in a fan oven/400F for about 20 minutes. I ended up with 14 muffins.

Yum!

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