Double Chocolate Irish Tea Infused Oat Muffins
Muffins infused with Irish tea and double chocolate for a delightful and healthy treat
Muffins infused with Irish tea and double chocolate for a delightful and healthy treat
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup canned full-fat coconut milk
- 2 black tea bags
- 2/3 cup maple syrup
- 2/3 cup olive oil or canola oil
- 1 cup steel cut oats (i prefer bob's red mill)
- 1 cup whole grain rye flour (i prefer bob's red mill)
- 1/2 cup cocoa or cacao powder
- 1 cup chopped dark chocolate
- warm honey + butter for serving (optional)
- Carbohydrate 3.45236611277802 g
- Cholesterol 28.2935185177821 mg
- Fat 12.4946144459807 g
- Fiber 0.000981481481481482 g
- Protein 1.08388351790915 g
- Saturated Fat 6.91697777791171 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (47g)
- Sodium 103.936240721786 mg
- Sugar 3.45138463129653 g
- Trans Fat 0.783578907444906 g
- Calories 128 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 15-18 muffin tins with paper liners.
- In a small saucepan, bring the coconut milk to a gentle simmer. Add the tea bags (or loose leaf tea) and steep for about 10 minutes. Do not allow the milk to boil.
- Meanwhile, add all but 1/4 cup of steel cut oats to a blender or coffee grinder and blend until a flour forms. It's OK if the flour is not completely smooth. Add the remaining 1/4 cup steel cut oats and the oat flour to a bowl. Add the rye flour, cocoa or cacao powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk to combine.
- Once the milk has steeped, whisk in the vanilla, maple syrup and oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. Fold in the chopped chocolate.
- Divide the batter among 15-18 muffins cups. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool slightly and then drizzle with honey and serve with butter if desired.
Dense, dark crumb meets a sharp tannic backbone in these spiced cocoa pastries, where steep-infused coconut milk yields a crumb that stays exceptionally moist without relying on dairy heavyweights. Blending three-quarters of the steel-cut oats directly into a coarse flour establishes a rustic, structural integrity that standard all-purpose flour simply cannot replicate. Precision matters when steeping the dairy substitute; maintaining a gentle simmer rather than a rolling boil prevents the coconut cream from curdling while extracting the robust flavor compounds from the black tea bags during the ten-minute extraction window.
Equipment selection dictates the final texture of these heavy-batter treats. A high-powered blender or a dedicated coffee grinder is mandatory for reducing hard steel-cut oats into a usable powder, and a fine mesh strainer helps remove any stubborn unground fragments if necessary. Standard muffin tins require paper liners because the high proportion of maple syrup and dark chocolate creates a sticky exterior that adheres stubbornly to bare metal cups during the 350 degree Fahrenheit bake.
Folding the remaining whole steel-cut oats into the dry mixture alongside the rye flour preserves pockets of chewiness throughout the interior. Stirring the wet components into the dry ingredients must stop the moment no dry flour pockets remain; overworking this batter activates the gluten in the rye flour, resulting in a rubbery crumb instead of a tender structure.
Leftover muffins maintain their structural integrity remarkably well when stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days. Reheating a day-old muffin in a toaster oven for two minutes reactivates the melted dark chocolate chunks and softens the dense rye matrix back to its initial oven-fresh state.
