Beet My Valentine Muffin Tops
A lovely and festive snack to nosh on come Valentine's Day! The best part? It's vegan!
Equipment
- Muffin top pan (or just a regular cupcake pan)
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour I used whole wheat
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 cup oil such as canola or melted coconut
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar or agave nectar
- 1 egg's worth egg replacer about 3 tbsp of JUST brand egg replacer
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 1 cup beet puree *see recipe notes
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- melted vegan chocolate or powdered sugar as desired
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease muffin top pan (or spray with nonstick spray).
- In a large bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a smaller bowl, whisk the oil, sugar, egg replacer, vinegar, beet puree (or pumpkin and food color, see recipe notes), and vanilla extract. Add wet ingredients to dry, and fold with a spatula until well combined.
- Scoop batter equally in muffin top pan (my pan makes 3 1/2 inch diameter muffin tops and I got 6 from this recipe), flattening with a knife or back of a spoon to even the surface.
- Bake muffin tops for 15-20 minutes, checking after 15 minutes. Muffin tops are done when a cake tester or toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.
- After allowing muffin tops to cool, drizzle with melted vegan chocolate and/or dust with powdered sugar. Enjoy!
Notes
*Beet puree can be made by peeling beets and boiling them until fork-tender, then pulsing in a blender until pureed smooth (adding water only as necessary to help it blend). You will probably need 2-3 small to medium beets for this recipe's 1 cup of beet puree.
HOWEVER, I realize that making beet puree can be a bit of a process and that canned beet puree isn't always easy to come by. So if you're shorter for time (or just don't feel like boiling beets), you can also make this recipe using 1 cup of canned pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie mix) and enough red food coloring to achieve the desired hue--just make sure your food coloring is vegan (I used Wilton food color gel).
Both options come out good, so just choose the one that works best for you.