Lightly sweet vegan chocolate beet muffins with plenty of dark chocolate flavour. Even if you’re not a fan of beets, you’ll probably like these dark chocolate muffins. Made with whole wheat spelt flour and coconut oil. Skip to the recipe →
So, vegan chocolate beet muffins! We’re all pretty familiar with chocolate cake with hidden vegetables, but not zucchini this time – because beets are a little more mysterious, don’t you think? Despite being made with whole wheat spelt flour and a pile of veggies, these are definitely chocolate muffins and they don’t taste nearly as healthy as they are.
Clearly I’ve been in Germany for a while when I try to write ‘schokolade’ instead of chocolate for the title. We’re in a bit of a weird season right now, where there is new plant life starting to pop up, but I’m still living off root vegetables that keep well during the winter months.
It’s the strangest thing to have flowers blooming everywhere at the beginning of March – my parents are blocked in by over a metre of snow right now and all the highways have been closed at home for a couple days due to a big snowstorm. Isn’t that what spring is like for everyone? Hah.
Beets are one of my favourite root vegetables. You might remember this vegan red velvet hot chocolate I posted in February, and I feel pretty good about posting another chocolate and beet recipe, because it’s an awesome combination. They’re meant to be. The first bite of one of these muffins might be a little surprisingly beet-y but the chocolate takes over pretty quickly.
If you have a sad lonely beet sitting in the bottom of your crisper, shred it up and make some muffins, then feed the muffins to your children and laugh at fooling them into eating beets. They’ll just see chocolate on top of more chocolate and think it’s a special treat. Make sure to have one of these muffins while it’s still warm to experience the gooey chocolate on top! (And then check your teeth and face after, you’ll be covered in chocolate.)
Despite the bright red colour of the beets, you really can’t see it in these muffins, because they’re heavy on cocoa for a dark chocolate flavour. If you’re looking for a naturally red chocolate cupcake, I recommend Traci’s recipe over at Vanilla and Bean. It’s vegan too.
My friend Ashley and I are going to Stockholm at the beginning of May (right before my wedding) so if you have any suggestions/recommendations please let me know in the comments! I’ve never visited other European countries, other than Germany, so I’m looking forward to it.
There are several notes for this recipe, because I did a few tests with some different ingredients – please read them for extra tips and substitutions.
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Vegan Chocolate Beet Muffins
Lightly sweet vegan chocolate beet muffins with spelt flour & coconut sugar. Even if you're not a fan of beets, you'll probably like these muffins.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole spelt flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder*
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 1/2 cup oat or nut milk
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted**
- 3/4 cup grated, raw red beet, packed
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190C / 375F and grease or line a standard muffin tin.
- In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate, reserving a couple of tablespoons for topping the muffins with.
- In a smaller bowl, whisk together the milk and coconut oil until combined. Mix in the grated beet (everything will turn bright pink).
- Add the wet beet mixture to the dry ingredients and stir just to combine. Measure out approximately equal amounts into each muffin tin and then top with the leftover chocolate.
- Bake on the centre rack for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Cool for ten minutes in the tin before removing and cooling completely on a rack. Store in an airtight container for up to three days.
Notes
• Don't worry about peeling your beet(s) if they're organic. Just give them a wash, you won't notice the skin in the finished product.
• I now use vanilla powder and chopped chocolate in place of vanilla extract and chocolate chips because extract and chips are prohibitively expensive and fairly rare here. Canadian/American readers, just add extract to the wet ingredients and use chocolate chips if you prefer. That goes for almost all of my recipes.
* I prefer dark cocoa powder in this recipe for a deeper chocolate flavour, but I have tested it with natural cocoa powder (cacao) because I ran out of dark cocoa. They'll be quite a bit lighter with natural cocoa and slightly more red, almost purple. I recommend using dark cocoa if you can, and don't bother using raw cacao in this recipe, it's a waste of money if you're baking it anyway.
** You can use a different type of oil here if you prefer - I usually choose olive oil, but grape seed, sunflower, etc. are all good. They will be a bit denser, which I like, when using coconut oil.
Yes! Another way to sneak veggies into my kids. I love this recipe and I love beets so this sounds like a heavenly mixture.
Deep, dark, and delicious! These muffins look perfect.
I love the photos – amazing! They look so rich like paintings! And you are right chocolate and beets is an awesome combination. I am surprised it's not as popular as it should be!
I can relate so much to your "schokolade" mistake. I'm living in Spain (from Canada) and often write stuff in Spanish… even when i reread my posts I sometimes don't even realise it… Your muffins are looking divine! I love that you add the beets in there! Nothing like a good chocolate muffin! Great post!
What is oat or nut milk? Or what's a good substitute?
Hi Shantae! It's just non dairy milk, like almond or soy milk. You can use regular dairy milk too if you don't have any sensitivities to it 🙂
Thank you! We love them 🙂
Hah, exactly! My boyfriend doesn't really like beets at all and he's demolished these muffins every time I've made them.
Thanks Julia, that's so sweet! Exactly! Beets are so versatile as a sweet vegetable, and I think they're so beautiful.
All the time, my goodness! I've gotten to the point that when I talk to my (Canadian) boyfriend I forget some words in english and only remember the German! Thank you 🙂
AHHH YUM BOOKMARKING THESE SO HARD. My boyfriend is from Australia and has strangely very fond memories of a chocolate beetroot cake his mom used to make, so I want to try these for him!! That last photo is PURE MONEY $$
Hah, thanks Erika!
What tin containers did you use?
Hi Gabrielle, if you mean the muffin tin, it's just a standard one. You can see it in the third photo.
I am gluten free – is there a particular type of gf flour that could be substituted in this recipe?
Hi Vanessa, I haven’t tried to make these gluten free, so I can’t give a definite answer. I’m sure a standard GF blend would work, and I imagine buckwheat would as well, but I’m not 100% on that.
These are so moist!! I love them and can’t wait to have my grandkids try them this weekend! Thank you so much for sharing!
So happy to hear that, and I hope your grandkids loved them! Thanks Jill 🙂
Made these today, substituted in white flour and regular cocoa. They also worked great in the donut tin. Delicious. I just need a good icing recipe.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Hi there, these look delicious. Is it possible to make this with canned coconut milk?
Thank you!
Absolutely! If anything it’ll make them even richer and extra nice : )
There is an ** next to coconut oil but nothing in the notes. Is it ok to leave the coconut oil out? Or will this ruin the recipe? But looks delicious and will attempt either way!
Hi Lou! This must be something that was missed when I switched recipe cards recently. It’s that you can sub another oil (I usually choose olive) instead of coconut, but they’ll be a bit less cake-like then. I’ve updated the card to reflect that, thank you!
Hey – really grateful for you taking the time to post this and your other recipes – thanks : )