When you’ve had a glorious weekend that you wish could have lasted forever, a special breakfast is needed to entice you out of bed.  Enter our good friend, the Monday morning muffin.  My weekend was full of sunshine, cultural diversions (the theatre and a walking tour and talk about the Pankhursts), excellent company and, of course, fantastic food:  not only did I finally get a burger at Manchester’s top all-vegan establishment, V Revolution, I also tried some delicious non-dairy croissants and made a vegan chocolate fondant.  It was not as perfect as my pre-vegan (pre-gan, if you will) recipe, but I was absolutely delighted with its gooey chocolatey centre.

Chocolate fondant on a Monday morning would be extremely decadent.  This muffin reins it in slightly but is still very tasty.  The spice combination is a bit festive, but that’s never a bad thing in my book.  Here’s to a marvellous week!

Chocolate Muffins

Makes 6

Ingredients:

90g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves

50g applesauce

2 tbsp vegan cocoa powder

3 tbsp just-boiled water

1 tsp vanilla extract

80g caster sugar

125g pumpkin puree

40g dairy free dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks

handful walnuts, chopped

Method:

1.  Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin tin with paper cases.  Boil a kettle of water.

2.  Combine the flour, bicarb and spices in a small bowl.  Set aside.

3.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the cocoa powder, sunflower oil and applesauce with 2 tablespoons of just-boiled water.

4.  Quickly stir in the vanilla, sugar and pumpkin puree.

5.  Add the flour in two batches, along with another tablespoon of boiled water.

6.  Stir in the chocolate chunks and walnuts.

7.  Spoon the batter into the paper cases, filling them about two-thirds full.

8.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.

9.  Cool on a wire rack, and tuck in while they’re still warm – you won’t be able to resist!