Nutritious & Easy Jowar Chocolate Chip Muffins

I am always biased towards all things chocolate. Combine chocolates with the nutrition of Jowar/Sorghum and almonds and you have a winner! Some incredibly soft chocolate chip muffins that are addictively delicious!

Gluten free baking can be quite intimidating when you do not want to use a special gluten free flour blend. Flours that do not contain gluten behave quite differently specially when you are baking cakes or muffins etc. They often result in bakes that are either dry or crumbly or tough.

I wanted to come up with a recipe that resulted in soft, most, evenly risen cake and delicate crumbs. It is relatively easier to get a good texture when you want to bake cookies or brownies but it turned out to be a little tricky when you want to bake a cake. It took me some time, actually a few years to figure it out. And I am finally happy with the texture and flavours of these muffins in this recipe. In fact I would prefer these muffins over a regular muffin any day!

Here are the key ingredients that go into making these muffins!

Jowar/Sorghum flour

Jowar/Sorghum flour is the main dry ingredient in these muffins. Jowar is a millet and is very nutritious. It is considered a good source of protein, dietary fibre, calcium, iron, phosphorus, vitamins B and C. Use freshly milled jowar flour for best results. When buying any millet flour, ensure that it is packaged recently.

Tapioca flour

In all my experiments with gluten free baking, I have realised that it is very difficult to get a good texture in the baked goods with just one flour. Tapioca flour – a flour made from cassava root, helps provide a good structure to the batter. It prevents the muffins from becoming crumbly and rough.

Almond flour

Almonds provide a wonderful flavour to the muffins. With its natural oils, it also creates a richer, more decadent mouthfeel. You can use a store bought almond flour or grind some whole almonds into fine powder with the jowar flour in this recipe.

Other ingredients

Powdered jaggery is the main sweetener in these muffins. Jaggery contains many vitamins and minerals and is considered nutritionally better than refined sugar. It also has a beautiful caramel note to itself which adds to the flavour.

I used Ghee to make these muffins, because I personally prefer ghee to butter. But you can easily use butter here.

Milk provides moisture and flavour to these muffins. Please feel free to substitute it with a plant based milk if you would prefer.

Now that we have covered all the key ingredients, here is the detailed recipe!

Eggless Jowar Chocolate Chip Muffins

Serves: 8 muffins Prep Time: 15 mins Cooking Time: 30 mins 30 mins

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

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Ingredients

140g / 1+1/4 cups - Jowar flour

60g  / 1/3 cup - Ghee

100g / 3/4 cup - Jaggery

1 tsp  - Vanilla extract

1/4 tsp - Cinnamon

1/4 tsp - Salt

1/2 tsp - Baking soda

1.25 tsp - Baking powder

25g / 1/4 cup- Tapioca flour

70g / 1/2 cup - Almmond flour

250ml / 1 cup - Milk

100g - Dark chocolate chips/chunks

Instructions

1.  Take jaggery and ghee in a large bowl and whisk it until the mixture has whipped up and has gone pale. You can use a hand whisk or an electric whisk.
2. Add in the vanilla extract, powdered cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Give it another good whisk so all these ingredients are evenly mixed in.
3. Now add the jowar flour, tapioca flour, almond flour and milk to the bowl. You can sift the flours in but it is not essential.
4. Using a spatula, give everything a thorough mix until an even batter forms.
5. Add in the chocolate chips or chocolate chunks into the batter and give it a final mix.
6. Line a muffin tray and scoop in the batter equally among 8 muffin moulds. Top the batter with few more chocolate chips and chocolate chunks.
7. Bake the muffins in a pre-heated oven at 180C for around 25-30 minutes. The top of the muffins should be golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle should come out clean.
8. Take the muffins out on a wire rack and let them cool completely to room temperature.
9. These muffins taste the best when they are fresh. Store any leftover muffins in an airtight container in a refrigerator for upto a week.

Notes

1. You can switch ghee for butter in the same quantity.
2. Use finely milled and fresh jowar flour for best results.
3. Cinnamon brings a beautiful flavour. Please do not skip it.
4. If you do not have almond flour, grind same quantity of whole almonds with the jowar flour and use in this recipe. Grinding almonds with a flour (jowar flour in this recipe) allows us to process the almonds into a finer powder than if you grind them individually.
5. You may need a little less or slightly more milk depending on your jowar flour. First add half of the milk and give the batter a mix, after that add milk gradually, 1/4 cups at a time. This batter should be thick, thicker than ribbon consistency.
6. I like to use an equal mix of both dark chocolate chips and chopped up dark chocolate chunks. You can use just one kind of chocolate or mix this up, use milk chocolate and dark chocolate or white chocolate or dark chocolate etc.

Did You Make This Recipe?

Have you made this recipe? Tag me on Instagram at @VanillaTrails and use the hashtag #MadeWithVanillaTrails.