Chickpea Flour Coconut Chocolate Muffins

This recipe taught me a very important life lesson: never ever taste a batter with raw chickpea flour in it. The sad thing is, I forgot this lesson the first time I learned it when making chickpea flour granola bars and unnecessarily relearned it. It is unquestionably one of the most disgusting tastes one can encounter in life (not to mention the smell) - almost so bad that it leads you to believe nothing good can come out of this batter - but that would be a lie. Once cooked however, chickpea flour is an innocuous tasting vehicle full of protein! I was quite pleased with how these muffins turned out - a minimally sweet, but satisfying protein snack, great for taking to work or on a hike. Note these are not a moist, fluffy muffin so if that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere!

Chickpea Flour Coconut Chocolate Muffins (~10 half-filled in regular-sized muffin tin)

• 2 Tbs ground flax or chia seeds (whole)
• 4 Tbs water (or kefir whey)
• 2 c. chickpea flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cocoa powder (optional)
• 3-4 Tbs honey
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 8 oz unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 - 1/3 c. chocolate chips
• 1/3 c. shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease muffin tin.
2. Combine water and flax (or chia seeds) and let sit for 3-4 minutes.
3. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl (leave choc chips & coconut until later). Then whisk the wet ingredients together (applesauce, water/flax mixture, honey, vanilla extract).
4. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry just until moistened, adding in the chocolate chips & coconut.
5. Spoon into greased muffin tins (makes 12 small muffins in a regular tin) and bake 20-30 minutes until crispy around the edges.