This was my 4th attempt at this recipe and I have finally perfected it – the 100 calorie chocolate orange muffin!
I came to the conclusion that in order to have a truly delicious chocolate-y muffin, you need to use actual chocolate. My attempts using only cocoa powder tasted nice but not blog-worthy nice.
Thankfully, only a small amount of chocolate was needed which gives these muffins an amazing flavour without adding tons of calories!
My motivation for this is partly because of all the amount of baking I do, and consequential eating of said bakes, the calories do add up. So this is essentially my idea of a bit of “damage control.”
Fun fact: If you ate the entire batch of these muffins, you would still be well within your daily calorie limit. I don’t suggest this, of course (seriously, don’t.) But it’s fun to think about…
Anyway, enough about calories. These are delicious muffins in any case scenario! Spongy, moist, zingy, chocolate-y perfection.
These muffins are:
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
- Eggless
- Wholegrain
- Low fat
- Low calorie
100 Calorie Chocolate Orange Muffins
Moist, light & chocolatey muffins with all the flavour and a fraction of the calories!
Ingredients
- 180 ml / 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
- Zest and juice from 1 medium orange
- 190 ml / 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp agave nectar
- Optional 1 tsp natural orange flavouring
- 125 g / 1 1/4 cup spelt flour*
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 30 g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 50 g coarsely chopped dairy-free dark chocolate**
- Optional A few dark chocolate chips for decorating on top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170c / 350f and line a muffin tin with 12 liners.
- Mix the almond milk, orange juice and zest, agave nectar and orange flavouring in a bowl or jug.
- In another bowl, stir together the spelt flour, baking powder, bicarb and cocoa powder.
- Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry, mixing until well combined. Stir in the chocolate.
- Divide the mixture equally between the 12 muffin cases and top with a few dark chocolate chips, if desired.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until firm on top. Leave to cool before serving.
- Store in an air-tight tin for up to 3 days. Enjoy!
Notes
*You can sub wholegrain wheat flour or wholegrain gluten-free flour, if you prefer.
**I used a dark chocolate orange bar to give it even more orange flavour! But it works just as well with plain dark chocolate.
Nutrition Information
Yield 12Amount Per Serving Calories 108Carbohydrates 17gFiber 1gSugar 8gProtein 2g
[color-box color=”green”]If you’ve tried one of my recipes, I would love to see and hear about it! Leave a comment below and tag your social media posts with #WallflowerKitchen :-) [/color-box]
What’s your favourite kind of muffin? Usually I’m a lemon poppyseed muffin kind of girl but now I’m thinking chocolate orange is definitely the way to go…
Hi I wanted to know how I could edit or delete all my comments in any way? Please tell me if there’s any way I can do that!
I tried this recipe for a school project and the girl in my group who baked it made it taste like shit because first of all they were like 3 inches small and rock hard. There was left over ingredients so I made some at home and I can only say that these are the best chocolate orange muffins I’ve had. I can’t believe this recipe is free online.
Haha thanks Joshua! Happy to hear that :)
I have made this recipe twice now on my own at home and I this is by far the best recipe I have ever tasted!!! I shared this recipe with other to show them the tastyness of your muffins!!! Also thank you for responding!!!
Hey! This recipe looks amazing! Does the spelt flour need to be wholegrain or white? Thank you :)
Hi Jessica, you can use white wheat plain flour or wholegrain flour instead!
How many tablespoons (or other measurement) would 30g of cocoa powder be? I don’t have a scale at home and want to try these but the conversions are hard to figure out via google lol
Hi, can agave nectar be replaced with something else?
Maple syrup, golden syrup or another equivalent liquid sweetener. It might alter the calorie count slightly, but probably not by much.
Could I use oat flour instead?
I’m really not sure, to be honest. I haven’t tested it so can’t say one way or another. My friend Natalie has a recipe for chocolate cupcakes with oat flour though: https://www.feastingonfruit.com/the-best-healthy-chocolate-cupcakes/
Yum! Could I use maple syrup in place of the agave? :)
DELICIOUS! I LOVED these muffins! They were so yummy and chocolatey and overall amazing! I actually ended up making them into mini muffins and swapping regular milk for the almond milk and honey for agave and using a mixture of oat flour and all purpose flour (just the stuff I had on hand) but they came out lovely! I’ll definitely be using this recipe again, thank you so much for sharing it!!
I love stuff like this but I don’t care for orange and chocolate together. What could be used in place of the orange?
You can leave the orange out, if you like! Or if you want to add other flavours, you could try lemon, cinnamon, peppermint etc. Let me know how you get on!
Hmm I got 124 calories each, and I didn’t even add the chocolate :( Still pretty low but I was so excited about the concept of a 100 calorie muffin!
The problem with calorie counters is that every brand is going to have different nutritional values and it’s never going to be 100% accurate. Using the ingredients I had, I got 100 calories but like you say – 124 still ain’t bad ;-) If you’re set on having it under 100 cals, you could use less chocolate, it will still be delicious!
These muffins are truly delicious and so fluffy! Thanks for the recipe :)
Yay! I’m so glad you enjoyed them. Thanks Jules :-)
Hi! these muffins look so yummy!! is the recipe for mini sized muffins or normal? :)
Hi Effe, thank you! They are for full-sized muffins :-) Let me know if you try them!
Oh dear these look yummie. They won’t be 100 calories when I eat 7 :) Lovely work!
These look amazing, Aimee! I LOVE the combination of chocolate and orange, so they are perfect for me, and I love to learn from you about healthier dessert options!
Thanks Shiran! Chocolate and orange are amazing together… I have to stop myself from making all my recipes about chocolate and orange :)
I know how it feels to make something again and again to finally have that perfect dessert. These must be really good, and I would feel less guilty indulging in one of them because they are only 100 calories! I’ll take two please. ;)
Exactly, you can happily have double servings!
Stunning pics Aimee! I’m definitely going to have to try these. I adore the choc-orange combo! :D
Thank you Sharon! Me too :D
These look and sound amazing! Where do you find “natural orange flavoring” and can I substitute cacao powder for the cocoa powder?
Thanks Kerri! I bought my natural orange flavouring from the baking section in a supermarket but you could also try baking and specialist stores. Or simply leave it out. And yes I’ve used cocoa and cacao powder interchangeably in the past with good results :-) Let me know if you give these a try!
I love how you complemented the chocolate with fresh orange, that sounds lovely! :)
Chocolate and orange together make me so happy :-)
Mmmm anything chocolate and orange is a winner in my book :)
Agreed!
These look so good! I’ve been baking lots before baby arrives and to schedule lots of blog posts and I need to stop eating everything I bake.
Beautiful photographs as always.
Thanks Cathyrn! And congrats :-) How long now before the baby arrives? I think you’ve got a pretty good excuse to eat more though!
Chocolate orange is THE best combo and such a great idea for when y bf is munching jaffa cakes haha xx
Isn’t it just? I think I’ll need to keep an endless supply of these… x
These looks delicious.. My daughter loves chocolat..I’m making these cuming weekend for hr.. This for sharing
Thank Preety! Let me know how you get on :-)
lovely cupcakes and I love that you could eat a whole batch and still be within calorie count!! Chocolate & orange is such a classic and delicious combo. Yum!! x
Thanks Kate! x