Midnight Muffins

I have always been a rule follower. I like to follow the rules, mainly because I hate getting in trouble. But also because I have this insane need to please ALL THE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME (It's annoying. It's impossible. I'm working on it.).

Following the rules has served me well in life. I was a good student, I don't get speeding tickets, and I've never been to jail.

But there is one place that I've learned that throwing the rules out the window is not only sometimes necessary, it can lead to pleasantly unexpected (and delicious) results.

That place? Is the kitchen.

I used to follow recipes to the very letter of the law. If a recipe called for yellow onion and I only had sweet onion, I would run to the store, or send the husband to the store, or scrap it all together (after much stomping of feet, slamming of doors, and raising of fists in the air while shouting, "Why do bad things happen to good people?!")

Making substitutions was not my forte. And honestly, it still isn't. But the more I cook, the better I am at just letting go and seeing what happens. I like to experiment with flavors, throw a bunch of things in a bowl or a pan and say, "Let's see what happens."

I'd like to say this is the result of a newfound live-on-the-edge attitude (or as the kids call it, YOLO), but truthfully it's often born of necessity: it's been a long day, I'm tired, I'm hungry, it's late...what can I make that is edible and will give my body the fuel and nutrients it needs?

Sometimes, the result is just "meh," but often it is very tasty or even delicious.

Deliciousness is what I ended up with when I made muffins at midnight last night.

I wanted to make blueberry muffins because not only would they satisfy my immediate muffin craving, they'd be great for breakfast the next day. I found a recipe at Elana's Pantry, and got out all the ingredients except for vanilla extract.

I was out of vanilla extract! Oh the humanity.

I knew I could make the muffins without it and they'd probably still be good. But I didn't want just good muffins, I wanted great muffins.

So I thought, what could I use instead of vanilla extract? I had almond extract, but something about almond and blueberries didn't sound...great to me. But almonds and chocolate? Yes, please!

Did you guys catch that? Two substitutions. Two. I'm such a bad ass.

They were utterly delicious and I ate two while I sipped Sleepytime Vanilla tea and watched Friends reruns. It was good times, you guys.

So without anymore ado and rambling, here is the recipe for my Midnight Muffins! (Adapted from Elana's Pantry blueberry muffin recipe.)

1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
6 eggs
1/3 cup Agave
1/3 cup grapseed oil
1 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup 60% or greater cocoa  chips

Mix together the dry ingredients
Mix together the eggs and wet ingredients with a hand mixer
Mix the dry into the wet
Fold in chocolate chips
Fill muffin lined tins 3/4 of the way and bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes

Elana's Pantry recipes said it makes 12. I made 11 muffins.

A note about the almond extract. The original recipe called for 1 TABLESPOON of vanilla but I thought that might be a little too almondy, so I used 1 teaspoon. The almond fumes were rather powerful when I was spooning the batter into the muffin cups and I was afraid I had used to much. But...I could barely taste the almond! Next time I will use more.

A note about the chocolate chips. I use very large chips, so 3/4 cup makes for very chocolatey muffins...which is a great thing for chocoholics. But if you're looking for a more even muffin to chocolate ratio, you may want to use fewer chips.

Happy baking!