These whole wheat muffins studded with chocolate chips are the perfect excuse to have chocolate for breakfast!
Besides biscottis, chocolate chip muffins are one of my mom’s favorite breakfast foods. So, in honor of her birthday today, I wanted to create a chocolate chip muffin that was sweet and tender enough to bring back memories of the one’s she made me growing up, yet still be a healthy option for breakfast. The key to finding this balance was – my favorite ingredient – Greek Yogurt, as well as white whole wheat flour.
I get asked often about what white whole wheat flour is, as it sounds like an oxymoron. In the nutrition realm, “white” flour is usually thought of as refined flour, in which most of the nutrients get stripped from the wheat during processing. In contrast, “white whole wheat” flour is still a whole grain with its original nutrients intact. So what then makes it different from regular whole wheat flour and why does it matter which one to use in this recipe? Excellent questions 😉
First, the difference between white whole wheat vs whole wheat is the variety of wheat from which they are ground. Traditional whole wheat flour is ground from a red wheat variety, which when ground gives the flour that darker color we associate with whole wheat produces. White whole wheat flour on the other hand is made from a white variety of wheat, which is why it has a much lighter color. Both are still whole grains and good sources of fiber.
In addition to color differences, the type of wheat flour is ground from also affects its baking properties. Red wheat is heartier than white wheat, containing slightly more fiber (for ¼ cup of flour, whole wheat contains 4 grams of fiber compared to 3 grams of fiber in white whole wheat). This heartiness when baking results in a denser product. This density or chew is great when making pizza dough or sandwich bread, but I like my muffins on the lighter side so I went with white whole wheat flour.
Okay, enough nutrition talk – on to the muffins! You may have noticed in the pictures that the pan contains chocolate chip and blueberry muffins. When making these, I was curious if the muffin base recipe was flexible enough to substitute in other mix-ins. The result: not quite. The chocolate chip muffins are the perfect amount of sweet (I like my muffins just slightly sweet, after all they aren’t cupcakes 😉 ), but the blueberry ones were lacking in flavor. So it’s back to the drawing board for blueberry muffins – hopefully coming soon!
I hope you all have a relaxing weekend and take time in the morning to sit back, relax, and enjoy a chocolate chip muffin! So here’s a toast to my mom – happy birthday!
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mmm, so interesting to use olive oil! I bet that offers a unique flavor in a sweet muffin! And maybe for your blueberry one since you think it needs more sweetness, coconut oil could be a good experimentation 🙂 Either way, will be making these little guys soon!
xo,
sarah grace
The olive oil gives it a nice background flavor against the chocolate – keeps it from getting overly sweet! I love the idea of coconut oil. . . I actually haven’t baked with coconut oil so it would be a great reason to start experimenting with it! Thank you for the suggestion 🙂
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