Protein Chocolate Orange Muffins

If I can convince you to make any of my recipes, I hope it will be one of the TVP Muffin recipes! These are my favorite little high protein, fiber filled breakfast, and they are literally so easy to make. These Protein Chocolate Orange Muffins legit take 20 minutes to make from start to finish!

I love to make a batch or two of these on the weekend and take a couple for a high protein breakfast throughout the week. You can also freeze them! I have quite a few TVP Muffin recipes on this blog, but the Protein Chocolate Orange Muffins are definitely up there in my top three favorite! They remind me of those cool chocolate oranges that you smacked into walls at Christmas! If you’re looking for some other TVP Muffins to try, I also highly recommend these Banana Nut Muffins and Lemon Blueberry Muffins!

Something I get asked a lot in regards to the TVP Muffins is if you need to re-hydrate the TVP before you use it in the batter. Luckily for us, no, we don’t! You can just throw it in there dry and some of the other ingredients like vegan Greek yogurt add the moisture to it. I’ve also been asked many times what the texture is like. I think the TVP in the muffins is very similar to baked oats. I really hope you make these!

Ingredients

• TVP – Textured Vegetable Protein – this is a magical little vegan protein source! It’s shelf stable and you can buy it at most grocery stores (near the gluten-free flour options), and also online. TVP is just de-fatted soy flour and is so easy and versatile to use – it can be used in savory, as well as sweet, recipes. Since it’s soy based, it doesn’t have its own flavor and will take on any flavor you give it! We will be using dry TVP for this recipe; no need to re-hydrate.
• Vegan Chocolate Chips – I prefer Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips in my muffin recipes because I think I’m more likely to get chocolate in every bite!
• Clementines – I like clementines best for this recipe. I think oranges would work too, but because clementines are so small, I would only use one orange if you’re subbing. I think clementines are sweeter though so I like them better. For this recipe, we will be using the juice and the zest!
• Flour – I used all-purpose; if you’re living that gluten-free life, feel free to sub this out with your favorite gluten-free flour option! If you make them gluten-free, please share your tips and tricks in the comments!
• Baking Soda and Baking Powder – I’m not related to Alton Brown, so I will not be telling you the science around why you need these, but trust me, the muffins turn out a lot better with them! 🙂
• Cinnamon – a must have!
• Salt – adjust to taste.

• Vegan Greek Yogurt – I really like the Kite Hill Vanilla Vegan Greek Yogurt, but you can use any kind you want. You could even use normal vegan yogurt if you can’t find Greek. This will change the calories/macros slightly, but since we are just using the yogurt to add moisture to the batter, it should not affect how the muffins turn out. Blended silken tofu is another great option if you can’t find this vegan Greek yogurt!
• Brown Sugar – I know a lot of people don’t like using sugar in recipes, so feel free to use a sugar alternative or date sugar, etc. If you find a great substitute, please share it in the comments so others can learn from your hard work and investigatory skills!
• Soy Milk – any non-dairy milk will work great for this recipe. Since the milk is mostly used to add moisture to the batter, any milk will do!
• Ground Flax Seed – this is my preferred vegan egg substitution in baking muffins. It’s a very cheap, shelf stable ingredient that you can find at most stores. Just add water and let sit for 5 minutes – instant egg substitute!
• Vanilla – trust me, you must add this!

Instructions

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 F (177 C).
• Wash clementines and then zest them into a small bowl. After you’ve zested them, juice them. Zest is the outer, colorful part of the rind of citrus fruits. We use it to add a citrus flavor and smell, without the bitterness that the rest of the rind has. If you haven’t zested a fruit before, the important thing to remember is to not over-zest or you will end up with very sour rind in your muffins. I do one or two passes, at most, with the zester – the clementine skin will change from a bright orange color to a lighter color, and not be shiny anymore.

• In the same bowl with the clementine juice and zest, mix in 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds and 3 tablespoons of water. Let this sit for at least 5 minutes. This makes orange-y flax goo!

• In a large bowl, mix together the vegan Greek yogurt, brown sugar, milk, vanilla extract and the orange-y flax goo!

• In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients – flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Once well mixed, stir in the dry TVP. The reason we mix up all the dry ingredients separately is to make sure the smaller quantity ingredients like baking soda and baking powder are well distributed throughout the batter.

• Slowly add in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine.

• Add in the chocolate chips and stir.

• Evenly distribute the batter across all 12 (lined) muffin cup things on your muffin tray. You could also use silicone muffin molds so you don’t have to mess with paper liners.
• Bake for 12 – 15 minutes. These will come out a little gooey, but if you cook them too long, they will dry out and you probably won’t like them very much.

• Let them sit for about 15 – 30 minutes and they will set up.

Silly Little Haiku

TVP Muffins

These are the best thing ever

Orange Chocolate