3 ½oz(250g) cooked beets(cooked, canned or vacuum-sealed in water with no oil, vinegar or seasonings)
½cup(100ml) vegetable oilcanola, sunflower etc...
3large eggs
2teaspoonsvanilla extract
1cup(200g) sugar
½cup(120g) plain yogurt
1 ¼cups(170g) all-purpose flour (plain flour)
¾cup(75g) unsweetened cocoa powder
2teaspoonbaking powder
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 355F/180C. Grease a 12-cup muffin tray or line with paper cases.
Add the beets, oil, eggs and vanilla to a blender or food processor and purée. Add the sugar and yogurt and whiz again briefly to combine. Pour the mixture into a large mixing bowl.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the bowl and lightly mix to combine. Pour the batter into the muffin cases ¾ full.
Bake for 25 minutes or until risen and an inserted skewer or toothpick comes out clean.
Cool for 5 minutes in the tray, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Notes
Make sure muffins are cooled for at least 5 minutes in the muffin tray before removing and transferring to a wire rack. This helps prevent them from crumbling.
Allow the muffins to cool or, as with all muffins and cupcakes, they could stick a bit to the muffin papers. Though if you can't wait that long, I don't blame you!
You can cook beets yourself or use vacuum-sealed or canned beets that are drained. Just make sure they are in water and not oil, vinegar or any seasonings.
Do not overfill the muffin liners. Fill them up to ¾ full. If there is too much in the muffin liner, the muffin will burst out of the sides and not have a classic dome shape.
Variations
Add some milk or white chocolate chips to make double chocolate chip beetroot muffins.
Use slightly less cocoa powder if you’d like the muffin to be a little bit redder in colour. Note that natural beet colour often cooks out, so leaving out the cocoa completely won't make them pink muffins.
Dust with powdered sugar on top.
Add in some shredded carrots to the batter for an extra dose of veggies.
Sprinkle some dried strawberries over top before baking.
Make them in a mini muffin tin to make smaller muffins that are great snacks.