I can't believe I'm posting these....

181 Calorie Chocolate Muffins (a Hungry Girl recipe) - ButterYum

I can't believe I'm posting these - they go completely against my bake-from-scratch philosophy, but hey, they're so good, I had to tell you about them (update - I've included a homemade chocolate cake mix recipe below).  The teens liked these muffins so much that they've asked me to make them repeatedly since we first tried them - what does that tell you?

I first saw the recipe on the blog Hungry Girl.  When I heard they were made with only two ingredients and only contained 181 calories, I knew I wanted to try them.

**This post contains affiliate links.

I should first start by telling you that I generally don't like chocolate and pumpkin together, but honestly, all you taste here is an incredibly moist chocolate muffin.

So here we go - you'll need an 18.25 ounce box of devil's food cake mix (homemade recipe is listed below) and a 15 ounce can of 100% pure pumpkin puree.  Mix the two together (just the dry mix and the pumpkin - no egg, or oil, or water).  You can do this by hand, but the flat beater of your stand mixer will make quick work of it.  Line a muffin pan with 12 liners; divide the batter evenly among the 12 liners (they won't rise much while baking).  Bake in a preheated 400F oven for 20 minutes.  Cool completely before eating.

Alternately, one recipe will make 48 soft cookies.  Just use a #50 scoop to portion batter into cookie-like blobs on a silpat lined half sheet pan (about 1 tablespoon each).  Bake 12 per tray in a preheated 375F oven for 15 minutes.  Cool completely before eating.

I let the family sample these before announcing what they were made of - nobody could taste pumpkin, yet the pumpkin adds a cool, smooth, moist quality to the muffins.  They're dense, yet light at the same time - really hard to describe.  They're really affordable too - 12 large muffins cost less than $3 to make.

Update

If you're like me and prefer to to bake from scratch, this recipe (below) makes the equivalent of one box of cake mix.  I've used it to make these muffins a couple times and it works extremely well.

Homemade Chocolate Cake Mix

makes the equivalent of one 18.25-ounce box

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

• 1 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (sifted to remove lumps)

• 1/4 cup shortening

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on low speed until the mixture resembles a box of cake mix. Alternately, you can process the ingredients in a food processor.

Light Corn Muffins

Is there such a thing as a healthier corn muffin? Little ButterYum and I wanted to find out, so we came up with this lightly sweetened, reduced fat recipe that was inspired by Jamie of Jamie Cooks It Up!  They passed the kid test - we give them two thumbs up!

Items used to make this recipe:

(affiliate links)

• professional muffin pan https://amzn.to/2JEATB9

• cupcake liners https://amzn.to/2E4VBH2

• baker’s joy https://amzn.to/2LC27uR

---

Light Corn Muffins

makes 12 regular muffins or 24 mini muffins

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup water

• 1/2 cup applesauce

• 1 egg

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 cup cornmeal (not self-rising)

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F, baking rack in the middle of the oven.

2. Spray muffin pan with baking spray or line with paper liners.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the water, apple sauce, egg, and melted butter; set aside.

4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining dry ingredients; then stir in the reserved wet ingredients until combined. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full. Bake in a 350F oven: 13-18 minutes for regular muffins; 5-8 minutes for mini muffins (we like them kind of browned).

Note

• To make Jamie's recipe, omit the apple sauce and water listed above, and add 1/2 cup pureed canned corn.

recipe inspired by Jamie of Jamie Cooks It Up!