Chocolate orange muffins: how to de-carb a standard recipe

I found this recipe in this weeks Observer magazine. Of course the recipe was neither low carb or gluten free or even for muffins, but with a few tweaks I managed to produce these lovely muffins.

dark chocolate 85g

unsalted butter 120g

granulated sugar 120g ( I substituted 4 rounded dessertspoons of a mixture of splenda, z-sweet and truvia )

ground cinnamon 2 pinches ( this recipe could use a bit more than this)

ground all spice 2 pinches ( again, a bit more wouldn’t hurt)

vanilla extract one teaspoon ( and add chocolate essence one teaspoon if you have this)

zest of half an orange ( I used zest of one whole orange for very full orange flavour )

3 eggs

milk 2 tablespoons ( or use double cream )

ground almonds 150g

plain flour 60g ( I used wheat free white flour but think you would easily get away with more almonds here or you could use whey protein powder instead, either plain, chocolate or vanilla)

baking powder 1/2 teaspoon

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Gas mark 4.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave and use a wooden chop stick to stir or melt in a bowl over simmering water on the hob.

Mix the butter, sugar substitute, spice, essences, zest together until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs and the almonds and chocolate till fully incorporated. This is most easily done one egg/ a few spoons of almonds at a time.

Add the flour or extra almonds and baking powder.

Mix thoroughly.

Either cook as a cake in a buttered/cake released springform cake tin or put into muffin cases for muffins.

The muffins took 25 minutes and the recipe says the cake takes 30 minutes.

Either way it is best to check your muffins at 20 minutes. Use a cocktail stick, special heat conduction stick (Lakeland Ltd) or your finger to check doneness. Sticks will come out dryish, the top will spring back when pressed with your finger when done).

Serve with whipped double cream with a little vanilla essence.