Healthy Double Chocolate Date Muffins

My elder son, Syafi is a really picky eater. So he has a very limited favourite food. One of his favourite dessert is double chocolate muffins. Since he often asks me to bake muffin for him, I think its best to opt for a healthy version of muffin for him.
So my quest of finding the best recipe for a healthy chocolate muffin begin...
Finally I found the perfect recipe that uses the ingredients that I have on hand.
This recipe uses pureed dates and I happened to have lottsss of it, that I've received from my relative, couple of months ago during Ramadhan. And since Syafi does not like eating dates, I figured this is the time for me to start experimenting adding this healthy fruit in his favourite food (hehe *mischievous smile).

Recipe from http://www.thepancakeprincess.com/2013/05/21/vegan-chocolate-mini-muffins-no-sugar/

The recipe does not use Sugar at all..can you believe it! and they still taste sooo gooood!!!
Also there's no butter and egg in it. And it only uses whole wheat flour and oat flour.
I substitute the almond milk with fresh milk in the recipe since I only has fresh milk. 
As for the oil, I use olive oil or canola oil. I have adjusted the amount of dates used in the recipe because I have already pureed my dates and store it in the freezer. I added butterscotch chips as well ;)

Ingredients

• 1 cup of pureed dates
• ¾ cup whole wheat flour
• ½ cup oat flour
• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup milk
• 2 large, very ripe bananas or 4-5 small bananas, mashed
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1.5 tablespoons peanut butter (or other nut butter)
• 1/8 cup chocolate chips 
• 1/8 cup of butterscotch chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a mini muffin tin or standard loaf pan with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the date paste, vanilla, milk, bananas, oil and peanut butter and stir until well combined. Do not overmix. Fold in chocolate chips.

Place about a heaping tablespoon of batter into each mini muffin well. Then sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake for 12-13 minutes for mini muffins. Muffins are done when the tops feel firm to the touch.

Semolina Shortbread

Was cleaning up my fridge and found some leftover Semolina that I bought a couple of months ago to use for my homemade pizza. So I went searching the net for some recipes using Semolina so that it won't go to waste.

Found recipe below from 

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/semolina-shortbreads.html

This shortbread is so light and delicious. The sweetness is also just nice to my taste.

Recipe below:

 175g plain flour

 75g caster sugar

 175g block butter, at room temperature

 75g fine semolina

 a little extra caster sugar

 Pre-heat the oven to 150°C, gas mark 2

Method

Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and rub together until crumbly. Bring together to a dough, using your hands. 

Now transfer the dough to the prepared tin and press it out evenly, smoothing it out with the back of a tablespoon. Then prick it all over with a fork and, using the prongs of the fork, press quite firmly round the edges to make a patterned border. 

Bake the shortbread near the centre of the oven for 1 to 1¼ hours until it is pale gold (My shortbread turned pale gold just after half an hour, so I guess it depends on the type of oven used). Then allow the shortbread to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before cutting it into 12 wedges. 

Remove them to a wire rack to get completely cold, then sprinkle with sugar before storing in an airtight tin

Note: If you would like to make this recipe gluten free, substitute both the plain flour and the semolina with gluten free flour.