If you’re Italian, you’ll probably already know Marta from Naturalmente Buono’s blog and you may even have bought her book – hers and her amazing mom’s – as soon as it launched, but I had to talk about it anyway even if I know to be super late in the game.
I’ll tell you something you don’t know yet. When I consigned the whole cookbook to the kitchen series’ chief of the publisher I was working with, he asked me if I had someone to suggest for the next book. I was already following Marta and I loved her work. Her photography was already stunning, the recipes were so inventive and she was so young, so I immediately proposed here. He told he was already thinking about her, but, also, that she wasn’t posting a lot on her blog or Instagram lately so he wasn’t sure she was the right choice, but I knew that she was busy with her high-school finals! So basically, that same day, he wrote her an email and she started working with her mom on her first cookbook.
In the next months, we kept chatting and we discovered to have so many things in common – personality aspects, past, and of course interests – and I started feeling very attached to her like she was my little sister. And I’m so happy now because I’m gonna finally meet her next May! I’ll spend a weekend with her in her hometown and we’re going to cook and chat and take pics, and being weird as we are. This long introduction just to say that, since we worked with the same publisher, they sent me her cookbook months ago but I still had to talk about it here (#notgoodValentina). A few days ago I realized that those chocolate muffins I remembered from her avocado chapter would have been perfect for S. Valentine’s day and so here they are. And I hope the husband is gonna appreciated them!
THE RECIPE
[ 9 standard muffins or 12 cupcakes ]
200 g almond milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
140 g blanched almond flour
100 g buckwheat flour
50 g cacao powder
50 g arrowroot
3 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
150 g maple syrup
90 g coconut oil, melted
Preheat the oven to 350° F / 180° C and grease a muffin pan.
Mix almond milk and vinegar in a jug and let rest for 10 minutes.
Mix almond and buckwheat flour, cacao, arrowroot, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl and set aside.
Mix maple syrup and the melted coconut oil into the milk and slowly pour this mixture into the flours, using a whip to mix very well to prevent lumps. Pour the batter into the muffin pan – they only grow in the center, so you can fill them up to the top line – and bake for 30 minutes (20-25 for cupcakes). Let them cool.
for the frosting
250 g avocado pulp
50 g cacao powder
6 medjoul dates
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp vanilla powder
edible flowers or berries and coconut to garnish
Put all the ingredients into a powerful food processor or high-speed blender and blend until smooth. Top the muffins with the frosting and garnish with your ingredients of choice.
Have a sexy and sweet S. Valentine – even if you’re gonna spend it alone 😉
Oh you, Valentina! <3 It's amazing how people met on the internet could became SO important and such real friends. I'm so blessed I've met you, srsly. If I think that, even though I'm a technically single child, I have a big lovely sister from the other part of the world which I can talk about everything with no shame and that supports me so much…I'm so grateful about that. Also, can't wait for you to be here! It's going a be like a sleepover for grown up girls. I'm not the best with words, I'm definitely not the best at friendships (it always ending up with me caring – and crying – too much) but I feel it's different with you. About the cupcakes, those 5$ flowers where definitely worth it! They look so beautiful and I'm so glad you made them. Hope Lorenzo's going to appreciate them (I know he's a picky one). All the love, x Marta
I could write the same things! You know that we have so much in common, and I’m the same in friendship – I even become jealous! I can’t wait to fly to Sicily and spend the weekend with my little sista ^_^ We’re going to have so much fun 😀