We could just call these superfood swirl muffins, since both maca and cacao are on that new and growing “superfood” list! We’ve found that maca is: rich in antioxidants, enhances energy, mood and memory & can balance estrogen levels. Cacao (not cocoa) has: wonderful antioxidant effects, boosts your mood and cognitive performance, can help lower blood pressure and can protect your heart. So many good things right!? Do some research (we just asked Google) and see what other benefits they may provide. Better yet, make these muffins first and enjoy one while you do that research! We found both ground maca and cacao on Amazon (read those reviews), but Costco recently had a large bag of ground cacao so we grabbed one there, which is of course enough to last us a while!
Feel free to make these a chocolate and vanilla swirl muffin as well, there’s directions for that as well, since we know that you may not have ground maca or cacao readily on hand and just want this gorgeous muffin NOW. We totally understand, so we got you! Note that the color of the maca will have more of a caramel color than the vanilla. In the picture above, the second from the bottom is a maca/cacao swirl and the bottom one is a vanilla/chocolate swirl. Just an fyi for you 😉
Did you see our other recipe using maca…after that one turned out so tasty, we couldn’t help but add another recipe using this adorable little root! It’s a yummy maca crunch cookie and a MUST try!
OK, back to the muffins, you should get 7-8 depending on how much you fill those muffin tins up. Just adjust bake times accordingly if you end up wanting to make smaller muffins so you get more. Hope you love these, we are all about maca right now and think you’ll enjoy the earthy taste they give these muffins.
maca - cacao swirl muffins
cassava flour maca swirl muffins
Credit: backporchpaleo.com
Ingredients
- base ingredients
- 1½ cups Otto’s Cassava Flour
- ½ cup + 2 tbls maple sugar (8-10 tbls total, depends on how sweet you want them)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp Redmond Real Salt
- 1 cup raw buttermilk, room temp* (or coconut milk buttermilk)
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- ¼ cup ghee, melted (or fat of choice)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¾ cup dark chocolate chips (opt) for swirl
- maca swirl, 2 tbls ground maca (alternately, if you want to just leave this a “vanilla” swirl omit the maca and add an additional 2 tbls of cassava flour)
- cacao swirl, 2 tbls ground cacao (alternately, if you want to make this a “chocolate” swirl omit the cacao and add 2 tbls of cocoa powder)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 385° & line muffin tins with parchment liners.
- In a medium bowl, add cassava flour, maple sugar, baking soda and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs, melted ghee and vanilla, whisk until well combined.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until all ingredients are well incorporated.
- To make two swirl batters: spoon half of the batter (approximately 1½ cups) into a small bowl leaving the other half in the bowl it was mixed in and add maca powder to this batter, stir to combine and then add half the chocolate chips and stir. In the small bowl add the cacao powder and stir to combine and add the other half of the chocolate chips and stir them in.
- In the original bowl, carefully scrap the maca batter to one side and then pour the cacao batter onto the other side. You should have a bowl with half maca batter on one side and cacao batter on the other side.
- Scoop batter from the middle so you get a little of each batter and fill muffin tins. You should get 7-8 muffins.
- Bake for 22-24 minutes or until golden and center springs back when lightly touched. Remove from oven and let cool in tins for 4 minutes and then remove to cooling rack. * add 1 tbls fresh lemon juice to 1 cup measuring cup and then fill up the rest of the way with raw milk, use full fat coconut milk for dairy free.
Hi Michelle 😊. Thank you for sharing another spectacular creation!! I can’t wait to try it. Just a question. Can you sub another sugar? Thank you 🙏🏻
Hello Shari! Awe, thank you, so happy you’re excited to give it a try. You could probably sub coconut sugar for the maple sugar, the flavor profile might be a bit different and lend a more caramel color, but I say give it a go! I’ve sometimes found that coconut sugar is a bit “dryer” than maple sugar, so you may need a couple tablespoons of additional buttermilk so the consistency isn’t too dry. Can’t wait to hear how they turn out…thanks for checking! ~Michelle
Hi Michelle! I appreciate your answer & info. I decided to stay true to your original recipe and just ordered the maple sugar. I’ll tag you after I’ve made them when I post a pic. Thanks again 😊
Wonderful ~ hope you enjoy them! I had one with breakfast this morning (we have sooo many in the feeezer 🤣) and really love the flavor of the maca 😊 I’ll look for the tag 💕 ~Michelle
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