Healthy Triple Chocolate Muffins with Cocoa Puffs Streusel

A triple chocolate threat! These super moist muffins have three kinds of chocolate - cocoa, semisweet chips and Cocoa Puffs cereal! Tender AND crunchy in every chocolatey bite. And they couldn't be easier...

And when I say "easy", I mean it. There's no need to pull out your electric mixer or copious amounts of kitchen equipment. You need just 2 bowls and 1 whisk! And the muffin pan of course. That's my kind of baking!
About the streusel: Traditional streusel is a crumbly topping made with butter, flour and sugar (and sometimes spices like cinnamon). It's delicious, and adds a nice crunch to the top of all kinds of baked goods, from cupcakes to muffins to coffee cakes. But in this case, I skipped the prep work of making streusel from scratch and swapped in puffy, chocolatey cereal - Cocoa Puffs! I served these muffins to my son and a bunch of his friends and one of the guys said, "Reese's Puffs would be great too - I love chocolate with peanut butter". He was SO RIGHT. Chocolate and peanut butter... always in fashion. Thanks for the suggestion Grant.
You might notice that there's not much fat in this recipe. You simply don't need it. Plus, if I was planning to add a ton of butter or oil, I would have called these cupcakes. There's just 1/3 cup of oil for 12 muffins. And I used mini semisweet chocolate chips so they would cover more ground (as opposed to the regular chips). That means you can feel good about serving these for breakfast, brunch, dessert - pretty much any time.

Healthy Triple Chocolate Muffins with Cocoa Puffs Streusel

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup Cocoa Puffs cereal, or any chocolate cereal of choice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners or coat with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well, breaking up any big clumps of brown sugar.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until blended. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, filling each up about 2/3 full.
Top with the Cocoa Puffs cereal.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a wooden pick comes out clean or with little moist bits clinging to it.
Cool the muffins, in the pan, on a wire rack.
Makes 12 muffins


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