There’s a giant box of VitaMuffins in my kitchen.
And it is not my fault.
In fact, I’ve never tried a VitaMuffin in my life. The giant box belongs to my roommate, who would eat deep chocolate vitatops every single day if they weren’t so expensive ($17 for twelve muffin tops?!). She’s always asking me to “please come up with a copycat recipe so I can stop giving Costco all my money.” And therefore, I dedicate the following recipe to her:
Copycat chocolate vitamuffin tops: healthy enough for breakfast.
And decadent enough for dessert.
Muffin Monster.
Spawn of Cookie Monster.
Copycat Chocolate VitaTops
(makes 12)
- 2 tbsp milk of choice (30g)
- 2 tbsp oil, or 2 more tbsp milk of choice (30g)
- 1/2 tbsp pure vanilla extract (6g)
- 1 tbsp ground flax (6g) or 1 tsp energ powder (Can omit; they will just be a little denser.)
- 1/2 cup pureed prunes or pumpkin (120g)
- 1/2 cup spelt flour (all-purpose flour works too, and a reader says you can use Bob’s gf mix.) (65g)
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder (10g)
- 2 tbsp xylitol or sugar (25g)
- 1 to 2 more tbsp sugar or 1 to 2 nunaturals stevia packets (scant 1/16 tsp uncut) (Add 1 tbsp if using prunes, 2 if using the pumpkin.)
- highly recommended: 1/4 cup chocolate chips or mini chips (mixed into the batter)
- optional: 2-4 chocolate chips per muffin, for decoration
Preheat oven to 350 F, and grease a standard-sized muffin pan. In a mixing bowl, combine first 5 ingredients and whisk. In a separate bowl, combine all remaining ingredients except the decoration ingredient, and stir well. Now mix wet into dry and stir until just combined. Don’t over-mix. Distribute batter evenly among 12 muffin cups, and—if desired—place two or three chocolate chips on the top of each muffin. Bake 12 minutes, then allow to cool 5-10 minutes before removing from the muffin tins.
Is it just me, or does my chocolate VitaTop look like a Pacman ghost?
Question of the Day:
Have you ever tried a VitaMuffin?
Do you think they’re good enough to be worth the expensive price tag?
Link of the Day:
I have never tried VitaMuffins before, but on the huge muffins you can buy at the store I only eat the top off them anyways so I can’t wait to try this recipe! It looks delicious! 🙂
I’ve been able to make a fux vitatop with PB2 but haven’t been able to find a good recipe to recreate the chocolate ones (my favorite!) Can’t wait to try this!
Hi!! Could you share your PB recipe??
This is the recipe I use! http://stuftmama.com/2011/06/23/7-things-im-loving/
Thank you for this!! I too enjoy the Vitatops but find them outrageously expensive! If I try out this method apparently I can save some dough and eat it too 😉 Since clearly when I bake it never ALL ends up in the oven…
I’ve never had a vitamuffin, packaged baked goods never really appealed to me, plus they aren’t gluten free!
Vita tops are okay… great if you need a low-cal desserty snack but if you have the time you can always make a better tasting, full-sized muffin for the same calories.
I LOVE those things to no end!
But they’re too darn pricey
It looks delicious!!! I was wondering, though, what exactly prune puree is: I have dried prunes, can I just blend them? Do I nedd to add water and, if so, how much do you suggest?
You can google how to make your own, or you can actually (oddly enough) look for something like Gerber baby food prune puree.
I’ll be making these tonight! I just polished off my brownies so this is wonderful!
I’ve never tried a vitamuffin but have seen them at costco plenty!
I have never tried Vita Muffins because they aren’t gluten free, but I have always wanted to! I’m so excited to try this recipe!
I’d never heard of a Vita Top before, and had to do a web search to find out what it is. I can’t imagine I’d ever want to buy a pre-packaged baked good, but your homemade version looks pretty.
Oooo I’ve been wanting to try Vitatops but they’re so expensive! I made your sugar cookie oatmeal the other day and oh goodness…I couldn’t even finish half the bowl before I was full to bursting! I also made it with True Blueberry tea and added bananas (banana blueberry bread flavor…yum) and then Cinnamon Apple Spice with apples I had baked in the microwave with cinnamon and splenda. Amazing!
I do not mean to be rude at all–I ask this out of curiosity, not to be malicious, but how do you know it is copycat recipe if you havent tried the original? Does your roommate taste the batter and tell you “it needs more sugar” etc or do you just wing it and she tastes the end result? It seems it would be difficult to make a copycat recipe of something you havent eaten. (again, I dont want to be mean, rude, or anything like that I was just curious HOW you go about making something you have not tasted the original!)
I am sure that they are very tasty–I mean it is pretty hard to go wrong with chocolate 🙂
It’s definitely a good question! Initially I was simply going for chocolate muffin tops. I figured the taste of a chocolate muffin top would probably be pretty standard. But yes, I did then rely on my roommate to tell me how they compared to the real Vitamuffins. 🙂
Thanks for responding! 🙂 And that makes total sense–a good job for your roommate!
Oh my goodness, Katie, I made these already and they are so yummy! I love that they’re so healthy, too! Another fantastic recipe! Thanks so much, Katie!
Thank you for trying them! 🙂
I have never had a Vita Muffin before. Seeing the price tag just turns me off immediately. Why pay that much for a muffin when it’s so easy to make your own?
I saw that I had all the ingredients to make these, so they were made this morning. Delicious! My brother liked them too :).
This are SOO good! Love the light fluffy consistency and just the right amount of chocolate. I thought they were moist and delicious. Didn’t change a think and used the oil and spelt flour.
So glad they turned out well!
I love vitatops too but I can agree that they are ridiculously expensive!!!