This week, we are off to conference. By we, I mean 300+ of my colleagues. By conference, I mean a two day team building event. As an aside, I am a little worried about what the team building involves as we have been told to bring outdoor clothing and I am not one of those people who feels at home in the great outdoors.
I have noticed over the last couple of days that we have all dropped the 'the' in front of the word conference. It's no longer 'Are you going to the conference?' but 'Are you going to conference?'. It's like it's obtained some sort of mythical status. The office is filled with a buzz of chatter as we discuss whether we can wear jeans 'at conference', whether we'll need our laptops 'at conference', what will the food be like 'at conference' (these being our main three priorities in life).
These events do tend to involve a lot of food. We'll start off with a grease-laden breakfast, stop mid-morning for a couple of biscuits and a much-needed injection of caffeine, sit down to a full lunch before an afternoon of more biscuits. The evenings are filled with wine and a fairly ropey three course meal. The next morning, all feeling slightly the worse for wear, we get up and do it again. I'm pretty sure I'm going to feel revolting by the time I quite literally roll back home late on Friday.
When I was commiserating with Christina, the blogger behind Desserts for Two, about the quality of food at work conferences, she mentioned that she had recently taken her own homemade granola bars with her and that had helped to counteract some of the worst excesses. Inspired by her example, I decided that I was going to need some of my own healthy treats to get me through conference.
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about trying to have healthier breakfasts to help prevent the mid-morning trip to the vending machine and the ensuing sugar highs and lows. Unfortunately, I then completely failed to follow this plan and slipped back into old habits. What can I say? It's hard to beat a chocolate pop tart in the morning.
These muffins, however, more than make up for the deficiencies of the last couple of weeks. They are full of whole wheat goodness and use agave nectar rather than sugar. A (large) handful of dark chocolate chips and a sprinkle of coconut on top give them extra-special yumminess. So yummy, obviously, that I was too distracted to get a sharp picture of them...
Whole wheat chocolate chip muffins (makes 24 small muffins)
Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour
110g unsalted butter, softened
180ml light agave nectar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
100ml milk
250g whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
150g dark chocolate chips*
Dessicated coconut to sprinkle on top (optional)
1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F and line a muffin tin with paper cases.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter, agave nectar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and milk and beat until smooth.
3. Fold in your dry ingredients (including your chocolate chips) until just combined.
4. Divide the batter between the paper cases and sprinkle with dessicated coconut. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
*The eagle-eyed among you will spot that I used white chocolate chips too as I had some hanging around the kitchen and though using them in muffins was preferable to eating them out the packet.