These delicious pumpkin muffins are refined sugar free, dairy free and can be made either whole grain or gluten free.
Pumpkin Lovers Unite
Are you a pumpkin lover or a pumpkin hater? I kind of really love pumpkin and I don’t just reserve it for fall baking, I use it all year round. These Healthy Pumpkin Muffins get made from January to December. They are that delicious!
My love for pumpkin doesn’t go quite as far as my six-year-old daughter, who will eat the pumpkin puree straight out of the jar but, I do strongly like it.
Delicious and Nutritious too
First, it imparts such a lovely color to all ingredients it touches. The color just screams fall.
Second, it’s a vegetable that makes all foods more moist and ‘licious! Being a vegetable, it packs a powerful vitamin punch, especially vitamin A and C. It is high in fiber, which is such a great boost for digestive systems. With all that, it is still low in calories because it is 94% water.
Growing Your Own Pumpkins May Cause Marital Problems
I am a pretend gardener and have been for many years. I am not great at it but I do really love doing it! My goal for many, many years was to grow my own pumpkins. I had tried and tried without any luck. Finally, I grew two little pie pumpkins! I was thrilled. I had such plans for those little nuggets of gold.
Shortly after, I took my kids and went out of town to visit my parents. Sadly, my husband, in his efforts to surprise me with a newly painted kitchen, threw the pumpkins away. They had, after all, been sitting on the counter for weeks, so, they had probably gone bad.
Healing Can Happen
It was the first time in our marriage that I was really mad at him, like really. This happened about 10 years ago. We have since repaired the pumpkin rift but he reminds our children often, “Don’t mess with Mom’s pumpkins.”
Now, with that important life saving advice, I think you should go make these pumpkin muffins. They are just as life saving.
P.S. If properly stored, pumpkins will last between 3-6 months. Don’t throw away your loved ones pumpkins, they are precious.
Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 eggs (see note)
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cup einkorn flour or other whole grain flour (I have used sprouted spelt flour and it works great as well)(see note for gluten free options)
1/3 cup quick oats
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium sized bowl add the oil, maple syrup, eggs, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice,baking soda and salt. Stir well. Add the flour and quick oats. Stir until just combined.
Place muffin papers (these are my favorite ones) in your muffin tins or grease your tins well. With a large cookie scoop, scoop muffin batter into the liners so they are about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Remove from oven when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Don’t over bake.
Delicious warm from the oven or when they are cooled. They freeze well.
Tweak It Notes
- EGG FREE – I have made these with 1 tablespoon flax meal and 2 tablespoons of water and they worked great.
- GLUTEN FREE – Replace the Einkorn Flour with 1 cup gluten free flour and 3/4 cup almond flour. Also be sure your quick oats are gluten free.
- PUMPKIN PIE SPICE – 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- RECIPE SOURCE – Cookie and Kate – an awesome food blog with lots of vegetarian meals.
