These Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins will blow your mind. Literally.
One of the things that I love the most about this recipe is how creative you can be with it! These can be made into a loaf, muffins (shown above), scones, or even biscotti. All you have to do is slightly change the wet : dry ratio.
So go ahead and slip on some warm, fuzzy socks, turn on some holiday music and get baking…
Lately these have been my go-to recipe, and for good reason. They are great when you need a quick pick-me-up and even when you want a healthy dessert. Plus, they have vitamin A rich pumpkin, fiberful oats, and other feel good ingredients like applesauce and banana to replace eggs.
The flavors. Warming cinnamon, autumnal pumpkin puree and comforting rolled oats are the stars of this recipe. They each mingle with the subtle sweetness of the muffins perfectly, making this recipe ideal for this time of year (no matter what baked good you choose to make it into.)
The recipe. Although most of you may not be familiar with vegan baking, it really is quite simple. Generally, I like to use a mixture of flour + liquid + some sort of binding ingredients (like fruit puree, ground flaxseed mixed with water, chia seeds, yogurt or even tofu.) I then like to mix in other add-ins like spices, sweeteners, chopped nuts, fruit, and more to jazz up my recipe. Once you get the hang of it, you may find vegan baking is much simpler and tastier than you think!
Biscotti, thickly sliced and baked into crumbly goodness
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins
dry:
2 cups whole rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour (or other flour of choice)
1 tbsp baking powder
¾ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt (I like to use Himalayan pink salt)
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp ground ginger
*you could also substitute the spices with pumpkin spice!
wet:
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup applesauce
1 large banana, overripe
3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk, vanilla
¼ cup sugar or maple syrup (sweeten to taste)
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup + water
fold in: 1/4 cup chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate bar. You could also add an fall spin to this by adding chopped apples or any diced fruit like peaches, blueberries, cranberries, and more!
*add up to 1 cup water, or until the batter is a little runny yet still on the thicker side, to achieve a more scone-like texture
*feel free to also add in any
Directions:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line your muffin tins or loaf pans with non-stick parchment paper. To make biscotti I simply made a mini loaf, let it cool after baking and sliced it. I then set the oven to 400 degrees F for about 20 minutes, or until the edges got dark and crispy.
- Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Be sure to sift the baking powder to prevent clumps.
- In a high speed blender (like a Vitamix) gather your wet ingredients and blend from low to high until smooth.
- Pour your wet blended mixture into your dry and stir until just combined. Don’t overmix!
- For the muffins: bake for 40 minutes. For scones: bake for 1 hour, or until the top is dark but the inside is light and fluffy, but not undercooked. Let them completely cool before you slice or store them.
Perfect pairing: my fall pumpkin mug
Kitten-approved… but not the chocolate!
By Grace Vance
photos by Grace Vance
