These spicy muffins are wonderful and especially great around Halloween and the holidays. You can add in extras like chocolate chips, chopped nuts and/or seeds or dried fruit and/or mini marshmallows, if you like. You’ll need to cook the pumpkin before starting the muffins. Roasting the pumpkin adds a great depth of flavour, however if you are pressed for time, you can steam pumpkin pieces. Remove the seeds and cut off the skin before steaming.
TIP You can make these vegan friendly by using coconut oil in place of butter and chia eggs, if you like. If using chocolate chips, buy the vegan ones. For a real treat add ½ cup of mini marshmallows to the batter. You can find healthy brands at the health food store or online.
They even have gluten-free options.
NOTE Pumpkin spice seasoning blends are very popular in the US especially around the holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving. You can sometimes find it in Australia and online or make your own blend. I like to make extra and store it in a sealed glass jar in my pantry.
To create your own pumpkin spice blend, mix these spices together in a little bowl or jar: 2 tbsp raw sugar, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp ground ginger, ¼ tsp ground nutmeg and ¼ tsp ground allspice and/or ground cloves. Store in an airtight container with your other spices.
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup melted coconut oil or melted butter
- ½ cup maple syrup or honey
- 2 XL (or 3 small) eggs, at room temperature or chia eggs (see NOTE)
- ¼ cup coconut milk or milk of choice
- 2 cups pumpkin purée (approx. 1 kilo/ ¼ Jap/Kent Pumpkin)
- 1 tbsp melted coconut oil (for roasted pumpkin)
- 2 tsp pumpkin spice blend (or see NOTE to create your own blend)
- 1 tsp vanilla essence (optional, to taste)
- 1 drop nutmeg oil (optional, to taste)
- 1 – 2 drops cinnamon bark oil (to taste)
- 2 cups self-rising flour or gluten-free self-rising flour
- ⅓ cup rolled oats
- ½ tsp sea salt (to taste)
- Topping
- Our favourite topping to sprinkle over these muffins before baking is a sweet and aroma-filled
- blend described in note above – 2 tbsp raw sugar, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp ground
- cinnamon, ½ tsp ground ginger, ¼ tsp ground nutmeg and ¼ tsp ground allspice and/or ground
- cloves.
- Alternatives Toppings or ingredients to include in the mixture include
- chopped nuts and/or seeds
- chocolate or white chocolate chips/chunks
- goji berries (wolfberries) or other dried fruit pieces
- ½ cup mini marshmallow
Instructions
- 1. Preheat oven to 165C and line a (12 cup or 24 mini cup) muffin tin with muffin/cupcake
- papers or rub each cup with coconut oil or butter to help prevent them from sticking if
- not using muffin papers.
- 2. Chop pumpkin, removing skin and place in a lined baking tray with 1 tbsp melted
- coconut oil. Bake pumpkin in oven until cooked through and softened (approx. 35 minutes).
- Remove from oven to cool. Place in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth and
- measure out 2 cups of purée for the muffins. Any extra pumpkin can be used to make a soup or
- in pancakes.
- 3. Next in a large bowl whisk melted coconut oil and maple syrup together for 1 minute until a
- little frothy. Then add in the eggs, beat well and then add in the pumpkin purée, milk, pumpkin
- spice blend, vanilla essence, nutmeg oil, cinnamon bark oil and salt. Mix to combine.
- 4. Add in the flour and oats to the bowl and mix with a large spoon until just combined and
- then gently fold/mix in any additional options you would like including chopped nuts,
- chocolate chips, marshmallows or goji berries.
- 5. Evenly divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups and sprinkle with Spicy/Sweet
- Sugar and Spice blend, if using.
- 7. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. If
- you are making mini muffins they will need less baking time, so check them after 12 – 15
- minutes to see if they are done, if not continue baking for a few more minutes.
- 8. Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack to cool a little before serving or cool completely
- and store in an airtight container for 3 days or freeze for approximately 3 months.
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