I love a good muffin. Although I don’t like to have them too often, I do enjoy them as a treat. Lately, I’ve turned Sunday morning into my baking day. I’ve been wanting to find a good vegan pumpkin muffin recipe, but for some reason nothing that looked appealing or easy turned up. I wanted the muffin to be nice and moist, but not too sugary sweet. I also had it in my head that I wanted a cornbread pumpkin muffin.
I ended up borrowing heavily from a recipe in the BabyCakes cookbook by Erin McKenna, but primarily charting my own course.
I made them spicier than the original recipe, as well as modified the flours (cornmeal and whole wheat instead of gluten-free), reduced the sweeteners slightly, and added pecans and walnuts. The result is a super-moist, very flavorful, and satisfying muffin.
If you don’t have fresh pureed pumpkin, you can always use store bought. Or you can get creative and use sweet potato or butternut quash instead!
This muffin is perfect for noshing on when you’re cozying up to a fire with a good book. Or just because you love a good muffin.
Pumpkin Spice Cornbread Muffins with Walnuts and Pecans~
(vegan, no-refined sugar)
makes 18 muffins
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger (dried, powdered)
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
2/3 cup non-dairy milk
2 Tbs vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (preferably unsweetened)
1/2 cup hot water
1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts and pecans)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices) and mix together thoroughly.
Add in the wet ingredients (coconut oil, maple syrup, milk, vanilla) and combine well to create a sticky, smooth dough. Fold in the pumpkin and the hot water until they are fully distributed throughout the dough.
Add in 3/4 cup of the nuts (reserving the remaining 1/4 cup for topping) and mix well so they are evenly spread through the dough.
Fill your muffin liners with your dough, leaving just a little bit of room right at the top so the dough isn’t overflowing. Remember these babies are going to rise a bit and spread. Sprinkle some of the chopped nuts on top of each muffin.
(ps…you should still have some muffin mixture left if you’re using a standard 12 cup muffin tin, so know you might have to do this all over again for the remaining 6)
Place muffin tin in the oven and cook for 25 minutes. At 12 minutes, turn the tin 180 degrees. Test with a toothpick at 25 minutes to be sure they’re fully cooked. Toothpick should come out clean.
Let the muffins stand for about 10 minutes then move to a wire rack to cool.
Enjoy this deliciousness!
