About a year ago, I started to turn into an oompa loompa. Well, not really - but I did have a lovely orange glow. My hands and fingers looked liked I'd been self tanning without gloves, my stomach had odd orange blotches and the soles of my feet had a lovely orange glow.The doctor told me it wasn't impacting my health, but the orange glow was due to my love of betacarotene filled vegetables - pumpkin, carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, zucchinis. Sure, I could give up the vitamin A - but seriously those veggies are way too good!
Pumpkin is one of my favourite vegetables - I love it in sweet foods, savoury foods, baked, roasted, pureed, sautéed you name it. When I first started making pumpkin muffins, my family were grossed out - but Jesse had convinced me to give them a try. Little did I know that I'd soon be roasting 3 pumpkins at a time just to make my own pumpkin puree and searching the web for where to find pumpkin puree in Sydney.
Pumpkin season is just beginning in the US and it's already ended here in Australia - but that certainly isn't going to stop me from baking up some pumpkin treats and taking advantage of the year round supply. You'll notice these muffins aren't super orange and that's thanks to a pale pumpkin (another sign pumpkin season is over) but the brighter your pumpkin, the brighter the muffins!
Pumpkin Applesauce Muffins makes 12 muffins 
gluten free, vegan option, low fat, sugar free
3/4 cup gluten free plain flour
3/4 cup buckwheat flour or gluten free oat flour (the choice is yours!)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup egg whites or 2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree (if your pumpkin puree is quite liquidy, you may need to add 1-2 tbsp of flour)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4C-1/2C honey (use more/less depending on how sweet you like things - if vegan, use maple syrup and you can also use sugar if you prefer)
2 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F
In a bowl, combine flours, baking powder, baking powder, baking soda, spices and a pinch of salt.
Combine your egg choice with the pumpkin puree, applesauce, honey and vanilla.
Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.
Bake for 10-20 minutes, depending on size, until a skewer removes clean.
We usually freeze our muffins and then take one out of the freezer as we want to eat them - but they will also last for a few days if you want to make them ahead of time. Use your best judgement as the results will change depending on your climate etc (in hot humid climates you might want to keep them in the fridge as they'll get mouldy quicker) different climates and altitudes also change baking times and results
But tell me, what is your favourite vegetable and how do you like to eat it?
I love roasted pumpkin, but I'm also a huge zucchini fan - at the moment we're loving cheesy zucchini boats and stuffed zucchinis.
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These look wonderful Kristy! Perfect for the Fall!
ReplyDeleteThey most certainly are!
Deleteit's look yummy, gotta try it ! :)
ReplyDeletehttp://feafum.blogspot.com/
They are really yummy!
DeleteIt needs more honey. I used 1 1/2 cups. It finally tasted better. By the way, I love the sugar free recipes. We have been off of our sugar addiction for 10 months. I appreciate all your work.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely adapt it to suit your tastes - we don't like things sweet so we only use 1/4 cup - hence why all of our recipes have different options!
DeleteMy pleasure!
are they supposed to be super moist? almost like pumpkin pie?
ReplyDeleteHi Nichole, they're super moist muffins but not as moist as pumpkin pie (says someone who's never even had pumpkin pie - but I imagine it's more cheesecake like in texture rather than cake like)
DeleteThese came out nothing like the picture. They fell as soon as I took them out of the oven and are a nasty texture. I followed the recipe so not sure what happened. Total waste of ingredients:(
ReplyDeleteOh no! That's so odd! We've made these dozens of times and they're perfect.
DeleteWhat flour/egg/sugar choices did you use?
These didn't seem to have much flavor to them….very bland. The only thing I really did different is add some ground ginger and cloves instead of mixed spice because I didn't have any….otherwise, I seemed to follow the recipe pretty closely but they just didn't turn out right
ReplyDeleteHi there, if you're used to really sweet baked goods that may have been the problem (if you used 1/4 cup of honey versus 1/2 cup) as it is quite a low sugar recipe. Mixed spice also has cinnamon which adds a lot of flavour.
DeleteIs it just 3/4 flour of choice or 3/4 plain flour and 3/4 flour of choice?
ReplyDeleteHey there, It's 3/4 of flour PLUS 3/4 of one of the other choices
DeleteI really want to try these, but I'm a little confused on the GF plain flour. Can you use almond flour for the plain flour?
ReplyDeleteHi Teresa,
DeleteNo almond flour cannot be used instead of plain flour. It needs to be a gluten free flour blend as almond flour has completely different baking properties
Can I just use 1-/2 cup gluten free flour?
ReplyDeleteYes, you can just swap the flour and use all gluten free or regular plain flour :)
Delete