Healthier Pumpkin Muffins
Who doesn't love pumpkin, chocolate chip, pecan muffins?? The best thing about baking these muffins is the aroma that fills your home, Sam walked in from the shop and thought it was Thanksgiving. Goodness, Thanksgiving is only a month away, eeek!! It's time to enjoy this fall season each day, in little ways, and baking is a definite way you can do this.
Originally I was going to use the flour and sugar method of baking, simple, and not health conscious, but I continued to rethink. We don't live in a gluten free home, or a sugar free home, if you knew my husband you'd understand a bit better as to why. But, I do try to incorporate healthier options where I can, and it's fun to explore gluten free baking, in a way, I feel like a chemist.
The recipe was adapted from here -> Creme de la Crumb
If you are more of a traditionalist or simply don't have coconut and almond flour lying around your home, the original recipe will be just perfect. Otherwise... come with me.
I read a tiny bit on converting recipes from Gluten + to Gluten Free. Basically I had to weigh my flours to match the ounces required with the suggested amount of all purpose flour. Here I have compared the original recipe (left) to my substitutions/changes (right).
1.75 Cups All Purpose Flour ||| 3/4 Cup Coconut Flour + 3/4 Cup Almond Flour + A Little More
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda ||| NO CHANGE
2 Teaspoons Cinnamon ||| I added 3 teaspoons, you can never have enough cinnamon.
1/2 Teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice ||| Instead 1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg, Cardamom, Cloves each
3/4 Teaspoon Salt ||| Specifically I used Pink Himalayan Salt
That's it's for the dry ingredients. I used a whisk to mate all the particles together and placed the bowl to the side.
Now for the wet ingredients...
Two Eggs ||| I chose to use three eggs, as most GF recipes have more eggs than usual
3/4 Cup Sugar ||| 1/3 Cup Maple Syrup
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar ||| No Change
1 1/2 Cups Pumpkin ||| 1 Can Pumpkin
1/2 Cup Veg. Oil ||| 1 Stick Butter Slightly Melted
1/4 Cup Milk ||| 1/4 Cup Heavy Cream
These substitutions were slightly calculated, as butter is healthier than vegetable oil, maple syrup is healthier than white sugar, etc. I had the heavy cream in my fridge and believe that cream is better digestively than processed milk.
Once all of the wet ingredients are whisked together you simply combine them with the dry ingredients. At this time you can add whatever fillings you'd like. I added chocolate chips (1 Cup) and pecans (1/2 cup).
The batter is easy to scoop and drop into a greased muffin tin. I greased the muffin tin with coconut oil. (These muffins don't rise as dramatically as "normal" muffins.)
***Temperature***
This is where I made a mistake. From what I remember, GF recipes have you bake at lower temperatures to avoid burning the outside and leaving the inside raw. I thought that having my oven at 300 would have sufficed, but it ended up not being warm enough. I brought the temperature up to 325 after about ten minutes and that seemed to work a little better. In the end, my muffins were just a tad too soft in the center, and I think baking them at 330 or 340 would have been perfect.
The flavor is amazing! They taste like pumpkin pie, even though mine are a bit mushy, they are delicious. A perfect breakfast or dessert or midday snack. Mmmmm.