I have a pumkinfession: I can’t stop eating these. I’ve been testing pumpkin muffin recipes for weeks. Gluten-free, paleo, with eggs, without eggs, with banana, without banana, with oil, without oil, without refined sugars… and the list goes on. My motivation? I’m determined to find the one recipe that trumps them all (and I’m obsessed with pumpkin spice – because who isn’t?). My goal with this recipe was to use gluten-free oats instead of flour. I also wanted to keep banana out of it, avoid nuts or nut butters and keep it dairy-free too. With all those restrictions, you think you’d sacrifice flavor. GOURD, NO! These are moist, delicious, they don’t sink (which often happens when baking with oats instead of flour) and they are kid-friendly too. I’ll post the paleo version of the recipe too, but I’m telling you right now, these are it! Enjoy!!
Perfect Pumpkin Spice Muffins (gluten-free, vegan)
ACTIVE: 30 MIN TOTAL: 55 MINS
Makes: 12 muffins or 24 mini muffins + extra!*
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed
- 3 Tbsp water
- 2 tsp fresh lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar)
- 1 cup almond milk (almond coconut milk works too)
- 2 cups oats, ground to a flour (spelt flour also works, see note*)
- 2 Tbsp coconut flour (*note: if using spelt flour, skip this)
- 2 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- pinch cloves
- 1 cup pumpkin
- ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
- 2/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional)
How To Make It
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or spay with nonstick spray.
- To make a flax “egg”, combine the flaxseed and water and set aside to gel. Stir lemon juice or apple cider vinegar into the almond milk and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground oats, coconut flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla, then whisk in the flax mixture and almond milk mixture.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients, fold together until no streaks of flour remain. Be careful not to overmix.
- Stir in the chocolate chips. Evenly divide the batter into the muffin cups until about ¾ full.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and tops spring back slightly. Let cool before serving. Enjoy!
*Got extra batter? Pour it into a greased bread pan (it won’t go be super “tall”, but it basically makes a mini loaf of pumpkin bread/brownies and they are delicious)! Note that this will take a little longer to cook than the muffins, about 22-25 minutes.
