Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Muffins

It’s pumpkin spice season! Time to eat and drink everything to do with pumpkin and for good reason too. Pumpkin is a versatile fall food that can be made into sweet and savoury dishes. Plus, it’s low in calories, high in antioxidants and fibre. Here’s my fave pumpkin spice muffin recipe that’s packed with fall flavour and plenty of other good stuff too.

Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice

Pumpkin is a type of squash that is harvested in the fall season and is quite popular around Thanksgiving and of course Halloween. It’s not only yummy to eat and fun to carve, but it also has an impressive nutrient profile. It’s low in calories – just 49 calories for 1 cup of cooked pumpkin, low in carbs at 12 g, high in fibre, and extremely high in vitamin A providing 245% of the daily value.

This vitamin is a strong antioxidant that can help protect the skin from sun damage. It’s also high in other skin protecting antioxidants including beta-carotene, vitamin C and E. Vitamin C is also a collagen booster! In addition, it’s high in lutein and zeaxanthin that are good for eye health.

Pumpkin’s versatility also makes it easy to add to your diet, especially if you’re looking for a good carb alternative to sweet potato, white potato or carrot. It can be pureed and added to pancakes, soups, or smoothies, or it can be roasted and eaten as a side, added to a salad or even dropped in a curry.

Gluten-Free Oat Flour

In addition to pumpkin, this recipe utilizes gluten-free oat flour. Oat flour is packed with fibre, iron, magnesium, and energizing b-vitamins. Oats can also assist in digestion, helping to detox and scrub the gut clean, and providing a slow and steady source of energizing carbs, keeping blood glucose levels balanced after eating them.

Oatmeal has also been shown to have heart health benefits, reducing bad cholesterol, and increasing good cholesterol levels in the blood. This recipe uses ready-made oat flour, but you can make your own by grinding down regular oatmeal using a food processor.

Keep it Spicy!

Spices bring the fall flavour of this pumpkin muffin into full effect! This recipe uses cardamom, ground clove, nutmeg, all spice and perhaps the most popular fall spice – cinnamon. Cinnamon is not only a delicious warming spice, it also provides some powerful medicinal properties, including blood glucose lowering and improving insulin sensitivity. That means it can help insulin do it’s job of shuttling nutrients to where they’re most needed. It’s also a super-antioxidant with potent anti-inflammatory properties, and even immune boosting benefits too.

What’s In These Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Muffins?

This recipe provides a hardy nutrient dense, fibre packed snack; have these for a quick on-the-go breakfast with your morning coffee or an afternoon pick-me-up. Here’s what you’ll need.

Pumpkin – Roast pumpkin with coconut oil and cinnamon for 45 minutes at 350 degrees F, cool and then puree. Not into chopping and roasting a pumpkin?! Buy pumpkin puree instead.

Almond Flour – An alternative to gluten flours, almond flour will add some bulk, plus it’s high in vitamin E and good-for-you fats.

Gluten-Free Oat Flour – I purchased the ready-made Quaker oat flour to save time, but you can make your own using your favourite brand of oatmeal. Grind down the oats to your preference – fine or rough will do.

Dark Chocolate Chips – Dark chocolate can provide a source of flavonoids, a super antioxidant that can protect the heart, and help control cortisol release.

Spices – I combined cardamom, nutmeg, ground clove, cinnamon, and all spice, but you can also purchase a pre-made blend – just look for Pumpkin Spice!

Healthy BREAKFAST BITES

Here’s a few more energizing breakfast recipes to try out:

How to Make These Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Muffins?

Combine all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir until fully blended. In a separate bowl combine all wet ingredients. Then slowly add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until you have a fully mixed thick batter. Drop in the chocolate chips and chopped pecans and blend again. Fill the lined muffin tin to the top! Bake as per instructions below. Cool for an hour and enjoy!