Clean Pumpkin Muffins

 October is upon us. 

Ok let's be real. It's the 24th of October, so the month is almost over already. So today I had the "Oh crap I better get my pumpkin post up before the month is over" anxiety.

Does anyone else feel like every year just goes by faster and faster? I'm not liking this!

Seeing as how October is the unofficial month of pumpkin-flavored everything, I had to make something with pumpkin. 

I found a few great recipes using pumpkin, but decided to start with the most basic one...muffins.

After having a weirdly warm fall, the last couple weeks have started to get cooler. We even had a chance of snow the other day. Go figure...only in the Midwest you will go from T-shirts to snow pants in the course of two weeks. So with the weather getting cooler and me being stingy and not wanting to turn on the heat, I decided it was time to bake!  

As with most baking recipes, whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. The original recipe called for half white flour and half wheat flour, but I changed it to half Whole Wheat Pastry flour and half White Whole Wheat flour.

Then whisk together the pumpkin and other wet ingredients. 

In this part I changed the canola oil to grapeseed oil. You can also use olive oil. I discovered grapeseed oil when I learned about Wildtree - a food company that sells whole foods with no extra ingredients. It's like a Tastefully Simple but with out all the preservatives and extra stuff. I absolutely love this stuff! You should check it out!

I also used almond milk instead of cow's milk, not necessary but just a preference. 

The original recipe had raisins in it...and while I like raisins....I like chocolate more. So I switched those up for mini chocolate chips. 

Line your muffin tins with paper cups or you can bake these using a silicone muffin tray (I want one so bad!).

Don't mind my little helper's hands in the picture....she insisted on doing the muffins cups. :)

Combine your wet and dry ingredients. 

Then fold in your added ingredients, in this case chocolate chips and slivered almonds.

WARNING: DO NOT LICK THE BATTER.

Once you lick it, you will not be able to stop!

This recipe made about 16 muffins and I'm pretty sure it was supposed to make 18....but I may or may not have eaten two muffins worth of batter. 

SO PLEASE HEED MY WARNING.

After restraining yourself from eating all of the batter...pour batter into muffin cups. I usually use my 1/4 measuring cup when making muffins, but the blogger that made this recipe used an ice cream scoop. I tried the ice cream scoop this time and it was great! One big scoop was plenty for each cup.

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool for 10 minutes.

I found the original recipe over at Sweet and Crumbly and she called them Bet You a Million Bucks Pumpkin Muffins.

That title was a little long for me, so I just call them Clean Pumpkin Muffins because with the small changes I made they are truly clean. 

Geni at Sweet and Cumbly recommended eating these with coffee...so I took her up on her advice...and she was right! I had two muffins with my ritual early morning cup of coffee and it was a perfect breakfast.

And since I like to keep it real around here...this is what my life really looks like in the morning. 

No perfect mom here! Just a happy one.

Clean Pumpkin Muffins

Original Recipe by Sweet and Crumbly 

• 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup
• 1/3 cup plain greek yogurt (non-fat)
• 1/4 cup olive oil (or grapeseed oil)
• 3/4 of 15oz. can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie spiced)
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup chopped almonds (optional)
• 1/2 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with muffin liners.

In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients - flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, ginger, and nutmeg.

In another bowl whisk together the wet ingredients - molasses, maple syrup, greek yogurt, oil, pumpkin puree, almond milk, and eggs.

Slowly mix dry ingredients into wet and combine just until dissolved.

Fold in your optional ingredients - chocolate chips, almonds, raisins, etc.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes. Store in air tight container in cabinet or refrigerator.