Happy Halloween!
Perhaps one of the scariest things about Halloween is that it is the unofficial start of the holiday pig-out season. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a lot of fun to dress up and be someone or something else for a day. (When I was in college at Indiana University, Halloween was much more than a day; it was an actual season.) But for kids, it includes the awesome addition of tons of free sweets.
In the interest of keeping things fun—but somewhat healthy—I’m sharing a recipe for vegan pumpkin muffins in honor of Halloween. This recipe comes from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Because I don’t use white sugar, I substituted coconut sugar, which has a lower glycemic index of 36, for the sugar in the original recipe. I also substituted melted coconut oil for the canola oil, as I’m trying to curb my omega 6 consumption. In addition, I used whole wheat flour instead of unbleached flour.
The results were excellent.
A word on the Halloween kitty in the photo: This is Anushka, a 1-1/2-year-old kitty I adopted from the Humane Society last year. She initially found the pumpkin I bought her to be pretty scary. It took some coaxing to get her to hang in the same room with it. As you can see, she eventually mustered the courage to give it a sniff.
Here’s the recipe, with a few modifications:
Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
- 1-3/4 cups flour
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- 1 T baking powder
- 1/4 t salt
- 1 t ground cinnamon
- 1/2 t ground ginger
- 1/4 t ground allspice
- 1/8 t ground cloves
- 1 cup puréed pumpkin (fresh cooked or from a can)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk (or another non-dairy milk)
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted in a saucepan
- 2 T barley malt syrup (the recipe calls for molasses, and that would work fine too)
- 1 t pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a 12-muffin tin or place a muffin cup inside each muffin holder.
Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices in a large mixing bowl. Mix together pumpkin, almond milk, coconut oil, barley malt and vanilla in a small mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and mix in the wet ingredients until just combined.
Fill each muffin cup two-thirds full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted into the center comes out clean. When cool enough to handle, transfer to cooling racks.