I love learning what makes people geek out. I’m a rennaissance geeker-outer, if you will; a hummingbird, as I can’t focus my geekdom in just one area. Some might just call me a plain old geek. One of my favorite areas to geek out about in the kitchen is veganizing baked goods and making them healthier. Anytime I’m eating breakfast out, or at a special event, if I find out there are sweet treats I can actually eat, my face lights up like the time I found out that narwhals, the unicorns of the sea, are REAL. Spoiler alert: They. Are. REAL! (True story: until a couple years ago I thought narwhals were mythical creatures. Imagine my delight when I learned of their existence! Never mind what they use their tusks for). I want to spread the happiness akin to narwhal discovery through delicious vegan baked goods!
You can already find not one, but two recipes for pumpkin breads here at Spoon. For the gluten-freegans, we’ve got the Buckwheat Pumpkin Muffins with Cinnamon Walnut Topping. For the more traditional option, we have the Whole Wheat Pumpkin Walnut Bread. Why, oh why do I need another recipe for pumpkin-walnut anything? Well, back to point one. I geek out over this stuff. I wanted to tweak the recipe for the traditional pumpkin bread to be vegan and to see if I could eliminate the processed sugar and still arrive at a highly enjoyable muffin.
Spoiler alert #2: It totally worked! These little guys have just the right amount of pumpkin and fragrant spices and are sweetened with maple syrup and coconut sugar till just sweet enough for a breakfast that still feels healthy. These muffins come together quickly, puff up in the muffin tins, and are crowned with walnuts that get toasty as they bake.
I hope you get to do what makes you geek out this weekend, that you can eat all the pumpkin muffins your belly desires, and that you learn about the existence of something magical soon (you simply MUST tell me if I’m not the only one who didn’t know about narwhals!).
- 2 tablespoons ground flax
- ⅓ cup plus 5 tablespoons water, divided
- 2 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- ⅓ cup plus 5 tablespoons water, divided
- ¼ cup unsweetened almond milk or other plant based milk
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped walnuts, divided
- Preheat the oven to 350˚F and place an oven rack in the middle position. Place muffin cups in a muffin tin or lightly oil the tins.
- In a small bowl, mix the ground flax with 5 tablespoons hot water and allow to sit and thicken for about 5 minutes to make a "flax egg".
- As an optional step, lightly toast the walnuts until fragrant by cooking them in a large frying pan over medium heat, stirring often and watching closely to prevent burning.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, ginger and salt until throughly incorporated. In a liquid measuring cup or bowl, stir together the pumpkin puree, coconut sugar, maple syrup, ⅓ cup water, almond milk, olive oil and vanilla until combined. .
- Add the pumpkin mixture to the bowl with the dry ingredients, and stir until smoothly combined. Add ¾ cup of the walnuts and stir until evenly distributed. Scoop the batter into the muffin tins by the ⅓ cupful. Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup walnuts on top of the muffins.
- Bake for about 22-25 minutes, until the top crust is dark golden and firm, and a toothpick just barely comes out clean. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before eating (or not!).
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