If I had a grain free muffin of the month club November would be pumpkin spice muffins. September would be banana muffins and May would be blueberry muffins. Of course, I have no such club, however, I do love a good healthy muffin.
For those of you who have nut allergies? These grain free Pumpkin Spice Muffins are nut free.
The roasted pumpkin in this muffin makes it delicate and moist and the spices add a robust fall flavor. I use a tablespoon each of ground cinnamon and ginger. The result is a healthy one given that cinnamon is a wonderful blood sugar stabilizer and ginger is anti-inflammatory. When baking, these muffins will perfume your home with the wonderful aroma of healing spices.
Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Ingredients
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ⅛ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup freshly roasted pumpkin, canned pumpkin will not work
- ½ cup honey
- 2 tablespoons palm shortening
- ⅛ teaspoon vanilla stevia
Instructions
- In a food processor pulse together coconut flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger
- Pulse in eggs, pumpkin, honey, shortening and stevia
- Transfer batter into a paper lined muffin pan
- Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes
- Serve
Next week I will be posting the vegetarian Pumpkin Whipped Cream recipe that you see crowning these Pumpkin Spice Muffins. If you want immediate gratification, check out Marla’s recipe at familyfreshcooking.com, and check out the gorgeous photos on her site as well.
While I based my dairy free pumpkin whipped cream recipe upon hers, mine is a bit different. Marla’s has less sugar (she sweetens it solely with stevia) and mine has more spice. That’s what I love about the internet –there’s a recipe for everyone if your fingers do the walking.
Here are some of my other gluten free muffin recipes:
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amy wasserman says
amazing recipe. i ate 1/2 of them a few hours after i made them. used coconut oil for the shortening. had vanilla stevia instead of vanilla cream…..UPS delivered my vanilla cream stevia as soon as they were out of the oven!!! used squash instead of pumpkin and 1/2 the sweetener (i had agave). huge hit in my family. next time i’ll add a little ground clove.
Tania says
LOVE THESE! Made a batch yesterday per recipe. I loved them, but my son doesn’t like ginger so much. Made another batch leaving out ginger and adding chocolate chips. Of course, he loved those. I used coconut oil and regular vanilla extract. I don’t care for stevia. Great consistency and you would never know they are GF.
Tracy says
have you ever tried 1 teaspoon of soy flour with 1 Tablespoon of water per egg in your recipes? just wondering how the texture would be using all non-conventional ingredients
Lyn says
I, too, have to be egg free and would love to know if the flaxseed in warm water (flax egg) or the applesauce and baking powder substitutes would work here. If so, now much? With the flaxseed “egg” I have read that you cannot use this as a substitute for more than two eggs with success. One poster also said the canned organic pumpkin is drier, another said it is more moist and the moisture needs to be drained out with cheese cloth. I would think canned pumpkin would be more moist. Thanks for the help and the gluten free recipe! I can’t wait to try it!
Brianne says
I’m gluten-egg free and would love to make this pumpkin spice muffins without egg. Can I use egg’s substitute?
Lori says
Just out of curiosity – why does canned (100% pure not the pie filling) pumpkin not work in this recipe? Thank you!
Chef Mary says
Lori,
It actually does work, and if you read the comments above, plenty of people have used it successfully! :) Elana doesn’t test recipes with ingredients she doesn’t use, and doesn’t recommend any ingredients she hasn’t tested with. I think that’s fair! Canned pumpkin is often quite dry compared to homemade, at least the organic brand I have available is, so just be mindful that it is possible you may want to add a splash of water to balance it. It’s not very scientific in terms of measurement, but it works.
You can use canned pumpkin, or you can use homemade puree of roasted pumpkin or other winter squash. I like to make a few really big batches of puree in the fall and freeze about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups at a time in pint containers, so I have them all year. I also put a fair amount in the slow cooker for pumpkin butter.
laura says
I’m a little frustrated to read in many if not most of your recipes that they require a food processor. Not everyone has one, yet there seemingly are not alternative instructions. A blender can do some things but not others.I’m writing under this recipe with the food processor requirement, but it is one where it looks like you could blend the ingredients by hand. Other recipes of yours use the processor differently, making it seem that recipe requires ownership of one. I have to make a call each time to see if each recipe is possible without a processor, and sometimes it is an educated guess. Newer cooks wouldn’t be able to do that.
I guess it’s the apparent assumption that most people (must) have a food processor (no alternative steps given for no processor) is what bothers me. Or that the people you are talking to are the kinds of people who would have a food processor. Not everyone has a middle class or upper middle class well-stocked kitchen with expensive appliances. Wish your recipes were more accessible to people from all walks of life.
Chef Mary says
Laura,
I just made them without a food processor. They came out fine. I have a food processor, but I wanted to make this without to give you specific feedback. I also changed the seasonings based on what I had on hand, used coconut oil instead of shortening, skipped the stevia, and made 12 muffins by doing 1 1/2 times all the ingredients (rounding up to 5 eggs.) Here are the things you need to be careful of when mixing by hand:
Sift the coconut flour on its own, then sift together the dry ingredients. You can use a basic wire mesh handheld strainer for this; not only is it a more versatile tool than an old-school sifter, it’s also a lot cheaper. I have several in different sizes. You can buy them at the grocery store or a department or discount store. I used a medium-mesh strainer, not the super fine one.
Coconut flour absorbs water so it clumps up a lot. Sifting eliminates the clumps and combines the dry ingredients nicely. I measured into one metal bowl, then sifted into another, then back to the first. Press out the last lumps with your fingers so they mix in well.
In a separate bowl, whisk together your wet ingredients really well to combine fully. You may wish to melt your oil to make this easier. I used coconut oil, which is solid at room temperature this time of year. I didn’t melt it and it did combine fine but it was a mini-workout, especially since the honey was a bit crystalized too. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should be fairly smooth.
Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients really well. If it’s super stiff (For example, if you’re using canned pumpkin which tends to be dryer than home roasted) you may need to add a splash or two of water. Coconut flour absorbs a LOT of moisture.
As for a food processor, it is a significant investment but you will save a lot of money in the long run by using it wisely. There are perfectly decent machines out there that cost about $50. While $50 is a significant chunk of change, it’s a lot less than a higher end machine and if you’re not doing heavy duty jobs all the time, it works just fine. You can use it to make a lot of foods instead of buying them – for example, pureeing your own pumpkin or other fruit, making your own hummus or other dips, chopping nuts into small pieces or even into nut flours, making your own energy bar/Lara bar/date ball type treats, pureeing frozen bananas into a dairy free soft serve dessert, grating carrots or other ingredients quickly and safely, making quick, delicious, and cheap pesto from fresh herbs from your window box or the farmers market, making your own bread crumbs or cake crumbs, quickly mincing a large amount of garlic or ginger… I use my food processor all the time, and it actually saves me a lot of money. The only job for which I find it is worthwhile to have a stronger machine is making your own nut/seed butters and other spreads, but you can still achieve a grainier version with a cheaper machine and a lot of patience.
Enjoy!
Pcjae says
So nice of you to reply the way you did. I just wanted to scream, “Find a different recipe!!!” I use Elana’s recipes often and so appreciate the FREE recipes. Whining about anything Elana offers the public is so inconsiderate and immature. Seriously, people!
Nan says
I usually use butternut squash and coconut oil in this recipe. The results, just like the original recipe, are yum-a-licious!
carter says
Thanks so much for this recipe!! Made these twice now. The first time I subbed a splash of vanilla extract for the vanilla Stevia, used coconut oil for the vegan shortening, and used Trader Joe’s organic canned pumpkin. They were delicious! The second time, I used those same substitutions, but also tweaked the honey, using 1/4 cup honey and 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce instead. My father – who is quick to tell me when anything tastes “too healthy”- couldn’t tell the difference between the two batches, and thought they were both delicious. I did find that my oven required an extra 5 minutes to get them to the point where they were moist but not mushy.
Sharon Ulam says
Why won’t good organic canned pumpkin work??