Pumpkin Oat Muffins are a guiltless and delicious Fall treat.
When it comes to baking healthier treats, my number one critic is Mr. HoneyWhatsCooking. I mean this guy seriously likes nothing healthy which makes my job much more difficult.
Truthfully speaking, anything can taste good when it’s made with insane amounts of butter and sugar, but those desserts no longer challenge me. The real challenge for me is attempting to bake desserts that taste good without all the extra fat and calories.
I’ll be the first to admit that I have a sweet tooth, and I’m all about YOLO and enjoying life, but I also believe in maintaining balance and good health. After being 25 pounds overweight, I never want to find myself in that situation again so I do strive for balance.
I’ve been dealing with bronchitis this past week, hence I’ve been home for days craving something sweet. I decided to bake these healthy Pumpkin Oat Muffins which are naturally gluten-free since I used oat flour.
Additionally, I didn’t add any oil or butter to these treats, instead I used unsweetened applesauce which worked like a charm.
How did they taste?
Once these babies were out of the oven, Mr. HoneyWhatsCooking tried the first muffin, and I patiently waited for his response. I know he’ll always keep it real with me no matter what. His exact words were, “these are excellent.” I then proceeded to give him a bite with a glaze of butter on it to which he responded, “it’s excellent on it’s own, but it’s even better with butter.” Furthermore, I had my friend and her toddler try these muffins, and they both LOVED it.
I will never deny the fact that butter makes everything better, but for me just a touch of butter will suffice. Check out other spread recommendations in my Notes below. Enjoy!
Pumpkin Oat Muffins are:
Gluten-Free
Dairy-Free (you can skip the touch of butter on top)
Healthy
Refined Sugar Free
Perfect for Fall
Delicious
Wholesome
Kid-Approved
Pumpkin Oat Muffins (healthy, gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar free)
Ingredients
- <b>dry ingredients</b>
- 1 cup oat flour
- 2 tsp pumpkin spice
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder, gluten-free
- <b>wet ingredients</b>
- 1 cup pure pumpkin
- 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
- 2 organic eggs
- 4 ounces unsweetened applesauce, I use Whole Foods 4 ounce containers
- 1 tsp pure vanilla
- <b>add ins</b>
- 2/3 cup old-fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped
- <b>garnish</b>
- a little old-fashioned oats
- 5-6 pumpkin seeds per muffin
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.</br></br>
- Spray a cupcake/muffin pan with coconut oil spray. I didn't have cupcake liners, else I would NOT have used coconut oil spray.</br></br>
- Chop raw pecans and set aside.</br></br>
- In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Stir.</br></br>
- In a large bowl, combine all the wet ingredients. Mix using a large spoon, but do NOT over mix.</br></br>
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.</br></br>
- Now add the add-ins, the pecans and old-fashioned oats to the batter.</br></br>
- Do not mix, but rather fold the ingredients in.</br></br>
- Using an ice-cream scoop, scoop the batter into each cupcake holder.</br></br>
- Top with a few old-fashioned oats and pumpkin seeds for garnish.</br></br>
- Into the oven for 24-26 minutes at 350 degrees.</br></br>
- Serve warm with a cup of coffee.</br>
Notes
Split a hot muffin in half and top with:
- grass-fed butter
- maple butter from Trader Joe's
- your favorite jam
- your favorite nut-butter
- your favorite chocolate spread... Nutella.
- Biscoff cookie butter These muffins are NOT painfully sweet, but they are perfect for me. If you prefer more sweetness, use your favorite spread from the list above. I enjoyed my muffin with grass-fed butter.
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Just tried these muffins and they are so good. Thanks for a healthy dessert recipe. My family loved them. 🙂
Hi Kim! I’m so glad to hear that. Thanks for sharing your experience. 🙂
Loved the recipe – easy, delicious and healthy. I’ll need to try it again once I figure out why the muffins came out a bit dense. I did use all 12 cup-holders instead of 9, so the muffins were a bit smaller. Will definitely be baking this again.
Hi Abha. Sorry they were a bit dense. Yes, please try making 9 muffins instead of 12 muffins next time. Thanks for sharing. Good luck. 🙂
I made these muffins for my family and they were delicious. I didn’t need butter or anything extra on mine, my husband and kids needed some honey on top because they prefer more sweetness. I enjoyed some for work the next day. Thanks for such a great recipe. Anu
Thanks Anu. I’m so glad you enjoyed them. Yes, this recipe can be a less exciting for the kids, but glad you liked them. Thanks for sharing your input. xoxo
Hi these look great…can I use frozen pumkin puree? Also i dont have pumpkin spice what can I swap it with? Looking fwd to making these
Hi Anjali, sure, you can try it, but I would make sure the pumpkin puree is thawed. You can make your own pumpkin spice with the following ingredients:
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon.
2 teaspoons ground ginger.
1 teaspoon ground cloves.
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg.
If you don’t have any of those ingredients either, simply use cinnamon powder as a substitute for that fall flavor.
Hope that helps. Let me know how it goes.