Autumn... and pumpkin-pecan muffins

Fat-free & made with whole foods

Autumn is here in earnest, and last weekend, when my daughter came over to visit, we carved a pumpkin, just like we did when she was a little girl. I love the summer (it’s my Latin American roots), but this season definitely has many charms. And one of them is baking.

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Sure, baking isn’t something I do exclusively when temperatures drop, but for some reason, it just feels more natural to come home after a beautifully autumnal forest walk and bake something delightful. When we adopted a plant-based diet a little over two years ago, not only did I have to learn the science of baking all over again (it’s a whole other ballgame when you’re not using eggs and dairy, ingredients that give baked goods their texture), but I also learned to bake with little to no processed sugars. I haven’t omitted them all together, but I no longer use cups of sugar, and believe me, except date syrup, there really is no such thing as a ‘healthy’ sweetener. Instead, I rely on fruit purées (especially apple and banana) to add sweetness. And the great thing is that these truly natural ingredients also give bakes a moist crumb, making the use of fats, like oil and butter, unnecessary. Additionally, I use either whole-wheat flour or oat flour (from oats, which I blitz into flour in my KitchenAid blender). 

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I went on the hunt for canned pumpkin yesterday—good old Libby’s, which has been a tradition chez nous for ages. I was lucky enough to find it at an Asian supermarket, where they have a small selection of American products. I spotted Spaghetti-O’s, Jell-O, Duncan Hines cake mixes, Lucky Charms—all nostalgic foods from my childhood back in New Jersey. Luckily, they had plenty of Libby’s, which meant I wouldn’t have to order it online and have to worry about receiving dented cans. I hate dented cans, but that’s another story.

Anyhow, this past week, I made applesauce muffins, and today I decided to tweak that recipe to make pumpkin-pecan chunk muffins, which I’m very happy to share with you on this lovely autumnal afternoon, right before I head out for a walk around the estate of a beautiful Dutch castle called Kasteel Groeneveld. I hope you’ll like them as much as we did. 

Note: This recipe calls for only 3 tbsps coconut sugar as a sweetener. It is still a sugar, so it should be used in moderation.

Happy autumn!

Pumpkin-pecan muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

• 200g oat flour

• 50g almond flour

• 1 tbsp baking powder

• ½ tsp baking soda

• 2 tsps pumpkin pie spices

• 75g lightly salted pecans

• 2 flax ‘eggs’ (2 tbsps ground flaxseed mixed with 6 tbsps water)

• ½ mashed ripe banana

• 150g pumpkin purée

• 200g plain soy yogurt

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 3 tbsps coconut sugar

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a muffin tin (I used a little baking spray). In a large bowl, mix the oat flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and pecans. In a smaller bowl or jug, whisk the flax eggs, banana, pumpkin purée, yogurt, vanilla extract and coconut sugar. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined. Divide over the muffin tin and bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in the tin on a wire rack.