Pumpkin Pecan Raisin Muffins
I've sadly never heard of the Weekend Breakfast Blogging event, even though it started over a year ago. I'm happy I stumbled across it though and can't wait to see the round up for this month's theme which is balanced breakfast meals. I'm always looking for new and healthy ideas for breakfast (that can be used for snacks too!) and the bonus is that everything for this challenge has to be vegetarian. I think my muffin does a good job of meeting the balanced meal requirements, especially if paired with a yogurt. It has pumpkin and raisins (vegetables and fruit), whole wheat flour (grains), and pecans (protein). And to top it all off, it's healthy!
I've been making a lot of things from Vegan with a Vengeance recently, including corn chowder. I'm trying to cut back on dairy and eggs, so I've been turning more often to my vegan cookbooks and finding yummy recipes. These pumpkin muffins are really moist and soft, and very delicious. Since a can of pumpkin is about 1 3/4 cups of pumpkin (and the recipe only calls for 1 cup), the second time I made these I attempted to replace the applesauce with extra pumpkin. That really did not work out so well. I need a pumpkin recipe that uses up the whole can! (Or I could approximately double this one.)
If this sounds good, you might also like:
Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins
Healthy Banana Bran Muffins
Pumpkin Banana Muffins
Pumpkin Loaf
Pumpkin Pecan Raisins Muffins
Adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance
Makes 12 muffins.
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour*
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves**
1 cup pureed pumpkin (fresh or from a can; do not use pumpkin pie mix)
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup applesauce
1 tbsp molasses***
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup raisins
Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly grease a 12 muffin tin.
Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, soy milk, applesauce and molasses. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix.
Fill the muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
*I think I might've used 1 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour, no whole wheat pastry flour but I'm not sure. So to be on the safe side, I'd say use some whole wheat pastry flour so the muffin isn't too dense.
**If you have pumpkin pie spice, replace the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and cloves with about 2 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice.
***Original recipe called for 2 tbsp but I am not a huge molasses lover. I might cut it back to 1/2 tbsp next time.
23 comments:
Pumpkin muffins with pecans and raisins sound good.
I just happen to have some pumpkin puree in the freezer. These I must try!
wow, these muffins look simply amazing, and yes! they so fit the balanced breakfast criteria!! I love pecans with my muffins:) thanks so much for sending them my way Ashley!:)
You and I are so alike when it comes to our muffins. Last year I went a little crazy trying to make a great batch of 12 muffins using the whole can of pumpkin. I was totally obsessed and made numerous batches, some of which were OK but not perfect and many which were "pumpkin mush muffins".
As far as the leftover pumpkin in the can, I suggest you make a little pumpkin butter to spread on your muffins. There is a very simple recipe for pumpkin butter on my blog under the "breakfast category". Check it out, it's very versatile and you can customize it to your taste. I also have a recipe for pumpkin dessert dip and pumpkin yogurt, all great for using up the remaining pumpkin.
I think that the pumpkin muffins from VwaV were among my first successes with vegan baking, oh so many years ago. Thanks for reminding me how awesome these gems are, I'm long overdue for another batch!
what lovely muffins - my thoughts with using up leftover pumpkin is that you can use it for pumpkin scones or in a spicy chocolate cake - but then I remembered a friend of mine saying that his mum said you use mashed pumpkin to thicken a stew - so many ideas!
So up my alley - tagged already - I'll definitely make these - they sound fabulous - what could be better than pumpkin, pecans and raisins.... I just watched Bobby Flay have a throw down - maybe we should have a pumpkin, pecan, raisin throw down LOL
Love these muffins maybe I make soon, because I have to try some recipes to lunchboxes to school!!Gloria
OOh, I had never heard of this event either! But oh WOW, do these look lovely--and healthy to boot! The texture on top is perfect for a muffin--plenty of little craggy bits to pull off a crumb. My favorite part of eating muffins!! They look beautifully moist too.
Pumpkin, pecans and raisins Oh My! I tried this recipe and it came out delicious and was a huge hit with my 4 yr old daughter! What do you think of adding about a 1/4 cup of wheat germ? Anything to get my little one to eat healthier! I also froze the extra muffins for later.
the muffins look delicious, and very healthy. The pairing of pumpkin and pecan sounds like a great idea!
gosh these look so amazing! i think i might have to give these a try!
I'll eat just about anything with pumpkin...and these look nice and moist.
I'll have to give these muffins a try when I buy a can (probably not until October though). If you are looking for ways to use up leftover canned pumpkin, I can help. I've been through it. http://chocolatemoosey.blogspot.com/search/label/Pumpkin
Haha - I have to agree - I hate it when a recipe doesn't use a whole can of something. These muffins sound delicious though!
I recently had the same problem with leftover pumpkin, and used pureed apricots. They were delicious!
I have a serious love affair with pumpkin! I will have to make these! They look so good!
I can't be bothered to do more than cereal and juice for breakfast (or yogurt) but these look wonderful! I love pumpkin bread, muffins are so cute and handy they just might make it for breakfast.
What to do with the last 3/4 cup? Soup! A bit of stock, water or milk, maybe some onion, sage...purree it all...lunch!
Thanks for the comments everybody! And for all the great ideas for leftover pumpkin.
i had the same pumpkin issue with Dr. Andrew Weil's pumpkin muffin recipe, which called for 2 cups of pumpkin puree and as you pointed out, the small can has 1 3/4 cups. That recipe also called for 2 cups of flour, so I just reduced the flour to 1 3/4 cups, kept the spices the same for more flavor, and reduced the sweetening just a tad--worked great!
Anonymous: Oh great idea, thanks for the suggestion! =)
These look amazing and I was going to try them tonight... but I forgot to buy soy milk and molasses and I don't keep them in the house. Do you think it would be alright to use regular cow's milk and to skip the molasses? Could I add honey instead of molasses? Sorry if these seem simple questions--I'm a baking newbie. If you or anyone else happens to see this post soon and could let me know that would be great! If not, I'll let you know how my experiment turns out... Crossing my fingers!
Lauren: It will definitely work to use milk instead of soy milk. And I'm sure honey replacing the molasses will be fine, especially since it's only 1 tbsp so you could just omit it if you want. Good luck! =)
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