Pumpkin Paleo Muffins
10.14.11
It’s one of my favorite times of the year….Fall! And that means it’s time to use one of my very favorite fall ingredients…. pumpkin! I love cooking and baking with pumpkin. If you check out my recipe archives I’m sure you will find a lot of recipes containing pumpkin. Again, it’s a favorite. However this year since I’m Paleo I’ve been trying to figure out how I can bake with pumpkin and still have it fit into the Paleo ways. Of course, these are my treats but for the little ones they are great! These muffins I actually packed in their lunch box as a snack, they’ve had them for breakfast, or even a after school snack. And honestly the only bite I got is the one I took to take the pictures for the blog. They ate these up pretty fast.
Now back to the whole fall thing, I love fall and I’m wishing and hoping the weather here in South Florida starts to change soon so I can get a slight feel that it’s actually fall. I doubt that will happen but a girl can dream, right? We are headed to the pumpkin patch this weekend and there is something strange about going to the pumpkin patch in a sleeveless shirt and shorts. I guess that’s what happens when a girl moves from the Atlanta where seasons are to Florida where the seasons aren’t. I’ll just turn the air conditioning up in the house and pretend it’s fall and bake some more of these pumpkin muffins. Sound good to everyone?
Have a great weekend everyone! Enjoy the muffins! See you back here next week for some more Paleo goodies.
Pumpkin Paleo Muffins
1 ½ cups almond flour
1/2 tablespoon coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, plus more for sprinkling on tops of muffins
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
3 tablespoons maple syrup
¾ cup canned pumpkin
1 small ripe banana, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup chopped pecans (plus more to sprinkle on top)
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with paper liners or use coconut oil to grease pan.
In a large bowl whish together almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Set aside
In a small bowl whisk together eggs, pumpkin, banana, and vanilla extract. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix to combine. Stir in pecans until well incorporated.
If batter is too wet, add another 1/2 tablespoon coconut flour.
Scoop batter into prepared muffin pan cups filling ¾ full. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with pecans and pumpkin pie spice.
Bake muffins for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden.
Makes 12 muffins
Note: These are best kept in a airtight container in the refrigerator. When you are ready to eat them just heat them up slightly and enjoy!
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These sound lovely! Can’t wait to get my hands on a batch of these!
hi heather! i just found your blog & it is so cute! i love it! anyways, i’m a crossfitter too (only about a month in). i’m not on paleo but i thought i would try some paleo recipes for my fellow crossfitters since i love baking so much & they rarely partake. in regards to the banana, can you taste it in the final product? thanks & i look forward to trying your recipes!
Hi Nicole!
So happy you stumbled across my little creative outlet. And you are a fellow CrossFitter….awesome!
The banana doesn’t add much of a banana taste to the muffins in my opinion. The goal of the banana is to really add a little sweetness to the muffins without the “sugars”. If you use a small banana the flavor doesn’t shine over the pumpkin.
I hope you enjoy the Paleo recipes!
Made these this morning and they were a huge hit all around, especially with my 7 and under crowd. Thanks and I look forward to trying out more recipes!
I am having problems w/ baking. We are allergic to eggs (soy, gluten & dairy too) so I am having a heck of a time trying to get baked goods to work right. I am not someone who bakes often either so it doesn’t come natural.
I added extra pumpking to replace 1 egg, extra banana to replace another one, and an egg replacer for the 3rd. And hour later they were still undercooked inside. The flavor is yummy but the texture is not a muffin.
Any ideas??
Loved these! Crossfitters here too!
We’re on the 30 Paleo Challenge so we substituted dates for the maple syrup.
We also doubled the pumpkin and used half almond flour and half coconut flour
Hi Diana,
Baking for allergies is hard. For this recipe, I would just try using all egg replacers for the eggs and see if that may work. I also have a few recipes here on the blog that are gluten, soy, dairy, and egg free.
Check these out if you want to give them a try:
Fudgy Cranberry Paleo Brownie Bars
Gluten-Free Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Gluten-Free Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Good luck and be patient. Before you know it you’ll be a allergy-free baker.
Thanks,
Heather
Hi Chelsey,
So happy to hear you enjoyed these. And I love your substitutions. You’ll have to share with us all your measurements.
Thank you for the great recipe! These muffins are my favorite breakfast!
Loved them!!! These only last a couple of days in my house
I made a few changes: substituted the maple syrup with 3 Tabl of coconut sugar (not sure if it’s considered Paleo though), omitted the banana and used a full cup of pumpkin. I also took out the nuts and added a cup of white chocolate chips. Huge hit in my house!!!
Instead of the maple syrup, do you think you could replace this with date sugar? I just bought this and am looking for ways to incorporate it into baking, since I can;t use it for tea- it DOES NOT dissolve.
Made these tonight and they are incredibly delicious! Can’t wait to eat them for breakfast.
Hi Jenni,
You know I have never worked with date sugar before but I can’t see why it can’t be used instead of the maple syrup in this recipe. Give it a try and let me know how they turn out.
Just made these. The taste is great but mine too were underdone. I even put them back in the over for 9 more minutes! Too moist still. My oven is always spot on. Suggestions? I really like the muffin.
Those look deilicious! Those photos are great.
I just made these for my son and his friend. They came out good, but like another said, very moist. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for the recipe! These turned out great…so good!
I wonder if we could get a more precise measurement for the pumpkin. I know there are 2 sizes of pumpkin cans and am not sure which size to use. Thanks so much!
oops sorry – disregard my first email – I need to be a more careful reader!
Mine are in the oven as I type! I have one lingering question, are the baking soda and baking powder Paleo? And as for the maple syrup, is that not Paleo either? (ok, two questions LOL) I’m a crossfitter and will be starting a Paleo challenge October 1st so I wanted to check all of my ingredients before making them again.
P.S. they smell delicious. I topped them with pumpkin seeds instead of more pecans so hopefully mine will come out just as good as yours look!
Hi Evs,
Sent you an email so hopefully you received. Good louck on your Paleo Challenge!
could this be made as a pumpkin loaf also…just but the mix in a loaf pan instead of muffin tins?
Hi Ruthanne!
For sure! You can just put the batter in a loaf pan and bake but just watch the time as you may need to bake longer than you would the muffins.
Just made these! They are awesome! Even my husband loves them <3 Thank you!!
Hi Amanda!
So happy to hear you (and your hubby) enjoyed these.
Love the recipe. Do you have any suggestion on a substitute for the banana? I feel bad for asking, but I just hate banana… oye!
Hi Deb,
Don’t be silly, don’t feel bad. You could try about 3 or 4 dates, mashed to a purée using a tablespoon hot water. This will add sweetness like the banana in this recipe.
These were delicious! I do believe that they were a little too moist, so as they were almost falling apart. But that may be because I am baking at altitude. I think next time I will try to add coconut flour in, just a few Tablespoons bc it absorbs moisture very well. And coconut flour is Paleo friendly! I also added some dried cranberries and it was great. Thanks so much for this recipe.
Hi Leah,
You are right, altitude might have played a role in the moisture of the muffins. I have added a note above to help others in the future though about adding coconut flour to the batter, great idea (thanks). Coconut Flour is awesome because it is so dense.
I adore the idea of adding dried cranberries to the muffins too.
Definitely will be making some of these!