I figured it was time to take a little break from my usual type of food post (raw fruits, nuts, and veggies) to share a recipe I threw together for pumpkin carrot muffins!

I had a pumpkin that was yearning to do more with his life than be a mere decoration, so I made my own pumpkin puree. I’m sure canned pumpkin would be just as good, but here’s how I made my puree if you want to try it…

Making Pumpkin Puree

Step 1: Cut Pumpkin into Wedges

I had a medium-sized pumpkin, and I cut it into quarters. This step made me wish I had more upper body strength. Seriously.

Step 2: Save the Seeds!

Don’t forget to save the seeds so that you can clean them up a bit and roast (or dry) them with some spices! mmm…

Step 3: Bake Pumpkin

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. The pumpkin “flesh” (sounds kinda gross, doesn’t it?) should be tender enough to poke in a fork with ease.

Step 4: Peel Pumpkin

Pretty self explanatory… This part is definitely easier if the pumpkin is nice and tender when you take it out of the oven. As always, remind yourself not to cut yourself, okay?

Step 5: Slice Pumpkin into Chunks

Only weirdos like me use their (old-looking) cookie sheet as a cutting board when there’s a real cutting board about 2 feet away on the counter.

Step 6: Puree Pumpkin

Toss the pumpkin chunks into a food processor…you’ll probably have to do a couple batches.

…and process away until it’s all nice and smooth.

Step 7: Save for Later

I like to freeze whatever I’m not going to use right away. I put 1 cup of pumpkin in each plastic baggie, that way it’s easy to defrost exactly how much I need later on.

Step 8: Mix Wet Ingredients

Mix together:

1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup grated carrot
2 Tbsp flax with 3 Tbsp water  (instead of using an egg)
2 Tbsp applesauce (replaces some of the oil. If I didn’t have it on hand, I’d just use a total of 3 Tbsp canola oil)
1 Tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup almond milk with 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar (instead of using buttermilk. You can use white vinegar or rice vinegar if you don’t have apple cider vinegar)

Step 9: Mix Dry Ingredients

Mix together:

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice (oops, I didn’t measure….and actually, I ended up putting in more than the picture shows. Be as generous or as stingy as you like. I love these spices, mmm.)

Step 10: Add Dry Mix to Wet Mix

Gradually add the dry mix to the wet mix, and stir until well combined and sticky and ooey and gooey and gloppy.

Step 11: Plop into Muffin Mold

I first typed “plop into muffin tin,” but that didn’t seem right. Does anyone call them that? Or do you call them muffin pans? I was really drawing a blank there. I don’t even have a tin or a pan. I use these nifty little silicone muffin things and they work quite well.

Step 12: Bake

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until the tops are goldeny brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Step 13: Make some Frosting!

You can eat these as they are, of course, or drizzle some honey on them and have them with tea, mmmm….But, I decided I wanted to make some frosting. There are lots of recipes out there for frostings made with cream cheese or butter or confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar was it’s name in our house)…but I didn’t want to use that stuff this time. So, I just made a bit of “frosting” by blending coconut meat, coconut water, and agave nectar. It turned out alright, but it would have been more like frosting with some soaked cashews blended in there too. Feel free to experiment with this step or skip it altogether!

Step 14: Eat the Muffin!

This is generally the part where Tim comes in. The eating step is his favorite. The dishwashing step is my favorite. Just kidding.

The Recipe:

1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup grated carrot
2 Tbsp flax with 3 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp applesauce
1 Tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup almond milk with 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice

Mix ingredients from pumpkin puree through almond milk (”wet ingredients”). In separate bowl, mix ingredients from flour to spices (”dry ingredients”). Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together. Put mix into muffin molds and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

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