Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

With all that fresh pumpkin in the fridge, a batch of muffins occurred this weekend. Although I have a couple of good pumpkin muffin recipes, I saw this one by Nicole at Another One Bites the Crust and it looked healthier and easier than the other recipes. These muffins are 100% whole wheat! And, they are really good.





Modifications:
- High Altitude -> 375 F temperature, 1.5 tsp baking powder.
- I topped mine with some cinnamon sugar.

Blueberry Muffins!

I love blueberry muffins. Apparently, my cat Willow does too. I just caught her up on the counter licking these muffins. Sigh. I think she only got one of them.



Anyway, it's been a while since I had a blueberry muffin that tasted like the one I imagine in my head. I think these did it. The recipe is originally a Martha Stewart recipe. I veganized it and changed the flour.

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients
Makes 1 dozen
3 Tbsp ground flax seed
6 Tbsp water
1/2 cup (1 stick) Earth Balance margarine, room temperature
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (1 tsp for high altitude)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk (or regular soy milk, or almond milk)
1/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin tin with muffin papers and spray with non-stick spray (or Generously butter a standard 12-cup muffin pan and dust with flour, tapping out excess; set aside***).

Mix flax seed and water in a bowl and set aside.

Mix 1/4 cup sugar and nutmeg. Set aside.

In a bowl, sprinkle blueberries with flour and toss to lightly coat; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using a handheld mixer, beat margarine and 1 cup sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Give the flax/water mixture and good stir and add the flax/water mixture, one half at a time, beating until combined. Mix in vanilla.

With the mixer on low speed, add reserved flour mixture, beating until just combined. Add soy milk, beating until just combined. Do not overmix. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the blueberries.

Divide batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle sugar mixture on top of muffin batter (you won't use all the sugar).

Bake, rotating pan halfway though, until muffins are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center of one muffin comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool 10 minutes. If you greased and floured the tins instead of using muffin papers, turn muffins on their sides in their cups, and let cool. If you used muffin papers, move muffins to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

*** Note that I greased and floured the pan and my muffins stuck to the pan. I recommend the muffin papers.

Hearty Autumn Muffins (with Pumpkin, apples, and bran)

I was worried that I would not be able to hit the required 20 posts this month, but can you believe it? This is number 23!

These muffins are Vegan Dad's recipe. They are very hearty and filling - but oh so soft. I like them a lot and love the bits of slightly crunchy apples in them, but I was a little disappointed that i could not taste the pumpkin in them. The bran kind of overwhelms the pumpkin. Even so, they were very good, so don't let that stop you from trying his recipe! They were so good that I am probably going to make them again this weekend.



I made a couple of small changes. Vegan Dad's recipe called for 3/4 cup wheat bran and 1/4 cup oat bran. I didn't have either, but I did have some Bob's Red Mill High Fiber Cereal which is mostly wheat bran and oat bran, so I used 1 cup of that (I wonder if that's what made them so tender?). I then had to add a couple more tablespoons of soy milk.

Vegan Yum Yum's Brown Sugar Peach Muffins

We've been getting peaches from the CSA for weeks now and I wanted to do something different with them than just eat them. My husband Mike volunteered to make muffins this past weekend with the peaches. He used Vegan Yum Yum's recipe for Brown Sugar Peach muffins. They were very good. They were not overly sweet like many muffins are. He used AP flour in them because we didn't have anything else on hand (the recipe calls for whole wheat or spelt).

Vegan Apple Streusel Muffins

I took a recipe that my friend Liz likes and veganized it, added a topping, and used a lot more apple. They turned out really well. They are up in the top of the list of best muffins I have ever made. We can't decide if these are better than my hippy muffins or the pumpkin muffins we make a lot. Really really good. You must make them.



Vegan Apple Streusel Muffins

1/2 cup oat bran
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup soy milk
1 Tbsp ground flax seeds
3 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp safflower oil * (or canola oil)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Granny Smith Apple ***, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup chopped walnuts **
4 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
1 Tbsp Earth Balance vegan margarine, softened
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/3 cup natural granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Topping Ingredients
3 Tbsp dark brown sugar, packed
2 Tbsp rolled oats
1 tsp wheat germ
2 Tbsp Earth Balance vegan margarine, softened
2 1/2 Tbsp unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tin with muffin papers. You might want to lightly spray the muffin papers with non-stick spray (I didn't and had 2 different types of paper liners and the muffins stuck to one kind, but not the other).

Add all topping ingredients to a small bowl. Mix them together by mashing with your fingers. It should create a crumbly topping. Set aside.

Mix the flax seeds and water in a small bowl with a fork. Set aside for about 3 minutes. Stir again just before adding to other ingredients.

In a medium sized bowl whisk together the oat bran, applesauce, soy milk, flax seed/water mixture, safflower oil, and vanilla. Let stand for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix the walnuts, apple, brown sugar, margarine, and cinnamon. Stir in flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the liquids to the flour-apple mixture and stir until just blended.

Spoon the batter into 12 muffin tins (you may have a little batter left over - this makes about 13 muffins). Sprinkle a heaping teaspoon of topping over each one and lightly tap it down.

Bake for about 18 minutes. Let cool for about 3 minutes in the muffin tins. Then remove the muffins to a cooling rack.

------------------
* Safflower oil is a polyunsaturated fat containing omega-6 fatty acids. Safflower oil is also less processed and less refined that canola oil and is better nutritionally.
** Liz, don't skip the walnuts. They are yummy and good for you. You can also replace them with chopped pecans.
*** Granny smith apple is a must. Don't substitute another kind of apple. The tartness of the granny smith is really great in these muffins.

Muffin Mania - Part 2: Blueberry Almond Banana Muffins

This recipe is adapted from a Wild Oats recipe. I made a few mofications.



1/2 c. Earth Balance, softened
1/2 c. sugar
2 Tbs ground flax seed
6 Tbs water
1/2 c. Almond Butter (you can grind your own at Whole Foods)
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c. unbleached flour
1/2 c. whole-wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. flour
1 c. frozen blueberries, thawed
2 tsp sugar

Preheat oven to 325 °F. Line muffin pan with paper liners and spray with non-stick spray.

Mix flax seed and water together by stirring with a fork or whisk. Set aside.

Stir together flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Put blueberries in a bowl and toss with 1 tsp flour. Set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir the flax/water mixture again and add to the butter and sugar; beat well. With mixer on low, stir in almond butter, bananas, and vanilla. Fold in flour mixture with a spoon. Gently stir in blueberries. Divide into 12 muffin cups and top with a sprinkling of sugar.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Muffin mania, Part 1: Pumpkin Carob Chip

I had intense urge to make muffins this weekend. Unfortunately, I found too many that I wanted to make and didn't have enough days in the weekend. This means that next weekend will be part two.

Pumpkin Carob Chip Muffin
Today I made pumpkin carob chip muffins. They were outstanding. The recipe comes from The Vegan Lunchbox. The muffins were not only healthy, but had a nice rich pumpkin flavor. I might have been a little heavy handed with the cinnamon sugar topping (as seen in the picture).

Vegan Banana Oatmeal Soy Chocolate Chip Muffins

Muffin Ingredients
1 cup all purpose unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped fine
1 cup packed light brown sugar
7 Tbsp canola oil
2 Tbsp ground flax seeds
6 Tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla
3 large mashed bananas
1 cup regular oats
1/2 cup soy milk

Topping:
3 t brown sugar
3 t regular oats
1 t wheat germ

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix topping ingredients. Set aside.

Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Mix with a whisk to combine. Add walnuts and chocolate chips. Set aside.

Mix flax seeds with water and set aside for about 3 minutes (while you work on getting the rest of the ingredients together).

Combine brown sugar, flax/water mixture, oil, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Mix with a mixer on medium speed until well combined.

Combine banana, oats, soy milk. Add to the sugar mixture. Mix with mixer on medium speed, and beat until combined. Make sure to give your dog a piece of banana at this point.

Fold flour mixture into the egg mixture until just combined (don't over stir).

Spoon batter into 16-18 paper lined muffin tins. Top with topping mixture. Bake for 20-22 minutes. Move to a wire rack to cool.