Vegan spiced pumpkin muffin

These muffins are soft and moist from the use of pumpkin and can surprise anybody once you tell them that it’s actually vegan.

 

Makes 12 SERVINGS

Equipment needed: chopping board, knife, peeler, oven, baking tray, big mixing bowl, wooden spoon, muffin tin

Total Time: 45minutes

 

Ingredients: 

  • 250 grams of flour
  • 150 grams of brown sugar
  • 50 grams of white sugar
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
  • 1 pinch ground nutmeg
  • 340 grams pumpkin puree
  • 1 tsp.. pure vanilla extract
  • 60 ml. melted coconut butter
  • 1 tsp. vinegar
  • 1 tbsp. ground flax seeds + 3 tbsp. water
  • nuts of choice – pumpkin seeds, brazil nuts, walnuts

 

Method: 

  1. You can use canned pumpkin puree or make your own.
  2. To make the pumpkin puree, peel, cut and deseed the pumpkin into cubes and bake it at 180°C for about 30 minutes. Use a fork to squish the pumpkin into puree and set it aside for it to cool down.
  3. In a big bowl mix all the dry ingredients well.
  4. Prep the flax egg — in a small bowl, mix the flax seeds and the water and stir together. In about five minutes, they will gel up and act as egg in the recipe, to keep the muffins together.
  5. Melt the coconut butter (you can replace it with any other flavourless oil), add it to the pumpkin, together with the vanilla, the vinegar and the flax egg and mix.
  6. Pour the pumpkin mix to the dry ingredients and stir — a little before you are ready, add your nuts of choice (I added pumpkin seeds and brazil nuts), and mix again. Do not over mix — as soon as you do not see dry flour, stop.
  7. Preheat your oven at 180°C.
  8. Divide the mixture between 12 muffin cases, filling each 3/4 of the way full, as they will rise.
  9. If you wish, put some additional nuts on top for decoration.
  10. Bake for 25 minutes (no fan).
  11. Store cooled muffins in an airtight container lined with paper towels at room temperature.