Fall means pumpkin everything.  Amiright?  I do believe I like fall for pumpkin-time as much as  breaking-out-the-cardigans-time.  And that’s saying something, because I do love me my cardigans and boots (I refuse to reveal the number of cardigans and boots I may own).

The problem with baking, though, is that the recipes are often full of sugar, white flour, and dairy (which is not good for my dairy-free girl–obviously).  The older I get, the less my body can deal with all of the refined stuff.  I admit, it’s not for everyone, but my taste buds have grown accustomed to having my baking on the not-so-sweet side.  Although, I do confess to enjoying the decadent desserts, once in awhile!  These muffins may be dairy-free, gluten-free and refined sugar-free but they are full of fall flavours and packed with nutrition!

Some of the swaps and add-ins in this recipe are bananas and maple syrup for sweetness, almond butter and oat flour.  It’s super easy to make your own oat flour:  just pour your oats into a food processor and give it a whiz until your flour is as fine as you’d like.

I’ll preface this recipe with this:  I am a lazy baker and I like shortcuts.  I rarely use more than one bowl (unless it’s something super finicky like chiffon cake).  So…if you are a muffin-making aficionado, you may want to mix wet and dry ingredients separately.  The key to muffins is not to over mix the wet and dry.

I also do not like washing more dishes than necessary.  Especially hard to clean ones like muffin tins.  If you’re like me and you realize you’ve run out of paper muffin liners–do not despair!  It’s a snap to make parchment paper liners and they look pretty awesome, too.  They’ll think you’re a pro.

• Cut strips of parchment five inches wide, then cut those into five inch squares ( messed up the first ones and did six by six squares by mistake…oh well.  They were just super tall.
• Next, find something, like a small mason jar, that will fit your muffin tin.
• Place your parchment paper square on the bottom of your jar, and slide your hand down to mold the paper to the jar.  You can take your time and make the folds pretty (like I did for the picture), or you can be like me in real life and not worry about the folds.
• Finally, pop them into your baking pan and fill ’em up.

Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients:

• 3 very ripe bananas
• 1 cup pumpkin
• 1/3 cup almond butter
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (increase this amount to 1/2 cup, if you’d like it sweeter)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups oat flour
• 1 cup oats

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mash your bananas, or just ‘smush’ them with your mixer.
3. Add pumpkin, almond butter and maple syrup.  Mix well.
4. Beat in eggs.  Make sure your wet ingredients are nice and smooth.
5. Add the dry ingredients. Mix just until incorporated.
6. Spoon mixture into muffin cups (about a quarter of a cup each)
7. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean)

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Friday Favourites #450 @ Simply Sweet Home
Home Matters #209 @ Life With Lorelai
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