Banana Pumpkin Muffins – vegan, no added sugar

 

Fall and pumpkins … a great combination in your kitchen.  While the typical banana or pumpkin bread has a couple cups of white flour and a cup or more of sugar, this recipe cuts the all purpose flour down to one cup and as written has NO added sugar.

This recipe is drawn from  a great Banana Pumpkin Bread recipe on chocolatecoveredkatie.  I reduced the carbs, adjusted the spices and made it into muffins.  They are moist and dense, a yummy healthy snack, breakfast, or dessert.

You may need to adjust baking time if your oven tends to bake warmer or cooler than most.  The timing given works for my oven … these need to be right on the verge of “underdone” to keep their moist flavorfulness.

INGREDIENTS – makes 12-15 muffins

1 cup almond flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp ginger
1 1/2 cup mashed, overripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (120g)
1/2 cup sugar free maple syrup
1/3 cup coconut oil OR milk of choice (or equal amounts of each, totaling 1/3 cup)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2-3 packets uncut stevia (4 to 6 grams) or up to 3 tbsp sweetener of choice (or more)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a muffin pan, and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together all dry ingredients (up through spices).

In a separate bowl, whisk all remaining liquid ingredients. Note: if your measured amount of bananas is a little over or under 1 1/2 cups, you can add/subtract equal amount of pumpkin to total 2 cups fruit.

Pour wet mixture into dry ingredients and whisk together to form a smooth batter. Taste batter and add as much stevia/sweetener as needed to your taste (keeping in mind the longer the muffins sit after baking, the sweeter they will taste).

 

Smooth batter into greased muffin tins, filling cups about 3/4 full.

Bake on the center rack 20 minutes, then turn off the heat, leave the oven door closed, and leave muffins in the closed oven for 10 additional minutes to keep them from sinking in the middle. Remove from oven.

Let cool completely on a wire rack, then carefully turn muffins out of tin, place in a covered container and refrigerate overnight. Taste and texture will be much better the second day (and even better the third day as it will get sweeter).  They taste best if you allow them to return to room temperature, or give them a very short zap (maybe 10 seconds or so) on a medium setting in your microwave.