My friend Sarah shared an amazing banana bread recipe with me many years ago. The recipe suggests replacing banana with mashed pumpkin for a delicious pumpkin bread, and it got me thinking…why don’t I do the same thing, but with muffins instead?
I used the same spices from her bread and these spiced pumpkin muffins, with pops of dark melty chocolate were born. Sweetened with maple syrup and with the addition of bran, they are a less sweet and more substantial snack.
With the current price of chocolate, I have gone for a less is more approach, but you can measure with your heart if you like them more chocolatey. I also felt like a hearty note of spice today, but if you prefer yours more sweet, simply omit the nutmeg, ginger and allspice.
Pumpkin & chocolate muffins
Description
I've been playing around with ways to reduce the load in the kitchen, and one way I make my life easier is by roasting my pumpkin whole. This saves all that difficult chopping and peeling.
Pop your whole pumpkin on a tray, and place the tray into a preheated 180°C (fanbake) oven, roasting until it is cooked through. Then remove the pumpkin and allow it to cool.
Once cool, remove the stalk, slice in half and spoon out the seeds. The remaining flesh can be easily scooped out and used as is for pumpkin soup, risotto, or mashed to use in baking.
Roasting the pumpkin intensifies the flavour and results in a drier flesh than if you had boiled the peeled pieces and then mashed them (not to mention it is significantly easier!)
Today I had a butternut pumpkin, which I roasted for an hour using this method. I measured out one cup of cooked flesh for baking, and used the remainder to make Rob's pumpkin & kūmara soup. Winning!
Ingredients
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 165°C fanbake.
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Grease and line a standard 12-hole muffin tin.
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Mix together the oil, maple syrup, eggs, pumpkin, vanilla, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl until well combined.
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Stir the baking soda into the warmed milk in a small bowl, then add to the pumpkin/egg mixture.
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Add the flour and wheatbran and stir gently until almost mixed, then add the first measure of chopped chocolate and stir until just combined.
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Divide mixture evenly between the muffin holes, then sprinkle the second measure of chocolate over the muffin tops.
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Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the muffin comes out clean.
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Serve and enjoy x
