Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

With a ton of 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.

VEGAN CHOCOLATE CHIP PUMPKIN MUFFINS
from Another One Bites The Crust

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp apple pie spice mix (cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (make sure the package says vegan)
3/4 cup almond milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract

Instructions:
I didn’t feel like cleaning up a million bowls, so all I did was throw everything together until it was all combined. Lazy! I used an ice cream scoop to scoop the batter into my large muffin tins. This recipe made 6 large muffins, so probably 12 small muffins.
Oh, and I baked the muffins at 375 for 20 minutes, and then I upped the temperature to 400 for probably 7 minutes until a toothpick stuck in it came out clean.
These are SO GOOD! I’d call these one of the most fabulous fall treats. They’re perfectly moist with a little bit of added crunch with the oats sprinkled on top. Yum!

Now don’t ever buy canned pumpkin again!

Ok, you can buy pumpkin puree in a can, but please, just don’t do it in the fall when you can make it yourself. It’s so easy and I’m going to show you how step by step.

First, you want to get some Sugar Pumpkins. These are small cooking pumpkins.

Preheat oven to 375F. Then, cut the pumpkin in half.


Scrape out the seeds and guts into a bowl. Keep the seeds and guts. Place the pumpkin halves cut side down on oiled non-stick foil (or you can oil the cut edge of the pumpkin). I usually just drizzle a little olive oil on my foiled sheet pan and then spin the pumpkins cut side around in the oil. Place them in the oven. They are going to cook for about an hour.

Look at all those great seeds. You didn’t really want to throw that out did you? Pumpkin seeds are highly nutritious and make great snacks (more on that in a minute).

Separate the seeds from the goo. You can do this by squeezing the goo. Put the seeds on a sheet pan covered in non-stick foil. You don’t need to rinse them. Now you can add some oil and seasonings and roast them. You want just enough oil to lightly coat them. I usually go with a mixture of hot sesame oil, sesame oil, a pinch of five spice powder, and some salt or soy sauce. Pop them in the oven under the pumpkins and cook for 15-30 minutes until well browned. Stir every 5-10 minutes.

Here is what’s left of my pumpkin. The goo. Now, you can throw this away or you can add it to vegetable stock scraps if you are making your own stock later. Pumpkin guts in the stock is especially good if you are going to make a pumpkin or butternut squash risotto.

When the seeds are done, they will look like this. Cool and eat.

When the pumpkin is done, you will be able to poke it and leave a dent. Remove the pumpkin from the oven and allow to cool until you can handle it.

The pumpkin skin will now just pull away, leaving you with all the good pumpkin. Put the pumpkin into a food processor and blend until pureed.

Here is what my puree looked like.

You can freeze this and use it later. I like to freeze it in 1 cup amounts for recipes. Or, you can now go and make some skanky pumpkin squares, pumpkin muffins, or pumpkin waffles!

I can’t stop making these Skanky Pumpkin Squares

These might be the best thing ever. Every time a pumpkin comes in the house we make these pumpkin squares. And a pumpkin comes into the house about once a week from our CSA.

The recipe is from Vegan Addict. I have tried these with both AP flour and also with White Whole Wheat flour. The latter is a little grainier, but I can’t decide which I like best.

I have had a bit of a problem with the middle sinking a little, but that hasn’t affected the flavor at all. It just provided a larger vehicle for the frosting. I guess I just need to keep making these until I figure out the right high altitude adjustment. 😛

Pumpkin Curry

With all that pumpkin in the house, I decided it was time for a pumpkin curry. I was try to recreate a dish that an Indian friend made for me once. I was close and this was good, but we felt like it was missing a sweet element. We never did decide what we would change next time on this so if any of you Indian food cooks out there have an idea, let me know. Maybe it needs tomatoes… or tamarind… or fenugreek…. or… ?

Pumpkin Curry

1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp canola oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1″ ginger, minced
1 jalepeno, minced
1 Tbsp Garam Masala
2 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp tumeric
1 tsp salt (add more to taste at the end)
1 cup water
4 cups pumpkin, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 red baby potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 large red bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 can coconut milk
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped

Add canola oil to a large pot and heat over med-high heat. When the pot is hot, add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Cook stirring until they start to pop. Add the onions. Cook until the onions brown (about 7-10 minutes) stirring occasionally to keep the spices from burning. Add the garlic, ginger, and jalepeno. Cook for a minute or two until fragrant. Add the spices and salt. Cook another minute.

Add one cup of water, stir to deglaze. Add the vegetables. Add the can of coconut milk. Cover and lower heat and simmer 30 minutes. When the vegetables are starting to get tender, add the chickpeas and cook another 10-15 minutes. Add the cilantro and server over brown rice.

 

Pumpkin and Black Bean Casserole

Isn’t this casserole beautiful. It made the house smell as good as it looks.

This is a Pumpkin Black Bean Casserole, recipe from Fat Free Vegan. It has layers of thinly sliced pumpkin, layers of a mexican chile flavored black bean mixture with tomatoes and corn, and then a cheesy sauce. It tasted like a spicy, cheesy chili. Since it was pretty spicy, I think I may have goofed and added more Ancho or Chipolte than it called for. I’ll be making this again so I’ll know the answer next time if it doesn’t come out as spicy. This goes great with some blue corn chips.

Things that I think I will change next time: I think I will saute the onions first. My onion was really really strong and overpowered things a bit. And, I think that 1/2 way through the baking time I will add some crushed blue corn chips to the top. Now I can’t wait to make it again. You may see this one again next week!

 

Rustic Pumpkin Bread

Did you see this post by Vegan Dad? When I saw it, I knew I had to make this recipe for Rustic Pumpkin Bread. I could not find Kamut flour at my grocery so I subsituted Barley flour (after asking Vegan Dad’s opinion). I also reduced the final yeast by 1/2 since I am at high altitude. Here are some pics:

This bread is great. It is so moist with a dense crunchy crust. If you have the time, you should definitely make this.

 

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).