Healthyish Gluten-Free Pumpkin Muffins

Happy first day of fall! I’m really excited about these pumpkin muffins and fully expect I’ll be baking a few rounds of them during this new season. They took a few rounds of testing, but the end result came out just right.

I’m deeming them healthyish because they are just that. They are gluten-free, dairy-free and free of refined sugars. They are full of real whole ingredients. This doesn’t make them zero calories, but no one should be eating zero calories. Slather one up with some almond butter and serve with a side of fruit for a great balanced breakfast or snack.

Healthyish Gluten-Free Pumpkin Muffins
Yields 14-16 muffins

Ingredients:
3/4 cup coconut sugar
½ cup coconut oil, measured then melted and cooled 
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
¼ almond milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups gluten-free oat flour (see notes)*
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners or grease your tin and lightly flour with oat flour. If you don’t have muffin liners, I like to cut 3x3 inch squares of parchment paper and then press into each muffin space.

In a large bowl, whisk the melted and cooled coconut oil and 3/4 cup coconut sugar. Whisk in your eggs, one at a time. Add the pumpkin puree, almond milk, and vanilla extract, whisking to combine. 

With a spatula, stir the oat flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt into the wet ingredients. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the batter into the muffin tin, filling to the top. Sprinkle a small amount of coconut sugar over the top of each.

Bake for 20-23 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan.

Notes:
Making oat flour at home is so easy and affordable. For 2 cups of oat flour, simply ground 2 1/2 cups of Gluten-Free Old Fashioned Rolled Oats in your blender. If you can’t find gluten-free that is totally fine your muffins will just not be free of gluten, but will turn out the same. I love this huge bag from Trader Joe’s which is only $3.99 in-store.

Annie

12 Halloween Inspired Recipes

When you aren’t eating fun-size pieces of candy, try one of these 12 spirited recipes. All perfect for you Halloween celebrations in some way!

1. Halloween Candy Compost Cookies
Doesn’t get more Halloween than these! Make them for your Halloween celebration or bake them after the holiday for a way to use up all the leftover candy you have lying around.

2. Double Chocolate Pumpkin Seed Cookies
For when you want to be festive, but aren’t a pumpkin person. These cookies use pepitas (pumpkin seeds) instead of actual pumpkin puree.

3. Pumpkin Bread
This is my family’s tried and true recipe. There’s not a better pumpkin bread out there, I’m sure of it.

4. Pumpkin Pecan White Chocolate Cookies
These cookies > candy this year.

5. Pumpkin Green Smoothie
The easiest way to sneak in some greens on a day centered around treats!

6. Pumpkin Spice Bulletproof Coffee
Fuel for your long day of tricking and treating!

7. Upside Down Pumpkin Crumb Cake
This recipe comes from my two friends Madison + Peyton, formerly Identical Ideals. These two actually re-designed my site!

8. Pumpkin Curry
It’s supposed to be cold in this area on Halloween. A bowl of pumpkin curry sounds like the best way to cozy up on Halloween night.

9. Halloween Slutty Brownies
Layer of chocolate chip cookie dough, a layer of seasonal orange oreos, and topped with a layer of gooey brownie. What could be better?

10. The Best Pumpkin Soup
Soup baked in a pumpkin? Sold.

11. Pumpkin Dip
My mom used to make this dip when I was little. It was the BEST treat to come home to after school. Now let me just add this to my list of TAB recipes that need to be updated…Killer filter Annie…

12. Creepy Crawling CCC’s
I just took my classic Perfect CCC’s and made little legs on the chocolate chips to make them look like spiders. Before baking place one chocolate chip point side down on the top of the ball of dough. I used Toll House dark chocolate chips for the bodies because they are little bigger than semi-sweet chips. Sprinkle with Maldon Salt and bake as normal. Melt 1/4 cup chocolate chips (helps if you add a tiny bit of ghee or coconut oil to the chocolate to make it easier to design with). Once the cookies have cooled, using a toothpick, dip the toothpick in the melted chocolate and then draw on three little legs on each side of the chocolate chip to replicate a spider!

Happy Halloween!
Annie

Pumpkin Pecan White Chocolate Cookies

Pumpkin cookies let’s go. But not those cakey pumpkin cookies with the icing. I can’t with those. These are dense yet fluffy, soft and chewy, but crunchy with the addition of pecans.

With a light pumpkin taste, but a heavy spice flavor, these Pumpkin Pecan White Chocolate cookies are everything I want in a “pumpkin cookie.”

Pumpkin Pecan White Chocolate Cookies
yields 30-32 cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
½ cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips (you can substitute for chocolate chips, or seasonal pumpkin chips and cinnamon chips)
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth. About 1 minute. Add in both sugars and beat on medium for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. On low, stir in the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract until combined.

Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Once the dough has almost come together, but still a little floury, add the pecans and white chocolate chips.

*I roughly chop my white chocolate chips (just like in my Perfect CCCs). It lends to a prettier, but more rustic looking cookie which I love.

Using a 1 ½ inch cookie scoop, form golf ball size balls of dough. Place them on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Do not overcrowd the pans. I got 12 balls of dough on a pan, at most. Rough the cookies up a bit so they have pecans and white choclate peeking out. Add a few more of each to the top of the cookies if needed. Optional, sprinkle the top of each cookie with flaky Maldon salt.

Bake for 9 minutes, rotating the pan around halfway through. Bake until just barely golden around the edges, the key is to not over bake these! Shy on the underdone side.

Annie

Bites of My Life

Read, eat, workout, work, more work, staycation post-vacation, and the first of the Halloween celebrations. Keep reading if you want the details of my lazy recap sentence.

-My current lineup. Boom Town, Hey Ladies, and Bread & Wine (for the second time). I’m struggling to get through Boom Town and Hey Ladies so I added in one of my faves to help re-inspire my reading.
-This healthy little tostada stack was actually the victim of a clean out the fridge meal. Crisp 2 Siete tortillas in a little coconut oil. Top each with smashed black beans and some almond milk cheese. Stack the two tortillas and heat in the oven to melt the cheese. Top with tomato, chopped bell pepper, some lettuce, more cheese and salsa.
-After work walk with my best girl!
-One of my favorite events of the year is the chili cook-off that happens downtown OKC every year. Haggled The Jones Assembly into participating this year. We didn’t take a win, but getting to sample multiple chilis for lunch was worth it!
-Checked-in to the Avid and immediately checked out the snack selection. Props to Avid for the great snack options and complimentary chocolate bar.
-Fun little staycation Friday night. More on this coming later this week.
-French toast!
-A batch of Pumpkin Bread to kick off the holiday baking season.

Annie

Web bite: Need a last minute Halloween costume idea? Here’s three!

Double Chocolate Pumpkin Seed Cookies

Forget September 22, the day after Labor Day marks the start of fall in mine and most people's minds. I was at Whole Foods the other night and pumpkins are already out, the PSL made it's seasonal debut, and I am unapologetically sharing my first pumpkin recipe of the fall!

This recipe doesn't scream pumpkin but it does scream fall. Pumpkin seeds, dark chocolate and the secret ingredient, paprika, makes for a kickin' cookie (I had to). I originally made these a few weeks ago and everyone who tried them deemed that they must be remade once cooler weather crept in. Hello cooler weather, hello double chocolate pumpkin seed cookies!

Double Chocolate Pumpkin Seed Cookies
yields about 32 medium cookies or 18 large cookies, adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients:
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
2½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. paprika
1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
1⅓ cups granulated sugar
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 cup dark chocolate (you can use chips or buy a bar of dark chocolate and chop it up)
Maldon salt

Directions:
Place your pumpkin seeds on a baking sheet and place on the upper rack of the oven. Then heat your oven to 350°. This is the best trick my mom taught me. Nuts and seeds brown perfectly in the same amount it takes for your oven to preheat. (About  8–10 minutes). Toss occasionally until golden. Let cool.

Meanwhile, whisk flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and paprika in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat brown sugar, granulated sugar, and butter in a large bowl until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating to blend after each addition. Reduce speed to low; add dry ingredients a little at a time, mixing until well blended after each. Stir in chocolate and pumpkin seeds.

If you want medium cookies use a cookie scoop (about 2 Tbsp.) if you want large cookies use an ice cream scoop (about 1/4 cup). Large cookies will be more bakery style, but for portion control reasons I go medium size. You can see both sizes pictured below. Place large cookies 3" apart and medium cookies 2" apart. Sprinkle with flakey Maldon salt and bake, rotating pans halfway through. 17–20 minutes for large cookies, 9-11 minutes for medium cookies. 

Happy pumpkin baking!

Annie