Have you ever had the delicious Pumpkin Loaf from Starbucks? It has such a strong pumpkin flavor without being overwhelming, a soft, melt in your mouth texture contrasting with a topping of crunchy pumpkin seeds. My son snarfed that up in two seconds. I felt so inspired by witnessing the boy gobble up the bread that I wanted to make something comparable yet gluten free. I can tell you that these pumpkin muffins don’t taste like the pumpkin loaf, but I veered off that track while developing this recipe and personally craved pumpkin maple muffins with a maple glaze topping instead. Also, you would never know these muffins are gluten-free! I used enough liquids in this recipe that the muffins are plenty moist, and day two they remind me a little of Mimi’s honey bran muffins. The glaze has the additional maple flavor that I wouldn’t want to do without. My taste-testers said they liked the muffins solo- but some raved about the glaze (myself included, hate to admit it but I was loving the full of sugar maple glaze!) You never really know when people are being honest or just nice - but everyone loved them! My son kept coming back for more and eventually I had to put a stop to it or he’d be up all night on a sugar high! He’s always honest and never spares my feelings while taste testing anything:) However, sometimes he just makes a face by the looks of things so I don’t think he’s the most qualified…
Today my son took me on a walk through the neighborhood- it’s one of very few nice day’s that we’ve had in weeks! I decided to gather up some leaves for this picture. Thank you neighbors, for letting me walk into your lawns and pick up leaves! I did feel a little weird walking around their lawns but there were some pretty leaves that complimented the muffins nicely.
Ingredients:
- Muffins
- 3/4 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour
- 1/4 cup buckwheat flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, warmed up
- 2 eggs + 3 egg whites
- 1/2 cup maple sugar (ground as fine as you can get it) - if you have 3/4 cup maple sugar, you can use this and omit the 1/4 cup maple syrup entirely…I ran out
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla or maple flavoring/extract
- 1 cup pumpkin
- Maple Glaze
- 9 TB powdered sugar
- 3 TB grade B maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp maple extract or flavoring
Method:
- Pre-heat oven to 350
- Mix dry ingredients in a bowl
- In a separate bowl, beat coconut oil with sugars and maple syrup, add eggs, then pumpkin, then vanilla
- Slowly beat in dry ingredients
- Grease muffin pan or use liners - for mini-muffins, I used a small cookie scoop and for the regular muffins I used a medium-sized cookie scoop. Fill 3/4 way full.
- Mini-muffins will bake about 15 minutes and regular sized muffins will bake around 25-28 minutes. Toothpick in center will come out clean. Do not under-cook (the cupcakes are moist enough that the raw pumpkin flavor will debut which is not good)
- Remove from oven and let sit a few minutes - transfer and cool on wire rack
- With a fork, mix glaze ingredients - I used a spoon for drizzle and also a silicone brush
Not only do these muffins get more moist on day two, but the glaze sinks in a bit (I think the muffins absorb the glaze, hence the honey topped Mimi’s style muffin). So, for the photo above I made even more glaze for the benefit of the camera. Oh darn, more glaze on my muffin:)
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, these look and sound delicious! I love the leaves in the photo too, such a nice touch and perfect for the season.
Beautiful creation. The changing leaves makes the perfect backdrop for them.
mmm I bet the almond flour gave these a wonderful taste! And the maple glaze has me drooling!
I love everything about these muffins! They look amazing! Definitely going to have to try them!
Really enjoying your blog!
That’s a lovely photo! the leaves your generous neighbors allowed to snag really made it. I love all that wonderful maple glaze it sealed the deal for me!
My children are brutally honest. Thankfully I’m thick skinned and they’e not super picky.
~ingrid
these look mouth watering!
Your muffins look delicious! I’ve been craving these flavors, and the maple glaze sounds lovely. Pretty leaves too!
These sound fabulous; I just ordered the Honeyville almond flour, so I’ll definitely have to give these a try! And I love the use of maple syrup here…
I looove maple glaze. I’m always a sucker for maple bars, so I’d love this!
OMG - Do those ever look freakin amazing!!!