Healthy Muffin Recipes: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip

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This was the year. The year that our standard healthy muffin recipe became over used. The boys wanted something new. I needed new healthy muffin recipes pronto! So I picked a Sunday and deemed it a day to create as many healthy muffin recipes as I could. The boys helped with planning, production, quality control, and product testing. I’ll be posting our favorites over the next several weeks. Our first test was peanut butter chocolate chip muffins. Ok, but sort of meh. Back to the drawing board. Next was pumpkin chocolate chip. Score!

Who wouldn’t love pumpkin pie muffins without the guilt?

Our healthy chocolate chocolate chip muffin recipe is such a great recipe that it lends itself to “play.” In other words, it’s pretty easy to change things up a little or a lot and have really great results every time. Our local Whole Foods has a delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookie which inspired me to try the combo as a muffin. We added pumpkin and lots of warm, pumpkin loving spices – and came up with pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. Perfect for fall. Oh, yeah. These pumpkin chocolate chip muffins are amazing for either a quick grab and go breakfast or for a snack any time of day. The boys favorite was warm, straight out of the oven with a little pat of butter.

Added bonus: Allergen free recipes and gluten free recipes are a must for so many families these days. But muffins that are free of the top eight allergens AND they taste good? Now that’s rare. My healthy muffin recipes are always free of dairy, wheat, eggs, tree nuts, soy, peanuts (and, of course, shellfish and fish).

This recipe uses dark chocolate chunks (or chips). Did you know that dark chocolate, the closer to its pure cacao state as possible, has been linked with over 40 distinct health benefits?  Dark chocolate’s high levels of polyphenols are heart protective, aid in healthy vascular function, aid in overall gut health, and increase insulin sensitivity – even in people without diabetes. Combining dark chocolate with additional fiber (from the oatmeal, flax, and chia seeds) creates a synergy that gives the health value of dark chocolate a super boost!

Pumpkin itself is a great source of fiber, vitamins and minerals. The nutrients in pumpkin can help with weight loss, sharper vision, stronger immunity, younger looking skin, and even lowering the risk for some cancers.

So without any further delay…

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Wrapped in a tiny package, these muffins are made with oats, oat flour, ground flax, pumpkin, and chia seeds.  And…this is the best part.  THEY ARE DELISH!  Not only are they delish, but the recipe is easy and versatile. By easy and versatile – I mean, you can’t mess it up.  It’s not as exacting as most baking recipes; no precise measuring here.  You can also easily change it up to cater to your own tastes. Several switches I would love to try are white chocolate chips in place of the dark chocolate – although this would up the sugar content and make it more like dessert 🙂 I think that replacing the chocolate chips with either raisins or dried cranberries would make a great new muffin! I also love the idea of roughly chopping some pumpkin seeds or nuts (if you aren’t allergic) and incorporating those into the batter. I would start with one cup. You could also add these as a topping.

If you want to check out some of the variations that have worked well, you can find them all here:

Related Page You May Also Like: The Muffin Recipe That Will Make You Want to Eat Healthy

Let me know how you like the healthy muffin recipes and I’d love for you to post a comment and let me hear how you changed it up!

*I used sunbutter to avoid nut butters, but if you don’t need this to be nut free, you can substitute in any nut butter. Cashew butter would be delicious!!