Pumpkin Apple Muffins- Grain, Gluten Free, No Sugar Added

The summer is now gone, garden veggies all fixed for the winter, and this time of the year baking can actually be a lot of fun!

The beautiful sight of orange and yellow leaves falling, the crisp air brings back memories of family get-togethers on Thanksgiving, decorating for the fall, and if you celebrate Halloween that too– sipping a cup of warm cacao, tea or coffee… Aaahhh the good ol’ fall season.

Since the spirit of the falls season (and Thanksgiving) is here, I’ve been thinking about something baked, warm, soft, and sweet, but refuse to buy anything from the store.

Ya know–partially hydrogenated oils, bleached flour, too much sugar… and the list goes on!!

As some of you already know I can cook a full holiday menu, but I am not much of a baker.  That being said, what I lack in baking skills I make up in determination ha!

When those cravings for a delicious, sweet warm muffin or cake hit, its time to take action. That’s why I decided to create these delicious muffins vs store bought.  They are moist, tasty, sweet, decadent– yet they low in calories, no sugars added, and most importantly grain free. (low glycemic load).

I will try everything once or twice especially if it means I can feed my family something healthy, and delicious.  This time pumpkin-apple muffins it was.  As an added healthy bonus I use certified organic fair trade turmeric in the recipe.   Keep reading to find out where…

So there I was Saturday night wondering…. How can I come up with a low carbohydrate pumpkin-apple muffin that is gluten, sugar, and grain free?  Well, since making lifestyle changes requires some effort and a positive attitude–I took on the challenge.

Think, think, think… aha!   I remembered seeing these amazing looking muffins by Amy from Super Healthy Kids , and then the light bulb lit up. I can attempt to make those beauties [Thanks, Amy].

My Pumpkin-Apple Muffins Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free, Grain-Free were adapted from Amy’s recipe, but  I’ve made some substantial changes to make it low glycemic index muffin.

Being that I recently received a complimentary kit from the awesome folks at  Swerve Sweetener –my new favorite natural sugar substitute, went apple picking and got a can of pumpkin puree from the store…. I went for the “bake”!

I figured it was time to take the goodies out, and try and come up with some healthy muffin concoction or bread of both, of course, that tasted delicious.

Now the trick to using almond flour and coming up with a soft, moist end result isn’t an easy task, at least not yet for me.   That is why I went to Carolyn’s All Day I dream about food blog because I know she has mastered the art of reinventing several recipes.  Not only are they low in carbohydrates,  and sugar, but most importantly they look and taste delicious.

Carolyn came up with her own formula for cooking with almond flour, and there is where I got the right ratio of  the right amount of whey protein and almond flour.   Basically,you want to add half the fat, double the flour and  baking powder from the original recipe.   Then add some whey protein to make up for the gluten.  And so that is what I did.  Read more on about Low Carb Basics: Baking with almond flour.

Well, it seems that all of this adding and subtracting ingredients, concocting and baking returned a super moist, decadently sweet Pumpkin apple muffins to die for.  My friends that tried them had no clue they were flourless muffins.

Ingredients used

Here is the recipe:

Print Recipe

Pumpkin-Apple Muffins: Gluten Free,Sugar Free, Grain Free

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time25 minutes mins

Total Time40 minutes mins

Servings: 16

Ingredients

• Dry Ingredients
• 200 grams 2 cups almond flour
• 1/4 cup unflavored Whey powder
• ¾ Granulated swerve sweetener
• 1 Tbs pumpkin spice or spice mix
• ½ Tbs baking powder remember is almond flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Other Ingredients
• Unbleached chlorine-free Mini Baking Cups
• or Unbleached large baking cups
• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• Wet Ingredients
• 1 can 15oz pumpkin puree preferable BPA free
• 2 large eggs preferably organic range-free for an Omega 3's boost
• 1/4 cup Coconut Oil
• 1 cup chopped organic apples Remember dirty dozen?
• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• For the Frosting optional:
• 1 Package Cream Cheese {softened}
• 5 Tbsp carrot juice or carrot/pomegranate for a deeper color
• 1/3 cup Confectioners swerve sweetener
• ½ tsp turmeric {optional-see note}
• Optional
• ½ cup chopped up or whatever you can do as it gets gooey: coconut/almond (KIND BAR) on top of muffins for an awesome almond-coconut-caramel topping, _if you wont be making the frosting. They'll be just perfect.

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Mix dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until well blended.
• In a separate bowl mix wet ingredients.
• Start off by beating the eggs, then add coconut oil, pumpkin puree and mix. Add apple slowly to the batter until you reach the consistency of a thick batter for muffins. I did it all with a hand whisker( Don't worry about over-mixing flour less muffins— usually the more you mix, the better!)
• Line a muffin tin with unbleached muffin papers and fill each approximately ¾ with muffin batter.
• It's important that you use muffin papers for this recipe! If you don't, the muffins will likely stick to your muffin tin- no fun!.
• Bake on center rack for about 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
• Cool muffins in the pan for 5 minutes or so and then on a wire cooling rack. They're also delightful when eaten warm!
• Frosting
• In a bowl mix cream cheese with a hand blender
• Add carrot juice
• Add confectioners sugar slowly for about 4 minutes or until it reaches a smooth thick consistency
• Use your favorite decorating kit
• Enjoy or refrigerated for later.

Notes

Apples~ I used my mini food processor to puree the apples.

Pumpkin~ Has one the highest contents of Vitamin A in any fruit or vegetable, vitamin C and riboflavin. Check out this Image Tips page to learn about the full benefits of pumpkin.

Turmeric~ If you wanted to enhance the color and add a kick of anti-inflammatory properties to these muffins go ahead and add a dash of turmeric to the frosting.
One word of caution though. I buy a certified organic- trade Turmeric that has a mild taste that doesn't compromise potency and flavor.
In my opinion, it doesn't have such a strong taste like the store bought brand. And so that is why I used it in "this recipe" for coloring purposes as well. But that is entirely up to you 🙂
If you buy the store brand you may end up with a different flavor so test it on a tiny bit of frosting first.

Here is the kind of Turmeric that I use, which my toddler doesn't even notices 🙂

Sugar in Frosting Tip~
Because the carrots already have sugar, I cut down the amount of confectioners sugar to 1/3 instead of half (I tasted it as I mixed).

Now is your turn.  Have you tried to make pumpkin muffins or a combo like the one above? I’d love to hear of more healing recipes.

To your best health,