Ah, the muffin. The cupcake’s healthy cousin. I’m really not sure of the concrete differences between a cupcake and a muffin. Upon doing some googling, I discovered that this is actually a heated debate in the food realm and that there’s no clear answer. Hmph. To me, muffins are a little more dense than cupcakes, supposedly healthier, and are sorely lacking in the frosting department. I really wanted to frost these muffins so bad! Vanilla bean cream cheese frosting would be perfect on these. Then I soon realized that I wanted to frost them so I could turn them into cupcakes! In the end I decided to stay true to the muffin and compromise with a baked in yogurt-based cream swirl.
These cream swirl vegan pumpkin muffins came out moist, spicy, and delicious! Plus they’re good for you because they’re filled with vitamin A loaded pumpkin and healthy organic molasses (high in iron, calcium, and magnesium). Total guilt-free enjoyment.
Ingredients
Makes 12 large muffins.
Muffins
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used organic, unbleached)
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup pureed pumpkin (I used organic, canned)
- 1/2 cup non-dairy milk of choice
- 1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
- 2 tablespoons of organic, unsulfured molasses
Cream Swirl (from LunchBoxBunch.com)
- 1/4 cup non-dairy vanilla yogurt
- 1/4 cup non-dairy cream cheese (I used Tofutti brand)
- 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
- 1/8 teaspoon of salt
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease the muffin pans with coconut oil or set up muffin liners.
- Put together the cream swirl by combining the yogurt, cream cheese, maple syrup and salt in a mixer and whisk until smooth and creamy.
- Combine all of the dry muffin ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices) into a large bowl and whisk together.
- Put the remaining wet ingredients (pumpkin, non-dairy milk, melted coconut oil, and molasses) into a smaller bowl and mix until thoroughly combined.
- Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and whisk together.
- Fill the muffin pans about 1/4 way with the mix and then add a dollop of the “cream” onto the batter. Take a knife or other tool and gently swirl it around.
- Spoon the remaining mix into the muffin pans and top with a dollop of the “cream” (Note: If you “taste test” too much of the cream swirl you will be left with very tiny dollops like I was). Just thought I’d warn you.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Muffins adapted from the Post Punk Kitchen’s Best Pumpkin Muffin recipe.
