Muffins - Pumpkin - Carrot

Recipe Inspiration Source:  One Green Planet

Mmmmm!  These were so good - especially right out of the oven!

My Notes:

• I used less sugar than was called for and it was fine.  The fruit and carrots provided plenty of sweetness.   

• This recipe would be easy to modify by adding various fruits, nuts and seeds.   

• This recipe looks like it would be a hassle to make with such a long list of ingredients but it really wasn't bad at all.  

Dry Ingredients:

• 3 cups oats (rolled or quick), ground
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 cup (about 1/2 can) pure pumpkin, canned (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 cup grated carrots (about 2 medium sized carrots)
• 1 cup dairy free milk, unsweetened - I used oat milk
• 3/4 cup brown sugar - I used 1/2 cup regular sugar
• 1/4 cup applesauce, unsweetened
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• Pumpkin seeds for topping
• I added walnuts!  Yum!

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375°F
2. Grease and/or line a 12 cavity muffin tin and set aside - I ended up making 17 muffins.  I didn't overfill.  They were the perfect size.
3. Using a food processor or blender, process oats until they are ground into flour.  Hmmmm - next time, if I use the food processor, I can also use it to grate the carrots instead of doing them by hand.  
4. In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients (oat flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, nutmeg and ground cloves) and whisk to combine.
5. In a large bowl, combine all wet ingredients (pumpkin, carrots, dairy free milk, sugar, applesauce and vanilla extract) and stir together until thoroughly combined.
6. Add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients, and gently stir until incorporated.  ADD NUTS, too!!!
7. Spoon the muffin batter into your muffin tins.
8. Top the muffins with pumpkin seeds.  
9. Bake in preheated oven for 18-23 minutes or until the tops are firm and a toothpick inserted into the centre of the muffins comes out clean.
10. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then remove muffins and allow to finish cooling on a wire cooling rack.  Enjoy!