Blueberry, Pumpkin & Pecan Muffins
I’m a bit of a muffin fanatic – sometimes the only thing that will hit the spot is a good, healthy muffin.
Muffins are so great because you can include them into practically any meal & you can eat them at any point during the day – breakfast, tea time, lunch, dessert time, treat time and snack time… that’s why it’s so handy to have them around.
Muffins are also really great because you can experiment with so many flavor combinations – they’re very versatile.
I remember when I was a little girl and one of the only “health foods” available on the market was the “health muffin” or the “bran muffin”.
The problem was that these muffins were usually not very healthy at all… and no one ever really knew what was in them anyway (it was usually just white wheat flour, white sugar, dairy, eggs, raisins if you were lucky and a little bit of brown wheat flour – the brown flour was the “special health ingredient” that made them “so healthy”). We sure have come a long way since then!
Because of the total lack of health foods available on the market when I was young, my mom & I really had to get creative when it came to baking (because I had so many allergies and could hardly eat anything). My mom was a real champ, she made homemade breads all the time and sometimes even made healthy treats like cookies for my sister & I.
When I was in my teens, I developed a passion for creating healthy recipes using the limited supply of healthy ingredients available on the South African market (I started with smoothies, muffins, breads, pancakes, cookies and eventually chocolate) …and soon I was baking and cooking so many things that I started this blog to share all of my recipes (thankfully, more healthy ingredients are now available in South Africa – which makes my life a lot easier).
These days I love a good “recipe challenge” – I love being able to create any recipe from scratch, trying out unexpected flavor combinations and tweaking the recipes until they are just right.
That’s how I created this healthy muffin recipe… I woke up one Sunday morning and thought to myself “I wonder what pumpkin, blueberry and pecan nut muffins would be like” – so I jumped out of bed, went straight to the kitchen and started baking (thankfully I already had all of the ingredients that I needed).
This recipe is totally delicious (no exaggeration) and it’s totally refined sugar-free, gluten-free and dairy-free.
I hope that you LOVE these muffins as much as I do!
Lots of love xo
Ingredients:
-1 cup brown rice flour
-1 cup almond flour
-1 + 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
-1 cup blueberries
-1/2 cup raw pecan nuts
-1/2 cup cold-pressed coconut oil (melted)
-1/2 cup 100% pure maple syrup
-3 eggs
-1 teaspoon ground vanilla powder/ pure vanilla extract
-2 teaspoons cinnamon
-pinch sea salt
(makes 12 big muffins or 24 small muffins)
Instructions:
-steam or roast diced pumpkin until soft (without oil) and then puree in a blender or smash with a fork OR just use ready cooked pumpkin puree (I like to steam diced pumpkin for about 20 minutes)
-melt the coconut oil by pouring boiling water into a large bowl and a placing smaller bowl into the water (without burning your hands or getting water into the small bowl), then place the coconut oil into the small bowl and wait for it to melt
-roughly chop the pecan nuts
-preheat the oven to 180 degree’s Celsius or 360 F
-mix the melted coconut oil, pumpkin puree, eggs, brown rice flour, almond flour, pure maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon and sea salt together until well blended
-now mix in the blueberries and chopped pecan nuts
-line muffin trays with muffin papers or grease them with extra coconut oil
-evenly spoon the mixture into the muffin pans (makes 12 big or 24 small)
-place the filled muffin trays into the preheated oven and bake
-big muffins will take about 40 minutes, small muffins will take about 20-30 minutes
-you will know the muffins are ready when you can pierce them with a sharp knife and it comes out clean
-once cooked, remove from oven and leave to cool for a few minutes
-enjoy warm & fresh out of the oven… or save for later (both are good!)
-eat and enjoy single every bite!
Serving suggestions:
-delicious served with a big spoonful of nut butter (macadamia nut butter is literally heaven)
Made with love by Liezl Jayne xo
