Pumpkin Muffins

Originally posted: October 21, 2014
Last updated: November 28, 2016

A recipe for healthy, delicious pumpkin muffins!

Ingredients

30 oz canned pumpkin
1.5 cups olive oil
1.5 cups fructose

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup almond flour
1 cup oat bran
1 cup quick oats
0.5 cup flax meal
5 tsp baking powder
3 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
6 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cloves

2 tsp vanilla
0.5 cup almond milk

Directions

Mix the wet mixture in a large bowl: pumpkin, olive oil & fructose.
Mix the dry mixture in a separate bowl: flour, oat bran, quick oats, flax meal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg & cloves.
Add 1/2 cup of the dry mixture at a time to the wet mixture. Mix completely between each addition!
Add almond milk and vanilla and mix well.
Fill 24 muffin cups with the pumpkin mixture.
Bake at 350°F for approximately 24 minutes.

• Chia seed option: In step 2, add 1/4 cup chia seeds to the dry mixture.
• Walnut option: In step 4, add 1 cup of finely chopped walnuts.

Healthy!

These muffins are not only tasty, but they are also engineered to minimize blood sugar spikes, making this a healthy choice for folks who experience reactive hypoglycemia. They are packed with high-fiber complex carbohydrates (whole wheat, oats, flax) that are digested slowly. Instead of sucrose (table sugar), fructose (fruit sugar) was used as a sweetening agent. (Granulated fructose should not be confused with high-fructose corn syrup! This is something different.) Fructose is a naturally-occurring simple sugar that has been demonstrated to have a reduced impact on blood glucose levels. It is also 73% sweeter than table sugar, so less is needed to achieve the same sweetening effect. I couldn't find fructose at my everyday supermarket (Meijer) but I was able to find it at Whole Foods.

Acknowledgement

This recipe was inspired by one found in The Reactive Hypoglycemia Cookbook by Stephanie Kenrose. After much experimentation, I chose to greatly increase the level of spices, remove the soy ingredients (opting to substitute in flax meal & almond milk instead), and substitute almond flour for 1/2 of the whole wheat flour (resulting in a moister consistency and a nuttier taste.)