Blueberry Pumpkin Mini-Muffins

I love blueberry muffins, especially when they're healthy! Using pumpkin puree instead of oil or butter made them really moist and cut out a lot of unnecessary fat! Just in case you might be freaked out by the pumpkin, there's not enough in this recipe that you actually taste it, it's just enough to add moisture. If you wanted these to be healthier, you could use a combination of whole wheat/white flour. I decided to make them in mini-muffin pans and they came out so cute! They had a really nice crispy muffin top, but they stayed super moist on the inside. Just saying, even though these muffins are healthy, they don't taste healthy, they taste amazing! Shh! No one needs to know our little secret ;). Enjoy!

Blueberry Pumpkin Mini-Muffins:

Adapted from Skinnytaste

Ingredients:

Wet:

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1 tbsp honey

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1 egg or 2 egg whites or 1 tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 tbsp water, let sit for a few minutes to thicken as egg substitute

1 tbsp canola oil

1 tsp vanilla 

1 cup unsweetened almond, soy or skim milk

Dry:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup oatmeal

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Add in:

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 350°. This recipe makes 24 mini- muffins. If you are using silicone mini-muffin pans, you don't need to spray them. If you are using metal pans, lightly spray pan with oil. 

In a medium bowl, mix the wet ingredients well. In another bowl, whisk the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and mix until well combined and there are no streaks of flour left. Fold in blueberries. 

Spoon the batter into the mini-muffin pan, all the way to the top. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until the tops are lightly brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

This recipe is so versatile, you can change up the ingredient combinations to suit your own taste.

 For example:

Apple Cinnamon Raisin:

-sub 1/2 cup applesauce instead of pumpkin, put 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 cup raisins instead of blueberries

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip:

-sub chocolate chips instead of blueberries

White Chocolate Cranberry:

-can use 1/2 cup applesauce or still pumpkin, and sub 1/2 cup white chocolate chips and 1/2 cup dried cranberries instead of blueberies

Spiced Apricot Almond:

-sub 1/2 cup applesauce instead of pumpkin, sub 1/2 cup slivered almonds, 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots instead of blueberries, and use 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp powdered ginger and 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Banana Walnut:

-sub 1/2 cup mashed banana instead of pumpkin, use 3/4 cup chopped walnuts instead of blueberries, use 1 tsp cinnamon
***NEW***: Pear Gingerbread Muffins:
- add 1 tbsp molasses and 1 tsp grated fresh ginger to wet ingredients. Instead of pumpkin puree, add 1 peeled pear and 1 banana, mashed. This equals to more than 1/2 cup of puree, so I only put 3/4 cup soy milk. In the dry ingredients, I put 1 1/2 cups of white flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour. I put 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground ginger and a pinch of nutmeg. Instead of blueberries, I put 2 peeled pears chopped into small chunks. I also baked these as large muffins for around 22 minutes! Very seasonal and yummy!