Canned “pure pumpkin” is the perfect substitute for oil when you still want a moist muffin, and of course it's more nutritious! These muffins are just the right amount of sweet and spice, and have a nice cakey texture—they are not your heavy, hockey-puck muffins!
Pumpkin Muffins
- Total Time: 49 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
Ingredients
- 4 ounces pitted and chopped dates (5 to 6 Medjool or 10 to 12 Deglet Noor)
- 1 cup nondairy milk (I use soy)
- 1¼ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- ½ cup dry/uncooked millet
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 cup canned “pure pumpkin” (not pie mix)
Instructions
- Place the dates, nondairy milk, and vanilla into a small bowl or cup, and set aside for at least 15 minutes so the dates can soften.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and move your oven rack position to just below center. Fill a 12-well muffin pan with parchment paper liners (regular paper liners will stick).
- Place the rolled oats and millet into a blender, and grind into flour (30 to 40 seconds; millet is hard). Transfer to a medium bowl, and whisk in the baking powder, soda and pumpkin pie spice.
- Transfer the dates, milk and vanilla to the blender, and add the pumpkin. Blend until smooth.
- Pour the date-pumpkin mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients, and stir until all of the dry ingredients disappear. Fill each muffin liner equally with batter (use a soup spoon or a 3-tablespoon scooper).
- Bake for 28 to 29 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool completely (or nearly) before eating to allow the muffins to fully set.
Notes
Flours: I always grind my own flours since it allows me to make just the right amount, and it tastes better. But you can use whole-grain oat and millet flours from the store if you like. Millet may seem like an odd choice, but mixing flours gives a more nuanced flavor, and since my recipes are gluten-free, these are my two favorites. Using all oat flour would probably work just fine; or experiment with other flours in place of the millet.
Spices: Pumpkin Pie Spice seemed the logical choice here, but if you don’t have it, you can also use cinnamon in whole or part, with a smaller fraction of ground nutmeg and/or cardamom.
Add nuts: If you like nuts in your muffins, stir in a ½ cup of chopped pecans (walnuts would be good too) after stirring in step 5. The muffins won’t rise as much due to the weight of the nuts, but they will still cook through.
Muffin color: Whenever I take these out of the oven, they look so dark! But this is due to the brown dates and pumpkin. I worry that I’ve overbaked them, but they always seem to lighten a bit as they cool.
Baking powder and soda: I use Hain sodium-free baking powder. There is also a baking soda substitute by “Ener-G” available if you don't want any sodium. (Baking soda is very high in sodium.) For this recipe I used regular soda, so the sodium is high, but using Ener-g will bring it way down. Both brands are most easily found online, as they are hit and miss in stores.
- Prep Time: 20 mins.
- Cook Time: 29 mins.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 71
- Sugar: 7g
- Sodium: 110mg
- Fat: 1g
- Saturated Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 15g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 2g
- Cholesterol: 0g
Can I use millet flour? That is what I have available right now.
I've not tried it with all millet, but if you're not sure, you can make a half batch. 🙂 It would probably work.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐I made these today. I was thinking about pumpkin muffins, and then the recipe popped into my in-box (hmmm, are you becoming clairvoyant? 🤔!
I made them exactly per recipe, sans nuts. They turned out very nicely: light tender texture, delicately spiced, and delicious. I think next time I will add the chopped nuts and/or maybe some raisins or dried cranberries. Perfect and easy recipe, Cathy! Thank you! 😄
Yay! Thanks Pam! 😉
I three words come to mind. YUM YUM YUM!
They are yummy! 🙂
Do you measure the oats and millet before or after grinding it up?
Before 🙂
These are absolutely the perfect pumpkin muffin!!! I love the addition of millet flour, just like your blueberry muffins!! Thank you so much!!!
Yay! Thanks Debra! 😉
Can home cooked pumpkin be used?
Although I haven't tried it, I wouldn't see why not.
I often cook with fresh pumpkin puree - the key is to be sure it's well-drained! Like set it in a strainer over a bowl to drip for awhile, THEN measure it. (You can use the juice somewhere else!)
Hi Cathy! Could this be baked in a 9x5 loaf pan, similar to your zucchini bread recipe?
I think it could work, although have not tried it. I would use an oven setting of 325F and then bake for an hour or so. I think it would also work as an 8x8 cake, at 350F for a little longer than the muffins. 🙂
I’ve made these twice already now since you’ve posted. ( I’ve got them in the oven as I type!)
So yummy! 😋
Yay!! Thanks for the comment Karyn! 😉
I made these this morning and they are amazing! I followed the recipe exactly as written, which resulted in a perfect textured muffin. Your blueberry muffins have some competition! Thanks for another delicious, healthy recipe.
Ah, thanks Donna! 😉 I'm so glad you like them!
Thanks for the recipe. I made these and they were awesome! I paired them with the vanilla frosting recipe because I was craving cup cakes with frosting. So very good. Also, I increased the recipe so I used the whole can of pumpkin. That really put my math skills to the test, but they came out perfect and look exactly like how yours look in the picture. Thanks again! Now I'm going to look to see if you have a gingerbread muffin recipe. Hoping so.
I made these last night and LOVED them! I added cinnamon along with the PPS. Easy to make and nice that I had all the ingredient on hand! I also ordered parchment cupcake liners and the two recommended Baking soda and Baking powder items. I love your recipes so much and your cookbook never disappoints! Thank you!
Yay! Thanks so much, Kathy! 🙂
Can you substitute something else for the millet?
Sure, try another flour if you like. I just like millet because it gives it some gritty texture (if you grind it fresh, not from store). 🙂
Nice recipe! Thanks! I experimented with several toppings: finely chopped pecans, sliced almonds, sesame seeds, and flax seeds. I thought the golden flax seeds went together best.
Accidentally used the whole can of pumpkin this time. No surprise... they were very squashy when fresh, but strangely, the next day, and day after, they firmed up more. Also subbed out steel cut oats toward the end of the oat flour blending to get the texture I like about the millet, when I couldn't find millet at the store.
I've made these muffins three times now in the past 2 weeks, we are obsessed! Originally, I needed a pumpkin recipe because I wanted to use up canned pumpkin I had in my pantry. The perfect mid-day snack. I couldn't find millet so I used corn meal and it worked out just fine. I threw the corn meal in my Vitamix when I was grinding up the oats. I used unsweetened plain almond milk since I always have on hand. And I used 6 dates instead of 5 and also added 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts. Perfection! Thank you Cathy!
So glad to hear that you like these, Vicki! 🙂 Yay! Thanks for the comment!
These muffins are incredible! I love pumpkin muffins and this original recipe. This weekend I wanted to make and batch and had forgotten to buy pumpkin. I used applesauce instead and a combination of cinnamon and ginger instead of pumpkin pie spice and they turned out great.
Pretty good for a base recipe! I must say I made some changes to fit my particular dietary needs INCLUDING one that I want to share. I found the original recipe really had a "soda taste" that wasn't totally pleasant, so I left it out the second time around and added an extra 1/2 cup of whole oats to help absorb the liquid put in by using whipped aquafaba to help maintain loft. It did, indeed, turn out lighter and after cooling was just right! I plan to try again and use a little less aquafaba as it seemed too much in the end. I also will experiment with adding a pinch of cream of tartar to the aquafaba to help it beat up stiffer and to give it some muscle to support lots of little air pockets!