Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

Soft and moist little breads made with whole wheat flour, sweetened only with dates, filled with cream cheese and topped with out of this world cinnamon pepita crumb topping. Just like Starbucks pumpkin cream cheese muffins but with 2 times less sugar and fat, 1.5 times less calories and carbs, and 3 times more fiber!!!

These healthy pumpkin muffins have a spot on amount of pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and cream cheese. And of course, pumpkin in every bite with a bit of cream cheese. Delicious! If you think you can’t use exclusively whole wheat flour when baking, that is not the case. At least not with quick breads. Ever since I made my healthy apple muffins, spelt or whole wheat flour it is for me. More nutrients, more fiber, more muffins I can eat. You can also use it for making healthy pumpkin bread.

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And sweetening with dates is a different story. You just need to pulse them in a blender with other wet ingredients. Again, more fiber, slower digestion, better than honey and maple syrup. I even managed to sneak dates into superfood chocolate bars and they turned out insanely good.

How to Make Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

It might seem like a lot of bowls and ingredients, however it’s an easy recipe and many ingredients repeat themselves. It’s not that bad as it looks, trust me.

1. In a powerful blender or food processor, add pumpkin puree, milk, eggs, dates, vanilla, and process until smooth. Set aside. In a small mixing bowl, combine cream cheese and maple syrup; stir well and set aside. 
2. In another small mixing bowl, combine pumpkin seeds, oats, maple syrup, oil, cinnamon and salt. Mix with a fork until well combined and set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, add flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder + soda, and salt; whisk well. Add wet ingredients from blender and gently mix just enough to combine.
4. Fill each opening of a tin almost full with batter, make a small well with a fork, add a small dollop of cream cheese and sprinkle with topping. As muffins are baking, cream cheese will sink in covered with crunchy topping. Bake for 25 minutes and voila. YUM!

Enjoy these Starbucks looking alike but healthy pumpkin muffins at home without any guilt!

Other healthy muffins ideas for your kids’ weekly snack rotation: healthy chocolate muffins, healthy banana muffins and healthy chocolate chip muffins.

Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

Print Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

Healthy Pumpkin Muffins Recipe with cream cheese and whole wheat flour. Twice less sugar and fat, and 3 times more fiber than Starbucks muffins.

• Author: ifoodreal.com
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 25 minutes
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 + 1/4 cups pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1/2 cup any milk (I used unsweetened almond)
• 2 eggs, large
• 9 Medjool dates, pitted
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat (spelt) flour
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp baking powder, aluminum free
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Filling:

• 3/4 cup cream cheese
• 2 tbsp maple syrup

Cinnamon Pepita Topping (optional):

• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
• 2 tbsp quick or rolled oats
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp avocado oil or coconut oil
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray silicone muffin tin with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a powerful blender or food processor, add Wet Ingredients and process until smooth. Set aside.
3. In a small mixing bowl, add Filling ingredients and stir well. Set aside.
4. In another small mixing bowl, add Cinnamon Pepita Topping ingredients and mix with a fork until well combined. Set aside.
5. In a large mixing bowl, whisk to combine Dry Ingredients. Add Wet Ingredients from the blender into the bowl and gently mix just enough to combine. Do not over mix otherwise muffins won’t rise properly. Fill each opening almost full with batter (I used regular ice cream scoop), make a small well with a fork, add a small dollop of Filling (I used small cookie dough scoop & it’s fine if cream cheese is sitting on top of the batter), sprinkle with Cinnamon Pepita Topping and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let muffins cool for about 5 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack to cool off completely.

Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months.

★ Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating in the comments.

23917.6 g295.3 mg9 g37.1 g6.1 g45.6 mg

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