Paint your face with what you like

I’ve always loved the pumpkin muffins offered year-round at Panera. Now that it’s autumn, I’m also enjoying the Starbucks’ take on this seasonal goody. However, I’m too lazy to go to Starbucks or Panera and too cheap to pay for muffins… so I’m baking my own batch. The following is based on Julie’s Pumpkin Muffins II recipe on Allrecipes and incorporates suggestions from user ALLYN61, as well as a couple of my own twists.

Ingredients

• 1 15-oz can Trader Joe’s organic pumpkin puree
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• ¾ cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup Trader Joe’s Gravenstein unsweetened applesauce
• 3 eggs
• 1 0.4-oz packet of milled flax seeds
• 1 handful walnuts or pumpkin seeds, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, oats, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt, and flax seeds.
3. In a separate bowl, beat together pumpkin puree, applesauce, and eggs.
4. Stir pumpkin mixture into flour mixture until smooth (or as smooth as it will get).
5. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.
6. Sprinkle chopped nuts on top of the batter.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
8. Let cool for 5 minutes before digging in ;)

Yield

18 regular-sized, guilt-free muffins (150 calories each, compared to Panera’s 530kcal pumpkin muffin and Starbucks’ 430kcal pumpkin muffin)

Enjoy!