Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Pumpkin apple and cranberry muffins

It's taken a while, but I am finally grasping the implications of having a whole, full size freezer in our garage. All those months and years I bemoaned my inability to make things in bulk and freeze snacks and meals for later? I can finally make up for lost time.

(Or at least, I can make up for lost time within the bounds of planning to move countries in 6 months.)

On the weekend, I embraced this realisation with two batches of muffins. These vegan pumpkin, apple and cranberry muffins were one batch. They are adapted from the vegan pumpkin apple muffins on Minimalist Baker. They are full of goodness, easy to make, and completely delicious.




Three days into the week, I am already rewarded with the benefits of this 'make in advance and freeze' philosophy. It's the end of the academic year here in Australia, and so my routines of late have included a lot of marking and a lot of meetings, and then more marking and more meetings. Let me offer a recommendation: if you have a day filled with making and meetings, plan for snacks. Preferably ones like these. They make all the difference.

The original recipe called for half a cup brown sugar but I omitted this in favour of 3 tablespoons of maple syrup and the addition of dried cranberries. I found the muffins sweet enough, but if you'd prefer straightforward pumpkin and apple without cranberries, you may want to re-increase the sweetener.

Pumpkin apple and cranberry muffins
Vegan
Makes 12


Ingredients
1 small butternut pumpkin, steamed and mashed 
(equivalent to roughly 1 1/2 cups mashed pumpkin / pumpkin puree)
1 tbsp chia seeds soaked in 2 1/2 tbsp water
1 cup almond milk, or milk of choice
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/3 cup oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp mixed spice (or pumpkin pie spice)
Pinch salt
1 apple, peeled and diced
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Method
Preheat oven to 180'C (380'F) and prepare a 12-pan muffin tray.

In a large bowl, combine the mashed pumpkin, milk, oil, maple syrup, vanilla and chia seeds in water. Stir to combine.

Add the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, mixed spice and salt to the wet mixture and mix well to combine.

Add the diced apple and dried cranberries to the batter and stir through.

Transfer mixture to your prepared muffin trays and bake for 20-22 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

I found these were best if cooled prior to eating.


Submitted to Healthy Vegan Friday #69.

What are you snacking on this week? And do you tend to make and freeze things in bulk?

24 comments:

  1. Wow all the flavours are so seasonal for us over here :) Sounds delicious!

    I miss having a huge freezer. Take advantage! It's so fun discovering treats you'd forgotten about!

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    1. I haven't had the re-discovering delight yet! Something to look forward to ;)

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  2. Ah what I wouldn't give for a HUGE freezer!! But...to be fair, I think the.boy and I could devour these muffins pretty quickly!

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    1. I probably could too, in truth - but I did make another (different) muffin batch too!

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  3. these sound delicious - and I love how you could reduce the sugar but I am sure with the pumpkin and apple and cranberries it is not so necessary! hope you manage that perfect bell curve of stocking the freezer at this end of your six months and having it empty by the time you move :-)

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    1. That perfect bell curve may end up being elusive, but I figure the worst case scenario is that I bulk eat muffins next April, and I can probably cope with that ;)

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  4. Such a great example of how you can balance out a recipe :) Maple syrup goes a long way, and it's one of my favorites :)

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  5. Yum I love cranberries in muffins! Orange cranberry is a nice combo too :)

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    1. I will have to try that next time around :)

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  6. I desperately need a large freezer. I have one at the bottom of my fridge but it's just so small it really only holds ice and ice cream. When I get my dream house, there will be a dream freezer! I love the look of your muffins but when you say 'soak the chia seeds', how long do you soak them for? I usually soak them overnight so they become soft like jelly xx

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    1. I'm always vague when I say that and I should try to be more specific - but the reason is I'm pretty vague with my soaking! It's usually only about 15 minutes :)

      I will one day have a dream freezer too and it will manage to be in the kitchen instead of in the garage, but I am so delighted with the extra space!

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  7. Perfect for thanksgiving! Love the mix of flavours. So fun!

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    1. They do seem very autumnal! Perfect for half the world at least :-)

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  8. I love having a stash of muffins in the freezer! These combine 3 of my favorite fall flavors, definitely one I want to try. Thanks for a great recipe Kari.

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  9. These sound delicious - this is just the kind of muffin I like to make.

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  10. Def going to try these because I love recipes with lots of flavours mixed together.
    You mentioned that you added maple syrup but I can't see it on your ingredients list?!?!? Was it just the 3 tablespoons you added??? Thanks :-)

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    1. Thanks for picking up on my omission! Oops. Yes, it was just 3 tablespoons - I have amended the recipe now :) Thanks again!

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    2. hehe that's ok! I just thought I should check because you mentioned it in your description!
      Can't wait to try these :-)

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    3. Thanks again for pointing it out!

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