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

Adapted from the pumpkin apple muffins on Minimalist Baker

Makes 12

Print recipe

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?

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