PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS

Serving size: 7

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I make a batch of protein muffins at the start of each week and enjoy them throughout the week as a convenient high-protein snack. I much prefer this to grabbing a protein bar because I have complete control over the ingredients, it’s exceptionally more fresh, and also completely customizable. My go-to flavor throughout the year is usually blueberry protein muffins, but I love to do my seasonal variations which brings me to these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.

Disclaimer, these aren’t intended to be an indulgent dessert-like muffin. They fill the place of something like a protein bar for me and are therefore more fitness-friendly if you know what I mean. You'll find that these are more dense due to the protein powder rather than cakey like a traditional muffin. I find them to be delicious and genuinely look forward to having one every day, I just wanted to set the expectation that these aren’t going to mimic a muffin you might find at a bakery. The good news is that they are lighter, packed with plant protein & missing all of the heavy ingredients that you would get in one of those bakery muffins.

INGREDIENTS

• 3/4 cup oat flour

• 3/4 cup vanilla protein powder

• 1 cup pumpkin puree

• 1/2 cup maple syrup

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds

• 5 tablespoons water

• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon himalayan pink salt

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

I've been using Orgain's Organic Vanilla Protein Powder lately to make my protein muffins. I can't speak to how these muffins will turn out using a different brand of vanilla protein powder as I've only made them using this particular one.

I exclusively use the Enjoy Life brand of semisweet chocolate chips because I've found them to be the best tasting chocolate chips, even including non-vegan chocolate chip brands.

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Begin by combining the ground flaxseeds with the 5 tablespoons of water, stir well and allow to rest and thicken for 10-15 minutes.

Once the flax mixture is ready, add it to a large bowl along with the pumpkin puree, maple syrup, vanilla and mix until smooth. Next, add in all the dry ingredients — the oat flour, vanilla protein powder, pumpkin spice, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Mix until the batter is well combined, then fold in the mini chocolate chips.

Using paper muffin liners, fill just 7 muffin tins with the batter. Spacing out the muffins in your pan will help them cook more evenly since we're not using the full muffin pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Please let the muffins cool before cutting into one as the inside will continue to cook once removed from the oven. If you break into one too soon, it may be too gooey inside still (but still delicious).

This recipe conveniently makes exactly 7 muffins — one for each day of the week ahead. I store mine in the fridge and actually enjoy eating them cold but they are also super tasty warm if you pop them in the microwave (the chocolate chips kind of melt and it also brings out the pumpkin flavor a little more). As I mentioned, I normally eat this as an on-the-go snack during the day, but they also double as a delicious fitness-friendly dessert that's perfectly pre-portioned out.