One thing that’s been especially hard during my recent health struggles is that I’ve had some negative feelings resurface surrounding food and restriction. Those of you who’ve been reading for years may know that one of the reasons I started blogging back in 2008 was to share my journey to health. I spoke a lot about my journey to recovery from disordered eating, something I had struggled with for over a decade.
When I taught myself how to cook and fell in love with making plant-based recipes, I started to make positive associations with food again. And slowly, as I learned to eat intuitively (and embraced therapy!), I built a solid, positive foundation channeling that energy into something that made me feel really good. I don’t know where I’d be now if I didn’t have your support and community along the way. Knowing that my readers were eager to try out the recipes I was sharing kept me immensely motivated to keep going! It still does to this day.
The various symptoms I’ve been dealing with this past year (as well as committing to the dreaded allergy elimination diet) have challenged my relationship with food a great deal. If you’ve dealt with food allergies or sensitivities, you know how much it can drive you crazy in frustration as you try to figure out what’s going on. Every single food becomes suspect. I had incorrectly thought that it was a single food causing my troubles, when in fact it was much more complex than I had realized, with many hormonal imbalances and other systems at play.
Over the past year I found myself starting to question everything I was putting into my body, to the point where for a while I was only consuming a handful of specific foods. I didn’t know what I could eat because everything seemed to be causing reactions. It really messed with my head for a while there! This isn’t my first test by any means, and I know that these challenges and setbacks are a normal part of the journey—there’s no shame in struggling with things you may have thought you’d beaten. I can already tell that this experience has had many silver linings, one of them being a deeper appreciation for my health. And as I’ve seen my health improve over the past couple months, I’ve been so relieved to be getting back to a friendly place with food again by celebrating what it can do for me rather than fearing it!
And what better way to celebrate food this time of year than with the irresistible combo of chocolate and pumpkin? These rich and chocolaty gluten-free and vegan muffins have been enjoyed by everyone lucky enough to get their hands on a trial batch…minus a couple chocolate-hating toddlers roaming around our kitchen. *shrugs* Needless to say, Eric and I have had our fair share throughout the testing process…no complaints over here. Pair the muffins with my popular Pumpkin Spice Latte and you’ll have yourself a delicious and festive autumn snack!
One Bowl Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins
Yield
12 muffins
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
These moist, dense, gooey pumpkin chocolate muffins are similar to that feeling you get walking through a pumpkin patch, sipping dark hot chocolate, and crunching colourful autumn leaves beneath your feet! Picture a delicious pumpkin chocolate cake or brownie—but in muffin form. What could be better? How about that they take just one bowl to make! This recipe is adapted from Beaming Baker and my Pumpkin Gingerbread Muffins.
Ingredients
For the chia egg:
- 2 teaspoons (4 g) ground chia seed*
- 3 tablespoons (45 mL) water
For the wet ingredients:
- 1 cup (250 mL) unsweetened pumpkin purée
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) grapeseed oil or melted coconut oil
- 1/2 cup (80 g) coconut sugar
- 1/2 cup (125 mL) pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon (5 mL) pure vanilla extract
For the dry ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups (150 g) gluten-free rolled oats, blended into a fine flour**
- 1/2 cup (40 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice***
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2/3 cup (120 g) non-dairy chocolate chips or chopped chocolate, divided**** (optional)
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners.
- Add the rolled oats to a high-speed blender and blend on high until a fine flour forms. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the ground chia seed and water until combined. Set aside for a few minutes to thicken.
- To the same bowl, add the rest of the wet ingredients (pumpkin, oil, sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla) and stir until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients (oat flour, cocoa powder, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) to the bowl with the wet ingredients. Whisk until smooth (I love using my big whisk for this task!).
- Set aside 1/4 cup (45 g) of chocolate chips (if using) for the topping and stir the remaining chips into the batter.
- Spoon the batter into the paper liners, filling each two-thirds full. Press the remaining chocolate chips into the tops of each muffin.
- Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes (I bake for 22), until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Carefully remove each muffin and place it directly onto the cooling rack until fully cooled. Leftover muffins can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for several days or frozen for up to 1 month.
Tip:
* If desired, you can use 1 tablespoon ground flax in place of the ground chia seed. Proceed with mixing in the 3 tablespoons (45 mL) water as directed.
** You can use 150 grams oat flour rather than grinding your own (this is equal to 1 cup and 7 tablespoons oat flour measured using the scoop-and-shake-until-level method). Alternatively, 1 1/2 cups (233 g) whole-grain spelt flour will also work as a swap for the oat flour. If using whole-grain spelt flour, you will likely need to bake the muffins for a couple extra minutes (until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean). Please keep in mind that spelt flour is not gluten-free.
*** If you're a big pumpkin spice fan, you can use up to 1 tablespoon of spice mix in this recipe.
**** Try chopped walnuts or pecans for a crunchy, healthy twist!
You can make these muffins into a loaf instead. Simply pour the batter into a 9x5-inch loaf pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes (I bake for 46) at 350°F (180°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
HI Angela,
I want to thank you for powering through the ups and downs of life to share your amazing talents. I have made so many of your recipes and have followed your blog for years. I relied on you when I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 37 to help me prepare healthful foods and clean up my diet. And now I’m five years cancer free! My newest challenge is SIBO and MCAS and learning new variants of what is safe for me to eat and again, while you may not be familiar with those conditions, so many of your recipes are supportive of my newest restrictions! Thanks for making the effort to share with us. You obviously have touched not only my life but millions of lives!
What could I replace the white sugar with? I would like to make this delicious recipe with no refined Thanks
Josee, as far as I can see the recipe doesnt call for white sugar, rather it calls for coconut sugar
I’m currently on a Sugar Detox, but had a can of pumpkin purée on my larder crying to be used. So, I made these today as a surprise for my boyfriend and four-year-old. My boyfriend said they were like a brownie. When I asked him about the sweetness level he said it was perfect, even though we both prefer gently sweet desserts. My four-year-old said it was yummy and soft.
Hi
I found that the mixture was really dry – is it supposed to be like that? I ended up adding oat milk but then they didn’t turn out right so I wondered if the mixture is supposed to be dry. I’m a total vegan baking newbie!
Thanks
Hi Angela – looking forward to trying this recipe mmm as I was looking for a pumpkin muffin recipe :)Recently baked your pillowy pumpkin cookies from your cookbook and they’re amazing! Just a question – we are not gluten free so would all purpose flour be ok as a sub for oat flour? Curious, why did you decide to use oat flour for these? Thanks!
Hi Ameeta, Thank you so much for your kind words! To be honest, I don’t know if I have tried these using all-purpose flour so I am not certain. My guess is that all-purpose flour would make the dough thicker so you may need to use less, and add it slowly. :) I’d love to hear how it goes!
This recipe is awesome!! I followed the recipe using flaxseed and made the bread version, it is SO fudgy!!! I finally found a great pumpkin bread recipe without refined sugar that tastes great! Love it, will be making again and again! :)
I wasn’t searching for a GF recipe, but rather, a recipe I had enough stuff on hand and could satisfy a craving. So, this is not meant to be a critique because I’ve altered the recipe because… pandemic wave 2 baking.
Substituted the following:
– Used Bob’s Red Mill Quick Cooking Steel Cut Oats, thew them in the coffee grinder
– Followed your pumpkin pie spice recipe and used coarse salt but also used the coffee grinder here too
– Used coconut oil and skipped the chocolate chips, didn’t have them
– Baked for 23 minutes and A-MAZING!
Thank you for this recipe. I used 1/2 cup ground almonds, 1/2 cup ground oatmeal and 1/2 cup coconut flour. Also, I only used 1/4 cup of maple syrup and omitted the sugar entirely. They came out beautifully and looked pretty with half a walnut pressed into the dough before baking. We decided that they will not disappoint any child if we call them chocolate ‘biscuits’ instead of ‘cupcakes.’
I really like different cupcakes. And I will definitely do it according to your recipe. I am sure it will be very tasty. I went to cook!
I normally love all of the recipes from “Oh She Glows” (especially the desserts/sweet snacks), but this was a massive miss for me. Although I followed the recipe to the letter, the dough was too dry and the muffins had this weird after taste. They ended up in the compost bin.
Followed recipe to a tee, but did not turn out well at all. They didn’t rise despite baking soda and baking powder, which led to it being a thick lump. You should also mix the dry ingredients first to ensure the spices and baking ingredients are well distributed. Disappointing :(
I’m eating one of these now, spread with salted natural peanut butter. They are a chocolatey treat that won’t give me the side effects of wheat! I used flax instead of chia as directed, and I subbed dried cherries for 1/2 the chocolate chips. I can imagine them with a good cherry jam and coconut whipped cream, almost like a black forest cupcake.
I was thrilled to find this recipe yesterday on your app, because I was stressed and worn out, had a huge chocolate craving, and wanted something quick with ingredients that I had around the house. I whipped them up in between teaching violin lessons and was so thankful to have them as a treat after I had finished for the day!
These are amazing. I have made them so many times now over the last few years. They are easy to throw together and always moist (even if slightly overcooked) and taste delicious and not too sweet!
I take my Autumn baking cues from the trees and the trees in my part of the world are telling me it’s time. This is such a great recipe for Autumn. These muffins are delicious! I put dried cranberries in instead of chocolate chips. There is a hint of chocolate and pumpkin and just the right amount of spice. It’s a keeper!
If I wanted to use an egg instead of Chia, would I use one egg or two?