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!
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
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
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Hi Angela,
Thank you so much for the recipe! Even my non-vegan family members, whom I’m convinced to incorporate more plant-based meals into their diet, were impressed with the moist, chocolatey texture. I am so grateful for your website and your amazing repertoire of recipes.
Rachel
Hey Rachel, That’s great news! I’m so happy that my recipes can help :)
This recipe has quickly become a family favorite! We love it as is, and also love it with smashed banana in place of the pumpkin. Both ways are equally delicious ? Thank you!
Oh I’m so happy to hear that mashed banana works as a swap. I have yet to try this but will be soon!
HOLY COW! I make these muffins exactly as written and they are AMAZING! SO soft, with both a delicate and complex flavors! My whole family LOVES them! Thanks for another winner Angela! <3
Thank you Heather!! I appreciate you taking the time to let us know how it went!
These appear to have a cream filling, but I don’t see it in the recipe. Did I miss it? Thank you
Hey Dawn, Nope there’s no cream filling..I just used vegan butter in some pics :)
I thought the chocolate overpowered the pumpkin and left it with a strange aftertaste. With that said, the more I ate them, the more I liked them. My oldest daughter, who eats everything, couldn’t get over the aftertaste. But my little ones (2 & 3), who don’t eat anything, seemed to like them. I also liked that they were so soft, but they are better eaten with a fork. Too crumbly for a grab-and-go. I’m interested to see how they would taste as a pumpkin muffin without the chocolate.
Hey Kiersten, thanks for your review! I highly recommend this pumpkin gingerbread muffin if you are looking for one without the chocolate: https://ohsheglows.com/2015/10/28/pumpkin-gingerbread-muffins-vegan/
EW
Hi there, Do you mind sharing your experience with the muffins? It’s hard to tell if you made the recipe or simply don’t like the sounds of them.
Why don’t you just get a blood test for food sensitivities?
I just made these and they turned out great! I used about half the Maple syrup and coconut sugar and they were still plenty sweet. I also used 1 cup oat flour and a 1/4 cup whole grain Rye flour (simply because that’s what I had on hand). Mine didn’t turn out quite as pretty(mine were more of a dough consistently prior to baking) but tasted awesome!
Your recipes are delicious, and this one is wonderful. The pumpkin and cocoa flavors work very well together and the pumpkin puree creates a very moist muffin. (I made these with a real egg, Truvia instead of coconut sugar, and subbed half gluten-free oats and half almond flour.)
Tried this recipe and loved ’em! Anything with chocolate… :) Thank you!
these muffins turned out beautiful and made the kitchen smell amazing. Easy to make and a big hit with the kids.
Making this now. Looks good! But this is pretty much the opposite of one bowl. I have a bowl for the chia. A dirty blender a bowl for my dry ingredients and a bowl for my wet… It’s good. But i would call it something else.
Do you think coconut flour would work as a substitute for the oat flour?
SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOD
I am 12 years old and I made this recipe by myself, it was easy and delicious.
Instead of making regular size muffins I made small muffins and a loaf. Perfect size to put in lunches.
These look delicious! Wondering how much sugar I’d have to omit if I wanted to cut out the cocoa and make it a bit less chocolatey- I know crazy eh? Thanks!
Is this refined or unrefined coconut oil? Thanks!!!
As usual another brilliant recipe. Easy and delicious.
I’ve made this recipe two times now and both times it was absolutely delicious and such a crowd-pleaser!
I do have a quick question though – both times I made it into a loaf, and because of a severe nut allergy, I had to sub cocoa powder with Whole Wheat Flour. The texture of the loaf was perfect, however, it was pretty crumbly. I could never quite cut a slice without it breaking apart into 2 or 3 pieces. Any advice on this? Do I need more/less flour? Would regular all-purpose be better than WW?
Thanks again for the recipe!
I’ve made this recipe twice, both times as a loaf, and it was absolutely delicious! A crowd-pleaser for sure!
I do have one question though – both times I made this, it turned out a bit crumbly, making it difficult to cut a perfect slice (it would normally break into two or three smaller pieces as I cut it). I had to sub the cocoa powder both times due to an allergy. The first time I made it, I subbed WWPF, but the second time I tried plain WW. Any thoughts or advice? Is it possible it was underbaked? Do I need to use more flour when subbing for cocoa powder?
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
Hands down, the BEST muffins I have ever tasted. I have made these numerous times for gluten-free friends at group gatherings, and everyone loves them. Thank you for such a delicious recipe. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Angela. Hope you are doing well, too. Praying all is well with you and your precious family, you dear mom.