Pumpkin Blueberry Muffins

When I saw these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins on Virtually Vegan Mama, I was impressed that they’re made with only oat flour, I had half of a giant can of pumpkin leftover from these bars, and I wanted to make them pretty much immediately. I don’t really keep chocolate chips around, because it’s hard to find dairy-free ones in my area without paying an arm and a leg. Plus, I’m kind of “whatever” about chocolate (there, I said it).

But I am NOT “whatever” about blueberries. Love them, in everything. I am that person buying the gigantic, $15 bag of frozen blueberries at the store. Hey, if you’re gonna eat that many blueberries anyway, it’s totally worth it. So it didn’t take long for me to realize that these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins were actually gonna be pumpkin blueberry muffins.

A few more tweaks later and we were up and running. And, ahem, all 12 of these muffins are literally gone already. I won’t say how…

Gluten-free Pumpkin Blueberry Muffins

Makes 12 regular-sized muffins. Adapted from the now-defunct blog Virtually Vegan Mama.

Wet:
1/4 c. minus 1 tsp plain, unsweetened almond milk
1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 and 1/2 c. pumpkin puree
1/4 c. maple syrup
1/2 tb. canola oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Dry:
2 c. quick oats (gluten-free if needed), ground as finely as possible in a food processor
1 and 1/2 tb. ground psyllium husk
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

~1/2 c. frozen blueberries (do not thaw, or it will bleed everywhere like the top right muffin in the picture above)

Easy recipe. Preheat the oven to 375. In one bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients until the oil is incorporated. In another bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Gently add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together only as much as needed to combine them – do not overmix. Gently fold in the blueberries. Scoop about 1/4 cup of the mixture into each space in a greased muffin tin. Bake for 20 minutes at 375, then reduce the oven to 350 and bake about 15 more minutes or until done, but no more than 20 more minutes. Let cool at least 10 minutes before eating.

Notes: These will remain pretty moist inside, even after cooling. The crumb is not very fine and they’re also not super tall. That’s the tradeoff for such a fast recipe that only uses oat flour =]. They’re still pretty delicious, but they need to be handled gently.

I suspect that you could substitute ground flax seeds for the psyllium husk, or *possibly* leave it out completely and increase the oat flour, but I’m not certain.