I'll be honest, baking is not my strongest skill in the kitchen. Believe me it's not because I don't enjoy baked goods, because I do for sure! The not being able to wing it thing gets me every time. I rarely follow a recipe to its exact specifications, so that is why cooking is way more fun for me. However, I do have some go to recipes that I will bake from time to time when the mood strikes. These pumpkin muffins happen to be one of those recipes. Not only are they super easy, they are low-calorie, and delicious (husband approved and requested!) So, depending on what mood you are in, these tiny, delicious bites can be considered a muffin or a cupcake. If you want to eat them for breakfast like we do in my house, they are muffins...but if you want to eat them after dinner like we also do in my house, they become cupcakes. I'm not even going to judge if you want to warm them up for a few seconds in the microwave and have a scoop of vanilla ice cream with them. I stumbled upon the original recipe on Pinterest and had my doubts about them being tasty since they are low-calorie (the mini's are about 55 calories each.) I have had my share of "healthy" sweet recipes that just don't taste good, but I was pleasantly surprised by this combo and by how moist they were! I added a few of my own ingredients to take the flavor up a notch. Yesterday the mood hit and I wanted something not too bad for me to have around for the weekend and thought I would share it with you in case you also NEEDED to make them. I'm telling you they are so easy, anyone can do it!
Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 can pumpkin puree
- 1 box of spice cake mix
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves and ginger
- 1/4 tsp each of cinnamon and nutmeg
- 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (you can omit these if you want)
- Splash of unsweetened vanilla almond milk or a regular skim milk
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Now, this is where it gets real complicated...just kidding, you literally put all ingredients in the bowl except for your splash of milk.
Mix all ingredients together. Your batter will be thick, so this is where I usually add my splash of milk to help combine everything.
After the batter is mixed well, take a spoon and fill your lined mini muffin cups pretty much full.
Bake anywhere between 10-15 minutes depending on how your oven cooks. I would start checking at 10 minutes and go from there. Just stick a toothpick in the center of one to test if it comes out clean or not. When the toothpick is clean, the muffins are done.
Could they be any cuter? Not to mention that your house will smell amazing! I hope that you will try these out, they are perfect for the holiday season! I dare you to eat just one!
P.S. If you don't end up eating them all the first day (and you might), store them in an airtight container in the fridge to keep them fresh longer. Happy baking!
