A yummy pumpkin-inspired recipe with flavourful spices, fall apart in your mouth taste and sweetness; enjoyed any time of year. Pair these “healthy-ish” pumpkin spice muffins with your next coffee or tea.

It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, and I thought that this is perfect timing to share my yummy pumpkin spice muffin recipe with you all. What better way to bring together the spices of the season within this recipe. These have become a family favourite all year round.

Thanksgiving had always been a favourite of mine. Back home in Newfoundland, the colours of the fall season are absolutely breathtaking. So much so, my husband and I planned a fall wedding, on Thanksgiving weekend 2016 to be exact, and it was beautiful!

TRADITIONAL THANKSGIVING DINNER

Turkey; all the fixings; pumpkin pie and more.

Nothing says Thanksgiving dinner like the smell of the turkey roasting and the freshly baked pumpkin pie. The smell of pumpkin and all of its spices baking is one that never gets old, and one that I always look forward to.

Traditionally, our Thanksgiving dinner consists of stuffed turkey with a homemade bread crumb dressing, salted beef {in which we cook our vegetablesin}, root vegetables {turnip/rutabaga, carrot, and potato}, cabbage, peas pudding and another bread pudding or pastry. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention the gravy.

Dessert, of course, is almost always pumpkin pie, served with a little whipped cream, ice cream and hot tea or coffee. And of course, we can’t forget this yummy pumpkin spice muffin for breakfast or an evening snack.

PUMPKIN PUREE

From baking, cooking, it’s rich taste and health benefits; there’s a lot to be said about pumpkin purée.

For the most part, you can substitute pumpkin purée on a 1:1 ratio with other purees like applesauce, sweet potato, butternut squash for example. You can even substitute pumpkin purée on a 1:1 ratio with oils. Pumpkin is a great substitute for baking

Pumpkin isn’t typically as sweet as a banana for an example. So, depending on what you are subsisting pumpkin for, you may have to add a little sugar to sweeten your dish. It is rich in taste and loaded with minerals and vitamins.

You can purée your own fresh pumpkin if you choose to make your own. However, just beware that doing your own, including steaming, can make fresh pumpkin purée a little runnier. So, if you are using it for baking I recommend draining off any excess water. My personal preference is just using the canned pumpkin purée.

PUMPKIN SPICE MUFFIN

Chocolate chips, pumpkin purée, and pumpkin spices; the perfect combination.

This muffin recipe is the perfect combination of taste when it comes to sweetness and spice. These muffins melt in your mouth with the richness of the pumpkin purée which moistens the muffin perfectly.

These muffins are great freshly out of the oven, but even better the next day. You can freeze these muffins in a Ziploc bag to maintain the freshness. Just simply reheat the muffin in the microwave for 45-60 seconds, and enjoy!  

You will notice a lot of spices like cinnamon, pumpkin spice, and nutmeg in this recipe. I wanted extra spice in these pumpkin spice muffins {hence why I named them pumpkin spice} to offset the pumpkin and sweetness of the chocolate chips. These are perfect with coffee or tea.

I love everything pumpkin… the taste, the look and of course the spice! Fall is my favourite season and I wish it lasted longer than a week here. We don’t get much of a Fall here in Alberta, at least where I live we don’t. 

HAPPY CANADIAN THANKSGIVING! 🙂

PS. Here are some other awesome muffin or cookie recipes to try:

• Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
• Peanut Butter Cookies
• Sweet Apple Muffins
• Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
• Banana Berry Muffins