Fall is in full swing, and the stunning display of colorful leaves that have started covering the ground is proof. That means it's pumpkin season!

Pumpkin everything is all the rage right now. There are pumpkin weighing contests, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin muffins. Except I will up your bet by another pumpkin. Yes, these are pumpkin pumpkin muffins, meaning that they are made with both pumpkin puree and pumpkin seeds, making them tasty and nutritious, with an extra dose of Fall!

This recipe is based on Ali's Pumpkin Hazelnut Teff Muffins recipe over at the Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen. Her recipe is fantastic, but my daughter was sensitive to nuts in my diet while she was nursing, forcing me to find an alternative. I found that grinding my own pumpkins seeds was just as delicious and less expensive than buying hazelnut flour. I also substituted buckwheat flour for the teff flour, because I had a hard time finding teff flour for a long time. And that's how my Pumpkin Pumpkin Muffins were born! Like Ali's muffins, my Pumpkin Pumpkin Muffins are also gluten-free, vegan and gum-free, but since they are made with pumpkin seeds instead of hazelnuts, they are also nut-free. That's good news for those of you who have or cook for someone who has tree nut allergies!

To grind the pumpkin seeds for this recipe I use my handy Ninja Master Prep. If you think I'm mentioning this gadget a lot, you are right. I use it all the time! It's because of my Ninja Master Prep that I'm able to grind my own nuts and seeds for recipes, making it affordable to add any kind of nut or seed flour and a lot of great nutrients to muffins, cookies and other baked goodies. Might I mention that I would rarely indulge in such goodies if they were made solely of flour and sugar? I really try to avoid traditional baked goods, but muffins made mostly of ground nuts or seeds offer lots of nutrients and a lower glycemic load, which puts them back on the menu. That sure makes the $40 I spent on my Ninja Master Prep worth it to me!


Raw pumpkin seeds are available at most grocery stores, but typically they are cross contaminated. If you have a food allergy, be sure to use allergen-free ingredients! Gerbs Raw Pumpkin Seeds are the best I've found and can be conveniently ordered on Amazon.


There are a couple of other choices you can make for this recipe. For the milk I use SoDelicious plain unsweetened coconut milk, but you could also use any other plain unsweetened non-dairy milk or even water. I've found avocado oil from Costco to be the most affordable and versatile option, so that's what I use for the oil. However, you could also use melted coconut oil or even melted red palm oil, which is rich in beta carotene. The more nutrients the better! Just be careful because red palm oil tends to stain everything it touches.

On to the recipe before all of the remaining leaves fall off the trees!

Pumpkin Pumpkin Muffins

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Makes 12 muffins

Dry Ingredients:
- 2 cups ground pumpkin seeds (or a type of nut meal, like almond or cashew)
- 1 cup buckwheat flour
- ¼ cup arrowroot powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg

Wet Ingredients:
- ¼ cup hot water
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup oil (avocado oil or melted coconut or red palm oil)
- ½ cup plain, unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use SoDelicious plain unsweetened coconut milk)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners, or lightly grease the cups of a silicone muffin pan with butter or coconut oil.

Wisk together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, add the hot water to the ground flaxseed and wisk. Add the remaining wet ingredients and wisk together until smooth. Pour the wet into the dry and whisk together. Switch to a sturdy spoon and spoon into muffin cups.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool before devouring!