Vegan Pumpkin Pie Muffins

 

These muffins taste like pumpkin pie. I'm not sure how that happens, but it does. Try it.

Ingredients:

3 T ground flax seeds soaked in 9 T hot water

15 oz. can pumpkin 
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1 scant cup vegan sugar of your choice (i like sucanat or raw sugar for this recipe)
1 t nutmeg
2 t cinnamon

1 t baking soda
2 t baking powder
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

pumkin seeds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix pumpkin, melted coconut oil, sugar, and spices together in a large bowl. Add the soaked flax seeds and stir well.

Add dry ingredients to bowl, and mix until just combined. Batter will be thicker than regular muffin batter.

Lightly oil muffin tin, and fill them to the top with batter. Press pumpkin seeds into top of muffin if desired. 
If using mini muffin tin, bake for approximately 10-15 minutes.
If using a regular muffin tin, bake for 15-20 minutes. 

Yields approximately 36 mini muffins, or 12 large muffins.

The Best Vegan Granola Ever

As I mentioned here, this is my absolute favorite granola recipe. It is modelled after the granola found at Le Pain Quotidien, and features coconut oil, wide cut dried coconut, and lots of blackstrap molasses. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coarsely chopped raw almonds
1/2 cup wide cut coconut (sometimes called coconut chips) 
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
3 cups rolled oats 
4 T raw sugar 
1 t cinamon
1/2 t freshly grated nutmeg
3 T coconut oil (sometimes called coconut butter)
3 T blackstrap molasses
3 T maple syrup
3 T water
2/3 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

Mix all dry ingredients, except raisins, in a large mixing bowl.

Place the coconut oil, molasses, and maple syrup in a saucepan over medium heat until melted. You can whisk the coconut oil a bit to speed the melting process and prevent the sweeteners from boiling. 

Pour the warm liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and using a spoon or your hands, mix it all together until the dry ingredients are evenly coated with the liquid.

Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper and spread the granola evenly over the pans. 

Bake for 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven, stir in raisins. Bake again for 5-10 minutes 

Yields about 5 cups. 

I store my granola in quart sized Ball jars on the top of the fridge. If I quadruple the recipe I get almost 6 full jars, and they last my family of five about 3-4 weeks.

This recipe is really flexible in terms of which nuts, seeds and fruit you use. Feel free to mess around with crazy combinations. I think that dried cherries and candied ginger would be great in place of the raisins, and I recently made a tropical version at the request of my kids by adding dried papaya and banana chips to the batch at the same time that I added the raisins. 

 What's your favorite fruit/nut granola combo?