As soon as the weather turns cool and rainy, I start thinking about fall baking. I crave warm, comforting breads and baked goodies with plenty of spices and flavors of apples and pumpkin. These pumpkin chocolate chip muffins have been one of my go-to recipes for quite a few years. I can whip up a batch in about 5 minutes now, so you know I have made this recipe pretty often!
There are a couple of things which set this recipe apart from other pumpkin muffins. First, many pumpkin bread or muffin recipes call for quite a lot of vegetable oil. I don’t like to use heavily processed oils like that, so I usually substitute olive oil in recipes which call for vegetable oil. But nobody wants their pumpkin muffins to taste like olive oil! I solved that problem by using applesauce in place of the oil!
You do need some type of fat or oil, or the muffins won’t have the right texture. But I’ve found that a little bit of melted butter in addition to the applesauce works well. Thus, I get both apples and pumpkins in these muffins, though the apple flavor isn’t strong enough to taste.
Making a better muffin
Applesauce makes these muffins especially moist, without the residual greasiness you sometimes get with muffins that have lots of oil in them. So these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins are healthier and have a better texture! That’s a double win!
To increase the nutritional value of these muffins even further, use whole wheat flour for all or part of the flour this recipe calls for. I’ve written the recipe for using 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour, but you are welcome to use all whole wheat flour if you like. I recommend using a whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour in this recipe.
Method
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Butter your muffin tins, or line them with paper cupcake liners. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the applesauce, pumpkin puree, eggs, melted butter, and sugar. Stir well to combine. In another bowl, sift the flour with the salt, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Stir the flour mixture gently into the pumpkin mixture. When it is almost combined, stir in the chocolate chips until no streaks of flour remain.
Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full with batter. (If you are using large bakery-size muffin tins, fill them about 2/3 full.) Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the top of a muffin springs back when touched lightly. Cool in pans for 2 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
When the muffins are cool, store tightly covered at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Enjoy!
Note: This recipe makes more or fewer muffins, depending on what size of muffin tins you use. For example, the last time I baked these, I made 18 standard-size muffins and 6 large bakery-size muffins, for a total of 24 muffins. If you use all standard-size muffin tins, expect to make 30 muffins. If you use all large-size muffin tins, expect to make about 15.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients
- 15 ounces pumpkin puree
- 1 cup applesauce unsweetened
- 4 eggs
- 1-1/4 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 2 cups all-purpose flour unbleached
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare your muffin tins with butter or paper cupcake liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the pumpkin, applesauce, eggs, sugar, and melted butter until smooth.
- In another bowl, sift the flour with the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Add to the pumpkin mixture and stir until nearly combined. Stir in chocolate chips until no streaks of flour remain.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the top of a muffin springs back when touched lightly. Cool in pan for 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
If you like these muffins, try some of these other fall recipes: Pumpkin Snickerdoodles or Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal!
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