In our home I call these gingerbread muffins so that my kids (and Mr DIY) will eat them! But they're really just pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips added!

Do you cook this way too? I'm talking about sneaking veggies and healthy stuff into our children's food any chance we get! Like shredded zucchini in the spaghetti sauce, oat flour and wheat germ in the chocolate chip cookies, almond milk in smoothies....even kale!

You know...sneaky mom stuff!


They are so good with dark chocolate chips; it adds such a depth of flavor to each bite! I'll share the recipe with you if you promise not to spill the beans.

Gingerbread/Pumpkin Muffins (you can call them whatever you'd like!)

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees (mine cooks hot so I heat it at 375; it really helps to know your oven!)

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- In a medium bowl, sift the following together:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup oat flour (you can substitute all purpose flour...but oat flour is so good!)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

- In another large bowl  or bowl of mixer (I love my KitchenAid, it makes fast work of mixing!), add the following:
1 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp molasses (this is the one I use)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling, just regular pumpkin!)
1 tsp vanilla
- Blend together well

You'll also need:
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk {No buttermilk in the house? No problem! Measure 3/4 Tbsp lemon juice into a measuring cup, then add milk up to the 3/4 cup line. Let sit 5 minutes. Voila, you have buttermilk substitute!}

1 cup dark chocolate chips (these are my favorite)

- Add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture in alternating batches to the pumpkin/molasses mixture.

Please don't over mix! Muffins will get dried out if you mix them too much. Mix just until combined.

- Now add the chocolate chips (seriously, these make the muffins and your kids will be fooled into thinking these are yummy muffins rather than healthy ones!)

Fill muffins tins and then tap on counter to get rid of air bubbles. This makes quite a large batch. I fill a regular muffin tin as well as a mini muffin tin right to the top. So technically, I end up with 2 dozen...although half of those are minis!

Into the oven for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. A good test of knowing when they're ready is when you start to smell them.


MMMmmmmmmm, I wish you could smell my kitchen right now! It smells amazing!



These muffins are moist, gingery and full of pumpkin pie spice. The little addition of chocolate puts them over the top! Pumpkin and dark chocolate is a winning combination!  I hope you'll give them a try.

Let me know how you sneak veggies into your kids...I can always use some more tips ;)




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