Spiced Acorn Squash Muffins

These are my new favorite muffins!

I started with a recipe I found online and added lots of extra spices and some allergy friendly modifications. You could use butternut squash too, but I like the nuttiness of acorn squash. This is also a great way to use pumpkin puree!

These are not too sweet, so you can feel free to add in some more sugar if you prefer. If you use a dry sugar, like brown sugar, add a little extra milk to compensate.

Makes 1 dozen

325 degrees for 25 minutes

• Dry:
• 1 cup of oat flour or quick oats
• 1/2 cup buckwheat or gluten free flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ginger (ground/powdered)
• 1 TBSP cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp cardamon (ground)
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• Wet:
• 1 cup of pureed acorn squash**
• 1/4 cup maple syrup, honey, OR agave
• 1/4 cup vegetable or coconut oil*
• 1/4 cup applesauce *
• 1 egg substitute (flax eggs work great here)
• 3 TBSP milk (cashew is my favorite for baking, but you can use water in a pinch)
• 1 TBSP vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. First, if you aren’t using cupcake liners: grease a muffin tin using vegetable shortening (oil or butter can work too) and buckwheat flour. I use a paper towel to spread the crisco, then sprinkle the flour on top, shaking it to spread it out. Dump out access flour. Then preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Mix the vinegar and milk, if using. If you pureed the milk in with the acorn squash, just combine all the wet ingredients together very well.
3. Mix the oil and applesauce well. Add the rest of the wet ingredients.
4. In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Feel free to leave out spices if you don’t have all of these. Cinnamon is the essential spice here, and nutmeg goes a long way, but don’t skip the salt-it helps bring out the sweetness.
5. Add the wet ingredients to dry and stir until combine. Pour directly into greased or lined muffin tin.
6. Bake in the center of the middle rack for about 20 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. These will be darker because of the buckwheat, so keep them in when in doubt unless they start to brown.
7. Store in the fridge once cooled.

The key with muffins (and pancakes) is always not to over-mix, but these muffins are quite forgiving. You could put all the ingredients in one bowl and they would come out okay, but I won’t vouch for them myself.

**I bake my acorn squash in halves wrapped in tin foil at 425 degrees Farenheit for 50-60 minutes, depending on size, turning them halfway through. Scoop out the baked squash and use it directly in the muffin mix OR puree first with the required milk to get a creamier texture.

*I cut the oil here with applesauce to reduce fat and give these muffins a lighter texture. You can, alternatively, use all oil or all applesauce. Oil will produce heavier muffins and applesauce will make them more cakey. I do not recommend using olive oil since it is heavy and stronger in flavor.

I like the texture here, but instead of oats, you could use all buckwheat, (1/3 c.) coconut flour, almond flour, or another nut flour. I usually blend my quick oats in a high speed blender to make a course flour, but you can leave them whole for more texture-just be sure to use the quick cooking kind.

If you try these with a gluten free flour blend, let me know how it goes!

I topped my muffins with crushed walnuts-totally optional! But you can add toppings like this before they go into the oven to make sure they stick.