Pumpkin Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins of Heaven

I hope you all had the most wonderful of Thanksgiving weekends! I want to hear all about them. And thanks to those of you that commented on my short Thanksgiving gratitude post. I really appreciate what you said and want you to know that I am eternally grateful for you too. Thank you for making this blog worth keeping.

Our Thanksgiving holiday was lovely.

Complicated.

Like all holidays are.

I forgot the memory card from my camera at work, so I wasn't able to capture any of the food moments on "film." But that was probably for the best, right? I mean, who wants a food photographer yelling "wait" while everyone is excitedly awaiting digging in?

Also, I was secretly wishing that I had a family entirely composed of no-oil Vegans. One can have dreams, right? Photographs with turkey in the background wouldn't have been my favorite.

I made entirely too much Plant-strong food, and I took copious notes for next year. We'll be eating leftovers for a full week, which is fine by me. Susan Voisin's Green Bean Casserole from Fat Free Vegan was a highlight for everyone involved. Only the teeniest bit of that casserole was left over. It didn't end up looking anything like Susan's pictures, but man was it good. I have to consider making a double batch next time.

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, 'tis the season for leftover cans of pumpkin puree (hooray!). Plus, I have been promising my middle daughter that we would bake muffins for weeks now. Finally the day came when we had nothing pressing to do. The pressure was on.

Our results were outstanding. Award winning. So moist and so delicious, this recipe is going to be my go-to recipe from here forward for kids' birthday parties, new neighbors and get well wishes.

HGK's Pumpkin Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

makes 12 muffins

adapted from recipes by Lindsay S. Nixon from The Happy Herbivore

Printable Recipe

dry ingredients:

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 cup organic sucanat

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

wet ingredients:

2 medium frozen bananas, placed into a bowl and defrosted in a microwave on high for 1 1/2 minutes

OR 2 medium very ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk or non-dairy milk of your choice

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

other:

1/2 cup grain sweetened vegan chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Into a big bowl, place all of the dry ingredients. Stir gently to incorporate.

Into a medium bowl, place all wet ingredients. Stir well to incorporate. Use an immersion blender or whisk to blend wet ingredients if you have large banana pieces in your wet ingredients.

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir together well, but do not over mix. Incorporate chocolate chips.

Line muffin tins with cupcake papers or spray muffin tin with nonstick spray. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups about 2/3 full.

Bake in the center of your oven for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one muffin comes out clean. If doubling batch, rotate muffin tins in your oven about halfway through baking cycle to ensure even baking.

Let muffins cool. Do not eat entire batch in one sitting.

What was the highlight of your Thanksgiving weekend?