Pumpkin Muffin Bites

Alright, i admit it: I am suffering from a pumpkin addiction at the moment, and while were at it, I have an obsession with bananas. It all started with trying to use up all those severely ripe bananas in the summer. I would buy bananas, thinking:’ good snack, conveniently packaged’ and then have an apple instead.
So I have come up with countless ways of using up those ‘end of the week, less than pretty, by themselves inedible’ (I prefer them just a bit green) bananas without having to whip up banana bread every time. Now it’s gotten to the point where I purposely buy extra bananas to let ripen fully. They are cheap, readily available and much better for you than sugar. And get quite sweet when they get to ‘really ripe’ status. So I  started using bananas as natural sweetener. (Using alternates to sugar has become more and more important to me since my boyfriend was diagnoses with diabetes last year.

And telling everyone about my quest for the perfect pumpkin latte (recipe to come soon) and my woes in finding canned pumpkin, I had several friends donate cans they found at stores. Soooo… Now I have lots of seasonal pumpkin and once a can is open, well you better use it up 🙂
That’s where these come in:

image
Pumpkin Muffin Bites!

image

Ingredients

  • 1 Mashed very ripe banana
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
  • 2 tblsp cashew butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 -1/2 tsp Cinnamon
  • 1/8-1/4 tsp Pumpkin pie spice
  • 1-3 tblsp Sucanat*, Rapadura or date sugar
  • 1 tsp Baking powder
  • 1/2 cup Ground almonds/ almond flour
  • 1/2 cup Chickpea flour
  • Pecan halves for garnish

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F and line mini muffin pan with muffin cup liners.
  2. Mash up the ripe banana, add the pumpkin and the nut butter and stir until no lumps remain. Add Sucanat, stir.
  3. Stir in vanilla and spices, then add the chickpea and almond flours along with the baking powder and mix until combined
  4. drop into mini muffin pan lined with paper muffin cups by the teaspoon full and garnish each one with a pecan half.
  5. Bake in middle of preheated oven at 350F for 10-15 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
  6. Cool on rack.

* Sucanat and Rapadura are dried sugar cane juice, not bleached, not refined

Super yummy, but the color before they are baked is rather questionable…just saying

image

Copyright © 2011 Simple Healthy Homemade. All rights reserved.