Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins

If there was ever a perfect recipe to kickstart my fall buzz, it's these delicious Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins. Made with hearty, wholesome ingredients, these are a fantastic guilt-free indulgence. 

The muffins are incredibly flavourful, soft and tender too, thanks to the pumpkin puree. An added bonus to these healthy vegan treats is that they are super simple to make! Sweet, chocolatey, cosy. What’s not to love? If you needed another reason to try these out, just the scent of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves wafting through the air as you bake them might do the trick.

How to make the Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins 

Start with making your pumpkin puree. Unless you have access to canned pumpkin puree instead. In that case, just open the can!

It's very simple,  peel and dice 500 gms of pumpkin. This would yield approximately 250 gms of puree.  Steam in a saucepan with a tightly covered lid, for about 20 minutes.  You can mash it with a fork or blend it in your blender to get a smooth puree.

Next, we are going to mix the almond milk and vinegar together in a bowl. Let that sit aside for 5 minutes. 

Another quick mixture to make is your pumpkin pie spice. To make the most of the pumpkin we are adding in, I like to use a combination of spices that will accompany it best and add extra warmth to the muffins.

Now let's get to the main show - sift together wholewheat flour, all-purpose flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. 

Now the raw sugar gets stirred in.

In a small bowl, whisk together the milk-vinegar mixture, oil, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract.

Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients. Gently stir with a spatula, just until moistened.

I had some hazelnuts sitting in my refrigerator, so into the batter they went along with a handful of lovely 70% dark chocolate chips.

Making the “swirl” 

My favorite part - making them pretty!

Divide the batter in half. Stir in the cocoa powder in one half of the batter.

Put 1 tablespoon of pumpkin batter in each cup, put 1 tbsp of chocolate batter on top. Repeat the layers one more time.

Continue with the rest of the cups, until all the batter is used up.

With a wooden skewer or toothpick, gently create the swirls. Don't overdo the swirl, otherwise the two batters will get too mixed up and you’ll lose the effect!

Bake & Serve

Bake the muffins at 180 C for 20-22 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs attached. Serve warm and enjoy!

These muffins can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 days. Reheat in the microwave before eating.

Variations

• A typical pumpkin pie spice has cinnamon powder, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Feel free to tweak this based on what you have on hand at home. Now if you don't want to bother with pumpkin pie spice, just stick to cinnamon powder. You'll still get fabulous muffins, trust me. Of course, if you get your hands a good quality store-bought one, go ahead and use that.
• I like to use plant-based milk in my baking, wherever possible. But please please feel free to use regular milk here if you wish.
• These muffins can be made with all wholewheat or all-purpose flour if you wish. I haven't tried these with a gluten-free one though.
• I am partial to raw sugar and coconut sugar in my bakes, but you can just as easily go with regular white sugar if you like.
• You can add in any kind of nuts here - walnuts, almonds would be wonderful additions to these muffins. Though, I think these will be fabulous plain as well.

Tips for perfect chocolate pumpkin swirl muffins

• Always mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Pour over the wet ingredients over the dry ones and use a spatula to gently combine them.
• Don’t over mix. The batter is supposed to look lumpy and a bit scraggy. The ingredients should be just moistened.
• Add the mix-ins, like fruits, nuts, chocolate chips last and again very gently stir them in.
• Use paper /silicone liners or else grease the baking cups really well. I always prefer paper liners for a mess-free cleanup.
• Fill the pans only 3/4s of the way. Add water to the empty cups if you don’t have enough batter to fill up all. This helps in even baking.
• Wait for a few minutes before taking out the ready muffins from their pan, then put them out on a wire rack to cool. You don’t want soggy bottomed muffins.

More Delicious Pumpkin Desserts

Pumpkin Pie Bliss Balls

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies 

Pumpkin Banana Bread

Mug Cake with Pumpkin

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