This fall at our house, Pumpkin is in and carbs are out.  For a variety of reasons we’re making more of an effort to push ourselves to cut even more sugary, starchy foods from our diets, toddler (or as I call him, carb-fiend), included. For two straight years, I was fiercely committed to attempting to keep my son from sugary snacks and desserts (even the healthier ones), with a mind towards delaying the inevitable addiction to sweeter tastes. From age 2 to 3, it all fell apart. The more conscious he became, the harder it was to avoid succumbing to all the birthday cakes, cupcakes and celebratory foods that creep into our social calendar at holidays. This is to say nothing of those now more perilous grocery shopping trips with the interminable barrage of “mommy can I haves?”

With our goal of cutting carbs and sugar in mind, I set out to use the flavors of the season to create a tempting dessert that was a bit more virtuous, for use during those times when avoiding sweets proves difficult. In fact, these chocolatey, fluffy pumpkin muffins are almost light enough to eat for breakfast, though you’d want to pair them with a protein source (like a good old hard boiled egg) to fill you up – they have a delightful mousse-like consistency are light as air! An optional addition of just a small chunk of Dark Chocolate Sea Salt in the middle makes them perfectly decadent yet still guilt free. And, you guessed it, they are most definitely toddler (and mom and dad) approved.

Further these are #glutenfree optionally #sugarfree #dairyfree and #lowcarb too.

Low Carb Chocolate Pumpkin Blender Muffins with Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Middle

Adapted from Jessiskitchen.com

Makes 12 Muffins 

Dry Ingredients:

2 Cups Organic Almond Flour, fine ground (we used Bob’s Red Mill) – (sub gluten free Oat Flour for nut free per the original recipe)

1/3 Cup Cocoa Powder (Hershey’s works just fine)

1/4 Cup Monk Fruit Sugar (or other equivalent alternative sweetener – keeping in mind changes in proportion – Tip – if you choose to use a different sweetener you can mix all ingredients except the eggs and then add your alternate sugar source slowly, tasting for the right sweetness )

2.5 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

Wet Ingredients:

3/4 Cup Organic Canned

Pumpkin Puree

3 Eggs

2 Tablespoons Coconut Butter at room temperature

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil  (or Coconut Oil)

3/4 Cup Almond and/or Coconut Milk Blend – we like Califia “Toasted Coconut Almond Milk”

1 teaspoon good Vanilla Extract

Muffin Cups

Optional:

1-2 Ounces Green & Black’s Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Bar, broken into bite-sized shards (or sugar free chocolate for the all sugar-free variation)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 with rack in the middle

Add all the dry ingredients to your high powered blender (ideally Vitamix) and the combine all the wet ingredients (leaving aside the chunks of chocolate) and stir. Close up the blender and blend until well combined, scraping down the sides if needed

Pour batter in each muffin cup up to about 3/4 full

Bake for 20 Minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

Nutrition Per Muffin

Calories: 163

Carbs: 6.2g

Fat: 12g

Protein: 6.5g

Sodium: 35mg

Sugar: 2g