This past Saturday was my sister-in-law’s birthday so I wanted to make her something special to celebrate. Since we were going to be spending most of the day in the car headed up to Hershey Park, whatever the gift was it needed to be portable. There’s nothing more portable than muffins, so I settled on making a muffin.
This weekend happened to also be one of our first cool Fall weekends so I wanted to make something that honored the classic autumnal flavors, which of course meant pumpkin. With everyone and their brother making pumpkin baked goods, I wanted to set this muffin apart with a crunchy coating on top. After digging through our baking supplies, I happened upon some walnuts. Then I remembered all of those delicious baked goods that I love that have crunchy walnut crusts. So I thought, why not make a walnut crust pumpkin muffin.
Pumpkin Walnut Muffins
Ingredients:
Muffins:
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup raw sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 chia eggs (2 tablespoons of chia seeds and 1/4 cup water)
- 1 15 ounce can pumpkin
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamon
Topping:
- 1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup vegan margarine
- 3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Method:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Make your chia egg. In a small bowl, add 1/4 cup of water to 2 tablespoons of chia seeds, whisk, and set aside.
In a medium size bowl, add and mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cardamon).
In a large bowl, add pumpkin, brown sugar, and raw sugar. Whisk until sugar is incorporated.
Whisk chia eggs into pumpkin mixture.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until combined.
Prepare a 12 can muffin tin (either with paper liners or by spraying the muffin tins with non stick spray).
Divide muffin mixture evenly between 12 muffin tins.
In a small bowl, melt vegan margarine. Then add flour, walnuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and mix together.
Place approximately one teaspoon of walnut/brown sugar mixture on top of each muffin.
Place muffins in oven to cook for 25 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow muffins to cool.
The walnut crust was so delicious I could have eaten it all by itself. And I might have eaten the topping that “fell” off when I removed them from the muffin tins. Brown sugar has a way of making everything amazing.
These muffins are the perfect road trip compact snack that will satiate both your sweet and salty sides.
