Mini Pumpkin Flax Muffins

Carmella and I continue to stretch the sinews of our culinary imagination and boundaries. Since we’ve been on a flaxmeal kick, we decided to make a flourless muffin with pumpkin that fit into our low-carb way of eating. Hence, Carm came up with her own recipe for Mini Pumpkin Flax Muffins. These easy-to-make treats took about 10 minutes to prep, about 30 minutes to bake, and 5 seconds to swallow.

As it turns out, these tasted pretty good, and not overly sweet, as you may find with traditional muffins. The beauty of these little guys is that they are full of fiber, and work well as healthy breakfast treats or midday snacks. In fact, Carm even had two of them for dessert.

Enjoy!

– Carlo

Mini Pumpkin Flax Muffins
Source: Carm’s Mind
Makes 24 mini muffins

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups of unsweetened pumpkin puree (do not use pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 tsp Stevia powder
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar-free flavored syrup, preferrably caramel, pancake or maple flavor
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1 cup flax meal
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a mini cupcake/muffin pan with non-stick spray or line with baking cups.
2. In a large bowl of a mixer, beat together pumpkin and Stevia. Then beat in eggs one at a time.
3. Add the sugar-free syrup and vanilla, and mix well.
4. With mixer on low, gradually add ground flax 1/3 at a time until well combined.
5. Stir in salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
6. Spoon mixture into cups, filling about 2/3 of the way.
7. Place in oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
8. Cool for 5 minutes before releasing muffins to a wire rack to cool completely

You can eat it by itself or serve it with a cream cheese frosting, such as the one we made. Here’s the recipe:

Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese Frosting
Source: Carlo’s Mind
Makes 1 cup

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 oz. cream cheese softened
• 2 packets of Splenda
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp pumpkin spice

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix all of the ingredients, until well-blended.
2. Dollop on your favorite muffin, cupcake or cookie.