Healthy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

These Healthy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins are the perfect fall treat! A soft, moist muffin packed full of pumpkin spice flavor to give you all the Fall feels! I've swapped out a few ingredients to lighten them up and make them a bit better for you, but we didn't sacrifice flavor at all.

These are my all-time favorite pumpkin muffins. I make them every year. Multiple times. To me, the addition of chocolate chips is what makes this recipe extra delicious. Especially dark chocolate!

Why you’ll love this recipe

Key Ingredints and Substitutions

• Flour- All purpose works great here, but if you want a little more nutrition, try whole wheat, or whole wheat pastry flour. Whole wheat flour will make them a bit more dense.
• Pumpkin Puree- FRESH IS BEST! But canned pumpkin will work fine. See my tutorial on how to make your own pumpkin puree'. If you use canned, make sure you are using 100% pumpkin, not pie filling or one with extra ingredients.
• Coconut Oil- Lighter and better for you than vegetable oil. If you want to lighten it up further, you can use apple sauce in place of it (in addition to the apple sauce listed below).
• Unsweetened Apple Sauce- An amazing substitute for fat in this recipe. Apple sauce keeps it moist and light but without the extra heavy calories.
• Sugar- Use regular sugar, or a sugar substitute such as Swerve. I only reccomend sugar substitutes that are stevia based, as they are all natural and not loaded with chemicals. You can also swap this out for maple syrup or honey if you want an unrefined sugar.
• Mini chocolate chips- My favorite is dark chocolate but use what you like best. If you want to reduce the sugar in this recipe further, Lily's chocolate chips work great! They are made with stevia instead of sugar. I prefer the mini size here as I like how well it distributes througout the muffin, but regular size works fine.

How to Make Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

Step One | Combine the wet ingredients

• Add eggs, oil, applesauce, pumpkin, and sugar to a medium size bowl.
• Whisk together until combined.

Step Two |  Combine the dry ingredients

• In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice together.

Step Three | Blend

• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
• Stir until just combined.
• Fold in the chocolate chips

Step Four | Fill and bake

• Fill muffin wells ⅔rds of the way full
• Sprinkle a few extra chocolate chips on top (optional).
• Bake at 400 for 16-20 minutes.

Chef's Tips and Variations

• If your coconut oil is solid, gently warm it in the microwave until it is liquid and room temperataure.
  
• These work well as mini muffins too. Just make sure you check them after about 12 minutes, they shouldn't need to bake as long.
  
• "Folding" in the chocolate chips simply means to gently turn the batter over with your spoon or spatula until they are evenly mixed in. It's a very gentle way of mixing. Overmixing can result in tough or dry muffins. 
  
• I've lightened up these muffins by using coconut oil and applesauce to replace the traditional fats. You can take it a step further with any or all of these options:
  • Use unsweetened applesauce to replace all the fats (coconut oil here).
  • Use whole wheat pastry flour or whole wheat white flour
  • Use unrefined sugar, such as maple syrup or honey.
  • Use 85% dark chocolate. This is naturally low in sugar. If you can't find it in chips, get a bar and chop it up.
    
• You can use muffin liners, grease a traditional muffin tin, or use Silicone. I've become a huge fan of the silicone trays over the years. No greasing the pan, and you just can't beat the clean up. Mine are from Bon Cook, but they are quite pricey, Here's a more affordable one on Amazon.

Frequently Asked Questions

Serving Suggestions

These pumpkin muffins are perfect with a cup of coffee for breakfast. Or serve them alongside a tasty bowl of Healthy Turkey Chili or Butternut Squash Soup. They also make a lovely afternoon snack. There is no bad time to eat these!!

Storing and Freezing

You can store these in an airtight container at room temperature for up to four days. Muffins are best stored at room temp. Refrigerating them can change the texture.

These muffins freeze very well! I love to have an extra batch in the freezer.

• Place them in a zip lock freezer bag or other air tight container.
• Release as much air as possible.
• Freeze for up to six months.

Don't forget to label and date the bag.

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📋 Recipe

Healthy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins Recipe

Perfectly moist soft pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips. With a few ingredient swaps these are lighter and better for you.

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert, muffin

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 16 minutes

Cooling time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 36 minutes

Servings: 24

Calories: 249kcal

Author: Chellie Schmitz

Cost: $10

Equipment

• ▢
  Traditional muffin pan with liners, or silicone muffin pan

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

• ▢ 4 eggs
• ▢ ½ cup coconut oil warmed to room temperature, you can substitute unsweetened applesauce if desired
• ▢ 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• ▢ 2 cups pumpkin puree homemade is what I use, canned is fine
• ▢ 1 ½ cups sugar
• ▢ 3 cups flour
• ▢ 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ▢ 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ▢ 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 12 ounces semisweet mini chocolate chips

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400.
• Mix eggs, oil, applesauce, pumpkin, and sugar together, stir well.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Do not over stir.
• Fold in chocolate chips.
• Generously fill 24 greased or paper-lined muffin cups (No need to grease if you're using silicone muffin trays).
• Bake at 400 degrees for 16-20 minutes.
• If using a traditional muffin pan, cool 10 minutes before moving muffins to a cooling rack. If using a silicone pan, cool completely before transferring to an airtight container.

Notes

• If your coconut oil is solid, gently warm it in the microwave until it is liquid and at room temperature.
• These work well as mini muffins too. Just make sure you check them after about 12 minutes, they shouldn't need to bake as long.
• I've lightened up these muffins by using coconut oil and applesauce to replace the traditional fats.
• You can use muffin liners, grease a traditional muffin tin, or use Silicone. I've become a huge fan of the silicone trays over the years. No greasing the pan, and you just can't beat the clean up.
• "Folding" in chocolate chips simply means to gently turn the batter over with your spoon or spatula until they are evenly mixed in. It's a very gentle way of mixing. Overmixing can result in tough or dry muffins. 
• This recipe makes 24 generous muffins. If you want a smaller batch, hover over the number of servings in the recipe card and use the slider to adjust the amount.

Nutrition

Calories: 249kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 28mg | Sodium: 202mg | Potassium: 190mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 19g | Vitamin A: 3227IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 36mg | Iron: 2mg

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