Have you ever seen any of those gigantic pumpkins, the sort people grow for county fairs, up close and personal? I have. Sort of. Which is to say that I’ve driven by them on the way to the beach. We have a fondness for a particular beach on the North Shore, but it’s a beach of which many others are also fond. Which means lots of traffic on the way up, unless you know a double secret back route like we do. And that double secret back route just so happens to take you past a place where someone grows giganamous pumpkins that literally have you doing a double take as you drive by.
We saw them for the first time last year and we weren’t sure they were real. It’s a beautiful vegetable garden near a lovely little house on a narrow little rural road and we’d taken notice of it before. As we drove past in late summer, we saw huge orange humps rising above the green leaves in the garden. It simply didn’t seem possible that they were real. We drove past on the way home, but short of stopping the car, getting out and walking over, there seemed to be no way we could get a better look. So we just shrugged and went on our way. This year, we drove past again on our way to a late summer beach outing…and there it was, this time a single orange hump rising majestically above the rest of the garden. Was it real, or was it some sort of silly garden decoration?
My curiosity was piqued enough to try to find out. I am not the sort to go knocking on strangers’ doors, so I simply did a little internet sleuthing. I typed in “giant pumpkin” and the name of the town and there it was in the local papers, a man who grows giant pumpkins in the hopes of winning prizes at the local fair. To be certain I had the right person, I looked up the address associated with the name. I am not giving out either, because the poor man is apparently over-run with people stopping by and knocking on his door to see the pumpkins! Suffice it to say, they are real, they are huge, and he puts an enormous amount of time and effort into growing these things. Wow. All I can say is wow.
That’s my little pumpkin story for today. As we head into fall, I thought I’d bring you my first pumpkin recipe of the year. I have always loved bran muffins and I think pumpkin bran is a delicious combo. But bran is hardly low carb or gluten-free. Brown flax seed meal has often reminded me of bran in both texture and appearance, and I thought it might make a wonderful healthy substitute. It certainly did the trick! These were delicious and gobbled up by the whole family.
Pumpkin “Bran” Muffins – Low Carb and Gluten-Free
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups brown flax seed meal
- 6 tablespoon Swerve Sweetener or granulated erythritol
- ¼ cup unflavoured whey protein powder
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 20 drops stevia extract
- ½ cup almond milk
- ⅓ cup coconut oil melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F and line 12 muffins tins with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flax seed meal, granulated Swerve, whey protein powder, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
- In medium bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, eggs, vanilla and stevia. Add to flax seed mixture and stir to combine.
- Stir in almond milk, then melted coconut oil, until well combined.
- Divide batter among prepared muffin cups and bake 28 to 30 minutes or until set and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Jan says
I have golden flax right in my fridge right now.. do you think it would work? If not I’ll grab some brown flax next time I’m out.
Carolyn says
I think that will be fine.
Karen says
Do you have a protein per muffin calculation for these? TIA.
jkim says
I discovered this recipe Labor Day weekend–so much flax had me a little worried because of its clumping quality, so I only made 1/3 of the recipe. I wish I’d made the entire amount.
Wow, the muffins were delicious! Maybe even better than the pumpkin bread I used to make before I went low-carb. Everything was perfect–moistness, texture, and especially, the taste. Really, Carolyn, this is an inspired recipe.
Kat says
Hi Carolyn!
Love your site and this recipe looks delicious! I was just wondering if there was anyway to nix the protein powder all together. Do you think this would change the consistency or flavor? All I have is vanilla flavored whey and I already don’t like the way it tastes, so I’d rather not put it in the muffins. Thanks!
Carolyn says
Yes, you can go without but they may not rise quite as much.
Keryn says
Thanks for the recipe, I made these tonight and they are delicious.
Lisa Stafford says
I made these this morning. I used 1/2 cup Truvia, 20 drops NuNaturals Stevia, 20 drops Skinny Girl Monk Fruit drops, 1 cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips and I didn’t have whey protein so I used 1/4 cup extra flax meal. The texture is kinda squishy from the flax, and the flavor is great.
taniss says
I find that using stevia in large quantities makes the baking bitter. I only put in 10 drops of stevia and I still found the batter to be very bitter. I had to add some nuts and a little maple syrup (Sad they couldn’t be sugar free) to try to hide the bitterness. Am I the only one that has noticed that?
Carolyn says
Taniss, what brand of stevia are you using? Everyone has a different palate so some people taste bitterness with stevia whereas others do not. I can make some alternative sweetener suggestions.
Taniss says
I have tried many kinds with the same results. With this recipe I used the drops. So far truvia is the best I’ve used (powder form) but I don’t think it is pure stevia. They did turn out pretty good though after I tweeked it. The texture was perfect.
Carolyn says
Truvia is not pure stevia. It’s not even mostly stevia. It is mostly erythritol with a little stevia in it. That’s why it tasted good. I use Swerve, which is also erythritol based and is non-GMO.
Shangella says
I just made this recipe with a few changes based on what I had in the house. (after the holidays my fridge is empty of everything) They turned out great.
-3/4 cup grated zucchini instead of pumpkin
-7 tablespoons of splenda
-Milk instead of almond milk
-soy protein instead of whey protein
-1/3 cup of sunflower oil instead of coconut oil (hard to find around here)
These will be great for breakfast instead of the perpetual eggs and bacon and my spouse liked them!!
Luana says
Carolyn, made these about week ago, and they were way too moist. Left in oven much longer, but even with that, could not get them to come out whole from silicone muffin cups. I know your recipes are very reliable. Made another batch this morning. Perfect! No idea what I did wrong last time, but felt like this recipe was a keeper, and it is.
Carolyn says
Huh! Well that’s interesting to know. I wonder, did you use a different brand of flax at all? That just goes to show that low carb, gluten-free baking is a bit of a crapshoot, every time!
Luana says
No, same brands of everything, the only thing I omitted today was the milk because I had none, and figured it would be ok without it. Didn’t use the whey protein powder either time, as didn’t have that either, but subbed = amount of almond flour.
Carolyn says
Ah…the missing protein powder may be part of the problem in the original recipe. Remember, protein powder helps things rise properly (because gluten is a protein), and it’s a very different consistency than almond flour (which has a lot of fat and moisture). So subbing in more almond in place of the protein may have resulted in wetter, denser muffins. And then for the second round, you omitted the extra milk, so that would have helped them be better, although I bet they still didn’t rise as much as they should have.
Luana says
Good points! I didn’t know protein powder helps thing rise. I will try them the next time I make them, though from the way these taste, they don’t seem like they need any improvement!
april says
I just made them and they were awesome!! I used egg whites instead of whole eggs and cut the oil down to 2 tbsp. They are delicious! Thank you for sharing. Do these freeze well? I’m thinking about freezing some for a rainy day!
Carolyn says
Yes, these would freeze very well.
Denise says
Great muffins! I just made a batch yesterday. I’m not gluten intolerant so I substituted vital wheat gluten for the whey protein power 1:1 (I’m looking more for low-carb recipes). They came out looking just the same as your pictures. Thanks.
Kathy Stockbridge says
Hello! I made these this morning and they did not hold together and were extremely wet. Was there supposed to be some almond flour in these? I was very disappointed because I’ve made several of your other recipes and they have been well thought out and delicious.
Carolyn says
I am going to guess that your pumpkin had too much moisture in it. I find some brands do. Best fix is to spread it on several layers of paper towel and blot it with another few layers of paper towel. It works like a charm!
karie says
Very yummy. I had some trouble converting the steevia (I didn’t have) to dz sweets but the result was fantastic!
Danielle says
Do you have the full list of nutritional information calories, fat, protein, etc?
Janalyne says
I made these this past week to take as snacks to work – they turned out great! I used vanilla protein powder and it worked just fine. Also froze some of them and they thawed out and tasted just as good as the ones I ate fresh. 🙂
Katharine says
Just made these tonight after you mentioned on your other post that they freeze well. When I first took them out of the oven and tore one in half I was a bit turned off by their appearance…..a different texture than I’m used to – dark, looked like they might be a little wet, and they were flat on top instead of rounded up like yours. But when I took a bite – so tasty! Not at all too flax-y tasting (I was worried they would be), I couldn’t taste the unflavored whey protein powder at all, and they had the perfect amount of sweetness (I used Zsweet plus Sweetleaf liquid stevia drops). I didn’t dry out my pumpkin puree, and after tasting I decided that they cooked just fine. I can’t wait to see how they perform out of the freezer this week. I am almost giddy that they are only 1.8g carbs!
Katharine says
OK, bummed these weren’t great when I ate them again the next day. The texture seems off….like the flax didn’t incorporate as well as it looks like yours did. Perhaps it’s the flax I used? What brand do you use? I used Spectrum ground flax seed….is that different from flax seed meal? I really want these to work because I love pumpkin and bran muffins!
Carolyn says
Huh, weird! I used Bob’s Red Mill…ground flax and flax seed meal are the same, I think. One suggestion…put the rest in the freezer and then reheat in the microwave, that might improve them now. I can’t guarantee that, but it’s worth a shot!
www.theSuperFoodess.com says
I just made these last night, added in a few pecans and WOW. amazingly yummy. Thanks so much for the recipe!
Megan says
Just made these today and they were alright. I’m somewhat new to baking with flax seed and other healthy options. The problem I ran into was finding unflavored whey protein so I used some of the chocolate flavored protein powder I already had at home. Probably not a good idea because they kind of taste like a powdery-chocolate pumpkin muffin. Also, there is hardly any pumpkin flavor and I even used a little extra. I might need to tweak this recipe before I make it again! Otherwise, I’m glad I found a healthy alternative to my favorite sweet-type food!
Carolyn says
Flavoured protein powders have intense flavours, so it doesn’t surprise me at all that it overpowered the pumpkin. Please try with unflavoured next time, and you will notice a big difference.!
Nadira says
Megan- the pumpkin is not what provides the pumpkin flavor you are looking for. It’s the spices! So double the spices or use a decent amount pumpkin pie spice. That will give you the pumpkin flavor.
Ashley says
Tried these today…and they were a fail. Even after baking them for 20 additional minutes they were gummy in the center. I tried letting them ‘sit’ for a while with the hope that they would eventually become muffin-like…resembling something close to what is pictured. Nope. After reading the comment (about the wetness of the puree) I used fresh-from-the-can organic pumpkin puree – super thick – and this still happened. Any other suggestions??
Carolyn says
Hi Ashley. they really shouldn’t be so gummy in the center. I am trying to think what could be the problem. Is there anything you did differently in the recipe? What kind of pan did you use? Don’t use silicon, it never does well with low carb baked goods. What brand of flax seed meal? Two suggestions for the future…really dry out the puree by spreading it out on several layers of paper towels and blotting it with another layer. And then maybe add a little almond flour to help soak things up. that might help, even though I am really not sure how yours got so gummy. Mine definitely did not turn out that way.
Nadira says
We had the same issue, the muffins were not even close to done, even after an hour! The tops were done but the insides were still almost raw. We turned the heat up to 350 and cooked them for an additional 30 minutes. After they had set and cooled, they were done. They were actually better the following day as the inside was completely cooked and still perfectly moist. They were delicious and we loved them! I omitted the liquid stevia and instead added 1/4.tsp stevia powder (we like Whole Foods 365 brand best) and 1/4 tsp pure monkfruit powder (the straight stuff, not a monkfruit blend, it should be a deep brown color and have only the single ingredient). This, along with the erythritol, gave the muffins the hint of sweetness they need but without being like cupcakes. I am going to make this recipe again but reduce or omit the milk from the recipe. It had too much liquid, I think, which is why it wasn’t baking properly. Also I will bake the 2nd batch at 350. 325 was just not hot enough. I’ll try to comment again after the 2nd batch.
Heather says
Have a pan full of these muffins in the oven and can’t wait to try them.
Will let you know how they turned out….
Heather says
Just had a decaf with a muffin and cream cheese and it was delightful !!
Smelled wonderful, great texture and fixed my craving.
Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful recipe.
Carolyn says
So glad you liked them!