Mini Pumpkin Molasses Muffins
The sweet, warm, almost smoky flavor of molasses is softened with pumpkin pie spice wrapped in these Mini Pumpkin Molasses Muffins. They are perfectly addicting and snackable in the mini size.
Why Muffins are a Great Kid Food
We have a lot of muffin recipes on our site! In fact, a majority of our traffic comes from healthier muffin recipe searches. We love that muffins are so popular! They are a great way for kids to start the day. You can add some essential nutrients they may not be getting in other ways. These pumpkin molasses muffins are a delicious way to kick off the fall harvest.
What is Molasses?
Molasses is simply a product of the sugar cane processing. Once the sugar cane leaves are stripped and boiled down, you are left with a syrupy product called molasses. You may have heard of blackstrap molasses, which is the result of several boilings of the syrup, making the molasses thicker and more concentrated. Many people in the health field like to buy and use this molasses for muffins, because it’s thought to be higher in iron, potassium, magnesium, and other minerals. Molasses is also lower in sugar than other products made from sugar cane which makes it particularly appealing.
These muffins use molasses to give it a rich flavor that you can’t get from any other ingredient. Molasses has been used for centuries to sweeten up baked goods, while maintaining a small amount of antioxidants and nutrients.
What is Molasses Made From?
Molasses is a thick dark syrup that comes from refining sugarcane. The sugar cane is harvested and stripped of leaves and then its juice is extracted, usually by cutting, crushing, or mashing. The third boiling of the juice is where blackstrap molasses is made. It has very little sucrose in it.
Molasses contains significant amounts of vitamin B6 and minerals, including calcium, magnesium, iron, and manganese; one tablespoon provides up to 20% of the recommended daily value of each of those nutrients.
How Do You make Pumpkin Molasses Muffins?
This muffin recipe begins like most other muffin recipes with combining the wet ingredients.
In addition to molasses, brown sugar is used in this recipe, which is the combination of granulated sugar and molasses. In fact, you can make your own brown sugar when you are out of it, by stirring the two together. Try it with your kids sometime! We were surprised at how easy this was.
We also added some nuts and pumpkin to these molasses muffins for fiber, protein, and vitamin A.
Next mix the dry ingredients and then gently fold together just until combined. Bake as directed.
Let us know if you try these pumpkin molasses muffins with your kids and how they liked it!
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Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coconut oil melted
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup pumpkin, canned
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped optional
- 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray regular or mini muffin tin with cooking spray or add liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the coconut oil and brown sugar. Beat with a hand mixer until well combined. Add egg, pumpkin, and molasses, and beat until combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients stirring to combine. Make sure you only mix until combined – over mixing causes and more gummy and dense muffin.
- Spoon even amount of mixture into each mini muffin cup, filling about 3/4 full. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts or mini chocolate chips if you want. Bake 12-15 minutes for mini muffins, and 15-17 minutes for regular muffins, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from muffin tin and transfer to a cooling rack. Enjoy!
Nutrition
www.superhealthykids.com
Natalie Monson
I'm a registered dietitian, mom of 4, avid lover of food and strong promoter of healthy habits. Here you will find lots of delicious recipes full of fruits and veggies, tips for getting your kids to eat better and become intuitive eaters and lots of resources for feeding your family.
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What did you spread on top of the muffins? It looks amazing!
My 2 year old loves these. We’ve made them 3 times in just a few weeks! 🙂
Wonderfull. I cannot resist, I’m going to prepare it.! Thank you very much
Myself, my husband, and all three of our kids loved these! Definitely a keeper recipe.
So happy to hear you loved them! Thanks for sharing!
Just made these. They are amazing with cream cheese too! Curious about the nutrition content. Is what you have listed the nutrition per mini muffin? 300kcal and 6g protein seems really high. I made 12 large muffins and can’t imagine that each has 12g protein, but if so, what a win!
I agree the nutritional content seems off- I will look into it and make sure it calculated correctly! I believe 3 grams per mini muffin is more accurate. 🙂
My kids and I loved this recipe! We actually put Halloween sprinkles on top because it’s a nut free school. Anyone know if they freeze well?
They freeze really well for me! Just pop them in the microwave for 20-30 seconds to reheat.
Hi! Can’t wait to try these. Is that almond butter used as a frosting?
You can use it if you want – but totally optional!