This is a great blog with lots of low sugar recipes. Here's a good one for the season! Lots of other recipes at the bottom of the post.
Recipe for Low-Sugar and Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins with Pecans
This week I got an e-mail from a reader named Sommer asking if I had a South Beach Diet Friendly recipe for pumpkin bread or pumpkin muffins. I can't always take recipe requests but Sommer's timing was great, because I'd recently written about Pumpkin Recipes for Cupcakes, Cookies, Cakes, Bread, and Muffins at BlogHer.com, and I'd been thinking about making pumpkin muffins or bread ever since. The muffins I came up with were adapted from a recipe in The Splenda World of Sweetness, a cookbook my blogging friend Amy Sherman sent me years ago, and happily they were a success from the first batch (which is pretty rare for me when it comes to baking!
I used all white whole wheat flour and Splenda with just a touch of brown sugar, and the pumpkin puree in the muffins would be considered a "good carb" but I'd still say these muffins are something where you'd need to use portion control if you're trying to lose weight. The most South Beach Diet friendly version would be the ones made with all Splenda, but even with the small amount of brown sugar I used they're lower in sugar and more healthful than most pumpkin muffin recipes you'll find. If you need something a bit less sweet to feed the little goblins on Halloween morning, this might be just the thing. (Of course you can also make the muffins with a combination of sugar and brown sugar if you don't care about making them lower in sugar.))
I used all white whole wheat flour and Splenda with just a touch of brown sugar, and the pumpkin puree in the muffins would be considered a "good carb" but I'd still say these muffins are something where you'd need to use portion control if you're trying to lose weight. The most South Beach Diet friendly version would be the ones made with all Splenda, but even with the small amount of brown sugar I used they're lower in sugar and more healthful than most pumpkin muffin recipes you'll find. If you need something a bit less sweet to feed the little goblins on Halloween morning, this might be just the thing. (Of course you can also make the muffins with a combination of sugar and brown sugar if you don't care about making them lower in sugar.))
I used pecans, but I think walnuts or almonds would also be good in these muffins. Coarsely chop 2/3 cup nuts to go in the muffins and finely chop 3 T nuts for the topping.
Mix the finely chopped nuts with 2 T Splenda and 1 T brown sugar to make the topping.
In a medium-sized bowl, mix together white whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and salt.
In another bowl whisk together the pumpkin puree, Splenda, brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, egg, egg white, and vanilla.
Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. As you can see from this spoon standing up, the batter will be stiff! Then fold in the coarsely chopped nuts.
Spray muffin tips or silicone muffin cups with nonstick spray, then fill cups with batter and top each with a heaping teaspoon of the topping mixture.
The cookbook said 15 minutes baking time, which must have been a typo because I baked my muffins at 350F/175C and it took 27 minutes until the toothpick came out clean.
Low-Sugar and Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins with Pecans(Makes 12 muffins, recipe adapted from pumpkin muffins in The Splenda World of Sweetness.)
2/3 cup + 3 T pecans (or use any nuts of your choice)
2 C white whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (see note below for substitute for this)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon (I use Saigon Cassia Cinnamon from The Spice House)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup pumpkin puree (I used canned, but you can make your own pumpkin puree)
10 T + 2 T Splenda (or use regular white sugar if you don't care about making the muffins low-sugar)
2 T + 1 T brown sugar (or replace all the brown sugar with Splenda if you want to reduce the sugar even more)
1/4 cup grapeseed oil (or canola oil)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg + 1 egg white
3/4 tsp. vanilla
NOTE: If you don't have pumpkin pie spice you can use 1 tsp. ground ginger, 1/2 tsp. ground Allspice, 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp. ground cloves to equal 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice.)
Preheat oven to 350F/175C and spray muffin tins or silicone muffin cups with nonstick spray. Coarsely chop the 2/3 cup of pecans and set aside. Finely chop the 3 T pecans, combine with the 2 T Splenda and 1 T brown sugar, and set topping mixture aside.
In a medium-sized bowl combine the white whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice (or combined spices as described above), cinnamon, and salt.
In another bowl whisk together the pumpkin puree, 10 T Splenda, 2 T brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, egg, egg white, and vanilla. (The mixture will be stiff.) Fold in the 2/3 cup chopped nuts.
Fill muffin cups with batter mixture, sprinkling a heaping teaspoon of the topping mixture over each muffin. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. (I baked my muffins exactly 27 minutes.)
These muffins were light and just slightly sweet, with a good flavor that reminded me of pumpkin pie. I put half my muffins in the freezer (to help with portion control) and I'll reheat them for about a minute in the microwave when I want to eat one later.
In a medium-sized bowl combine the white whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice (or combined spices as described above), cinnamon, and salt.
In another bowl whisk together the pumpkin puree, 10 T Splenda, 2 T brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, egg, egg white, and vanilla. (The mixture will be stiff.) Fold in the 2/3 cup chopped nuts.
Fill muffin cups with batter mixture, sprinkling a heaping teaspoon of the topping mixture over each muffin. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. (I baked my muffins exactly 27 minutes.)
These muffins were light and just slightly sweet, with a good flavor that reminded me of pumpkin pie. I put half my muffins in the freezer (to help with portion control) and I'll reheat them for about a minute in the microwave when I want to eat one later.
Using white whole wheat flour, grapeseed oil, and mostly Splenda makes these muffins a better choice for the South Beach Diet than most pumpkin muffin recipes, but definitely a version made with all Splenda would be best for the diet if you're actively trying to lose weight. Made with all Splenda these muffins could be an occasional treat for phase 2 of the diet, and if you used partly brown sugar like I did, they're probably best saved for phase 3.
More Low-Sugar Muffins You Might Like:
(Recipes from other blogs may not always be South Beach Diet friendly; check ingredients.)
Low-Sugar Whole Wheat and Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins with Lemonfrom Kalyn's Kitchen
Low-Sugar and Whole What Mango Walnut Muffins from Kalyn's Kitchen
Low-Sugar and Flourless Zucchini Muffins with Pecans (Gluten Free)from Kalyn's Kitchen
Low-Sugar and Whole Wheat Peach Pecan Muffins from Kalyn's Kitchen
Low-Sugar and Whole What Zucchini Muffins with Pecans from Kalyn's Kitchen
Low-Fat Sugar Free Sesame Banana Muffins (Gluten Free) from Gluten Free Bay
Sugar-Free Colombian Cocoa Muffins from The Perfect Pantry
Sugar-Free (or not) Peach and Vanilla Muffins from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen
Banana Spice Muffins (Gluten Free) from Ginger Lemon Girl
Banana Walnut Muffins from A Dash of Sass
(Want even more recipes? I find these recipes from other blogs usingFood Blog Search.)
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