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Best Gluten-free Pumpkin Muffins Recipe (Dairy-free, Egg-free, Corn-free, Soy-free, Nut-free)

The most versatile, brain-dead easy healthy pumpkin muffin recipe ever – gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, allergen-free AND one-bowl simple. Friends will beg you for this simple and delicious recipe! And you can feel good about it since it has no white sugar.

Allergy Free Pumpkin Muffins

There’s a little girl with egg, nut and dairy allergies on my daughter’s soccer team, which turned out to be a blessing for this healthy pumpkin muffin recipe, which has always been one of the most popular on the site and is now presented “allergy-free.” (See the original healthy pumpkin muffins.)

I was initially a bit distraught, because the list of “okayed” foods for the allergic 5-year-old was 80% sugary candy and 20% sugary other junk, mostly with gluten (which we try to avoid in our family). Food allergies tend to scare people quite a bit who aren’t familiar with them, so naturally when presented with an “okay” list, the coach recommended parents just “shop from this list.”

Faced with six weeks of packaged sugary junk, I was determined to figure out something nutritious that was egg-free, nut-free, dairy-free, gluten-free and refined-sugar-free. My usual go-to snack for sporting events is buttery popcorn and a cheese stick, clearly not an option here. I know any fruit would have been a great choice, and had we already picked apples this year I would have offered lunchbox-sized apples for sure.

Easy Gluten-free One-Bowl Pumpkin Muffins
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Instead, I called the parents and asked their permission to make an allergy-free pumpkin muffin. I was trying to nail the gluten-free version of our old favorite anyway and was excited by the prospect of being able to share a totally allergy-free recipe with all of you. The mother was not only supportive but I think a bit touched that someone else would bake allergy-free for her daughter. She told me how hard it is to work with food in group settings and that she hates that the packaged options are always unhealthy. “I end up doing a lot of baking so my daughter can eat the food,” she said. I was just tickled to do some of it for her!

Healthy Gluten free Pumpkin Muffins

This recipe is one of the few for which I used to throw caution to the wind and just make with whole wheat, even after we found my husband’s gluten sensitivity, because we love them so darn much. I had been hesitant to experiment, not trusting my knowledge of gluten-free baking, but I’ve made some strides while playing with recipes like the gluten-free bacon and green onion savory muffins, and it was time to try.

GLUTEN-FREE CAN BE CONFUSING BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE HARD!

I’m thrilled to share a FREE gluten-free cheat sheet mini eBook to help get you started! This is perfect if you’ve just been told you need a GF diet, if you have a friend or family member eating GF and you’d like to cook for them, or if you’re just curious what it’s all about!

To sweeten the experience even more, when we shared the muffins with the team I got two great validations that this recipe rocks.

First, when we arrived, my daughter was worried about her teammate’s allergies and wanted me to make sure I told the parents the ingredients (how conscientious is THAT for a 5yo?). I told her that the muffins were egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free, gluten-free, soy-free, corn-free, and refined sugar-free. My mother-in-law overheard and quipped seriously, “And they’re invisible!”

Related: Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Diet Tips

She has very low expectations for both allergy-free and healthy food. But when we shared a mini muffin with her after the game, she took two and admitted begrudgingly that not only were they not invisible, they were really good. (Score!)

A minute later a parent of another girl on the team sidled over and said, “I’m really going to need this recipe from you. My daughter doesn’t eat, well, hardly ANY fruits or vegetables, and she ate both of her muffins!” Score again for the perfect muffin recipe – I was only too happy to give her my card.

Easy Gluten free Pumpkin Muffins

Would you like the recipe too?

It’s not only allergen-free and healthy with a soaked grain option, but it features one-bowl dump-it-all-in simplicity and seems to be foolproof with a plethora of options for substitutions. You could make it with kids helping, the phone ringing, and dinner cooking in the background and would be hard pressed to mess it up.

Actually, you should let the kids not only help, but make the whole recipe! When your kids learn to cook you’ll be amazed by how many things they can do in the kitchen. These gluten-free pumpkin muffins are the perfect recipe for beginning bakers.

Your kids can learn to cook, even if you don’t know where to start

My 4 kids and I created the online Kids Cook Real Food lessons to help bring real food and independence to families all over. Over 10,000 kids have joined us and we’d love to invite you along for the adventure!

Kids watching a cooking lesson at a kitchen island

I’m so pleased to offer a little gift from our family to yours, a knife skills lesson as a free preview of the full cooking eCourse!

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Muffins

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 13 reviews
  • Author: Katie Kimball
  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 45 mins
  • Total Time: 55 minutes
  • Yield: 12 1x

Ingredients

Units Scale


ship kroger


Instructions

  1. Mix the dry ingredients together, then add all the rest of the ingredients right on top. (You can just “dump and mix” but I wanted to make sure the little spices and leavenings were mixed thoroughly first.) Stir or beat well.
  2. Line muffin tin and pour about 3/4 full into 12 muffin cups. Bake in a preheated 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes (20-25 for 24 mini muffins).
  3. You might have a little left over, and a mini loaf pan is usually just right for the excess.

Notes

Watch timing carefully as honey browns faster!

You can also use a greased 8×8″ or 9×13″ glass baking dish to make a sort of “cake” instead. I haven’t tried it, but readers have done it with the original and again, I can’t imagine messing this recipe up. Cut into squares and serve just like muffins for breakfast, or I hear a cream cheese frosting is delicious to make it into a “real cake.” Try yogurt cheese for an inexpensive, probiotic substitution for cream cheese.

Use any orange vegetable for the pumpkin.

Refrigerate the “flax eggs” at least 15 minutes before incorporating into the batter; more below.

If coconut is included on someone’s list of allergens (it has just been classified in the “tree nut” category!) and you also still need dairy-free, you could use any melted fat, such as palm shortening, lard, or a healthy oil.

Readers have also subbed unsweetened applesauce for the fat, although I’d try more pumpkin for a healthier result.

Try reducing the sweetener, especially if you’re using home-pureed pumpkin or a nice sweet squash like buttercup or sunshine. To make up for the missing mass, add a bit more pumpkin puree.

Many gluten-free flours are appropriate for this recipe; see below for more info.

Additions: raisins, chopped walnuts (use the code STEWARDSHIP for 10% off at that site!) or pecans, chocolate chips, sub 1/4 c. cocoa (use the code STEWARDSHIP for 10% off at that site!) powder for 1/4 c. starch. One reader on the original recipe added a bit of cocoa powder (use the code STEWARDSHIP for 10% off at that site!) to just part of the batter and swirled it on top of each muffin, finishing off with crumbled pecans and a dusting of cinnamon.

They freeze well!

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Helpful Hints & Substitutions Galore

homemade pumpkin puree

If you’ve never made your own pumpkin puree, there’s nothing like it. I wasn’t a believer and always use canned until my friend changed my mind with my own pumpkin cookies. You can see a tutorial at this recipe. Also, for this muffin recipe and pretty much any time you need pumpkin in a bread, you can use any orange vegetable: butternut or buttercup squash, sweet potato, and even big jack-o-lantern style pumpkins, although they’ll be less sweet.

If you want an even more pumpkin-y flavor, try subbing 1/4 cup more pumpkin in for 1/4 cup of the melted fat.

Easy Gluten free Pumpkin Muffins

gluten-free flour blends

I’m indebted to Kimi of The Nourishing Gourmet (who learned from Gluten-Free Girl) for teaching me about how to use a 70/30 ratio of gluten-free whole grain flours to starch to best mimic the action of whole wheat flour. It turns out that gluten-free baking isn’t as scary as I thought, at least for muffins!

For the gluten-free flours, you have lots of options. I initially tried:

I was so pleasantly surprised that it all worked out perfectly!

Next, I was making the egg-free version, and I used:

I made batches both with and without eggs. Perfect again.

I also went with

I wanted to see if I could simplify things, because gluten-free recipes with many different flours always intimidated me, especially when I was first starting out on the gluten-free journey. I also wondered if the starch was necessary, because even though arrowroot starch has health benefits, I wanted to have a 100% whole grain option.

When we tried using just brown rice flour, the muffins still worked out fine. I did a side-by-side taste test with 100% brown rice flour and 1 1/6 brown rice flour + 1/2 cup tapioca starch. The texture was quite different, and my husband liked the plain brown rice flour better while I did prefer the fluffiness of the additional starch. I wouldn’t have complained for a second about the straight brown rice flour though. You can see the difference in this photo:

Healthy Gluten free Pumpkin Muffins

The brown rice + starch is on the left, plain brown rice flour on the right. And the butter is totally just for the picture – you don’t even need butter to enjoy these wholeheartedly (although all the more delicious served warm with more healthy fats like butter, of course!)

I think it’s safe to say that one could use any combination of whole grain gluten-free flours, probably including almond flour, for the 1 2/3 cups needed for this recipe. For perfectly fluffy texture, use 1/3-1/2 cup arrowroot, tapioca, or corn starch (but only if you must; most corn is genetically modified and not nearly as healthy as arrowroot) as part of the mixture, but it’s not necessary for success. (Coconut flour acts very differently, so that’s not an appropriate 1:1 substitution though.)

Your kids can learn to cook, even if you don’t know where to start

My 4 kids and I created the online Kids Cook Real Food lessons to help bring real food and independence to families all over. Over 10,000 kids have joined us and we’d love to invite you along for the adventure!

Kids watching a cooking lesson at a kitchen island

I’m so pleased to offer a little gift from our family to yours, a knife skills lesson as a free preview of the full cooking eCourse!

soaked grains

One thing I really didn’t like when I started baking gluten-free was that I felt I had stepped backward from our sourdough/soaked grain lifestyle. It was hard to find soaked grain recipes for gluten-free baked goods, and I wasn’t confident enough yet to experiment. For this recipe, you can soak it without problem.

Just combine the whole grain flour with 1 Tbs. yogurt + water to make 3/4 cup total.

If you’re using starch, you do not have to soak that because there’s no bran or germ, thus no phytates. Simply add all the other ingredients after a 12-hour (or so) soak on the counter. (More about soaking grains if that’s unfamiliar to you.)

If you’re using 100% whole grains, you might need a little more liquid to get things incorporated for the soak. If you do, you can add the melted fat to the mix. You can also allow the soaked mixture to be very thick, almost like dough, and use an immersion blender to incorporate the other ingredients the following day. Somehow, it all works out.

Healthy Gluten free Pumpkin Muffins

making proper egg-free eggs

There are a couple ways to substitute for eggs in quick-bread recipes like this one, gluten-free or not:

  • 1-2 tsp. ground chia seeds (measured whole) and 3 Tbs. hot water; allow to sit at least 5 minutes
  • 1 Tbs. ground flax (measured ground) and 3 Tbs. water; refrigerate at least 15 minutes before incorporating into the batter
  • 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce and 1/2 tsp. additional baking soda

These are all per egg, so double for this recipe. I used the flax version in our test and am indebted to this site for the instructions on refrigerating the flax egg for best results.

reducing the sweetener

My next foray into new pumpkin muffin versions will be to reduce the sweetener. I’ve had incredible luck with the healthy pumpkin cookies, getting the sweetener down to just 1/4 cup honey for 5 dozen cookies, so I’m pretty confident that the natural sweetness of the pumpkin and cinnamon will help here, too. I’ll first try cutting to 1/4 or 1/2 cup honey and adding a bit of extra pumpkin (or maybe natural applesauce?) to help fill in the bulk I’m taking out. I could also try using other healthy sweeteners like sorghum syrup and maple syrup. They have a strong flavor, so a little goes a long way. Considering that between myself and readers, these muffins have been made with approximately 5,283 substitutions and additions and always work out, I’m guessing this will too!

Others have used mashed banana in place of sweetener in a different muffin recipe, so that is another way to fill in the “sweet” if the muffins don’t taste so great after reducing the sweetener, and I’m curious what would happen if I took the honey 100% away, added 1/2-3/4 cup pumpkin and a little bit of stevia for sweetness. If you experiment, let us know in the comments!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins

Other Pumpkin Resources:

Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffin longie

Other Fall Recipes:

Unless otherwise credited, photos are owned by the author or used with a license from Canva or Deposit Photos.

94 thoughts on “Best Gluten-free Pumpkin Muffins Recipe (Dairy-free, Egg-free, Corn-free, Soy-free, Nut-free)”

  1. Katie, did you stop using coconut flour altogether? (I just bought some to try for the first time) Have you made this recipe with it successfully?

  2. I cannot believe how good these are. I’ve tried lots of gluten free baking from online sources that have great reviews but leave me disappointed. This muffin is actually fluffy, moist, and delicious. I don’t know what the secret is. I actually made a couple of substitutions because I didn’t have quite the right flours. So my flour combination was:
    1/3 cup quinoa flour
    1/3 cup sorghum flour
    1/2 cup buckwheat
    1/2 cup tapioca/potato starch mix
    I also doubled the recipe and accidentally put in too much baking soda. Still worked! Absolutely fantastic. Thank you very much!!

      1. Yes, it is an amazing recipe. I believe it is the moisture in the pumpkin. I have dubbed bananas for pumpkin and reduced the sugar and they are just as good. I may try zucchini next.

  3. I love these muffins!!! I want to do this soaked, but the only flour I have in the house is already mixed with starch. I know you said you don’t HAVE to soak the starch, but can you? Will it have a negative effect if I do?

    1. Sandra,
      Won’t be a problem! Here’s the link to the whole wheat soaked muffins that might give you more ideas on soaking procedure: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/02/19/recipe-connection-soaked-healthy-pumpkin-muffins/

      Enjoy!! 🙂 Katie

  4. Hi there,

    Can I soak the GF flour blend if it includes the starch? Will it mold or anything? My mix (Pamelas’) has brown rice, white rice & sweet rice flour, tapioca, arrowroot & potato starch and sorghum flour, guar gum. I’d love to start soaking but don’t want to waste a lot of flour!

    Thanks,
    Jen

    1. Jen,
      Won’t be a problem! It will just be a thicker batter, so for those blending their own flours, it’s easier to manage without the starch, but you’ll be just fine! Enjoy! 🙂 Katie

      PS – by the way, only whole grain flours need soaking, so most of the flours in that blend don’t need it – only brown rice and maybe sorghum depending on how it’s processed. So – if you don’t like the end result with a soak, do this recipe normally and soak something else, like oats, or this awesome flatbread: http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2012/03/gluten-free-flatbread-recipe-made-from.html

  5. I have been eating these all week! They are by far the best gluten free “cake” (as I baked in an 8×8 glass pan) I have ever made. I have recently gone gluten free, but for a previous job have created many GF recipes. I might not make these again as I can’t stop eating them! Here are my changes: pre-ground buckwheat flour–as I had it on hand, no cloves, no baking powder, EnerG egg replacer, turbinado sugar instead of honey, and grapeseed oil (as I am dairy and coconut free). I cut the cake into squares, though very crumbly it worked, then I froze them–they thaw great. Thank you for this recipe!






  6. I wanted to let you know that I tried these today. After the first batch, I figured out how to make them even better! I used mostly brown rice flour with some coconut flour (about 1/4 cup). I used an entire can of pumpkin & subbed applesauce for the butter (the person I made these for has multiple allergies). I used 1 t allspice because I’m allergic to cinnamon & added a dash of ginger. Instead of water, I used almond milk (had to use another 1/4 cup) & added some shredded coconut. I topped a few with some homemade cream cheese frosting, toasted coconut, & a pecan half. Not only were they delicious, but they were beautiful as well! Thank you for sharing your recipe!






    1. Thanks for the update! My son has a contact allergy with cinnamon that came out of nowhere. I have heard if you buy REAL cinnamon rather than grocery store cinnamon you are less likely to be allergic. Just throwing it out there! 🙂

  7. These are amazing. Ours were incredibly moist, almost pudding like. I’m sure when they cool or with a little more baking they would have been firmer, but everyone agreed they were too good this way, right out of the oven! We added some whipped cream and the kids ate 3 each! We used quinoa flour instead of buckwheat and I used tapioca flour instead of arrowroot. Will make again for sure.






  8. Wanted to say how much I appreciate this recipe. I even used the little leftover batter and make pancakes out of them. Delicious and a huge hit with my non-veggie eating two year old. Thank you!

  9. Do you know how much fiber these muffins have? Thanks! Trying to balance my son’s need for high fiber and my daughter’s need for gluten free!

  10. Thanks so much these look fantastic. These will be on our Christmas morning breakfast table. 🙂

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  15. Wow Katie! You never cease to amaze me in the quality research and “product development” 🙂 you do before you post a recipe! Your research is invaluable as we look to your experience and knowledge as many of us are trying to gain knowledge in cooking gluten free. I look forward to seeing what exle you develop. As for this recipe-it is going on my menu planner ASAP! 🙂 Thanks again! Sherra

  16. These turned out divine! Made then tonight with 1/2 cup coconut sugar and 1/2 tsp liquid stevia. I also added chocolate chips in half and cinnamon chips in the other half. Yum!

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  18. Katie, we loved these too. Although my son has suddenly decided he doesn’t like them any more (????). Anyway, what do you think about subbing the pumpkin for banana. That should work, right? Maybe reduce the sweetener just a bit?

  19. This recipe looks great and I can’t wait to try them! I just wanted to add that although I haven’t read all the comments I see some people looking for allergy free desserts etc. Yes to Yummy is blog by young lady (a high schooler actually so I’m really impressed) who does a lot of paleo and grain free desserts so it may be useful to the allergy camp as well. HTH:)






  20. LOVED this recipe! I made it with almond flour + buckwheat flour + arrowroot powder as a cake topped with cream cheese frosting for my son’s birthday. I also made a sourdough whole wheat version. Everyone loved the whole wheat cake…until they tried some GF. They all preferred this GF version better! It was delish!

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  22. I used spaghetti squash puree and substituted millet for the buckwheat and these turned out great! With a little bit of crunch from the millet they tasted just like corn muffins! Cant wait to make them again. Thank you : )

  23. I made these yesterday for a meeting and one of the attendees is gluten-free since the beginning of the year. He exclaimed ” I haven’t had anything this good in months!” I couldn’t find arrowroot starch but found potato starch and I also substitited the eggs with 2 Tbsp chia seeds and 1/4 cup water. So good! Thanks for sharing.

    1. Oh, and one more thing–I skipped the use of baking powder and they turned out light and fluffy and still rose up nicely with baking.

  24. Thank you so much! This is my first fall after going gluten free, and your original pumpkin muffins had been one of my favorite recipes. I’m SO happy I don’t have to miss them.

    1. Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship

      Vonnie,
      You can just plug the ingredients into http://caloriecount.about.com/, easy peasy. 🙂 Katie

  25. Hi Katie,
    I was wondering if I could make the batter the night before and refrigerate them then bake them in the morning or even freeze the batter ahead of time and only pull out what I need for that day because with the kids in school mornings are too crazy to try and mix the batter then bake them and all of that so I was just wondering

    1. Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship

      Rae,
      It seems like just about everyone freezes muffin batter and does that, but I just haven’t tried it yet. This recipe is so foolproof, it has to work though. 😉 The muffins are so moist and yummy though that I wouldn’t worry about serving them “oven fresh” on a school morning – just bake them whenever and serve them cold in the a.m. or gently warm them at that time. The only potential problem with storing batter is that once the leavening is incorporated, it starts working, so by morning you might lose some rise (but again, I’m almost certain it would be fine!). If you try the overnight-in-the-fridge thing, let me know if it does turn out – thanks! 🙂 Katie

  26. These look and sound so yummy! I can’t wait to try them. I’ll sub out the buckwheat because I have allergic reactions to it (how ironic for this post, huh?), but these really do look good. I love it when fall comes and all my favorite bloggers start sharing pumpkin recipes. =) Thanks!

  27. What traditional oils can be used if you can’t use dairy or coconut? Olive oil is expensive, and I just recently learned that the quality is questionable, unless you buy the really expensive kinds. I thought coconut, butter, and olive oil are the only good oils to use. I’m looking for an alternative. Thanks!

    1. Jill,
      You can always melt another traditional fat like lard or tallow, grassfed, and refined sesame oil might be an option. Ground flax can be subbed for oil but you multiply by 3 – so 1 1/2 c. flax for this recipe! Some folks even cut the oil altogether and put in applesauce or double the pumpkin and it all amazingly works out. 🙂 Katie

  28. Kelly Holman

    Here’s more info on substituting for eggs in baking. Also read the comment by Sally on using chia gel.
    http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/video-the-best-baking-substitute-for-eggs/

  29. I’m sorry to tell you that your recipe isn’t exactly corn free.

    Baking powder almost always has corn starch in it to prevent clumping. I can’t find corn free BP at any local stores though there are some safe brands you can order online. BP is simply baking soda with an acid added- so it is easy to sub. The acid retards the formation of gas (as far as I understand). If I can get it in the oven fast enough, sometimes I just use baking soda with a little vinegar (like 1 or 2 Tb). Otherwise I make my own baking powder- mix cream of tartar (a acidic white powder formed during wine making) with baking soda in a 2 to 1 ratio, then measure out what you need. (I read it doesn’t keep so make only what you need.)

    I’m allergic to corn and was excited to see some one address that as an allergy. Thanks for trying! Corn is a really hard allergy to deal with because it isn’t required to be listed as an allergen on labels and there are so many things that use corn in the processing that aren’t even on labels- like the wax sprayed on produce can be made from corn. Vague terms like “natural flavors”… often derived from corn (corn is natural).

    Check out this link http://www.cornallergens.com/list/corn-allergen-list.php or google “corn allergy list” if you are interested in learning more.

    By the way, between me and my son, we are allergic to dairy, nuts, some legumes (lentils and peanuts), corn, carrots, melon (including cucumbers), stone fruits (including avocado), and basically any fruit and vegetable that hasn’t been cooked of a certain ripeness (allergic to the protein that causes fruit to ripen- called Oral Allergy Syndrome). Needless to say, I have a fun time adapting recipes or making a couple different versions so that everyone can eat. I have a very wonderful friend who posted the list of allergies on her fridge and regularly makes us goodies. She’s an angel!

    1. M,
      I have a friend with that same allergy – but she recently visited a naturopathic practitioner who did some wild treatment, one time, and she can eat raw apples and just about any other fruit now. She’s totally amazed and loving apple season. But wow, that’s a lot of things to avoid between you two! I had to go check my baking powder to see if different brands were different, and lo and behold, of course, you’re exactly correct. We were avoiding corn for my daughter for a short time…but I’m pretty sure I missed that one, so I’m so grateful you brought it to my attention! I’ll update the post with an asterisk; I knew the homemade recipe (but didn’t know it didn’t keep – with two dry ingredients, do you know why not?). At least if I update the post with the homemade recipe, I can still leave “corn-free” on there. 😉 Did you happen to try them with the homemade version? With the other leavening going on, I would bet money that you could just skip that little 1/4 tsp. entirely. Totally trying it next time! Thanks for helping me better this post!
      🙂 Katie

  30. I was eating these muffins within 2 hours of discovering this post! SO AMAZING. I went ahead and left out the honey entirely, added 1/2 pureed banana and used a whole 15 oz. can of pureed pumpkin. I also doubled the cinnamon and added a tsp. of ground ginger. They turned out amazing!

      1. wow – somehow I never got notified about this comment, but I am seeing it now since you re-posted the recipe on FB! I use 1/2 of a single banana, pureed. It may not be sweet enough for mainstream sugar-eaters, but I find them delicious.

  31. I made these yesterday morning, and boy were they incredible! Just as fluffy and moist as though they were made with wheat flour, which of course they weren’t. I made a few modifications, according to what I had on hand. Here’s what I did:

    I used 1/3 cup white rice flour + 1/3 cup brown rice flour, 1/2 cup sweet white sorghum flour, and 1/4 cup tapioca starch + 1/4 potato starch (adds tenderness). I used only 1/4 tsp. baking soda and 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder. For the sweetener, I used 1/2 cup coconut sugar, which made the muffins barely sweet, just how we like it. Also, I used whole milk instead of water, and found I needed 1/2 cup to make the batter the right consistency. I also used a tablespoon or two more pumpkin puree since I needed to use up what I had on hand.

    I was so pleased with how they turned out, this will quickly become a family favourite I’m sure! Since I cannot have any gluten now, I am grateful for delicious and well-tested recipes like this! Thank you! 🙂

  32. I made them today using Bob’s Red Mill all purpose gluten free flour and the turned out perfectly! I ran out of honey so I ended up using 1/3 of a cup of honey and topped up with applesauce until I reached 3/4 of a cup. They are definitely sweet enough, although I added in a cup of raisins so that probably helped. Thanks for a great recipe!

  33. These gluten free sound superb and thank you. I have a bad time with yeast, am not great with more than an egg plus my flax eggs, I also use chia. Needs must!
    I am lucky with nuts and nut butters – yummy.
    More low fat, no egg, yeast or gluten are just perfect for so many now.






  34. Also, do you feel it’s ok to cook with flax meal? I’m wondering if the heat makes the flax’s oil unhealthy?

      1. Kelly Holman

        Katie, can you explain more about this? I’ve been racking my brains trying to find ways to hide 2 Tb of flax a day in something that’s not heated. I thought ground flax seed is really prone to going rancid — that’s why you keep it in the fridge and they say it’s better to grind it just before using, but I don’t have time for one…more…thing.

        How do you know about the internal temperature of baked items, other than testing individual foods? What’s the temp limit for ground flax seed? Is a muffin considered dry heat even though the batter is wet?

        Thanks for all you do.

        1. Kelly,
          I’m glad you asked!

          Here’s a good source from my own post a few years back (toward the end):
          http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/06/09/how-to-use-and-store-flax-seeds-and-flax-oil/

          And the smoke point for flax oil is about 225F, so any sauteeing would surpass that quickly, but the interior of a baked good, not so much. So I’d say – include flax in baking to your heart’s content! For not heated options, stir it into oatmeal after you dish up a bowl, or make peanut butter kisses (2/3 c. peanut butter, 1/3 c. honey, 1/3 c. ground flax and coconut mixed. Roll into balls and eat!).

          As for dry vs. wet heat, it’s about how the heat is administered – and I may have used the terms not quite right b/c when I said “wet” I was thinking like boiling, which is a little harder on food than baking (dry heat for sure, no matter how wet the food is), but sauteing (“direct heat” I believe) or grilling is the hardest yet, which is why you never fry or saute with flax. I learned about all that with enzymes, because enzymes will survive up to 150F in an oven but only 118F in water or milk heated on the stove. Interesting, right? 😉

          Hope that helps! 🙂 Katie

          1. Kelly Holman

            Thanks so much Katie! That explanation is helpful for several different foods I make.

            I had been putting flax in some bars similar to your peanut butter kisses, but now I think I need to swear off all nuts & pseudograins, so I was stumped. Baking will give me more options.

  35. I am thinking of trying 1 c almond flour and 2/3 c flax meal…to save my almond flour 😉 Think it’ll work or should I try less flax and more almond meal to start out with so they are not so heavy? Can’t wait to try, I *LOVE*** your original pumpkin muffin recipe!

  36. Almost in tears here. I’ve been so sad that my son wouldn’t have pumpkin muffins to enjoy. He is allergic to the top 7 allergens and pretty much everything else as well. I’m so excited to try these. Do you happen to have an allergen free pumpkin pie recipe? My big kid wants pie and I’ve been delaying since my little can’t have so much. Also think I’ll use this recipe for my son’s upcoming birthday!

      1. He can do eggs every once in a while (provided that they are organic)! Excited to see your post!

        I am new to this and need to find some allergy free blogs! Suggestions?

        1. Rachel,
          Whole New Mom is a favorite of mine; she has a Wednesday linky of allergen-free recipes so you could find a lot there too: http://wholenewmom.com/. Cybele Pascal is a well-known “top 8 allergen-free” blogger, although not always healthy – but you could find a lot of links through her I bet. http://cybelepascal.com/

          Good luck! 🙂 Katie

  37. OH MY GOODNESS. I tried this recipe as soon as I read the email. In fact, I decided to skip making dinner and make the muffins instead. 😉 I’ve been trying to find good muffin recipes to make and freeze before baby #4 gets here in January. I have a few pretty decent ones, but these…. THESE!!! I made them with 2/3 c of brown rice flour and 1/2 c sorghum flour (and I used eggs because we can). When I made them, they made 18 muffins, and it’s really a shame I had to share with the 4 other people in this house! I had my husband try them and he LOVED them!! That is a miracle, he usually hates anything gluten free before it hits his mouth, haha. I think I will have to make 100 of these to freeze before baby comes. Hopefully they freeze well! I will experiment with freezing (before and after baking… I recently learned, via Heavenly Homemakers, that you can freeze muffin batter!!) next time I make them (which will probably be tomorrow, hahaha) and then I will come back and post to let other inquiring minds know if it works or not.

    1. Can’t wait to hear back from you! I’ve seen the trend of freezing batter in muffin liners but yet to try it. I think they would likely taste better than freezing the already baked ones 😉 Or at least they would last longer in the freezer!

      1. So I tried freezing the muffins and the batter, to see which froze better, and while the baked muffins were okay, the batter turned out a lot better. I ended up making 54 of them to freeze so far (and will be making approximately that many more) for when I have a baby in. January. Also a great way to heat the house later 😀

    2. Audrey (and Helen),
      I’ve not done the freezing muffin batter thing either, mostly because these and my other fav muffin freeze SO well. You can’t even tell they’ve been frozen when you eat them, no freezer-burned dried out ickyness going on at all. 🙂 Katie

      1. So excited to make these and freeze them for a camping trip next week. It’s my first gluten-free camping trip and we will be in the middle of nowhere for a week! So glad to see here in the comments that they freeze well. I was wondering, thanks! 🙂

  38. Kelly Holman

    Any ideas how to do these grain free? The pseudo grains I can have, have to be soaked & rinsed so I can’t use the flour.

  39. Katie,
    Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for this recipe! My daughter (16 months) has food allergies – egg & dairy among them, and I have been so extremely overwhelmed for what to even feed her besides fruit (she loves), veggies (which she doesn’t like too much), meat, rice (questionable), & oatmeal (questionable). While her skin is better, it is still covered with eczema, so I keep cutting out things to find out if it is related… But with so much fruit, she’s just hungry all the time!

    I’ve heard of the flax seed egg substitute, but haven’t tried it…now I will!

    Do you have any cookie recipes that are like this recipe, free of all those allergenic foods you listed in the title? Or know how I can adapt a recipe? We love to make Christmas cookies, but that won’t work this year because they’re a danger for her!

    Again, thank you so much!

    1. Jill,
      I think you would love http://wholenewmom.com/ because she has SO many yummy allergy-free recipes and a linky each Wednesday to discover tons of new blogger resources. I would think you don’t want to overdo the fruit, either – you’re in a tough spot. Have you done legumes? That at least has some staying power. Zucchini noodles and pasta sauce, make a “white sauce” out of chicken broth and white beans blended up (like this one but just use broth instead of milk: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2011/01/21/sneak-preview-of-the-everything-beans-book-free-download-pasta-with-white-bean-sauce/), provide lots of fun dips (hummus?) for cooked veggies so she can explore. Anyway…I know that wasn’t your question, but I so feel for your predicament and thought I’d share a few ideas!

      I’m thinking the flax eggs will help you remake your fav cookies, too, but also search for vegan bloggers, since they would use no dairy or eggs. I recommend Ricki Heller (http://www.rickiheller.com/) whose blog used to be “diet dessert and dogs” – she’s a gluten-free vegan who is a master at desserts. She’s got to have something awesome for you!!

      Good luck!!
      🙂 Katie

      1. Katie,
        Thank you so much for your reply! I’ve been struggling with my daughter getting too much fruit, but was at a loss for what else to feed her. I will check out those sites! Thank you for those, and for the great food ideas!

        I’ve heard of zucchini noodles, but have been afraid to try them…not sure why – probably because they’re different, and I’ve never had them before.

        1. Chris church

          Jill-
          I was in your shoes 2 years ago. my son would only eat Cuties, pancakes, toast, coconut milk yogurt, and turkey lunch meats. we were still nursing so I wasnt too worried about overall nutrition, but i was starting to develop food fatique.

          i used a lot of vegan recipes and added meat. then i discovered kerryann and cookingtf.com. it opened up such an amazing world. then i ran into this blog as i learned about traditional foods. we’d always gotten a csa farm share, so i became over joyed as my son slowly added new foods or foods he loved pre-allergy shut down of trying stuff. now at 3 years old, he gets comments about how good an eater he is. it was hard work for all of us but i know you will find a way. peaches took 2 years to get back into his diet. i suggest smoothies to get veggies and stuff in your little one.

  40. We are gluten free now too! (Well, I’ve got the kids on a trial and I know for sure that I am sensitive to it. So I am GF henceforth!)
    So, do you buy your brown rice flour or do you whip some up in your high powered blender? (I am more likely to have the grain on hand than the alternative flour at this point.)

    1. Oh, and I used about 2/3 cup coconut sugar and they were still very sweet, so I’ll try cutting it even more next time!

  41. I’ve been waiting for this recipe since we’ve been gluten free! They’re in the oven now, I couldn’t wait to soak them but will next time.

      1. They were fantastic! So good i may have had 3 while they were warm out of the oven, with lots of butter (in all fairness, I’m nursing my 2 week old and so hungry!). My 4 yo loved them too :). I used the teff, sorghum, buckwheat, arrowroot mix and really liked it.

  42. So, since I don’t care about gluten, can I just sub the other flours for wheat flour 1 for 1?

      1. Okay, so I’m probably late in the game to get to these. I read the recipe and thought this would be fantastic. I decided to substitute 3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, as I didn’t have ground cloves on hand, & I also added a half teaspoon of ground allspice. I used half a cup of honey and a quarter cup of molasses and nuked it in the microwave with the butter for a minute and a half so it be smooth and running. The modifications I made were so I could get a gingerbread type of muffin. I’ve had to try one right now as it came out of the oven, just in case I would have to start over 🙂 these are fantastic! thank you for taking the time to create this recipe!






  43. Making these this weekend! I’ve had trouble finding a good GF pumpkin muffin recipe. Thanks for posting.

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