Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (Dairy Free!)

It's Thanksgiving! A day of family - and sometimes family drama - and of course, all the pumpkin and leaf food and décor you can stomach. Or too much? I earn an F score yearly for decorating, so I am no expert. This year the extend of my decorating included buying 3 mini pumpkins at the grocery and setting them on the counter. Seasonal decorating requires seasonal cleanup and this is just not my jam.

A dear friend sent over a pumpkin chocolate chip bread recipe recently, raving about how good it was. And come on - pumpkin and chocolate chips? How could it not be good?

If you're looking for a simple but yum recipe to throw together, this may be your bet.

There is a special touch to this recipe, though, as I made them dairy free. More and more, making allergen specific food has become a breeze. I've toyed with vegan recipes for many moons, and formerly, vegan cheese wouldn't even melt right (yes, I'm serious - I made a pizza I couldn't bear to eat). The alternative to butter was oil (which, if you peek through some muffin recipes, you'll see is quite common as it is), which can make perfecting frosting tricky. And chocolate, oh chocolate. Many types have a certain amount of milk.

Milk started being added to chocolate at some point in the 1600s, after Sir Hans Sloane, a doctor to Queen Anne and George II and British Museum founder, took a visit to Jamaica. He recognized the health benefits, and added milk to try and boost them. Interestingly, this was strictly for medicine. No fun for chocolate, yet. Years later, the recipes were perfected with condensed milk and chocolate evolved into what we know and love today.

I have a family member who cannot partake in dairy, and this has prompted me to focus more on this realm. Beyond the evolution of dairy free cheeses, we have a *ton* of milk options; the milk section at my local grocery is massive, and only a small percentage are cow milk. Almond, oat, coconut, soy....and of course, the mixes, which tend to create a very smooth and comparable milk to cow's. For my own purposes, I tend to gravitate towards coconut or oat milk. I feel they best match the consistency on their own. And of course, we have many butter options, too.

Rice milk is used in some chocolate brands to create the milk chocolate flavor, and I used Enjoy Life milk chocolate. They have chips, but I had a few bars, so took out my rage on them and smashed them on my counter to create some little chunks. It was both therapeutic and flavorful.

It's a pretty straightforward recipe. I mixed the oil and sugar together, then added eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla. I gradually stirred in a combination of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then tossed in my chocolate chunks after lightly coating them in flour.

After pouring the batter into a cupcake pan, I topped with some more chocolate and got 'em in the oven.

They baked for about 28 minutes before being ready to hop out. You  may notice that they are paper-free; I've seen over time that some feel the difference between cupcakes and muffins is the paper. I don't know that I agree because let's be real - it's frosting that makes a cupcake. But I'll play along this time. No papers.

They were cute and sassy and though you may expect some noticeable flaw with dairy free, that was simply untrue.

Best yet, my favorite tiny person liked them. Giving a kid who can't eat chocolate the chance to enjoy a fun recipe is a real gem. You still have time if you're looking for a last minute recipe!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut oil (or softened butter)

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 can pumpkin (15 ounces)

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour + 2 tablespoons extra

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup coconut milk (or regular milk)

1 package chocolate chips (12 ounces; I used dairy free)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with papers or spray with nonstick baking spray.

Add the oil and sugar and butter to a large mixing bowl and beat well to combine (2-3 minutes). Add eggs, pumpkin and vanilla and stir well. In a medium bowl, stir flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Pour chocolate chips into a bowl and coat lightly with 2 tablespoons of flour. Pour 3/4 of the chips into the batter and gently stir. Pour the batter into prepared pans and top with remaining chocolate chips. Bake for 26-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

adapted from pumpkin chocolate chip bread