Pumpkin Apple Swirl Muffins

In order to get some of those you have to make your kitchen look like this...


And suffer some poorly lit pictures of the muffin making process!

Pumpkin Apple Swirl Muffins

Ingredients:

Wet
• 2 T ground flax + 6 T water, whisked (or 2 T chia seeds)
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup mashed ripe bananas (1 small)
• ½ cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup almond milk (I just realized I forgot to add the milk!)
• ½ cup finely chopped chunks of Apple

Dry
• 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t cinnamon
• ½ t nutmeg
• ½ t ginger
• pinch of sea salt

Creamy Filling
• 2-3 Tbsp Chevre Cheese (or any kind of creamy cheese)
• ½ cup Pumpkin
• 2-3 TBSP grated apple

Crispy Fall Toppings (optional)
• Apple Chunks
• Walnuts
• Brown Sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F. Whisk the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. In a small bowl, stir the flax + water to create the ‘eggs’. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix the wet ingredients together. Add flax mixture and whisk. Next mix the dry ingredients in medium sized bowl. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Be careful not to overstir! Grease muffin tin. Fill each individual muffin cup about ¼ of the way full. Stir together ingredients for creamy filling. Add a blob of filling to each muffin cup. Then top each muffin cup with the remaining batter. Each muffin cup should be about ½-3/4 full. Sprinkle each cup with mini apple chunks, chopped walnuts and brown sugar. Bake 18-20 minutes.


Don't worry the wet ingredients will look like a soupy mess.


How full my muffin tins were with the a dab of creamy filling on top.


And my creamy filling tasted a little bitter and was a neon orange but it cooked in perfectly and made these muffins so moist.

But I still got some beauties!


These suckers are MOIST and DENSE. I am in love. Seriously.

Can you see the swirls? It's hard they blend in but I promise that they're there! In some of the muffins the swirls of filling just cooked into the muffin in the middle, but no worries you can still taste it and it makes this great doughy, dense, texture.


But of course I have a few improvements in mind...I wish I would have remembered to top mine with apple chunks AND I wish I would have added about a 1/4 cup of walnuts to the dough. I just love the crunch of walnuts in muffins.


But overall these are the perfect muffin to make after a day of pumpkin carving and apple picking.

As always, Happy Fall! (and Monday...)