Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins are healthy enough for breakfast, but tasty enough for a snack!

I love the fall, and all things pumpkin! I know some people prefer apple, but for me pumpkin is the taste of fall. My family loves Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, but the kids were asking for muffins and I was wanting pumpkin, so I merged the two into Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.

We love to take the kids to a local farm and let them pick their own pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. It’s such fun to let them hunt for the “perfect” pumpkin, and to see their excited faces. Plus, it makes for some really cute fall pictures!

Up until this last year, I just let the kids color on the pumpkins with markers or paint them, since they weren’t old enough to carve the pumpkins. The upside of not carving them was that I was able to let the kids put them out for a week, but then I baked the pumpkins and put the puree in the freezer. The only thing to note is that carving pumpkins have a much lighter flesh than pie pumpkins, and it’s also not as flavorful (which might be good if you’re trying to sneak pumpkin into their meals!).

These Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies were made with canned pumpkin, since I wanted that darker pumpkin color for the pictures. But if you have family members who don’t like pumpkin, you should try pureeing your own pumpkin, and don’t even mention it has pumpkin in it!

Yield: 24

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Name: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 24
Ingredients: 15 oz canned Pumpkin; 4 eggs; 1 1/2 cups sugar; 2/3 cups oil; 3 tsp vanilla; 3 cups flour; 1 tsp cinnamon; 1 tsp salt; 2 tsp baking soda; 1 cup chocolate chips

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

15 oz canned Pumpkin
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cups oil
3 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350º.
Grease muffin tin, or use liners.
In a medium bowl, mix together pumpkin, eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, salt and soda.
Make a well in the flour mixture.
Dump the entire contents of the pumpkin mixture into the prepared well, and stir well until fully mixed.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Fill muffin cups approximately 2/3 full (approximately 2 dozen muffins).
Bake 20-25 minutes, until tops are golden, and a toothpick inserted in the middle muffins comes out clean.