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Healthy Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins made low calorie, gluten free and vegan with less sugar. Pumpkin makes this healthy cornbread recipe lighter, more nutritious and flavorful!
I love cornbread! It's one of my favorite holiday foods I look forward to eating every season. This oldie, but goodie healthy cornbread recipe is one I've been making for years. It's not only gluten free, but also made lower in calorie and dairy free too.
The muffins make it portioned perfectly for serving one person or a crowd, but you can make it as a bread if you prefer too like I did with this Almond Flour Cornbread recipe. Both recipes are really delicious!
Healthy Pumpkin Cornbread
This healthy cornbread recipe is made with pumpkin, which is an amazing ingredient to substitute oil and sugar in recipes. Pumpkin is one of my favorites because the flavor is mild making it unnoticeable and it has so many nutrients.
Often, recipes that are low calorie are made lower calorie by replacing ingredients with lower calorie ingredients. Not this one! Here's a few more reasons why I love this recipe.
- Low Calorie - 205 calories per muffin. This is considered low calorie and as I mentioned above, the nutrients that make up the calories is always more important than the number itself.
- Gluten Free - All ingredients are gluten free, you don't have to use gluten free ingredients though.
- Dairy Free - All ingredients are dairy free.
- High Protein - 5 grams of protein is great for a baked good!
- High Fiber - 4 grams of fiber per muffin. I talk about the importance of fiber in this free class.
- High Healthy Fat - Total fat is 8 grams, but only 1 gram is from saturated (less ideal fat) and the remaining is from healthy fat.
- Vegan / Vegetarian - This healthy cornbread recipe is friendly to vegans and vegetarians.
Ingredients For Healthy Cornbread with Pumpkin
Here's what you need to make these deliciously healthy cornbread muffins! You will need a muffin pan and either a food processor or blender too.
- Pumpkin Puree, canned
- Almond Milk, unsweetened
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Maple Syrup
- Cinnamon
- Baking Soda
- Cornmeal
- Almond Flour
- GF Oat Flour
- Coconut Sugar
- Salt
How To Make Gluten Free Cornbread Muffins with Pumpkin
Start by lining a muffin pan with muffin liners. I find muffins liners make it easier for storing the muffins after baking and removing them from the tin after baking.
Prepare the batter by using a food processor or blender. Add the pumpkin, almond milk, apple cider vinegar, oat flour, sugar, maple syrup and cinnamon and blend until smooth. Next fold in the baking soda, cornmeal, almond flour and salt and combine by hand.
Place the mixture in the refrigerator for 1 hour to thicken. Do not skip this step! This is what makes the muffins thick, delicious and really good.
After transfer the batter to the muffin cavities by dividing it evenly amongst each cavity. Bake in the oven until golden brown. I do recommend removing from the oven and letting the cornbread muffins cool in the pan a few minutes before eating.
The cornbread muffins should be stored in the refrigerator in a container. They will last 5 days. You can also freeze the pumpkin cornbread muffins up to 60 days.
Substitutions For Low Calorie Cornbread Muffins
Here's the substitutions you can make for these muffins. Please remember that when you substitute or change a recipe, it does change the nutrition data you see in the recipe below. I also cannot guarantee results when you alter the recipe.
- Pumpkin - Butternut squash, acorn squash or sweet potato puree can be used instead. You can often buy these already pureed in a can.
- Maple Syrup - You can use honey instead or substitute a low calorie maple flavoring. I like the monkfruit ones.
- Coconut Sugar - I recommend using coconut sugar as it is slightly lower on the glycemic index, meaning it has a slightly better impact on blood sugar. You could substitute regular sugar if you wanted to.
- Gluten Free Oat Flour - You can use regular oat flour if gluten is not a concern for you, regular gluten free baking flour would work too. I never bake with white or wheat flours so I can't say how that would work.
- Almond Milk - Any milk may be used.
- Almond Flour - This cannot be substituted.
- Cornmeal - Semolina is the best non-corn based substitute that you can use instead of cornmeal.
Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins
Equipment
- Muffin Tin
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 cup almond milk unsweetened
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/3 cup Gluten Free oat flour
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven 350 F. Prepare a muffin tin with cooking spray or liners (or baking dish if making this as bread).
- In a food processor, combine the pumpkin, almond milk, apple cider vinegar, oat flour, sugar, maple syrup and cinnamon until smooth.
- Next fold in by hand the baking soda, cornmeal, almond flour and salt to combine.
- Let the batter sit 1 hour in the refrigerator to allow the batter to thicken, the cornmeal will absorb all the ingredients to make fluffier and thicker muffins (trust me!).
- Pour the batter into the cavities, dividing it evenly among each cavity. Bake 30 minutes until the muffins appear golden brown and a toothpick can be inserted cleanly in the center. If making the bread version, you will need to bake longer 50-55 minutes for the bread version.
- Remove the muffins from the oven then let them cool in the tin 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
- My Amazon shop has more products similar to those used for this recipe and that I recommend to my weight loss clients.
Nutrition
In one place you say one muffin is 142 calories. In another, you say 2 muffins are the same number of calories. Which is it? Also, you mention a bread version, but there are no directions – time, temperature?
Hi Judith, I'm not sure where you saw the 2 muffins with the same number of calories? I do not see this anywhere. I did just re-calculate the calories as this was an old recipe that was converted and the calorie info in the recipe card is now accurate. As for the bread, you would simply double the baking time. That's general rule of thumb when converting any muffins to bread. I updated the recipe though for others that are not familiar with baking so thanks for pointing that out.
Megan~
I am eager to bake these wonderful looking muffins.
What do you think of using this recipe for waffles?
Are there any modifications you might suggest?
Thank you!
Lester
Oh you will love the muffins! Everyone does. I'm not sure about waffles. I'm guessing it should work. It is a thicker batter so you may need less to make a waffle. If you try it, please report back and let me know. I'll update the recipe card for others!
Reference to "oats" and "honey" in step is confusing. I interpreted as "oat flour" and probably "maple syrup"??
Anyway, navigating they that I persevered and will admit these are OUTSTANDING. In some ways more like pumpkin bread vs. cornbread. I love them. Thanks.
Hello, any way to replace almond flour? In allergic to tree nuts!
Oat flour, whole wheat flour or potato flour I would try.
As someone who's never had pumpkin before I was hesitant to try these but because I am the only vegetarian in my family I was looking up some recipes I could make for thanksgiving. I came across your pumpkin cornbread muffins from a huffington post on vegan thanksgiving recipes and I can honestly say making them was the best decision!! I couldn't even taste the pumpkin and they turned out fantastic! Can't wait to share these with the rest of my non-vegeterian/vegan family and see the response!! Thanks for the recipe Megan!!
I'm so happy you loved them Lilly! I'm not a big fan of pumpkin on it's own so finding ways to incorporate without tasting is something I like to do. Thank you for taking the time to let me know!