Give carrot juice a chance! It’s brilliant orange, sweet, and full of good-for-you Vitamin A and beta-carotene. I’m using carrot juice as a substitute for water in my Orangey Pumpkin Muffin recipe to give it a brighter orange color naturally. Pin it to your Halloween, Pumpkin or Snacks or Desserts board!
Now I made this recipe gluten-free because I’m in love with the King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free Muffin Mix. But you can certainly try this with any 16 oz. vanilla muffin or cake mix. Because of the extra moisture from the canned pumpkin (it replaces the oil) you’ll need to bake it a little bit longer than usual to avoid a mushy middle. I like using parchment baking cups for my muffins, but you can certainly use any baking cups or simply grease the muffin pan well.
The result is a muffin that tastes like pumpkin pie! My kids are gobbling them up morning, noon and night. I can not call my kids “Pumpkin Muffin” when there are actual edible Pumpkin Muffins in the house – because they think I’m offering them something to eat!
- King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free Muffin Mix (or any 16 oz. vanilla muffin or cake mix)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup carrot juice
- ½ cup canned pumpkin
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ginger
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp cloves
- turbinado sugar (optional for a crunchy sweet muffin top)
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place a rack in the middle.
- Line two muffin pans with parchment baking cups (or other baking cups) or grease well. This recipe made 16 muffins for me, but it may make less for you depending on how much better you add to each muffin.
- Beat together wet ingredients (eggs, carrot juice, canned pumpkin) with an electric mixer.
- Gradually add the dry ingredients (muffin mix, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves).
- Spoon batter into muffin pan filling each cup about half-way full.
- Sprinkle your muffins with turbinado sugar before baking if you'd like a crunchy sweet muffin top (optional).
- Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Use a toothpick to ensure the muffins are baked in the center.
- Remove muffins from oven when done. Cool & serve.
I hope you liked this recipe and please check out my other recipes too!
Thanks again for this great recipe. My daughter made these over the weekend and she was so proud of herself for baking something so yummy.
You are so welcome! I’m glad she got to make them!
Oh yes – orange zest would be a great addition! Yes, I need to try applesauce in those Date Muffins. Now I’m hungry!
Wow thank you for this recipe. I am gluten sensitive and actually just bought King Arthur gluten free muffin mix this week for the first time to try out. I was thinking of adding a chopped up apple and some cinnamon/nutmeg to the mix, but this sounds good too! Thank you!
You’re welcome – I hope you love it! Our other favorite King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free Muffins have chopped dates in them – it’s so yummy! I need to try a version replacing the water and the oil for something a little healthier (I can smell a new recipe brewing!).
Heather, sometimes I use applesauce in place of oil when I make my banana cake/bread. It comes out really tasty and moist and my family loves it just as much as the original version that includes the oil.
These pumpkin muffins are wonderful! There is so much you can do to change it up a bit each time as well. I think adding some orange zest combined with the sugar topping would add a nice little zing to them. Thanks again for a recipe that is a HUGE hit!!
What better way to get in the mood for fall time?!? Smelling these bake is going to be awesome! This recipe sound delicious and I can’t wait to give them a try. Since my husband has a sweet tooth, I’m thinking about making a low fat version of cream cheese frosting to put on a few of them and see how that comes out.
Kathy –
Happy baking! These would definitely be good with cream cheese frosting. I tend to leave the frosting off so my kids don’t know it’s an option (tricky, I know!).
Heather, some may call it tricky, I’d call it genius!! LOL! If they are gobbling them up without the frosting then there’s absolutely no reason to add any. I did the same thing when it came to cooking for the kids. Hubby on the other hand is a different story. Although I really think he would probably enjoy these without frosting since he loves anything with pumpkin. Thanks for a great recipe.
You are so right!
Kids = trainable
Hubby = not so trainable