I decided to leave the roomie a “wrong season muffin” on the counter so she would have a pre/post run snack at 5:00AM the following morning. (The woman is training for a marathon… the least I can do is spare her a muffin!) When I got to work that day, she IMed me via our work messenger and said, “I love wrong season muffins!”

My response to that was: “I’m glad to hear it! What makes this even better is that they’re vegan!”

I know what you’re thinking: Cool story, bruh! So what’s the moral of that story? The moral of the story is: wrong season muffins are awesome. It’s July, and the heat and humidity are pretty gross here in Missouri. But I don’t care. I have had a fierce pumpkin craving for awhile now. These vegan muffins had been enticing me for quite sometime. So I finally gave in, and man I’m glad I did. You’d never know these muffins are vegan. They’re the perfect muffin-y texture and the pumpkin flavor shines through just right. I imagine the cinnamon comes through nicely too, but I added too many chocolate chips, so the chocolate sorta overshadowed the cinnamon. [Although a coworker said that you can never have too many chocolate chips, and I’m inclined to agree.]

{Vegan} Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.
Yield: About 10-12 regular-sized muffins.

Ingredients:
– 1 flax egg [One flax egg = 1 TBSP. flax seed meal + 3 TBSP. of water. Stir and let sit for about five minutes before using. It’ll get gelatinous like egg whites; that’s the binding ingredient!] 
– 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
– 1 cup almond milk + 1 TBSP. lemon juice [or white distilled vinegar, or just sub buttermilk if you’re not vegan]
– 1/2 cup brown sugar
– 2 TBSP. vegetable or canola oil [I think I used light olive oil in this case… Doesn’t really matter too much. Coconut oil would work as well.]
– 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
– 1 tsp. baking powder
– 1/2 tsp. baking soda
– 1/4 tsp. salt
– 1 tsp. cinnamon
– 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
– 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
– 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips [I used mini semisweet chocolate chips. You can use nondairy chocolate chips for vegans.]

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with 10-12 paper liners, and set aside.
2. If you haven’t already, prepare the flax egg by mixing the flax seed meal with three tablespoons of water in a large bowl. Allow it to rest for five minutes to become gelatinous.
3. Add the pumpkin puree, almond milk [with the lemon juice or vinegar, it’ll get curdled; it’s a great vegan buttermilk substitute!], brown sugar, oil, and vanilla extract to the flax egg when it’s ready. Stir the ingredients together until just combined.
4. Next, add the salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Whisk to combine.
5. Carefully place both flours into a sifter, and sift them over the wet ingredients. Stir until just combined.
6. Add the chocolate chips, and stir again until it’s just incorporated. Be careful to not over-stir. {Note: If the batter is overly thick, feel free to add a splash of almond milk or orange juice. I had no issues with the thickness of the batter, though.}
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin until each liner is filled nearly all the way [about 7/8ths full]. Sprinkle several more chocolate chips on top for presentation, or if you really love extra chocolate [or both, if you’re me!].
8. Bake for about 22-28 minutes or until fluffy, slightly golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. {Note: I only had to bake for 22 minutes. Any longer than that would’ve been too much in my oven. Just keep an eye on them, but don’t open the oven door too much.}
9. Let the muffins rest in the pan for abut five minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!