Earlier I posted about our delicious tempeh black bean chili. When I think chili, I think cornbread.

We were invited to dinner with some of Heather’s colleagues on Friday night and it turns out that they were also serving chili. A few of the guests were vegan, so I offered to bring some vegan cornbread. Inspired by the season, I went in search of a recipe that included some pumpkin. Here’s what I found, courtesy of Jaclyn Hope.

Vegan Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups cornmeal
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I actually used apple pie spice instead; it’s pretty much the same thing, right?)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup almond milk
• 5/8 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1 Tbsp canola oil

Process:

• Preheat oven to 400F
• In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients together
• In another bowl, mix all wet ingredients together
• Add wet ingredients to dry, mixing until just combined
• Let sit for five minutes
• Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray
• Fill each muffin until level
• Bake for 12-14 minutes

This made 12 muffins with a bit of batter left over, so I made a mini-loaf. It’s pretty hard to tell when these are done, since they are already a nice golden color. So be sure to do the toothpick test and then to check the bottoms to see if they are browned.

They turned out pretty nicely, but honestly weren’t anything too special. The pumpkin is very subtle (perhaps more subtle than I would have liked), so it’s definitely still got that gritty cornmeal taste. Nothing wrong with that, but I was hoping for something a bit more spectacular. All you vegans out there – do you have a better recipe? I’d be willing to try again. : ) How about everyone else – favorite cornbread recipe? Spill it!

Enjoy!

*Featured image is of a letterpress card by the hilarious Sapling Press.