Recipe | Mini Pumpkin Spice Muffins for Baby-Led Weaning & Toddlers (Lactose-free, No Added Sugar)
Searching for a way to include your baby or toddler this pumpkin spice season? Look no further― here’s the best pumpkin mini muffins recipe (perfect for baby-led weaning and little hands)!
Seasonal food can be a fun, meaningful, and sensory experience for little ones. Offering your baby foods that are in season is a great way to help them connect with the changing weather as they grow, and what’s more quintessentially fall than pumpkin spice? This pumpkin spice mini muffins recipe checks all the nutritional boxes by being full of flavor and nutrient-rich ingredients― without needing sugar to sweeten the deal.
Read on for the pumpkin mini muffins recipe, along with tips for serving them to your baby and toddler in an age-appropriate way.
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Mini Muffins for Your Mini Me
When we started baby-led weaning with our baby, I wanted to create a mini muffin for him to enjoy in the fall right along with mom. My favorites from previous years included chocolate chips (tasty, but messy) and had a little too much added sugar for my little one, so it was back to the drawing board. This recipe took a little while to develop, but after some tweaking, they turned out perfect! My toddler asks for “pun-kin muppins” all the time now, and we make them year-round for breakfast and snacks.
Remember, since these muffins have no sugars other than those naturally occurring in the pumpkin puree and lactose-free milk, they may not taste “sweet enough” to you. The wheat taste is predominant, while the pumpkin and spice flavors are more subtle. However, babies and toddlers don’t quite have the same refined palate that adults do, and haven’t necessarily developed the same preference for sweet foods―my toddler LOVES these even though they aren’t sweet enough for me to want to eat. In other words, even if these muffins don’t taste good to you, it’s still worth letting your baby try them to see if they like them.
If your baby or toddler seems to be rejecting these based on their lack of sweetness, you could try adding 2 tablespoons of maple syrup to the recipe, or cutting the muffins into little strips or pieces that your toddler can dip into another food like yogurt, mashed fruit, or a creamy nut butter.
How to Safely Serve Muffins to Your Baby or Toddler
A Note on Food Allergies
As a mom of a child with food allergies, I always like to mention that you will want to double check the ingredients list for allergens. Between the sleep deprivation of the baby stage and the distractions of the toddler stage, be sure to read those labels and ingredients a few times just to be on the safe side!
From one allergy mama to another, I know it often feels like a lot to agonize over each food your little one eats, but you’re doing a great job advocating for your child and keeping him safe. It’s always a good idea to keep your Epi-pen or other emergency medicine close the first time your child tries a new food. I would recommend doing that for these muffins if it’s your first time trying them, until they (hopefully) become a staple in your house.
How to Properly Serve Muffins Based on Age
Raising and feeding babies can be so confusing. Even as a nutrition expert, I remember googling “how to serve [insert food here] so my baby doesn’t choke” at least once a day. I’m so grateful resources have come a long way in the last few decades so we now have advice we can trust right at our fingertips!
This Instagram post from Rachael Tucker has a great visual for what serving muffins should look like for babies age 6-9 months, and then 9 months and older. If you’re just starting out baby-led weaning (BLW) with younger babies, I would recommend cooking these muffins in a regular size muffin tin instead of the mini muffin tin, so you can cut the muffins into larger strips more easily.
Baby-Led Weaning Resources
Looking for more baby-led weaning resources? These links are not sponsored in any way―they are just resources we loved, used, and relied on ourselves during our BLW journey.
Recipe
Pumpkin Mini Muffins for Baby Led Weaning & Toddlers
Lactose-free | No Sugar Added
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 24 mini muffins
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
½ cup pumpkin puree (canned, 100% pumpkin, unsweetened)
¼ cup lactose-free milk
⅛ cup vegetable oil
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
Dry Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp allspice
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350℉ and line a mini muffin tin.
Whisk wet ingredients together in a large bowl until evenly combined.
Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients until there are no clumps.
Use a ½ tablespoon measure to fill prepared mini muffin tins.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the muffins pass the toothpick test (until you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean, or with only a few crumbs).
Enjoy!
Notes
These muffins are freezer-friendly for about 3-6 months in the freezer. Defrost in the fridge for about 24 hours before you intend to eat them. They tend to be a bit more crumbly than when fresh baked, but you will most likely be cutting them into smaller pieces for your little ones anyway! Keep in mind that pumpkin may stain a bit and make clothes turn orange, so you may want to strip your baby/toddler down when they eat these muffins if they are a messy eater.
Shop Equipment & More
If you’re looking for great dishware for baby-led weaning, Ezpz is our go-to! We’ve tried tons of other brands and they just don’t stack up. Ezpz has baby- and toddlerware that is truly high-quality and so easy to use on-the-go. We love that the products are dishwasher safe and designed intentionally by experts for proper oral and feeding development. What’s not to love?
Shop more of my favorite brands by clicking here.
Have you (or your baby) taste-tested this recipe?
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