A light and perfect muffin…for snack or breakfast! I try to keep the sugar low in muffin recipes, and I thought these had the perfect sweetness level. And judging by the “mmm” that came from both boys after having a taste, I’d say these were a success!
Cinnamon Butternut Squash Muffins
Yield – 24 regular muffins or 48 mini muffins
Preparation Time – 10 minutes
Cooking Time – 13-18 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 banana, mashed
- 1 cup cooked butternut squash (see how here!)
- 4 eggs
- 1/3 cup applesauce
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 6 Tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup white flour
Optional Topping:
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
Directions
- In stand mixer or mixing bowl, mix banana, butternut squash, eggs, applesauce, sugar, and oil, until well blended.
- In separate mixing bowl, combine salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, wheat flour and white flour.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until batter forms.
- Pour into greased baking cups or muffin tins, and sprinkle with brown sugar-cinnamon topping.
- Bake at 350. Regular size muffins for 16-18 minutes. Mini muffins for 13-15 minutes.
Makes 24 regular size muffins, 48 mini muffins, or 12 regular muffins and 24 mini muffins (what I did!).
ter says
Sounds interesting, I never heard of butternut squash in a muffin before!
Honey says
Those look yummy, but we have dairy and egg allergies. Do you have any good recipes without dairy or egg?
Thanks
Honey
Emily says
@Honey,
You can always use milled flaxseed as a substitute for eggs. I have tried it and it works great. Here is a post about how to do it:
http://tinyurl.com/ycrwmyh
By the way, these muffins are a great way to use up leftover squash. Excellent!
Jane says
I’m going to give these a try! We had a bummper crop of Winter squash this year!
Jane
Kim Karstetter says
Oh my gosh! These sound delicious! I will definitely try these!
jan says
it’s been years, but I’ve made yeast dough with butternut squash in my bread machine. It made wonderful rolls for Thanksgiving dinner and nice sandwich buns.
Sandra says
Those sound good – I LOVE butternut squash – it’s just divine with a little brown sugar and butter – such a wonderfully sweet veggie! 🙂
I think I’d like to make these for sure! 🙂 Yum!
Misc Jenn says
I just made my first butternut squash the other day (thanks to the sale at Kroger!) and my kid wouldn’t eat it! I devoured about half of it but these muffins look like a fantastic way to sneak in some extra veggies. Thanks so much.
Alisa - Go Dairy Free & Frugal Foodie says
Mmm looks delish!
Treva says
These look totally yummy and I fully intend to stock up on squash just to freeze it and make these muffins!
Sue says
I’ve never cooked Butternut squash before how do you cook yours??
Ellen says
I’m sorry I just discovered your blog as you are going to be taking a motherhood break! I am so happy to have found someone who is not just trying to eat economically, but HEALTHILY too. This recipe is a perfect example – combining fiber, low sugar, and good flavor. Thank you.
Becky L. says
This would be about the only way my family will eat squash. I grew up eating squash of all sorts cuz my mom grew it in her garden and we all ate it!! Maybe I’ll try it….thanks!!!
I made a dinner tonight and my daughter took photos of it. Will share it later on my blog and link to you for when you need some recipe ideas when your baby comes. I made creamy turkey with mini ravioli. It was delicious. Will do it next week cuz I’m off to women’s retreat this weekend and work tomorrow. Take care!!!
http://grandmabeckyl.blogspot.com
Linda says
I made these this afternoon and they were out of the oven 5 minutes before my kids got home from school. Even though I had 3/4 of a baked butternut squash still sitting out, they didn’t question that I said they were “pumpkin” cinnamon muffins. I’ll fess up in a few days…..they loved them! I love how healthy they are and how little sugar they had in them. I had to stop my 9 year old after 4 mini muffins. I pureed the rest of the squash and my husband has requested butternut squash ravioli with a brown butter sage sauce. Yikes! We had that at a restaurant once years ago……….this bargain squash is going to turn into quite the project! Thanks for the great recipe!
Erika says
I made these yesterday after having butternut squash for dinner the other night and having leftovers. When I read your comment about prefering baked goods to be less sweet, it occurred to me that I like my quick breads sweet- so I upped the sugar to 1/2 a cup. I also used pear sauce instead of applesauce, because that’s what I had open. I made regular muffins, and thought they were very good, and a great way to utilize leftover squash that would otherwise baffle me and sit in the fridge until it grew fuzz. I do think that the next time I will fold in some diced apple- because I think it would be a fantastic addition.
Deborah says
This sounds great! I am making them Saturday morning for breakfast! Can’t wait for the weekend!!
Jessica says
These look awesome and I’m planning to make a batch on my baking night/date night Saturday.
I have some butternut squash in the freezer. I know this is okay to use in the muffins, but is it okay to freeze the muffins later..I’m thinking of the freeze, re-freeze of the squash or is it better to buy fresh?
Just wondering what your opinion might be….I’m always very careful with my food handling!
Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom says
@Jessica,
I have used frozen cooked squash in the muffins and then frozen the muffins with no problem.
Erin
Jessica says
@Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom,
Thanks!!!
Emily says
Last week I was searching the web for a muffin recipe to use up some leftover pumpkin puree. I ran across this recipe and decided to try it with pumpkin instead of squash. The muffins were so good that I made a double batch of them last night so that I could freeze some and bring the others to work for a birthday party. Thanks for the great addition to my recipe collection!
Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom says
@Emily,
Good to know it works with pumpkin! I’ll have to try it!
Jen says
I made these today, but I didn’t add the sugar on top. They came out perfect! 🙂
Mary says
do you think you could also use leftover acorn squash? If so, would the amounts change?
Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom says
@Mary,
I have not tried it, but I imagine it would work because if has such a similar consistency. I would use the same amount 🙂
Abby says
In the oven now…absolutely cannot wait to try them! I love fall food so much!
Brittany says
I don’t have baking powder or baking soda on hand, can I use self-rising flour instead?
Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom says
@Brittany,
Sure!
Brittany says
@Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom,
Would I omit the salt also if using self rising flour?
Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom says
@Brittany,
No. Don’t omit the salt.
Brittany says
Thanks so much! I am going to make these with my three year 🙂
Kathy B says
Well this recipe passed the taste test of the world’s pickiest 2 year old eater in the world! She loves them! I am so happy- she is eating eggs and butternut squash right now all packed into this yummy muffin. Thanks!
claire says
this recipe was sort of a kismet for me since I happened to have butternut squash, bananas and applesauce. I didn’t have whole wheat flour on hand so I mixed 1 3/4 cups white flour with 1/4 cup Wheatena cereal (dry), which added a really nice grittiness to the muffins. I also increased the sugar (I can’t remember how much? maybe doubled, shame on me), but forgot to add the sugar on top, which turned out fine since they had the extra sweetness. I did the half mini muffins as you suggested, which made it easy for me to scarf them down. I’d like to try this recipe with butter instead of oil, and honey instead of sugar (it’s just too bad the honey I want to buy is $7/lb). thanks for posting this, I really enjoyed it.
Scott says
I used the squash from the maple roasted squash recipe. The muffins came out nice and light. They are delicious!
Anissa says
First time to your blog and I these just came out of the oven. Three picky kids are eating them, withOUT the sugar topping. Yeah for squash!
And I made them even more healthy by using Coconut Oil in place of the other types of oil. Good stuff! Thanks!
Nicole says
I just made these today and they are great!!! They came out light and moist. I made regular size muffins and already ate two.
Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Sarah says
These muffins turned out great! They were fabulously light and fluffy with a delicate crumb and taste. Some of the loveliest muffins I’ve ever made. I did want to point out, though, that 1 tsp. of salt for only 2 cups of flour is way too much. If I hadn’t cut it back to 1/2 tsp. of salt, the salt would have overpowered the hint of sweetness these muffins have. You might want to correct that in the above recipe!
Katie says
Made these for the food pantry today to show different ways of using squash. They aren’t the best ever but most people enjoyed them and they definitely offered a yummy different approach to using what you’ve got, keeping it healthy, adding a little bit of yum – the topping was a good idea – it got people interested at least.
When I got home my teenage son had eaten the left overs – “they were squash muffins?!” He admitted he enjoyed them! :)!
Thanks!
Debbie VanDervoort says
I made this recipe gluten free and the muffins turned out amazing!! My son (who is gluten intolerant) ate 5 in one sitting! I made recipe as stated with the following substitutions/changes:
In place of the 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup white flour I used:
1 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
I reduced the cinnamon to 1 1/2 teaspoon (personal preference).
I added 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (personal preference).
I added 1 cup chopped walnuts.
I mixed and baked muffins according to original recipe–including the brown sugar/cinnamon topping and baked them for 15-16 min–and they turned out fabulous. Light, moist and delicious! I don’t think anyone would know any kind of substitutions were made.
Thanks for the great recipe and thanks for a way to use up all my butternut squash puree I have in my freezer from my summer garden harvest!
Debbie
Colleen says
Since this recipe makes so many I was wondering about freezing the batter and/or freezing some of the muffins. Have you tried that? If so, how did it come out? I know I can halve the recipe but I need them for two events and would love to do the work once. Thank you!