These muffins are gluten-free, free of additives and refined sugars, completely nutritious, and… if I may- MEDICINAL!
By the way! If you need to stock up on He Shou Wu for this recipe use the code “muffins” and save 10% off your next order of He Shou Wu.
Also, the icing is vegan, raw, and gluten-free, so if you are any of these, this icing can be applied to any other muffin, cake, or cookie recipe that better suits your diet. It is best used in places where a “cream-cheese-esque” icing should be used. It is SOOOO delicious, really.
Whats In My Mouth: Coconut Flour Pumpkin Muffins with He Shou Wu Vanilla Bean Cashew Cream Icing topped with Curried Roasted Seeds
What’s In My Ears: Beach House (Album) Teen Dream
So, I adopted this recipe from a great food blog, Comfy Belly. However, I feel like that recipe was sweet, the texture was a little off and it needed an icing. Then it occurred to me, he shou wu and pumpkin-flavored things are probably so ridiculously tasty together!
One thing you may not have known that I feel very inclined to share, is that he shou wu is a seriously amazing adaptogen with highly medicinal qualities that lend itself to tonifying the liver and kidney, building blood, calming the nervous system, restoring sexual health, and encouraging longevity. To learn more about it, check it out here.
Anyways, this recipe is packed full of flavor, has a perfect balance of sweetness and moistness, and IS SO GOOD FOR YOUR BODY AND SOUL. This is the essence of soul food.
So maybe some of you are purists with food. “If you want a cupcake, eat a cupcake”- mentality, which I completely agree with to certain degrees. I am not one to smother all my food and treats with herbs and supplements to make me feel like everything I eat is a “superfood.” However, there are certain cosmic alignments that make insanely pertinent amounts of sense, and this is one of them. HE SHOU WU IS DESIGNED FOR DESSERT. There I said it. I am not sorry. There is something undeniably sultry, mysterious and delicious about mixing he shou wu with something vanilla, chocolate, sweet, milky, etc., that is unlike anything that ever existed. Today I found out pumpkin is among the better of them. If you haven’t tried it yet, mix a little he shou wu into your yogurt or ice cream, and you will get the gist.
Side note: If you are roasting your own, it can be ANY winter squash. You can use pumpkin, butternut, acorn, pink banana, delicata, gourd, the weird gray one that no one knows the name of- seriously. Though we love to sit a talk about the subtle differences of each winter squash (which makes for a fantastic nerd-to-table dinner talk), they ALL taste good in desserts. Pumpkin puree is fine- I found a brand locally that does organic in a pouch. For my recipe I used half puree, half roasted delicata squash. Then was able to roast those seeds for my topping.
Coconut flour has been a disputable alternative for gluten-free baking. Off the bat, I can tell you it is not the “EASIEST” gluten-free flour to work with, but if you hit it with the correct amount of supportive ingredients, its health benefits and nutritional profile are outlandishly superior to others. Coconut flour requires more egg and a little love-making. You will be surprised at how little flour and how much eggs and other liquids you are using. It really soaks up all the moisture, and in the end, has an interesting, firmer, more gelatinous texture than your typical cake or muffin batter texture. If you care about aesthetics at all, I like to give each muffin a rub down to smooth out the tops after scooping them into each cup.
Aight.
So, I am going to get on with the recipe. Seriously, I encourage you to PLAY! Use what squash you have around the house. If you don’t like maple syrup, sub raw honey. If you don’t like honey, sub applesauce and stevia. If you don’t have MCT oil or coconut oil, use ghee, if you still don’t know what I’m talking about, use butter! If you don’t want to make my icing, mix he shou wu with some other icing or yogurt and cream, and voila! There are SO many different things you can do! Make this your heart time to prepare for your body time! I am going to share my recipe and directions with you below, but if you have any questions about recipe variations, email me at info@hyperionherbs.com.
Look at these two, just waiting to be combined. By the way, raw cashews are delicious. It’s no mystery that they make an ideal cream topping (with or without the he shou wu) for anything. I’m lucky I had any left to put on the muffins. Also, the curried seeds added an incredible texture and flavor. I like a little spice and variety. (cue colloquial saying here).
Also, you can chose to beat your icing to death, or leave it with some texture. That is up to you. I liked mine mostly smooth, but with a little texture. It prevented the cream from being too liquidy, and really wasn’t intrusive because of the soaked cashews already being very soft. I think this made the experience much more pleasant for my victims, as I observed their reactions. If I don’t sound like too much of a creep yet, I do want to say that all walks of life and diet seriously enjoyed this recipe. I got the 15 year old boy, gluten free health freak, and southern-down-home-folks approvals.
Guess which one has the most jing? (Hint: it’s the one that tasted the best too)
Lastly, I want to shout out to all food blogs. This is what your counter looks like after baking in real life. I digi-five all of you who take the time to make their photos pretty and clean because this was the point I gave in and channeled Jackson Pollack for good luck making my photos look good.
And without further ado, I present thee loves with these.
INGREDIENTS
Pumpkin Muffins:
1/2 Cup Pumpkin or Squash Puree
1/2 cup Grade B Maple Syrup
1/2 cup Organic Applesauce
4 large eggs (local, pasture-raised BEST)
1 tsp Vietnamese Cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp clove
3/4 tsp ginger
1 tsp raw ground vanilla bean (or vanilla extract)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda (aluminum-free if possible)
1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons Coconut Flour
Icing:
2 cups soaked raw organic cashews (soak in water overnight)
1 TBSP Raw ground Vanilla Bean (or vanilla extract)
3-4 TBSP MCT Oil (or melted coconut oil)
3-4 TBSP Grade B Maple syrup
5-7 TBSP Coconut Milk to texture preference
3 TBSP Hyperion He Shou Wu Extract (for whole batch: can just mix in 1/2 tsp
per serving/cupcake if wanting to do it individually)
Seeds:
Rinsed seeds from squash
Raw Honey
Turmeric
Cayenne
Salt
Directions:
- Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F.
- Whip eggs well in medium bowl. Blend other wet ingredients well (puree, maple syrup, applesauce) and combine eggs with that mixture. Mix well!
- Blend all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Coconut flour is dense and clumpy, so really get in there with a fork, and sift and combine well.
- Add wet to dry. Blend well.
- Let sit for five minutes. Do the dishes you can do right now.
- Line your muffin sheets with muffin receptacles. This recipe is going to make about 9.
- Scoop about a heaping tablespoon into each cup. I would just even it out among nine liners, that made a nice size. Then, because this is such a thick mixture, I like to smooth it out with the bottom of a spoon to make it pretty.
- Bake for 33-35 minutes. Use a toothpick to ensure they’re baked through.
While these are in the oven, do the seeds next.
- Rinse off your pumpkin/squash seeds.
- Put in a bowl, and add enough honey to cover them, and turmeric, salt, and cayenne to taste. Maybe a little oil of choice.
- You can just toss these on the second shelf while your muffins are baking. they’ll be about 7-10 minutes, but check on them. I like a more rustic seed. I honestly got lost in photo taking and icing making and lost track of how long mine baked for, but I’d say it was about 7 minutes.
Keeping your mind on “I am also baking seeds,” and if you are a good multi-tasker, this is a great time to make the icing. You will need a high-powered blender, such as a vitamix, nutribullet, megatron bone-crusher or a food-processor to make this. Also, cashews should be soaked for a few hours at minimum. Overnight is ideal.
- Throw everything into the blender, with maybe 1 tablespoon of the coconut milk.
- Blend. Push down, blend. Push down. Blend. Push down.
- If you’re like, well? Add more coconut milk.
- Blend. Push down. Add more milk.
- Keep doing it until you reach your desired texture. If you are using MCT oil, what you see is what you get. If you are using coconut oil, remember, as it cools, it will harden SLIGHTLY, but try not to get overzealous and remember you are spreading this on something, not drinking it. A little chunky is okay!!!! If you haven’t added the he shou wu yet, that’s okay. Put a small amount in a side bowl, and just stir in your desired amount to give it a try :).
By this time, your kitchen is satirically unruly and there’s a whimsical coating of UFOs somehow on your light fixture, but the cupcakes have cooled enough for you to transfer them onto a cooling rack (your hands) and you can get right to donning the muffin scalps with your very own homemade heavenly he shou wu cashew cream. Don’t forget the curry seeds or chocolate chips are delish, as well.
I was really going to go into the medicinal properties of these, between the pumpkin/winter squash (probably the most nutritious, jing-ful fruit ever), turmeric and cayenne, coconut flour, grade B maple syrup, MCT oil, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger, and HE SHOU WU- literally EVERY single ingredient in these brings an abundance of health and vibrance- and I’m telling you, they’re stunning. I wouldn’t really put this much energy into sharing something with you all if they weren’t. I think I will make another article explaining the benefits and tastiness of using alternative flours, but I’d rather just you get to making these as soon as possible.
This is just a sneaky peak at many medicinal recipes to come on Hyperion Academy, as we are introducing a new series this Autumn on medicinal meals.