You may have noticed on the blog that pumpkin has been playing such a strong role in all my recipes lately and who can blame me? We are in the midst of prime pumpkin picking season, meaning we have a lot of extra pumpkin puree on our hands after all the carving we have been doing. With it being half term as well, and having both kids at home, I needed to create some healthy weaning muffins, that the four year old could help me with in the kitchen and thus these baby led weaning pumpkin muffins were born!
These yummy, scrummy pumpkin muffins for babies and kids are simple to create – your toddler can do most of the legwork and best of all, they taste great. Your kids won’t be able to get enough of them. They are super moist for weaning babies and can be batch made and stored for up to five days!
Pumpkin for babies
Why offer pumpkin to your baby? You may have enjoyed the delights of pumpkin over the last few years at your local coffee shop, since pumpkin spice lattes became all the rage. But, what are the benefits of offering pumpkin to your baby?
Technically a fruit, pumpkins are planted between May and July and are ready to harvest in October – hence why they are very much associated with Halloween and harvest.
The health benefits of pumpkins are plentiful:
- Rich in antioxidants which enhances the immune system – very much needed during the cold autumn and winter months!
- Contains calcium and magnesium which help build strong teeth and bones
- Rich in phosphorus which is great for digestion and brain health
- Pumpkins contain tryptophan that helps the body produce serotonin. This amino acid helps induce calmness and drowsiness which could help your baby sleep better! (A huge reason to feed pumpkin errrryday!)
When can babies eat pumpkin?
Babies can eat pumpkin from six months onwards as part of their baby led or traditional weaning journey. As with all food you offer for the first time, you should keep a close eye on your baby to ensure they don’t develop signs of an allergy.
A pumpkin allergy is rare, but be aware of signs such as a rash, gas, swollen eyes or itchiness.
How do you make pumpkin puree?
This baby led weaning pumpkin muffin recipe uses pumpkin puree to create deliciously moist muffins. But, how do you make pumpkin puree?
Pumpkin can be used in a multitude of baby led weaning recipes and creating the puree is so simple.
One pumpkin yielded enough pumpkin puree to create every single pumpkin based baby recipe on my blog, I created muffins, soup, gnocchi, pasta sauce, pancakes, waffles and cheesy star crackers. talk about value for money!
Read the full post on creating pumpkin puree here.
More Pumpkin Recipes for Babies
Are these pumpkin muffins suitable for babies?
Absolutely! This recipe doesn’t use any sugar, honey or whole nuts so these pumpkin muffins are absolutely suitable for babies!
I have always been a strong advocate of introducing your baby to as many herbs and spices as possible, but you may find that the added ginger and cinnamon are too strong tasting for your baby – especially if they have only just started weaning. You can of course remove these spices and the pumpkin muffins will still taste delicious!
For Mum and Dad, the pumpkin muffins may taste a little bland. You can always whizz up an extra batch of batter and add a cup of light brown sugar to sweeten yours up!
What did Felix and Dexter think of these baby led weaning pumpkin muffins?
These pumpkin muffins for babies went down an absolute treat – both for the baby and for Dexter!
Dexter is a huge fan of getting in the kitchen and helping to bake and he loved pouring the flour, cracking the eggs and mixing the batter. Even more, he loved eating his own creations!
The baby has always been a big fan of muffins. One of the first foods he managed to eat and swallow were my famous raspberry baby weaning muffins.
How long will these pumpkin muffins for babies keep for?
You can store these baby led weaning pumpkin muffins in an airtight container for up to five days. I doubt you will need to keep than any longer than that as our batch was eaten within the first day of them being cooked!
More baby led weaning muffin recipes
Hello
What oil did you use in this recipe??
@Rebecca, I used olive oil.
Made these! Didn’t have self-rising powder, so used 2 cups regular, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda.
Felt the muffin mix were too solid, so added 1/2 cup water.
Used mini muffin tins, which made 35 muffins. Cooked for 12-13 minutes one tray at a time.
Result was a little bit too much like a biscuit personally (and tasted like it; as it obviously is not sweet, but the baking soda/powder was likely the more dominate taste). Baby liked it though! Served it with water.
Can you freeze these muffins? TIA
This recipe made the mix too solid in my opinion, added probably 1/4c water and made mini muffins.
What vanilla was used? Extract has alcohol – does this cook off?
You can use vanilla flavouring which does not contain alcohol, or if using extract, a few drops will not harm baby as the alcohol will be cooked off.
What other flours could I sub if I don’t have self rising? Could you use oat flour for this?