It’s Friday! 😀
That alone is reason enough to smile, especially since I spent the last two days thinking it was already Friday. I know, right? Trying to shorten the week even thought it was already a shorter week. Oi. But it’s been a little bit of a crazy one, so I guess I’m looking forward to the weekend more than I thought. But I digress.
I usually like to post recipes on Mondays to kind of help start the week off on a good note, but I promised to have a recipe for you guys by the end of the week, so we’re going to end things on a good note this time around. Besides, these are just too good to withhold for another couple of days, and maybe you can even give ’em a try if you find yourself with a little bit of downtime this weekend. So what exactly are these? These…
Spiced pumpkin muffins topped with a decadent chocolate streusel…
… and filled with a creamy chocolate fudge…
But not just any chocolate fudge – healthy chocolate fudge. I was originally going to go with a maple cream cheese filling, but I didn’t have any on hand. Then I thought about just tossing in some chocolate chips, but I feel like that’s been done to death. Finally, I decided on chocolate fudge – which may also have been done to death, but I’m doing it myyyyyyyyy way (name that song)… with dates, cocoa powder, and milk. Yup, that’s all.
And the conglomeration of these three elements? Out.of.this.world. Think a pillowy soft, warmly spiced pumpkin muffin surrounding a creamy chocolate interior. The muffin itself is moist, light, and subtly sweet – a picture of innocence just begging to have a little fun. Enter a deviant chocolate streusel topping that not only adds an extra hint of sweetness and flavour, but a slight crunch that’s a delight for the senses. You can, of course, choose to leave out the chocolate filling or streusel and still be left with a delicious muffin, but I wouldn’t recommend it…
I’d love to know if you make this (or any!) recipe! Tag @runwithspoons on Instagram and Twitter, and be sure to subscribe to our mailing list to receive more healthy and delicious recipes straight to your inbox!
Print
Chocolate Filled Pumpkin Spice Muffins
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
Ingredients
For the chocolate filling:
- 1/3 cup pitted dates
- 2 Tbsp. milk (any kind will do)
- 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
For the streusel topping:
- 2 Tbsp. flour
- 1 Tbsp. cocoa powder
- 3 Tbsp. brown sugar
- 1.5 Tbsp. butter, melted
For the muffins:
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/2 cup milk (any kind will do)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 Tbsp. butter, melted
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
Instructions
For the chocolate filling:
- Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Tip: it helps if you soak your dates beforehand to make them easier to blend.
For the streusel topping:
- Combine flour, cocoa powder, and brown sugar. Add melted butter and mix until crumbly.
For the muffins:
- Preheat oven to 350ºF and lightly oil a muffin tray, or line it with 12 paper/silicone liners.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the milk and sugar. Add the egg, butter, and vanilla. Stir in canned pumpkin and mix well until fully combined.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir gently until just combined. Do not overmix.
- With a spoon, spoon batter into muffin tins until about 1/3 way full. Add 1 tsp. chocolate filling to each tin, and cover with more muffin batter until tins are about 2/3 full. Finish by sprinkling a generous amount of streusel topping onto each tin.
- Bake muffins for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. When finished, allow to cool for about 5 minutes before removing them from the muffin tin and allowing to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
Confession… Two of these muffins didn’t survive the photoshoot. I could blame a hectic day, the fact that I was hungry and putting off dinner so that I would have enough natural light to shoot in, or the fact that I needed to free up some space in my work area because my photos were looking a little crowded, but the truth of the matter is that these muffins are just plain delicious.
As an added bonus they’re also pretty healthy. If you leave out the streusel, you’re only dealing with 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 Tbsp. of butter for the entire recipe. And the best part? You’d never be able to tell. But do yourself a favour and don’t leave it out… It’s Friday and we all deserve to have a little fun 😀
You had me at chocolate streusel.
And conglomeration, because no one EVER uses that word and it’s such a cool word!
Anyway. These look so stinkin’ good. I have a can of pumpkin sitting in my pantry and now I know what to do with it. Hopefully I’ll find the time to make these soon. Thanks for the recipe!
So, these sounded awesome last night, but now with pictures?! Want. Like immediately. I love how you used dates to make a fudge filling, that’s awesome.
Favourite kind of muffin? Morning Glory. Which basically means that I can’t decide what my favourite kind of muffin is, so I pick one that literally has everything in it – shredded carrot, nuts or seeds, raisins, apple, coconut…you basically just can’t lose. Hope your weekend is off to a fabulous start! <3
But does it have… chocolate? 😛
I have got to find a way to make these GF!!!
YUM! I bet that streusel would be good on ANYTHING ! Like oatmeal, pumpkin BREAD, etc…mmm
Absolutely snack while cooking – it is a terrible habit – not because I eat too much of anything terrible but, for example, I end up eating all the roasting vegetables while they are cooking.
I feel you on that one… at least 1/2 of my dinners don’t usually make it to my plate.
I’m ALWAYS snacking, lol, and I mean always. I think I have a problem. My favorite muffin of all time is blueberry but I also love a good zucchini bread or muffin and pumpkin of course!
Hellooooo, fabulous fall treat. Great muffins!
you can post your delicious recipes here anytime! YUM!! i am gonna try it with GF flour of course
Oooo I’m curious to know how they’d work out with GF flour! Let me know if you do end up trying them 🙂
Yum! You are popping out one delicious recipe after another recently. Go Amanda 😉 !
You are seriously killing me with your recipes. I still have to make your protein bars and now you post THESE. Killin’ me, Amanda!
I constantly taste everything I make unless it’s for other people. Then, the leftovers are for me. (Helllllooooo, beaters!)
One thing I love about these is the fact they have butter in them but it’s not a lot. For so long I tried to convince myself recipes don’t need oil or butter but they just do. They just do. Lol
Mmm, I may not be the biggest pumpkin fan, but throw in that chocolate streusel AND that chocolate fudge and I’m sold! Chocolate + pumpkin is actually quite the delicious duo. And these muffins just look so soft and fluffy. As in, I wouldn’t mind have one right now 😉
I think my favorite muffin tends to be lemon poppyseed. Or maybe a blueberry lemon zest muffin.
I stopped reading at “with dates, cocoa powder, and milk”…I cannot read this whole post – my tastebuds cannot take it…
Oh my – I think am a glutton for punishment..
read the rest…
You know that tingly, painful feeling when your tastebuds on the sides of your mouth amp up the saliva production…yup – thats what am feeling….these muffins sound amazing! the dates with chocolate filling – BRILLIANT!!! The chocolate streusal topping – good gawsh!!!!
I have had pumpking chocolate muffins before but they were never “healthy” so I was ok with having just one – I don’t think I could control myself around these though!
My all time fav muffin would be a peanut butter/chocolate combo – and I do ADORE snacking! I think it should be a job function! But I don’t do it when I cook – if I became a chef I would loose 20 lbs I bet 🙂
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
I do know that feeling, and it is indeed very painful. Only one way to make it go away 😉
Hope your Friday is going amazing so far, Shashi <3
Chocolate Chip, chocolate, pumpkin, and cinnamon are my favorite types of muffins! I’ll be adding these to my long list of things to bake, but I haven’t seen pumpkin muffins with chocolate so I’m really excited to try these. I typically do snack before dinner or any meal…I just don’t like feeling hungry!
oh wow… so perfect for this fall weather coming our way!! I can’t wait to get into the kitchen and get my bake on! Chocolate streusel topping!? Devilsh!
I always snack when I’m preparing food. I can’t help it, it’s a habit but oh well! 🙂
Oh right, thanks for pointing out that I’m actually just trying to free some space when eating some of whatever I’ve baked right when it’s finished.
As a good blend I feel your pain of needing yet more space so … simply mail me any of those little muffins leftover. I’m really being all selfless and only trying to help here, obviously ;). Oh, and I never had any pumpkin baked good before – we can’t even get canned pumpkin over here and my blender doesn’t work well enough to ensure a smooth homemade – so you’d help me expand my culinairy horizon :).
Does anybody NOT snack while preparing their meals? It’s so hard to believe. Though I know my mum hardly ever has tastes the batter of baked goods before they go into the oven simply trusting the recipe or her intuition. For me, that’d take half the fun out of baking.
Happy Friday and I hope you’re having a great weekend ahead!
The only way I can keep myself from indulging in snacking while baking is if there’s raw eggs in whatever I’m making. But even then, I’m grabbing small nibbles of chocolate chips here or little spoonfuls of brown sugar there… Gotta make sure the ingredients going in are good quality, right? 😉
Mmmm I can never get enough pumpkin! These look great!
And seriously, how can you NOT snack while cooking/baking?! It’s part of the fun! 😉
Those look delicious! I’m a chocolate muffin fan but chocolate, pumpkin!? Hello maybe new favorite!
These look incredible, Amanda! I feel like Labor Day came and BOOM -pumpkin is absolutely everywhere….but your recipe might be the first to get me to cave before October!
I try and make myself hold off until at least labour day long weekend, but longer than that is asking for too much. It’s hard not to jump on board with all the pumpkin love everywhere!
Ohmigosh thank you for inspiring me to get my lazy butt out of bed today and bake these heavenly little muffins. Yay pumpkin!! Have a great weekend !
Ok, seriously? You are pinning down my sweet tooth cravings to a T! I think you should send me any leftovers 🙂 xoxo
SO many people posting pumpkin spiced this or that! I’m in heaven! 🙂 Thank you so much for this recipe. I’m trying to limit my Starbucks PSL consumption this year but it’s just soooo tasty.
It’s hard not to get excited with all the pumpkin love going around! Plus it’s an easy (and tasty) way to keep that “glow” through the winter 😉
Uhh YES! I love anything filled with healthy, sweet stuff. And anything with streusel. Especially if there’s pumpkin involved. I’ve got these babies bookmarked! Thanks for sharing 🙂
These look awesome Amanda! I love the healthy chocolate filling. You’re so resourceful.
Pumpkin muffins are definitely up there as my favorite but I also love chocolate chip!
Wow! These look amazing! Love the chocolate, date filling in the middle!
So perfect. I want to make these now. I love chocolate and pumpkin. The first time I ever tried it I was skeptical, but then I made Chocolate Covered Katie’s chocolate pumpkin pie and it was SOOOO good. A huge hit with my fam!
Anything with filling is where it’s at! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I will never hesitate to make any of your recipes because I just made the vanilla almond protein bars and oh.my.god. Yeah basically that whole pan is gone and I made them two days ago! In fact, I’m eating one right now for breakfast with my coffee and it’s wonderful. These look amazing!
You beat me! I somehow managed to make mine last for 2.5 days but I’m honestly not sure how. Glad you liked ’em 😀
I’m not gonna lie- along with PSL, I never got on board with canned pumpkin. I know I know, what kind of HLB am I! However canned pumpkin in muffin form? I think I can handle that! Throw in chocolate in some form and I’m ALL over it….mmm I’m loving that filling! I have baking on the agenda for tomorrow morning and you’ve gotten me all excited. It might be presumptuous of me but I’m almost certain that bites here and there will be had during- someone has to take care of quality control ;)!
Hooray for everything pumpkin this month! I love pumpkin overload 🙂
As for my favorite type of muffin, I love when they have blueberries or raspberries in them.
So, do you think you could somehow magically send one, two or maybe ten over to me right now!?! 😉 They look seriously amazing! I love that they’re on the healthy side and that they’re easy to put together. Muffins happen to be a favorite thing of mine in general, but I don’t really make them all that often (not really sure why). I love blueberry, pumpkin and corn muffins the best!
Have a great weekend Amanda!
I have the same weird problem with loving things but not making them often… And then when I finally do, I’m usually kicking myself and wondering what the heck took me so long.
I literally JUST finished breakfast. It was a really good one, too–greek yogurt bowl with mangoes and Justin’s almond butter. Like, so good that it was fantastic. And then I looked at the pictures of your post and suddenly it seems so boring and unsatisfying because these muffins look and sound absolutely decadent.
…so now, until I have easy access to a kitchen (our dorm kitchen is being renovated and won’t be functional for a while), I will be on the hunt for anything that compares to these. Although that’s probably a useless hunt, considering these look out of this world.
Chocolate Streusel? Amanda, I love you. You are a beautiful genius. Omgggggg.
Want! I’m sure they’re great because your pumpkin bread was so darn good. My fav treat are the pumpkin choc chip muffins at my local health food store. Though I’m not saying the muffins are “healthy” – I am saying they’re friggin delicious.
But friggin delicious translates to healthy! It’s all about the mental health 😉
Happy Friday love! And what better than a tasty treat to start the weekend off right.
You know I’d be all over these since I love pumpkin. Definitely need to try these out, I especially love that they have a streusel topping!
Oh and I tried your protein bars yesterday! SO good!
Okay…. my beet muffins from yesterday don’t stand a chance! My kiddos are going to love these and your photos are beautiful!
You are a genius! These muffins look amazing and I would never think the chocolate center had dates in it! These are the top of my must make list. Can’t wait to try them out 🙂
Damn those muffins look out of this world delicious! I am a pumpkin addict so I better try these out!!!
I like making my oatmeal/banana/blueberry muffins!!! They are super delicious.
But, if I had to go with a regular, bakery bought muffin, it would probably be either a warmed up bran muffin or chocolate chip (topped with a good amount of butter!).
I always snack in the kitchen. Ha. #ihaveaproblem
Love the recipe!
Have a FANTASTIC Friday!
Confession: I think one of my favourite muffins may be cinnamon bran. I just don’t tell anyone because I already have enough grandma-like tendencies 😉
What a fantastic recipe! I can’t wait to try it!
Chocolate AND pumpkin…my idea of heaven.
OMG. I. WANT. THESE. NOW. and yes “these” meaning i want not just one but 2, maybe 2 1/2… i have a feeling these muffins would be one of those things i have no self control around. that date/chocolate filling sounds amazing with the pumpkin muffin! and this has to be one of my favorite descriptions for a food ever: “…a picture of innocence just begging to have a little fun. Enter a deviant chocolate streusel topping…” hahaha love it. have a great weekend girlie!
The chocolate sauce alone is worth making. I’m already trying to come up with other things I can stuff with it… besides my face 😉