if you love three ingredient recipes, you have to check out our Three Ingredient M&M Fudge.
what cake mix works best for this recipe?
For this recipe we used Devil’s Food cake mix. However, any chocolate cake mix would work perfectly. If you want something that will make these muffins a little more pumpkin flavored, we recommend using a spice cake mix.
They will taste a lot more pumpkin-ish, and still work just as well as the chocolate. I am a total chocoholic so I prefer the chocolate cake mix, but it’s up to you.
We love a pumpkin recipe, with Libby’s Pumpkin puree, made from scratch, but we also love a good shortcut and cake mix makes this recipe simple and quick. As a busy mom, I am all about simple and quick these days.
what makes it a muffin and not a cupcake?
Technically, these muffins are made with a cake mix, so they could be considered a cupcake. However, these are so rich and flavorful that they don’t need frosting on top.
You could always top them with frosting but they are so rich that one bite in, you would be done with it. The fat and calories per muffin is not terrible either. Cupcakes have a lot more butter and oil to them, but we used applesauce in these to cut down the fat.
You could use oil in place of the applesauce, but the applesauce gives it a sweet flavor that we think you will love.
Either way you look at it, it’s delicious. And we also call it a muffin because you can get away as eating it as a snack or breakfast and not a dessert. But really, we will keep the truth between us. It sort of is a dessert.
If you are looking for a delicious cupcake recipe, I recommend our Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes. The frosting on those cupcakes is the best part.
Did you know we have a YouTube Channel?
Watch how to make three other three ingredient pumpkin recipes here:
what ingredients are needed to make this recipe?
So what are the three magical ingredients that make up this recipe? Here they are:
- 1 box Devil’s Food cake mix
- 1 can (15 oz) unsweetened pumpkin puree
- 1/3 cup applesauce
- M&M’s
- Milk or Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
- Slivered Almonds
- Reeses Pieces
- White Chocolate Chips
- Chopped Peanuts
do I have to use muffin liners?
For this recipe, you do not have to use muffin liners. You could just spray the muffin tin with non stick cooking spray. However, I do recommend using muffin liners. I think they are cute and festive, and you know they will always work and never stick.
If you do use a non stick cooking spray. We recommend using a baking spray with flour contents in the spray. This spray works great for all desserts, especially muffins, cupcakes, cakes, and brownies.
protip: Spray the muffin liners with nonstick cooking spray to ensure the muffins come out from the liners with ease.
How could i make this recipe into bars instead of muffins?
For this recipe, we personally recommend making these into muffins, rather than bars. They aren’t the most smooth dessert on top. They are dense and thick, so if they are made into bars, they may look a little funny.
However, if you do make them into bars, here is what we recommend:
- Use a 9×13 inch baking pan and spraying it with nonstick cooking spray.
- Spread the batter out into the pan evenly.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Bake the bars for about 25-30 minutes.
- Check them for doneness by placing a toothpick in the middle of the bars, and if it comes out clean, the bars are done. If it comes out with batter, it may need another minute or two, to finish baking through.
- Again, these are best as muffins. This is a thick batter so they take a while to cook through when made into bars. For best results, make these into muffins.
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what could i replace the pumpkin with?
If you are not a pumpkin fan, don’t even stress. You can’t even taste the pumpkin in this recipe. They just taste like dense chocolate muffins that are very rich.
If you don’t have any pumpkin on hand, you can also use mashed zucchini or bananas. You will just need to blend them up until they reach a smooth constancy and you have about two cups of the mixture.
does pumpkin pie filling replace pumpkin puree?
For this recipe, we tried to keep the pumpkin flavor to a minimum and just use pumpkin puree. However, if you are a pumpkin lover (like myself) you could use pumpkin pie filling.
Not all recipes can replace pumpkin pure straight across with pumpkin pie filling, but this is one recipe where that would work.
I have personally never tried it, but the consistency of the two are similar enough for this recipe that it wouldn’t cause any problems.
a dessert you can make in less than five minutes:
They take a little longer than five minutes to bake, but you can defiantly toss these bad boys together in about three minutes. Here is how to make them:
Add your three ingredients to the bowl.
Stir well. I used a wooden spoon, but you could also use a standing mixer or a hand mixer.
Throw in any other additions. I did chocolate chips, but this is totally optional.
Place small scoops of the batter into the muffin liners.
Bake and enjoy!
check out these other delicious pumpkin recipes:
- Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispies
- Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies
- White Chocolate Cheesecake Pumpkin Cookies
- Pumpkin Sheet Cake
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
10 minPrep Time
14 minCook Time
24 minTotal Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 box Devil's Food cake mix
- 1 can (15 ounce) unsweetened pumpkin puree
- 1/3 cup applesauce
- Optional: 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used mini-chocolate chips in the picture)
Instructions
- *DO NOT follow the instructions or use the ingredients on the back of the cake mix box.
- Add the cake mix, pumpkin puree, and applesauce to a large bowl. Mix well either by hand or with a hand mixer. When thoroughly blended, fold in chocolate chips (if using). The batter will be pretty dense.
- Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners and lightly spray each liner with non-stick cooking spray. Spoon batter into each liner until it is about 3/4 of the way full (I was able to get about 12-14 muffins). The shape of each muffin will be a little irregular because of the density of the batter.
- Bake according to the directions on the back of the cake mix box (I baked mine at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes). Stick a toothpick in the middle of muffin to make sure the middles are done.
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think i might add butterscotch chips instead of the choc chips though....
I have not tried chocolate but definately will, very soon!