Maple Pumpkin Muffins with Oats and a sliced Almond topping

I've been trying to make different things for the the DH to take for breakfast this new year. My first recipe to that end this year is from the wonderful blog Cookie and Kate (love her photography).

Maple-Sweetened Pumpkin Muffins with Oats from Cookie & Kate

http://cookieandkate.com/2014/healthy-maple-pumpkin-muffins/

INGREDIENTS

• ⅓ cup melted coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil
• ½ cup maple syrup or honey
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup pumpkin purée
• ¼ cup milk of choice 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling on top
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon allspice or cloves
• 1¾ cups whole wheat pastry flour or regular whole wheat flour
• ⅓ cup old-fashioned oats, plus more for sprinkling on top

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (165 degrees Celsius). If necessary, grease ten cups of your muffin tin with butter or non-stick cooking spray (my pan is non-stick and didn’t require any grease).
2. In a large bowl, beat the oil and maple syrup or honey together with a whisk. Add eggs, and beat well. Mix in the pumpkin purée and milk, followed by the baking soda, vanilla extract, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice or cloves.
3. Add the flour and oats to the bowl and mix with a large spoon, just until combined. If you’d like to add any additional mix-ins, like nuts, chocolate or dried fruit, fold them in now.
4. Divide the batter evenly between the ten muffin cups. For these muffins, it’s ok to fill the cups a little higher than you normally would. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with a small amount of oats, followed by a sprinkle of cinnamon. Bake muffins for 23 to 26 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack. These muffins are delicate until they cool down (you have been warned!), so it’s best to wait until they have cooled down to remove them from the tin. You might need to run a butter knife along the outer edge of the muffins to loosen them from the pan. Enjoy muffins as is or with a spread of nut butter or regular butter.

MY NOTES:
1. I used olive oil, regular milk, and a combination of whole wheat flour and white flour (3/4 cup and 1 cup, respectively). Of course I put way more of the spices in there than the recipe called for.

2. I opted to hold the oat topping, and instead mixed sliced almonds, sugar, and a bit of salt together and spooned that on top of the muffins before baking.

3. They came to about 11ish small muffins. Pretty moist as far as whole wheat-y muffins go, but definitely would go down better with coffee or milk.

4. I froze half of them for about a week, and they were fine on the defrost.