High Protein Pumpkin Spice Seitan

This High Protein Pumpkin Spice Seitan tastes exactly how Fall feels and it is my new favorite recipe ever! I’ve been trying to make dessert seitan popular for awhile now, because vital wheat gluten is a super cheap ingredient and incredibly high in protein. And if you use it properly, you can end up with really great high protein desserts that don’t have an off-putting gritty texture and taste like you might find with recipes that use protein powder.

The trick for making this pumpkin spice seitan is to not over-mix or over-work your dough/batter because this can result in a tough and overly chewy texture. If you do this right, it comes out very similar to a moist pumpkin bread! If I’ve caught your interest with the dessert seitan idea, you should also check out my cinnamon sugar “donut holes” and chocolate seitan! And if you have any requests/ideas for other dessert seitans, send them my way! 🙂

Ingredients

• Vital Wheat Gluten – where there is seitan, there is vital wheat gluten (or I guess flour if you’re doing the wash method). For this recipe, we will be using vital wheat gluten. Most brands are pretty comparable and the ones I use most are Anthony’s and Bob’s Red Mill. You can find it at most grocery stores near the gluten-free flour options (Idk if this is actually ironic or just Alanis ironic). I love this ingredient because it’s very cheap and shelf stable so you can buy larger bulk bags, which lowers the price per unit even more!
  • Side note – it is incredibly important to weigh this ingredient out because it’s very dense so using measuring cups will not result in an accurate measurement, and you’ll end up with the wrong texture and your calories/macros will likely also be off from what is listed in the recipe card above.
• Pumpkin Puree – important to note that we are using pumpkin puree, and not pumpkin pie filling. Using pie filling which change the taste pretty dramatically since it has added sweetness.
  • As a side note, if you end up with leftover pumpkin puree, be sure to check out these Black Bean and Pumpkin Quesadillas – they are sooo good!
• Light Brown Sugar – you could swap this out with a lower/no calorie option if you’re trying to reduce the calories/sugar. I really like Monk Fruit Brown Sugar as a swap for this recipe.
• Maple Syrup – I think this adds a nice fall flavor to the pumpkin spice seitan. You can also use a reduced sugar syrup.
• Powdered Sugar – this is add at the end and is surprisingly important for getting the texture just right. I’ve tried it with and without a powdered sugar coating, and would recommend against skipping this. The powdered sugar locks in some of the moisture, keep the pumpkin spice seitan light, moisture and pumpkin bread-like!
• Vanilla Extract – a must!
• Salt – adjust to taste.
• Baking soda, baking powder – needed to get the right texture!
• Cinnamon and pumpkin spice – this are the main ingredients that will really make us feel like we are in a Fall Hallmark movie! If you hate pumpkin spice, go make this Chocolate Seitan instead. 🙂

Instructions

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 F (177 C).
• **It is important to note that we definitely need to weight the vital wheat gluten, as it is deceptively dense. If you only use measuring cups, you will end up with way more than you think you have. For reference, when I have weighed what I measured as 1/4 cup of vital wheat gluten, I ended up around 45 grams instead of the listed 30 grams (on the nutritional label).
• Measure out the powdered sugar in a medium bowl or plate. This will be used at the end.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients for the pumpkin spice seitan – pumpkin puree, brown sugar, syrup, and vanilla extract.

• In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. It’s important to do this step before adding it to the wet ingredients to allow for even dispersion of the smaller ingredients like salt, baking soda and baking powder. The dough comes together really fast and we definitely don’t want to over-mix it, so making sure those smaller ingredients are mixed well in this step ensures more even dough!

• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine. Please, please, please don’t over-mix. Mix the bare minimum amount to combine everything otherwise you will have tougher, more chewy dough, and it will be less bread-like and soft. I use a spatula for this step.
• Your dough should be wet and glossy, but not loose. Refer to picture below. If your dough is too wet and loose, add a small amounts of vital wheat gluten until it looks similar to the texture below. If your dough is not wet enough and you can’t get all of the dry ingredients to mix in all the way, add very small amounts of water until it looks like the dough below.

• Using a 2 tablespoon scooper, you should end up with around 24 evenly divided pieces of pumpkin spice seitan. The shape you go with depends on you but I prefer a cookie shape.
• If you’re going with the cookie shape, roll your dough into a ball and then press it out in the palm of your hand. You don’t want it too thin because it will end up dry and crispy – think of the thickness level of peanut butter cookies.
• Once you have your cookie shape, dust each side with powdered sugar. I think this is a really important step, as I’ve cooked them with and without powdered sugar. If you use powdered sugar, it will lock in more of the pumpkin spice seitan’s moisture and allow it to reach more of a pumpkin bread texture.
• Place them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. They will expand a bit, but not much so don’t worry about spacing them super far apart.

• Baking for 17 – 19 minutes. They should have fluffed up quite a bit and be firm to the touch. Allow them to cool for a few minutes.
• Sometimes, I’ll dust them in a little powdered sugar to make them look cute!

• Here’s a close-up of the inside texture for reference! Because we don’t over-mix and we use baking soda and baking powder, they end up pretty light and airy!

Silly Little Haiku

Pumpkin Spice Seitan

A protein goal game changer

Vital Wheat Gluten