• Combine the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking soda and baking powder in a medium mixing bowl and stir till incorporated.
  ¾ cup all purpose flour, ¾ cup whole wheat flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, eggs, olive oil, buttermilk, pumpkin protein powder, vanilla, salt and pumpkin pie spice. Stir until all ingredients are fully combined.
  1 can pumpkin puree, 2 large eggs, ½ cup brown sugar, ⅓ cup olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt, 1.5 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, ¾ cup buttermilk, 1 serving pumpkin protein powder
• Transfer the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir till well combined, taking care not to overmix. When the batter is ready, cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Pepita streusel topping

• While the muffin batter is resting, make the pepita streusel topping. Lightly toast the pepitas on the stovetop for about 5 minutes, until lightly browned and fragrant. Add sugar, spices and pepitas to the bowl of a food processor and pulse into ground to a medium-coarse texture.
  ⅓ cup pepitas, ¼ cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, pinch of salt
• Do not over-process the pepita mixture to a fine powder; there should still be medium sized seed chunks as shown.
• Stir in dark chocolate chips to pepita mixture. Feel free to use mini or standard size dark chocolate chips.
  ¼ cup mini dark chocolate chips

Assemble protein muffins

• When the batter is done resting, spoon equal amounts of batter to muffin tins lined with muffin liners. Make sure to lightly spray each paper muffin liner with a bit of baking spray so the pumpkin protein muffins don’t stick.
• Gently spoon and press in the pepita streusel topping onto each pumpkin muffin.
• Bake in a 400 degrees f oven for 16-18 minutes, until a knife comes out clean and batter is firmly set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before removing from the muffin tin and setting on a rack to cool completely.