Pumpkin Muffins

The Fall baking adventures going on in blogland are remarkable! I actually had to make myself a list of all the great things I want to try so I wouldn't forget! There were 6 things on the list so I knew I couldn't decide and asked Johnny's help to narrow it down. Up first was Pioneer Woman's pumpkin muffins!

Believe it or not, we had to go to three grocery stores to track down plain, canned pumpkin! Trader Joe's came through for us! The checkout clerk jokingly asked us how we were going to carve the can. Then him and Johnny cracked themselves up, saying that wasn't a half-bad idea to etch into the can of pumpkin and put a candle inside!

Muffins:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp butter, cut into pieces
1 heaping cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 egg (I just realized he was left outta the above pic, poor guy!)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Topping (optional):

2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 400° and grease 12 muffin pans. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in butter until all incorporated.

In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg, and vanilla.

Pour pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Add raisins, if using. Fold gently until mixture is just combined. Pour into greased muffin pan.

If using the topping, sprinkle over the top of muffins. Bake for 25 minutes and allow to cool for 15 minutes. (Ours were a little underdone at 25 minutes, but smelled so good we didn't care! I'd go for 2-5 more minutes in the future!)

I'm a little surprised they didn't rise more, but Ree's didn't either. They're pretty dense, almost like a moist pumpkin bread, instead of a fluffy, airy muffin. They were still ridiculously delicious and our house has never smelled so good!

I chose to forego the extra cinnamon topping, so Johnny halved the little recipe and put it on his 6 muffins.

Ree also shared a cream cheese frosting recipe with three ingredients: cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar. I'm not a fan of powdered sugar frostings, so we chose a simpler approach - just a dollup of cream cheese over top a warm muffin.



Mmm, what a delicious dive into the Fall baking season! I can't wait to try more recipes and share them with you!

Also, sorry for the lack of recent posts. I'm in accelerated college courses, so while everybody else is gearing up for their midterms, I'm actually preparing for finals! (gulp!) I have a pantry full of new squash to try, so I hope to get some inspiration from there and get some new posts cranking out again once the dust settles!

Help Mara at What's for Dinner? celebrate her 1 year anniversary by entering her giveaway! Congrats Mara!