Oct 29, 2010 Pumpkins baked in cheesecakes, spaghetti squash shredded under a hearty marinara sauce, those lovely acorn squashes hollowed out and filled with butter and brown sugar to roast, butternut squash in soup or in ravioli with brown butter and sage – the possibilities, both sweet and savoury, are delightful and seemingly endless. One of my most favourite applications for pumpkin is to bake it up in a batch of hearty pumpkin muffins. I often do a pumpkin-pineapple combination, but today I was looking for more of a nod to pumpkin pie – lots of spices, a crunch of walnut, and some raisins for texture. The pureed pumpkin makes for an amazingly moist and tender muffin, one that freezes beautifully for a fresh-baked treat any day with about 30 seconds in the microwave. I sprinkled mine with some coarse sugar (turbinado), but you could make a tasty crumble topping or even whip some cream cheese, icing sugar and a splash of lemon juice together to dollop in the middle or in an indent made on top before baking.
Ingredients
Pumpkin Pie Muffins Makes 12 large muffins, but you may use 2-12 cup tins filled 3/4 full for smaller muffins. If making smaller muffins, reduce baking time to about 25 minutes. 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/4 cup sugar 2 tsp baking soda 2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground ginger 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 cup raisins 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 2 eggs 3/4 cup vegetable oil 1 tsp vanilla 3 cups pumpkin puree (homemade, or 1 large can of 100% pure pumpkin) undefined
Preparation
