It's Been Awhile (Recipe: Pumpkin Muffins)

I cannot believe it has been over a month since my last post. I have been squeezing in cooking and baking with my busy work schedule, but just was not that good at getting my posts done. Those of you who blog about food know that it's not just about making or creating a recipe. There are photos and a write up to be done too! I need to get a better schedule in place so I don't go so long without a post! I am on vacation this week, so I plan to get caught up on my blogging. We spent a few days in Maine earlier in the week and I enjoyed a cooking class at the Stonewall Kitchen in York. It was a lot of fun, reasonably priced, and a full four course meal was served. More to come on that later this week.

With Fall upon us in New England, baking seems to involve lots of apples, pumpkins, and warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Do you have a favorite Fall recipe (cooking or baking) you would like to share? I find it hard to believe that I have not baked an apple crisp yet, but it's on the list. What I did make was some wonderful pumpkin muffins. The original recipe was for pumpkin bread, but I went for the muffins. The original recipe can be found here on allrecipes.com. I really like allrecipes.com as I enjoy reading what people liked and or disliked about a recipe and adjustments they made. My version below is my adaption, which I must say came out quite good! Next time I make I may tweak the spices a little more. The recipe is very versatile. If you only have white sugar then just use that. You could also substitute some of the flour with whole wheat flour. I would probably use 2 cups white and 1 1/2 whole wheat. Should you want to make bread instead of muffins, the recipe below will bake 2 loaf pan breads; three if you use the smaller 7x3 size loaf pans.

Pumpkin Muffins
(Adapted from Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread on allrecipes.com)

Makes 24 muffins or 2 9x5 breads or 3 7x3 breads

1 can Pumpkin puree (15 oz; plain old pumpkin - not pie ready)
3 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup oil
2/3 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour the muffin tins or loaf pans. For muffins, I use the muffin liners as that way I am guaranteed no stick!

In a large bowl, mix together the first five ingredients (pumpkin, eggs, oil, water, and sugar) until they are well blended. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Stir these dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until blended. If making muffins, fill the tins about 3/4 of the way full. Otherwise, pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans.






Bake for 20 - 23 minutes for the muffins or around 50 minutes for the loaf pans. The time for the loaf pans is per the original recipe. As I did not make a bread, be sure to watch. They are done when you stick a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean.

Happy Fall!