Pumpkin Muffins

There is something about the smell of pumpkin cooking. Maybe it reminds me of fall and all the wonderful autumn smells. I was excited to see in Ellie Krieger's new cookbook, The Food You Crave, a recipe for pumpkin pie muffins. The recipe looked delicious, packed with all that wonderful pumpkin pie spices. I liked that it also used half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. The recipe was good and had all the smells I was looking for. The flavor I thought could use a little more jazzing up. I think the next time I bake these, I will add some crystallized ginger to the recipe. I think I needed more ginger in the recipe. I also omitted the Pepita's on top of the muffins ( I am not a fan of Pepita's). Instead I added some sunflower seeds on half of the muffins and a little sanding sugar on the other half. Overall, a good recipe that I would make again. J loved the muffins and promptly ate two of them this morning. Good endorsement from a 9 year old.

Pumpkin Pie Muffins (adapted from Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave.)

Cooking Spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour ( I used King Arthur's white whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsulfured molasses
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup low fat buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray or use paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together both flours, the baking soda, salt and the spices. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, molasses, oil and one of the eggs until combined. Add the other egg and whisk well. Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the buttermilk, just until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan, filling each about two-thirds full. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the muffins comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes.