Pumpkin Muffins

TIS THE SEASON! It's October and since we don't get falling leaves or cool weather in Florida, we live vicariously through pumpkin-flavored delights. My favorite way to leap into the fall spirit is by making a tried and true recipe of Pumpkin Muffins, an oldie but a goodie on the blog.

I keep mentioning my desire to cut back on how terrible sweets are for you, and I didn't handle this one any differently. When I pulled up this recipe, which makes 24 muffins, I noticed right away that it called for TWO CUPS of sugar. And my brain immediately went down the path of...okay 2 cups in 24 cupcakes means there's 1 cup in 12 cupcakes, 1/2 cup in 6 cupcakes, 1/4 cup in 3 cupcakes, and if 1/4 cup = 3 tablespoons, then there's a whole tablespoon of sugar in each muffin. Ouch, my teeth are aching just thinking about it.

So as I've done with other recipes, I decided to see how far I could take it. I didn't want a muffin that tasted like a pile of squash, but these are also breakfast items and not desserts, right? How much sweetness do I need to start the day? I decided to scale it back to 1 cup for the whole lot of 24 as I felt confident that was not too much adjustment.

Making muffins is one of my favorite baking tasks, especially when I want to work in the kitchen for a bit but am not really in the mood to take on a huge project. Rather than recipes like cookies that require beating the butter and sugar for a few minutes, muffins are kind of one of those "stir a few things together and go" deals. I mixed the pumpkin, sugar, eggs, and melted butter in one bowl, and in another stirred together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I added the liquid ingredients into the dry, stirred just enough to mix em (a few lumps are okay!) and got that batter into a cupcake pan.

Some would argue that the use of cupcake papers makes these cakes and not muffins, but I love that zig-zag texture on the side and the cleanliness of little wrapped muffins.

They took just under 20 minutes to bake and some lovely, golden orange muffins.

And pumpkin season has begun. Of course, the truth is that most canned pumpkin is actually just butternut squash (one of those fun facts I learned many years ago that I will never forget),but that's quite alright as it's all squash to me.

The sugar decrease wasn't even detectable by me, though as I've scaled back sugar in my areas and my taste buds may have adjusted, one could argue that is not a fair test. So I passed these out like people had been trick or treating at my house, sharing them with a collection of friends and family. The good news is that my little experiment proved successful and everyone gave positive reviews - we did not have a pile of squash!

I will say that I think with a bit of cream cheese on top or maybe even swirled in would sweeten these and make them more dessert worthy. The density and texture is not such that I would exclude this from being the base of a cupcake. Multi-functional baking is definitely right up my alley.

Bake these for all the little ghouls in your life!

Pumpkin Muffins Recipe

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 can pumpkin puree (15 ounces)
1 1/2 cups melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt  in a large bowl and mix.  Beat eggs, sugars, pumpkin, and butter in a medium bowl until smooth then pour into the dry ingredients. Mix until blended, then scoop into cupcake pans lined with papers until 2/3 full.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until browned, until muffins have risen and a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean.