Pumpkin Muffins

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had a really busy thanksgiving weekend, but it was great! I really geared up for Thanksgiving this year. I was very much in the mood for it and was loving the cooler weather. Although it wasn't a nice cool fall weekend, it was still beautiful. I managed to spend some time outside and catch the changing colours of all the greenery in Hamilton.

Last weekend (before thanksgiving) I purchased a can of pumpkin puree. Pumpkin puree comes in an unneccessarily large can. I have to make diligent plans as to what I am going to make with it once the can is open. Last week I made pumpkin muffins, pumpkin granola, pumpkin oats, and more pumpkin muffins. All with one can of pumpkin. By far, the pumpkin muffins were the best of the three, and were quite the hit at my family's thanksgiving dinner (especially with my Mom).

Pumpkin Muffins very slightly adapted from Ellie Krieger on the Food Network

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup oat flour*
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 cup of *not packed* brown sugar
3 tbsp unsulphered molasses
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, molasses, oil, and 1 egg until combined.
4. Whisk in the 2nd egg.
5. Whisk in pumpkin and vanilla.
6. Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in 2 batches, alternating with the milk. (order of addition: dry, milk, dry milk)
7. Spoon into the muffin pan. Bake for 20-23 minutes.

These muffins are devine. They have the right amount of spice, softness, and sweetness. I think next time I could even cut down the sugar to 1/2 cup. I wanted to make a note about the flour, since I deviated from the original recipe. I used oat flour instead of whole-grain pastry flour, simply because that is all I had on hand. These leads me to believe you could get away with a few different flour combinations, maybe substituting all the all purpose for whole wheat, pairing with some oat flour. I will definitely be experimenting in the future.

Now, I am not the biggest pumpkin fan in the world, but these were my favourite use for pumpkin so far this season. I am sure I will go through another can or two before the season is over, and hopefully I find another winner like this one.