PUMPKIN!! Does any other word elicit more joy during the the fall baking season? Not in my kitchen! So I have stocked up on pumpkin and spices and muffin cups and….. well you get the point. And good thing, too, because this muffin was just begging to be served for breakfast.

    Pumpkin Pie Muffins

These are good stuff. Good for breakfast. Good for snacks. Just good. But I thought they needed a little more spice. Next time I will increase the nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger by about 1/2. I liked the pumpkin seeds on top. They added a little extra crunch (and protein).

The full recipe gave me 12 regular sized muffins and 12 minis. Perfect.

Recipe slightly adapted from Ellie’s

    Cooking spray
    2 cups all-purpose flour
    1 cup whole-grain pastry or Whole Wheat Flour {because I discovered I didn’t have any WWF}
    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 packed dark brown sugar
    3 tablespoons unsulphered molasses
    1/4 cup canola oil
    2 large eggs
    1 cup canned pumpkin
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
    1/4 cup raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.
In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, molasses, oil and 1 egg until combined. Add the other egg and whisk well. Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack.

Please visit The CEinMB site and see what the other fans of Ellie made for today. Or you could join in. There are lots of Ellie’s recipes on line so even if you don’t have one of her books…..

This recipe is on page 29 of Ellie’s The Food Your Crave and on The Food Network