Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Chilly months + Pumpkin muffins = Bliss


I'm a flavors of the seasons kind of a girl and during the chillier months I love gingerbread, pecans, rich earthy sweet potatoes, and, of course, pumpkin :). One of my Christmas presents to myself was a beautiful cookbook, "The Food You Crave" by Ellie Krieger. One of the recipes is a whole wheat pumpkin muffin. They turned out delicious with just the right texture mixing both wh0le wheat and unbleached all-purpose flours. Try it...you'll like it!


Pumpkin Muffins

Cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-grain pastry 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 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 (I did not use the pumpkin seeds)
Directions
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.

*Keeps for 3 days in the fridge/3 months in the freezer in an air tight container.