A Nice Cuppa

With feelings of fall creeping in all around us, so are those fall food cravings. For me one of those cravings is for muffins; something slightly sweet that I enjoy with a steaming cup of coffee. It seems that everywhere I turn lately I see pumpkins, which left me with a craving for pumpkin muffins. So, I turned to The Ultimate Muffins Book. If you’re a pumpkin fan these muffins are right up your alley. I made a few modifications to the original recipe by adding some additional spices.

Pumpkin Muffins
(yields 12-18 muffins)

Nonstick spray or muffin liners
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs, at room temp.
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 (15oz) can solild-pack pumpkin
3/4 cup buttermilk
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray muffin tins thoroughly with non-stick spray or line with paper liners. Whisk the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until lightly beaten, then whisk in brown sugar. Continue whisking until mixture is thick and pale brown, about 2 minutes. Whisk in pumpkin, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract. Once the mixture is smooth, stir in the flour mixture until incorporated. Do not overmix.

Fill the prepared tins 3/4 full. Use additional greased tins or ramekins for leftover batter. Bake for 22 minutes, or until dark brown and cracked on top (toothpick inserted comes out with a few moist crumbs attached).

Cool in tins on wire rack for 10 minutes, remove from tin and continue cooling on wire rack.