Tag Archives: nutmeg

Sugar Crunch Mini Pumpkin Muffins

I couldn’t tempt you all with the picture of the incredible mini pumpkin muffins my friend Cassia made for her wine-tasting party and then not share the recipe. It would have been cruel and unusual. “Cassia,” I whined, “can I pretty please have that recipe for my blog, pretty please, because if I don’t share it people might get reeeallly angry, and I don’t want a blogmob on my hands! I’m frightened and scared and the only solution is for me to haaaaaave that reeeecipe!” It turns out I didn’t have to whine at all. Within hours, she had emailed me the recipe with all her instructions.

I popped over to Target to purchase a mini muffin tin. It will have been money well spent . . . even if I only ever make these once.

Which is not going to happen.

I’m considering making them once per day for the rest of my life. Except that I also want to be able to fit into my jeans, which are the perfect dark wash. I don’t think I could find another pair like them. I’ll let you know my decision after 24 hours of careful thought.

Cassia found the recipe on this website and proceeded to modify it by absconding with the nuts and then sprinkling sugar all over them before baking. I firmly believe that the sugar topping is 100% necessary. The little crunch it produces is faint-inducingly good. Cassia didn’t make the frosting, and neither did I, but I’ll include the recipe just in case you want to give it a whirligig.

Ingredients

(makes 72 mini muffins)

1 cup vegetable oil

3 cups sugar

2/3 cups water

2 cups pumpkin purée

4 eggs

3 ½ cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

Chopped walnuts, optional

2/3 c Cinnamon sugar mix

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Mix all of the ingredients together except for the cinnamon sugar and walnuts–first the dry ingredients:

And then the wet ingredients:

You won’t have to run your mixer for very long before it’s perfectly combined into a swirly orange fall festival that’s just begging to be dipped into immediately with a finger or two.

Fears of salmonella have never been able to keep me down.

Now let’s grease the mini muffin tin–I sprayed mine down with some baking spray. It feels so wrong, but also so right. Spoon the batter in. If you fill the little cups to the top, it will produce a larger mini muffin. I chose to make a variety. Or rather, my careless spooning produced a variety. But I say yes to diversity!

Sprinkle on some of the cinnamon sugar. With my first batch, I went pretty light on them:

But with the second batch, I really laid it on.

I like laying it on. I used about 2/3 tsp of cinnamon sugar per muffin in this second batch, but you must do what you feel is right.

If you’re a nutty kind of person, sprinkle the chopped walnuts on the top of each muffin, along with the cinnamon sugar.

The nuts by themselves are also vreeeerry good.

Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes, or until the top springs back to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean.  For some reason, my muffins took more like 30 min. If you make regular-sized muffins, they will need to bake longer.  And lastly, if you choose to go the loaf pans route, you’ll need to bake it for about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Let the muffins cool for 5 in the pan–or not. I popped them out immediately because I wanted to get the next batch started (yes, I only have 1 tin). They should pop out easily, but if not, you can always run a knife around the edges to loosen them. Let them cool completely on a wire rack.

Take a chomp while you’re at it. It’s called ‘quality control.’

Then try not to scream as you realize that the pile of muffins keep growing . . . and growing . . . and growing. They’re cloning themselves. It’s the only explanation.

Cream cheese frosting:

1 8-ounce package cream cheese

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 tsp vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar

Mix all the ingredients until smooth. When the muffins have cooled down, either make a hole in the bottom of them and pipe some into the hole, or cut them in half and spread frosting on the halves. Or spread frosting on top! You can also choose to spread the frosting all over your face. And hands. Just so you have an excuse to lick it off.

I also experimented with adding ginger salt to the tops. Definitely good. When I make these next, I’ll do all the different toppings so that I can offer a variety to my guests. Because when 72 little sugar-laden muffins are set loose in a household of 2, guests are an absolute necessity.

Tomorrow, the PW weekend series, part 1: the Lodge. For those of you who are getting antsy, please continue to look at this picture and take deep breaths:

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Apple Muffins

 

My friend Daria sent me this recipe last week, and it is delicious. With a few modifications, here it is. Make them for breakfast–or get your husband to make them for breakfast for you. Personally, I like the husband route. Or the sister route. Or the friend route. Anything that doesn’t involve me being in the same room with a hot oven (AC window unit or no window unit), since it was already 85 degrees at 8:52 in the morning. But this is not meant to discourage you from making them! Just get up at 5am and bake them as the sun rises, like everyone used to do in the good ol’ days.

Ingredients

(Makes about 16 muffins, or 12 larger ones)

1/2 c canola oil

1/2 c white sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

3 tsp vanilla

1 large egg

2 cups flour

2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of allspice

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

2 TBS milk

2 large apples, finely chopped (I used Granny Smith)

1 tsp lemon juice

Before we jump in, I’d like to say that I really wanted to use applesauce instead of canola oil . . . but I had no applesauce, and it was way too hot outside to walk to the grocery store. So I’m relying on someone else to test that for me and let me know how the substitution works. Let’s waste no more time. Let’s make these muffie delights.

Preheat oven to 375. Chop your apples (no need to peel them), and coat them with the lemon juice to prevent browning.

Combine oil, sugar and vanilla, and cream them in your mixer until fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Add eggs and beat 1-2 minutes or until fully combined.

Now, sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt, and baking powder. I used this awesome nutmeg grater that my in-laws gave me for Christmas a few years back:

Guess who made it?

The car company! Whaddya know.

Now it’s time to get sifting. We can play with the nutmeg grater at a later time.

Now, put everything together: add apples, dry ingredients, and milk to the oil/sugar/vanilla mixture.

Stir only until just incorporated.

What you now have on your hands is an spicy, apple-laden batter that I proceeded to eat by the spoonful as my husband shouted “Samonella! Salmonella!” in the background. I desisted after a great internal struggle.

Divide batter into little muffin cups (or spray the tin with baking spray).

Bake 25-35 minutes (35 in my oven), until the tops are just starting to crack. You can also grease and flour a 9x5x4 loaf pan and bake a loaf of this stuff for 50-60 minutes, but I recommend them in muffin format–I really think they taste better that way. Remove from the oven. Wait a little before taking them out of the muffin tin. I waited about 10 minutes, then put them on a cooling rack.

Then I couldn’t wait any longer and slathered one with butter. Wowza.

Tomorrow, return for a discussion on my favorite new kitchen toy. I mean, my favorite new kitchen necessity. Happy Wednesday!

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