fresh halloween

Pumpkin muffins! These are the easiest muffins ever; I threw them together the other night while I was waiting for water to boil for our pasta. We had pumpkin ravioli in a brown butter sage sauce. They were really good, but really rich, and the last thing we wanted for dessert after that was more pumpkin, but luckily these work well as a breakfast food. I threw in some chopped pecans, since everything is better with nuts, and spiced them with all the classic aromas of the season -- cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice, ginger. I never make muffins very sweet, so if you prefer a sweet muffin, definitely add a bit more sugar than my recipe calls for. These would also be awesome with a cream cheese frosting as for a carrot cake.



Recipe after the jump:

SPICED PUMPKIN PECAN MUFFINS

Ingredients
1 to 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp clove
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup sugar (use 3/4 cup for a sweeter muffin)
1/4 cup melted butter, cooled
1/2 cup milk
1 cup pumpkin puree (pure pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together 1 cup of the white flour and all remaining dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In another bowl, whisk together wet ingredients. Slowly add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, stirring just until the flour is incorporated. Do not overstir, the batter will be lumpy. If the batter is too runny, add the remaining 1/2 cup white flour. Fold in the chopped pecans.

Fill paper-lined or greased muffin tins about 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes until top is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Makes about 12 muffins.