I can’t really say that I have made a lot of muffins in my life. In fact, this is one of the few recipes I have made that—apart from the oven—does not involve some kind of appliance. When I laid out all the ingredients for this muffin recipe for the first picture below, I realized that there were a lot of ingredients in this muffin. Counting the eggs once, there are seventeen ingredients needed to make these muffins. Fortunately, I already have most of these ingredients thanks to the remarkable similarity of this recipe with molasses softies cookies. Who knew making muffins would be so easy?

When I first made these muffins, we thought they tasted great, but it seemed that they could use just a hint of orange to bring out a fresher flavor from the canned pumpkin. A little orange zest in the second batch and it was just what these muffins needed. Moist and delicious, these muffins have a nice balance of spices that isn’t overpowering or heavy. The smell of these muffins baking really says that fall is here. A little pumpkin pie muffin is the perfect snack for raking leaves in the yard.

Ingredients for making Pumpkin Pie Muffins.

Combine 2 cups flour, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and cloves each, 1/2 teaspoon salt and ginger each, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg.

Combine 2 eggs, 3/4 cup canned pumpkin, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/4 cup buttermilk, 1 teaspoon vanilla and orange zest each, and 3 tablespoons molasses in a large bowl.

Mix wet ingredients thoroughly until smooth.

Make a well in center of dry ingredients and gently fold in wet ingredients until just blended.

Once batter is just blended, fold in 3/4 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts.

Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 of the way to top with batter. An ice cream scoop works nicely.

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes in 400° F oven or until toothpick come out clean.

Let muffins rest for 2 minutes in muffin pan before transferring to cooling rack.

The recipe pictured above, with detailed instructions and complete photo gallery can be found on the Pumpkin Pie Muffin recipe page.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 10:25 pm and is filed under Cupcakes & Muffins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.