If You Could Taste How Good My House Smells

I love fall. With fall comes cooking with fruits and vegetables from the seasonal harvest,(my favorites) hot cocoa emerges as our favorite drink, and the crisp morning air jolts you right awake first thing in the morning.

I have finally perfected my pumpkin muffins recipe enough to share it, after trying tons, all of which just fell short somehow. So I have combined the best from all I have tried, to come up with:

THE ULTIMATE PUMPKIN MUFFIN (did you hear the booming,echoing voice announcing that?)

Bear in mind that any of my ultimates are full of healthy crap and minus as much junk as possible, so you can't compare it to, let's say, a white fluffy, blueberry muffin. However, Mike claims this is the best muffin I have come up with so far, junky ones included. He might be biased. OR, my other muffins really suck.

K's Ultimate Pumpkin Muffin

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix the following together in one large bowl.

1 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup applesauce (this happens to be one of the individual sized cups from a pack)
2 eggs


Mix well/sift in another bowl (I don't sift but it would work here) :

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Take your dry ingredients, and add to the wet. If you like spicier muffins, add more spices. These are pretty spiced tho. Mix together slowly, until almost completely mixed...hard to 'splain, but perhaps just until you can see the flour still in a few places. Add in half a cup of your choice of chocolate chips, raisins, or walnuts. ALL are fantastic, but the chocolate chips really make the kids feel like this is a HUGE treat. Mix these in, stopping right as soon as the batter is mixed. If you overmix, they turn out like rubber, this is the secret to pumpkin baking. Never overmix. I've eaten pumpkin muffins that bounce off the floor like a ball!

This makes 24 mini-muffins and 4 large ones. That's just how it works out for me everytime. I would spray the pans if I were you, because with no oil, they stick.

Baking times are about 9 minutes for mini, and about 18 for large, but all ovens are different, so gauge yours.

This was all that was left tonight from my morning batch...and there's Mike stealing more lol! And I have been asked to bake some more, there's my Friday morning activity I guess.



Let me know how they turn out. And don't overmix LOL!