Pumpkin Muffins Take 5: Almost Perfect

I say almost, because I'm sure they could be better, but these are spectacular. They're moist, fluffy and tender, with a great balance between pumpkin and spice. Everything you could ever want in a pumpkin muffin! And they've come a long way since the first round of pumpkin muffins!

I made these by adapting a banana bread recipe, and substituting pumpkin for banana. They ended up a bit too wet the first time I made them, so I increased the rest of the ingredients and used a second egg in place of more milk. I liked the banana bread recipe because it used so much banana, but still used a bit of butter to give it just enough fat and richness.

Post about banana bread is coming soon (it's the best I've ever tasted!) but for now, you'll have to live with pumpkin muffins. How awful.

----- ----- -----
Pumpkin Muffins Take 5
makes 18 large muffins

Absolutely DELICIOUS Muffins

I can't believe it's taken me so long to post about these muffins. I have made them at least 15 times, and they've been delicious almost every time. (I tried a strawberry/balsamic version.. not delicious.) The problem with these muffins is that they always disappear too quickly for me to get a picture of them! Usually they're gone about 2 hours after we make them--my dormmates often find themselves drawn to the kitchen by the scent of these baking and how can I possibly deny them delicious muffins??

Cranberry walnut version

I made a similar muffin with cranberries a while back, but I've updated and perfected the recipe a bit, so I'd like to share it with you in its new improved form. I had applesauce on hand the first time I made this, so it was convenient to use. Most people don't keep homemade applesauce stocked, though. I decided to substitute the applesauce with milk, and I adjusted the balance of baking soda and baking powder to compensate for the change in acidity. It turned out quite well.

Apple rosemary version

I also decided to sacrifice the one-bowl appeal and use a pot for these as well. Although back in the dorm I'll probably go for the one-bowl method, if you have access to a heavy-bottomed pan and a stovetop, the rich, complex flavors from the browned butter really fill out the muffin.

The 400°F I used originally seemed a bit too high for these muffins. They tended to get very crisp outsides, before the muffin was fully set. I've dropped the temperature and increased baking time. If you're in a hurry, they'll still turn out at 400°F.

Finally, in addition to generalizing the fillings, I've also included an alternative for the milk—thoroughly mashed bananas. Use this whenever you have banana as filling!

-----
Whole Wheat Muffin Base
makes 12 large muffins


Equipment
Mixing bowl
Saucepan + butter stirrer
Stovetop, oven
Muffin tin + liners


Ingredients
0.75c unsalted butter
1c packed brown sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
0.5c milk (***or well-mashed banana, see notes)
1.5c white whole wheat flour
1.75t baking powder
0.25t baking soda
1c chopped nuts
2c filling*** (really, you can add up to 4c)

Remix: Peanut Butter Cookies

When I say peanut butter cookies, I know what you're thinking:

(peanut butter + sugar + eggs) * oven = cookie

Well, it's time to rethink the peanut butter cookie. The original recipe came from Alice Medrich's book, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-your-Mouth Cookies. I made two batches--one was exactly as she specified in her book, the other with my own addition. Mine won, hands down.

These are the originals, with chopped peanuts on top

The cookie itself is crispy but gets stuck in your teeth like cotton candy. The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup I snuck in the middle? The chocolate and peanut butter melt and stick to your tongue. It's an incredible play of textures.

The best part? The cookie is only 50 calories.

You'll burn off at least 2 cookies if you whisk by hand.

----- ----- -----

Peanut Butter Surprises

makes 30-35 cookies

adapted from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-your-Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich

Equipment

whisk + really strong arm OR electric mixer OR stand mixer

bowl

measuring cups OR scale+1 measuring spoon

rubber spatula (OR something similar)

parchment paper

2 baking trays

plastic bag OR pastry bag OR spoon

oven

Ingredients

3 egg whites

0.125t cream of tartar

4.60 oz sugar (2/3c)

3oz chunky all-natural peanut butter (1/3c)

2 bags Reese's Minis (they come in bags and are pre-unwrapped)

chopped peanuts (optional)

Pumpkin Pecan Pie: Further from Tradition

OK, so the pumpkin pie + graham cracker crust was definitely a step up from standard pie crust... but we've made it even better! The biggest complaint from the peanut gallery was a lack of crust crispness on day two. Of course, I knew this meant we needed something that wouldn't absorb any of the liquid from the pie.

Nuts were the perfect solution. The update is just to the crust, but I've included the filling recipe again. You're welcome to use your own pumpkin pie filling, but this one is pretty spectacular! It's got a lot less liquid than most pie recipes, so the spices stay well incorporated and the pumpkin flavor shines.

-----
Graham Cracker Pecan Crusted Pumpkin Pie
makes 1 9-inch pie crust

Pumpkin Muffins Take 4: Epic Fail

Apparently the great pumpkin shortage of 2009 has continued to impact this years availability. After an epic journey to acquire pumpkin, we only found pumpkin pie mix and sweet potato puree. I decided to try the pumpkin pie mix, and adjust my recipe accordingly.

-----
Epic Fail Pumpkin Muffins (Take 4)
makes 24 muffins

Ingredients
1 28 oz. can of pumpkin pie mix
6 eggs
0.25c milk
2.25c whole wheat flour
2.25c white flour
5t baking powder
1t baking soda
2T cinnamon
2t nutmeg
1t ginger
0.5t cloves

Directions
1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl
2. Bake for 25 minutes at 350°F
-----
The muffins were chewy, instead of crumbly, like the cranberry walnut muffins. I think that was partly because I used King Arthur AP flour, which has more gluten, and therefore gives the muffins closer to a bread texture. They were lighter than the last round, and I think next time I'll switch to all whole wheat.

The pumpkin pie mix had sugar in it, so I left out the sugar. Next time, I think I would add some additional brown sugar to make these a bit sweeter.

The spices I used were a little bit old (staying at somebody else's house... should have bought fresh spices), so they ended up making the muffins taste dry. The spices kind of sucked the moisture off your tongue.. unpleasant.

The extra baking soda and baking powder definitely helped the muffins get lighter, but I think next time I'll try a little bit less of each. I may also use a little bit less flour and leave out the milk. I couldn't taste the pumpkin as much as I would have liked.
----- ----- -----

Just tuning in? Check out the rest of the pumpkin muffin saga, including more recent recipes!

sugar cookies + secret santa

I did a secret santa exchange this year that had two stipulations: you must get the person a piece of clothing that reminds you of the person, and you must make something homemade. So of course, I baked cookies!

I recently saw a post over at The Curvy Carrot about decorating cookies with royal icing, and I figured this was a great opportunity to try my hand at it. Worst case, I failed, and could just make a batch of regular, yummy sugar cookies.

Well, I did fail... the first time... kind of. My first set of cookies were absolutely delicious—they were flaky, crisp, buttery, light and airy and had just a hint of vanilla. They disappeared quite quickly into my belly (sans decoration) because frankly, they were ugly.

The second round, I found a recipe intended for rolling and cutting shapes. These cookies retained their shapes almost perfectly, and kept a nice even color and sharp lines. Unfortunately, they taste pretty bland. Eaten by themselves, they crumble in your mouth with an indifferent flavor, that tastes mildly of butter, but mostly of flour.

So, I present to you both recipes. Do with them what you will! (If you use the second recipe, go to Curvy Carrot and trying your hand at decorating! It's easier than you think!)

As usual, these are both one-bowl, no electric mixer versions of the original.

[Note: I apologize for the lack of pictures. My wonderful photographer is currently inundated with architecture homework.]

-----
Delicious Sugar Cookies
adapted from AllRecipes.com

Ingredients
0.75c butter, room temperature
1c white sugar
0.5t salt
2 eggs
1t vanilla extract
2.5c all purpose flour
1t baking powder

Directions
1. Cut the butter into 0.5 inch cubes and microwave until it's almost as soft as whipped cream cheese. (Microwave it 15 seconds at a time. Once you see liquid, it's soft enough.)
2. Add the sugar and salt and mix it with a fork until they're incorporated (and slightly fluffy). You might need to take a break, unless you have an arm of steel.
3. Add the eggs and vanilla extract; beat again until they're fully incorporated.
4. Add the flour and baking powder in a small heap on top of the liquid ingredients. Mix the flour and baking powder together gently on top of the wet ingredients before stirring them in.
5. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.
6. An hour before you want cookies, take the dough out of the fridge. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
7. Either roll the dough out into shapes (they won't work very well), or make a log and cut off slices. Bake on parchment paper, or a greased baking tray, for 6 minutes. (Once any of them show golden brown on the edges, pull them out.)
-----

Pumpkin Muffins: Take Three

A few weeks ago, I did a comparison of my original pumpkin muffin recipe and a new, low fat version. The low fat version blew the original recipe out of the water.. so much so that even if you were trying to gain weight, I'd recommend putting butter on the low fat version instead of eating the original.

The new recipe still wasn't perfect, though. It wasn't as tender as I'd like them, and still needed a little bit more oomph. In this iteration on the recipe, I've fixed the tenderness. I still need something to make the flavor out of this world amazing, but I think I trip to get more spices will help. (Right now I've only got cinnamon and nutmeg; I think I need some ginger.)

The changes: I replaced the white sugar with brown sugar; I added back in one more whole egg, replacing two egg whites; I used milk instead of carrots; and I decreased the baking time.

What I'd do next time: Use milk and carrots, but increase the amount of flour by .25 cup to compensate; bake at a lower temp for longer; add ginger to the spices.

Just tuning in? Check out the rest of the pumpkin muffin saga, including more recent recipes!

-----
Pumpkin Muffins
12 muffins

Yeasted cookies?

The original recipe.

I was poking around on the internet and found this post for yeasted chocolate chip cookies. I'm a BIG fan of yeast, so I was intrigued. I decided to do a taste test.

I baked up two batches of the Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe, one with 1t of baking soda, and one with 1t of instant yeast. The smell and a quick email attracted about 25 of the people in my dorm and they voted on taste and texture.

Yeasted cookies on the left, original recipe on the right.

The results:
Taste
Yeast: 14
Baking Soda: 9

Yeasted cookies were the clear winner on taste, but there was more to this than met the eye. The yeast cookies had a much cleaner taste—it was easier to taste the actual cookie and the chocolate and the vanilla. The baking soda cookie, though, just tasted like you expect a cookie to taste—it was familiar, and therefore delicious.

Pumpkin muffins: A comparison

Up until last year, I never really liked pumpkin-anything. Then, around this time of year, I made pumpkin muffins for my advising group, and my eyes were opened. Next: pumpkin pie, with graham cracker crust and lots of whipped cream.

This year, I've revamped my recipe slightly. The old recipe produced muffins whose grease soaked through the muffin liners--delicious, but also dense. The new recipe produces light, fluffy muffins, that are less greasy, but definitely not less moist. I'd say they're an overall win! (Did I mention they've got less than half the calories?)

Love pumpkin? Check out the rest of the pumpkin muffin saga, including more recent recipes!

Both recipes yield 12 muffins. Continue reading for the calorie comparison, and the winning recipe~

Ingredient:           original recipe................new recipe
AP flour:              2 cups................2.25 cups
baking soda:        1t................0.75t
baking powder:    1t................0.75t

white sugar:         1 cup................1.5 cups
brown sugar:       1 cup................0 cups
eggs, whole:        4................1
eggs, white:         0................4
butter:                  2 sticks................0 sticks

pumpkin:             15 oz.................15 oz.
shredded carrot:   0 cups................1 cup

salt:                      1t................1t
cinnamon:            1t................1.5t
ginger:                  1t................0t
nutmeg:                0.25t................1.5t
allspice:                0.25t................0t
cloves:                  0t................1.5t