Friday Faves – The Busty Baker makes Pumpkin Muffins
Today I’m featured a blogger after my own heart on Friday Fav. Danae from The Busty Baker blogs about baked goods. Lots and lots of baked goods. And they’re all right up my alley! If you’re looking for another baking blog to inspire you, definitely check it out. She posts very approachable recipes and lots of cupcakes!
Let’s be honest. How many of us went a little crazy this past fall, stocking up on canned pumpkin every time we went to the grocery store? After the previous year’s shortage, how many of us loaded our cart up the first time we saw it grace the shelves, hoarding it on the off-chance that we’d never see it again and we’d spend Thanksgiving with a store-bought pie because it’s all we could find? Oh. That was just me? Well, maybe this recipe is a little out of season then. But for the closet hoarders out there that are a little ashamed to admit that there are still 6 cans of pumpkin puree collecting dust in the pantry, it’s time to break them out and make some muffins!
For those who don’t know me, I’m a retail slave by day and a wannabe baker by night. Actually, no. That’s wrong. It’s the exact opposite most days, since I work the night shift throughout the week. The one exception? Saturday. After spending my entire week getting off work at nearly midnight, I drag myself out of bed to be to work at 7am on a day that most everyone else gets to sleep in. I’m already halfway through my day by the time I would normally wake up throughout the week! Most Saturday mornings, I’m not only sleep deprived, but STARVING. The measly bowl of cereal I have when I wake up doesn’t last long, and by mid-morning, I’m ready to devour small children.
Normally I walk myself down to the café in the store for a latte and either a muffin or scone. But lately I’ve been trying to stick to a strict budget, so I’ve started bringing my own breakfast with me. (Plus, when the “healthiest” thing in the bake case is the rice krispie treat, it’s probably a sign that I shouldn’t eat any of it.) I’ve been whipping up a batch of my own scones or muffins, throwing them in the freezer, and pulling one out every Saturday to take to work with me. Much more budget friendly, and at least I know what’s in them!
I’m down to my last scone this week, so it’s time to whip up something new. I’ve been shuffling those darn pumpkin cans around the pantry for months now, so I thought, why not be even more budget friendly and use what I’ve already got to make something. Who cares that it’s May and pumpkin is a “fall flavor”. It’s still delicious! Especially in these muffins. They’re moist and tender, with just a hint of spice, and a light sugary crunch on top. I’ve already eaten about 4 so far and I’m ready to go back and make another batch because I have a feeling these won’t be strictly Saturday morning muffins. These may end up being every morning muffins. So go ahead and dust off one of those cans you’ve got hanging out in the back of the pantry. You’ll find more in the fall. Unless I get to them first.
Pumpkin Muffins
Yield: ~16-18 muffins
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp plus 1/4 tsp cinnamon, divided
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tspnutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup pumpkin puree (about half of a 15oz can)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400F. Line 2 standard muffin tins with paper liners, or spray with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and salt; set aside.
In a separate large bowl, whisk together eggs, 1 cup sugar, pumpkin puree, and vegetable oil until smooth. Gradually add in dry ingredients, whisking until just combined.
Divide batter into prepared pans, filling each cup about 2/3 of the way full, about 2 heaping tablespoons each. In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Sprinkle sugar mixture on top of batter in each cup.
Bake, rotating halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs, about 16 to 20 minutes. Allow to cool in pans for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe adapted from Erin Cooks
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
These look fantastic and are so festive!
Oh my, these look divine! I recently made something similar, but with no chocolate – just a pumpkin batter with cream cheese topping. But I definitely think I must try these too.
These are absolutely beautiful!
Look wonderful!
These look awesome. I just wish it made a bigger pan!
They’re pretty rich, but I would imagine you could just double it and make it in a 9×13 pan if you wanted!
I made pumpkin spice brownies on Friday and they were delish so I bet these are EVEN BETTER! Thanks for sharing and I’ll be following your tweaks!
~ingrid
i always make a pumpkin cheesecake in the fall with a ginger cookie crumb crust, but i’m liking the chocolate component in your recipe even more.
oh yum – love pumpkin, and the chocolate/pumpkin combo looks wonderful!
These look great! Is there a way I can make them non-dairy? Something I can sub the cream cheese for? Thanks!
Heather – I’ve had great luck subbing Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese in cheesecake recipes in the past. I think that would definitely work and you could use Earth Balance in the brownie portion. Let me know how it turns out if you try it.
Hi Jenn! I just wanted to let you know that you won the giveaway on my blog last week. I emailed you, but never got a response. Could you email me your mailing address to jennharton@paducah.com. I have to pass it along to myblogspark so they can send you your prize package!
Thanks, Jen…I’ll let you know how they come out!
OH wow these do look delicious! I love all that swirled pumpkin…yum!
Those look amazing!
Wow, I love these! My husband would die of happiness of I made these for him – pumpkin cheesecake is his favorite thing for fall.
They look like tiger fur – very cool! What an interesting flavour combination.
We love these at my house! I like your idea of dark chocolate – I will have to try that next time.
beautiful! And they look so delicious!! I agree I don’t normally think of pumpkin with chocolate… but you have me convinced!
The tops of these are a work of art! Love it!
Three of my favorite thi ngs in one dessert! Chocolate and pumpkin and cheesecake! How perfect…
~Nancy
Three of my favorite thi ngs in one dessert! Chocolate and pumpkin and cheesecake! How perfect…
~Nancy
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The side-view shot totally won me over. These look delicious!
This looks so yummy.
I now know what to make for the office potluck!
Those look amazing. I love pumpkin with chocolate, I plan on making these soon.
Your brownies look delicious! I am curious since I would like mine to taste more like pumpkin pie than plain pumpkin should i add pumpkin pie spices or follow your recipe for the spices?
Thanks!
fawkes – There are a decent amount of spices in the pumpkin portion of the batter. I would recommend making is as the recipe states, then taste it before you pour it into the pan. Maybe then add some pumpkin pie spice if you’d like.
I made these over the weekend and they were scrumptious!! I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin but this recipe is now a fall staple. I plan on making them for the family on Thanksgiving…thanks for sharing this!
I made these the other day and they were great! a hit at work! yum! thanks!
I stumbled across your blog from a Facebook friend and made these brownies last night. DELICIOUS!! I doubled the recipe and it does just fit in a 9×13 pan and took about 60 mins to bake. It’s worth the wait for them to be chilled in the fridge. The flavors are even more delicious that way.
Oh YUM! And gorgeous, to boot. I never thought pumpkin and chocolate go together either, until I tried it! 🙂 Now I’m hooked. Good idea to double up on the cheesecake layer…you can never have enough pumpkin cheesecake after all!
Thank you so much for participating in our event! These brownies look amazing. They say Halloween to me for sure!
I made these– now I love them! Will be repeated each fall 🙂
Amazing! I loved these so much I played with them a bit and made cranberry cheesecake brownies for my christmas baking.(I didn’t stumble on to these till christmas.) I’ll let you know when I put those up on my blog! With credit to you of course!
Lexi – cranberry cheesecake brownies sound very intriguing. Can’t wait to see them.
Hi Jen! I made these for Heather@BFM’s (comment listed above) birthday and she loved them! Unfortunately I could not find the Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder (I tried 3 stores) so I had to make them with the regular cocoa powder. Can you tell me where you found the Hershey’s Special Dark??
Kasey – I have actually had a hard time finding it as well. I had actually all but given up on it until one day it caught my eye at the grocery store. I proceeded to buy all three containers. I would say just keep an eye out for it and good luck!
1/2 cup of flour seems like very little. Is that correct?
Pup – Yes, that is the correct amount of flour. Most brownie batters have very little flour in them.
Just made these- delicious! I only had the milk chocolate powder, so I’m excited to try it again with the special dark powder.
I doubled the recipe and it perfectly filled a 13×9 pan so you might try it. 🙂 And they are amazing. Also I used margerine not butter and found they were more moist. Happy Baking!
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I made these with my nieces and over all they were pretty good, but something about the pumpkin part tasted off. Still, fun and festive to make!