Pumpkin Muffins

Jaxith the kindhearted pumpkin

We have carved a pumpkin for autumn each year for the past few years, and it's fun to work together and decide how it should look and then to name it.  We also enjoy muffins made from the pieces that were cut out of the pumpkin and roasted pumpkin seeds.  Yum!   And when the carved pumpkin has lived a good and full life on our porch, it can be put to rest on the compost pile or buried right in the ground so that it can nourish plants in our garden (perhaps pumpkins!) next year.

The pieces that were cut from the pumpkin can
either be baked in the oven or microwaved.

Then the skin can be cut off.

The pumpkin can be squashed with a potato smasher.

And then used in a recipe that calls for pumpkin!
(These are chocolate chip pumpkin muffins.)

The seeds from the pumpkin can be roasted in the oven.

I rarely use a recipe for muffins and usually just threw them together.  My rough guideline is that I use approximately the same amount of liquid (a combination of milk + liquid sweetener + oil) as I use flour.

Here is my recipe I found that I wrote down a couple years ago. I wrote down in my notes that I had just thrown the muffins together and was listing the ingredients from memory, and that everyone should feel free to tweak it as needed.  So use this recipe at your own discretion. ;)  By the way, this recipe is dairy-free and egg-free, and I almost always cook using whole wheat flour.

Pumpkin Muffins

Wet Ingredients
* pumpkin pieces from our (1) carved pumpkin (cooked in microwave oven and then smashed)
* 1 cup of rice milk
* 3/4 cup of molasses
* 1/2 cup of canola oil

Dry Ingredients
* 2 1/4 cups of whole wheat flour
* 2 teaspoons of baking powder
* 1 teaspoon of baking soda
* some salt
* some cinnamon (I just shook it in and didn't measure)

Mix wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls. Then stir wet and dry ingredients together until just combined. Put batter in greased muffins tins (I use an ice cream scoop to put the batter in each spot quickly.) Then put in preheated 350 degree oven and bake for approximately 23 minutes (time will vary depending on oven, etc.). It made 16 muffins. I put a little water in the extra two spaces in my muffin tin because I've heard that helps it cook more evenly (rather than leave the extra spaces empty).

I'll try and post a recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds next week!