TWD: Pumpkin Muffins

For your consideration: Pumpkin Muffins from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 13, featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorrie.

I made 2 variations of the recipe - the basic batter was the same for each, I just changed up the mix-ins. I used chopped pecans in the batter and smushed a few walnut halves on the top for both. The things I changed were that I substituted cranberry "raisins" (aka: craisins) for the regular raisins the recipe called for and for the other variation, I swapped in chopped dates. The craisin muffins were much better recieved than the date ones.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this recipe - I guess I was thinking this would be more pumpkin bread-ish and just manifesting itself in muffin form. These had a much different texture than the pumpkin bread I'm familiar with: this was much denser and not as sweet. I was looking for a bolder pumpkin flavor, this one was rather subtle. If that's the way you like yours, then this recipe is right up your alley.

Thanks to Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with this recipe, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making Dorie’s Pumpkin Muffins for yourself, you can find the recipe on our hostesses blog, or in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

The Bake Sale

Wow. I am so behind in my postings. Here are the recipes I made for our school bake sale back in mid-September. I wanted to make some things that appealed more to the teachers than the kids, because, let’s face it, kids will eat anything. Teachers, not so much.

I went trolling around the internet and my google reader to see what I could find that would be good for a bake sale. Here were my criteria:
1. Easy to make
2. Reasonably inexpensive ingredients
3. Easily packaged
4. Not too messy to eat
5. Something worth .25 to .50 cents
6. Something different than the ubiquitous oatmeal or chocolate chip cookies.

After a lot of searching, I came up with 3 recipes.

Here’s the first:
Butterscotch Coconut Drop Cookies
from Recipezaar

These turned out well, but came out much thinner than I anticipated. The cookie was very chewy and even somewhat “flexible” for lack of a better term.







Number 2: Rocky Road Smores/Brownie Muffins

These came from Anna of Cookie Madness. Very nice and a big seller. I toasted the finished product under the broiler for a few minutes to toast up the marshmallows and melt the chocolate a little bit so everything would stay put.

Third: (ready for a mouthful?)

Jumbo Chipotle Chocolate Brownie Muffins with Praline Topping.

I also found this basic recipe and idea on Recipezaar, but I morphed it into a brownie served in individual jumbo sized muffin cups. I added about 1 tsp. of ground chipotle pepper to the batter. I had read in the comments about doubling the topping. I did this and it was way too much for this serving method.

These didn’t photograph well, but they were so good. Just the right amount of pepper to give a teeny bit of heat and interest.

I was exhausted after cooking all day, and my kitchen looked like it had imploded. I had to leave to run hither thither and yon taking kids to activities, so I put up the perishables and left the rest for later. To my amazement, DH beat me home (this in itself is remarkable in that he was home while the sun was still out) AND he cleaned up the mess! Shocked, amazed and oh so grateful. Thanks honey.

I’m not sure how we did at the sale, but my kids were very happy gorging themselves on sweets. The Big Ones even bought some wee gifties for their teachers. Those are two smart cookies, if I do say so myself.