As you will recall, Andrew, Audrey, and I went pumpkin picking in rural Maryland this fall. We came home with four lovely pumpkins, which we displayed on the front porch in a fetching autumn arrangement. One morning, we came outside to find that there were nibbles taken out of one pumpkin...until eventually the pumpkins were being demolished, one by one!
We suspected squirrels or maybe rabbits, but it was clear that we were either going to feed ourselves or the Bethesda wildlife - we won out. With the last remaining pumpkin, Audrey toasted pumpkin seeds for a crunchy snack and I made an enormous batch of pumpkin muffins.
These muffins are made with cinnamon and nutmeg, yogurt, and whole wheat flour for a hearty morning snack. We cleaned the pumpkin, cut it in wedges, and roasted it until it was very soft - then I scraped the flesh from the skin and blended the pumpkin into a smooth puree. The recipe came from epicurious.com and is from a 2001 issue of Bon Appetit:3 1/2 c. flour (I used half white, half whole wheat)
2 t. baking powder
2 t. baking soda
1 1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
3/4 t. ground nutmeg
3 c. pureed pumpkin
1/2 c. brown sugar (the original recipe calls for 2 c. sugar (1c. white, 1c.brown) - use as much as you like)
1 c. vegetable oil (I used 1/2 c.)
4 large eggs
1 t. minced peeled fresh ginger
3/4 c. buttermilk (I used yogurt)
Optional: 1/2 c. dried fruit (golden raisins are good!)
Combine dry ingredients. Beat together the pumpkin and sugar, then the oil and eggs. Add minced ginger and buttermilk/yogurt. Stir in the dry ingredients in ~4 additions. Cook in muffin tins or mini-bread tins until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean - 45 min-1 hour (I did find muffins overcooked at an hour, so monitor them carefully).
Ooh, these sound tasty! Even with the "nutmet." ;) I've been making more muffins recently, since Dave is a big fan. Having been spending some time perusing the internet for various recipes, it has been amazing to me how much difference there is in fat and sugar contents! So it was particularly interesting to me to see just HOW much you cut them both in your version here. Your muffins look much more pumpkiny than the ones I ended up making, which used molasses, and therefore kind of tasted like molasses, instead of pumpkin. Thanks for posting the recipe! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm proud. I like to think that the whole wheat flour and lack of sugar are my influence. I spend many Saturday mornings whipping up batches of muffins trying to cut things out. I served Cath banana muffins once with NO sugar in them (oops) and they sure were a tasty accident!
ReplyDeleteYes, Susan, you have had a significant influence on my muffin making - you showed me how tasty they are without all the added sugar and fat, so the veggies and fruit shine through!
ReplyDeleteSusan (or Catherine), do you have any kind of general guideline for how much fat and sugar you can cut out? Or alternatively, how much you usually put in? :)
ReplyDeleteSusan should probably answer this because she often cuts the oil down to a tablespoon or two and simply sprinkles a bit of sugar on top of muffins. I think, in her case, it has been a matter of experimentation. I like them a tad sweeter, so I put in a bit more. Sue?
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to trying this recipe. I printed it out as it looks like a much healthier alternative the the one I usually use for pumpkin muffins.
ReplyDeleteYou do need to experiment a bit with this and the flavor of muffin changes the results a bit. I have had great success in cutting out fat and sugar in banana muffins in particular. Bananas are naturally sweet, so cutting more sugar (down to about 1/4 cup) works very nicely (with maybe a tad sprinkled on top for crunch). I found that cutting down to about 2 Tbsp of oil is just fine in most recipes - they aren't as tender (or greasy) - but if you are putting in half whole wheat flour anyways, you aren't looking for that cake-like texture. I haven't had any huge disasters, so pick a standard recipe and play around! (I use Joy of Cooking)
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with experimenting, but I do appreciate the guidelines. :) Thanks!
ReplyDeleteOkay, I just have to do an update, because this worked great! :) I took a blueberry yogurt muffin recipe I'd made once before, substituted 2C of the 3C of flour with whole wheat flour and almond meal, halved the sugar to 1/2C, halved the oil to 1/4C, added an extra 1/4C of yogurt for the moisture, and they were delicious!! I'd asked Dave beforehand if he wouldn't mind healthier muffins today, and after he'd tried one he said, "they don't even taste all that healthy!" Probably would have if I'd used 2C whole wheat flour instead of 1C almond meal, but I do really like the almond meal in baked goods.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I hadn't really been thinking about how I use a banana in place of butter in chocolate chip cookies frequently, and also sometimes just mash a banana instead of the oil for things like banana bread. We also used to use prune puree on occasion when I was growing up - that worked really well in baked goods instead of the fat too.
Anyway, I'm glad I've gotten the prod I needed to experiment more with muffins like I have with other things. This could be fun! :)
P.S. If you want a tasty berry muffin recipe, just let me know. ;)
ReplyDeleteYes please - I have some frozen blueberries that would be great in muffins. Can you tell me more about the almond meal? Does it provide oil? Would flax meal work too?
ReplyDeleteAlmond meal is basically just ground-up almonds, but not ground so much that you get almond butter. :) It has a close to flour-like consistency. My understanding is that you can also get almond flour, which is even more like flour, but I've always used almond meal. The flour also usually doesn't have the almond skins, while the almond meal does (I think). I buy almond meal at Trader Joe's, where it's not too outrageously expensive. And then I use it in baked goods. Not all the time, but like I mentioned with the muffins, it works really well to turn a white flour recipe into 1/3 white, 1/3 whole wheat, and 1/3 almond meal.
ReplyDeleteI especially like using almond meal because it's actually cutting out flour, and I react a little bit to wheat if I eat too much of it, using almond meal helps. I'm sure it does provide oil, since it's ground up nuts, but almond oils should be pretty good for you, right? And maybe you could even cut the oil down further when using it.
I have no idea whether flax meal could be used instead. I've never heard of flax meal being used for baking in large quantities, but I also haven't used flax a whole lot!
Muffin recipe in a moment...
Okay, here's the recipe, first the original version, and then with my notes at the bottom of how I adjusted it this time. The URL is there for where I originally got the recipe from, but the website takes so long to load that it drives me crazy, so I just copied the recipe down. :)
ReplyDeleteBlackberry (or blueberry) Yogurt Muffins
http://bad-girls-kitchen.blogspot.com/2008/08/blackberry-yogurt-muffins.html
3 cups minus 2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 generous, heaping cup plain yogurt
2 cups blackberries
Softened butter, for muffin pan
Raw sugar
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Generously butter muffin pan.
In a large bowl stir together flour, baking soda, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In another large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, vanilla, egg, and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined. Be careful not to over-mix.
Add blackberries or blueberries, reserving 1/2 cup, to mixture and gently fold in.
Add mixture to well-buttered muffin pans. Top each muffin with 2 or so berries. Sprinkle raw sugar over top.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes and allow them to cool completely.
1/29/11 Tried 1C-1tbsp almond meal, 1C-1tbsp whole wheat flour, and 1C white flour. Scanted the salt. Used only a somewhat heaping half cup of sugar. Only 1/4 C of oil. Added 1/4 C more yogurt to make up for less oil. Used a mix of blueberries and blackberries. Forgot the raw sugar for the top. They were really good!
Thanks, C - I will be baking muffins TONIGHT and intend to try this!
ReplyDelete