Extra sparkle from sweet spices give these pumpkin-ginger muffins an irresistible flavor that makes them breakfast-worthy as well as superb snack food. Easy to stir together, they keep well and freeze beautifully. Sweet potatoes instead of pumpkin? Yes, indeed!
Muffin Magic
For busy morning breakfasts on the go, after-school snacks, and easy goodies to share with co-workers, neighbors, and people doing good things in the world, nothing beats a home-baked batch of muffins. Muffins use everyday ingredients you probably have on hand, and can be stirred together with a whisk or spoon, no mixer required.
Pro-Tips for Home Cooks!
My friend Jill O’Connor writes cookbooks, recipes, and free-lance food stories, and her baking superpower is genius-status in creating recipes for pastry-baking pros AND everyday home cooks. She included this recipe in her column in the Union-Tribune newspaper, where she shares do-able deliciousness every month.
Mini-Muffins or Small Loaves or Standard Muffins? Up to You!
These little gems are the mini-muffin version of Jill’s spice-laced, molasses-fueled, pumpkin ginger muffins, which she included in a fall recipe feature on seasonal muffins for the Union-Tribune food section. I love their handsome burnished hue and irresistible texture, tender and moist, inviting and just the whisper of sweetness. I made them into muffins, mini-muffins, and small loaves, and every size and shape works wonderfully.
Anytime of Year…
A batch of these gives you goodies to share and take-out breakfast for the week. Since they’re small, they cook quickly. Though the recipe ingredients list is long, that’s mostly a small array of spices, quickly spooned onto the flour and whisked into to an amber-hued batter that bakes up beautifully.
For two more marvelous memorable muffin recipes (Apple Crumble muffins and Maple Oatmeal muffins) from Jill O’Connor, check out her feature story from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking right HERE.
Pumpkin-Ginger Muffins
Molasses and honey team up in these lavishly-spiced muffins, which can be made with cooked mashed sweet potatoes as well as with pumpkin puree. Delicious warm, they also keep well and are equally tasty the day after they are baked."
Ingredients
- ½ cup canola oil
- ½ cup molasses
- ½ cup honey
- ½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1½ cups pure pumpkin puree
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 3 large eggs
- 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Adjust shelf to center rack of the oven.
- Line two standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners, or grease them generously.
- In a large saucepan, combine the oil, molasses, honey and brown sugar.
- Stir over medium heat just until the sugar melts.
- Remove from heat and cool slightly.
- Add the pumpkin and buttermilk and whisk smooth.
- Whisk the eggs in, one at a time, just until smooth.
- Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and all the spices.
- Gently whisk the flour into the pumpkin mixture, 1/3 at a time, until smooth.
- Fill the muffin tins ¾ full.
- Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, just until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Remove the muffins from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack.
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