Monday, January 11, 2010

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins


I was craving a breakfast muffin. One that I could take to work with me on those days... most days... when I just cannot drag myself out of bed early enough to be able to get dressed, take care of the dogs, and actually eat a proper breakfast at home.

I adapted this recipe, adding soy flour to up the protein content for breakfast; cutting back on the sugar; increasing the pumpkin; and using almond milk in place of dairy milk. I also tossed the chopped cranberries with some granulated sugar to cut back on the tart factor.

Overall the muffins are tasty. They were gorgeous straight out of the oven, but the soy flour and additional pumpkin caused them to fall as they cooled. However, they are not too sweet, have a good pumpkin flavor, and are a nice morning treat with my usual cup of tea. And they freeze well so I can grab one on my way out the door and then give it a quick re-heat once I get to my office.


Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

Makes 12 regular muffins plus 6 mini muffins

1-2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup soy flour
2/3 cup demerara can sugar (I used Florida Crystals brand)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. allspice
1 15oz. can pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (you could use regular, soy, or dairy too)
1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped and tossed with a teaspoon of sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°F and coat a muffin pan with cooking spray or use muffin cups.

In a large bowl combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, and spices. In a smaller bowl combine the pumpkin puree, egg, oil, and milk. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the pumpkin mixture. Gently stir until just combined; over-mixing will make your muffins tough. Fold in the cranberries. Fill muffin cups; an ice cream scoop makes this easy, but I unfortunately don't remember where I recently read this tip. Sprinkle tops with a little more demerara sugar and bake for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester or skewer comes out clean.


Don't you just want to climb right in there?

4 comments:

Simply Life said...

oh those muffins look great!

Kathleen said...

Hey, I just saw you on blog roll. Great blog. These muffins sound de-lish and your photos are beautiful!

CDC said...

those look yummy, and such a nice variation from the orange/cran muffins!

D. @ Outside Oslo said...

Those look really good. I know what you mean about not feeling like making breakfast in the mornings before work. Having a batch of muffins in the freezer is a great idea!