Pumpkin Pie Muffins

A week and a half ago, a friend of mine had a baby. A super adorable, totally sweet, teeny, tiny, just-want-to-snuggle-her-all-day-long little girl. And, as luck would have it, she and her family let us come visit them a few days after they returned home from the hospital! Yay!

Now, I never like to go anywhere empty handed. Especially not when going to see parents of a newborn baby!. Really especially when they already have two older kids to chase around while operating on the schedule of  an up-every-few-hours newborn.

So, in addition to a super cute little sleeper for the baby, I also brought some muffins. I figured they could be breakfast or dessert or snack... something easy to grab, something they can eat with one hand if needed...

The muffins I chose were based on this pumpkin pie bread recipe. I simply halved the recipe, used a muffin tin instead of loaf pans and reduced the bake time.

And they came out really, really well.

But then little miss got sad.  Because, of the batch of 15 muffins, we brought a dozen to our friends. Leaving only three for home. One for her, one for little man, and one for mama.  And she wanted more than one.

So what's a mama to do?

Well, as "luck" would have it, we've had a bit of extra time on our hands the last few days thanks to the many, many inches of snow that have fallen. And frozen.  So today, we made more muffins!

The muffins call for pumpkin pie spice. but I generally don't keep pre-mixed spice mixes on hand, especially ones for which I need each of the componant ingredients on a regular basis. So I added each of my spices individually.

Which also makes for a cooler picture, don't you think? But do what works for you.

Then my mini-assistant whisked all of that together. He loves helping!

Then, in my mixer, I beat the wet ingredients, then added in the expertly-whisked flour mixture.

Once the batter was in the pan, I added my own little touch. I had a little bit of leftover brown sugar-chai masala mixture left over from my chai spiced cinnamon rolls, so I sprinkled some on top.

Yum.

And then they bake!

And then you receive an e-mail from your daughter's school regarding make-up school days for all the snow days they've had to call due to the crazy winter storms and totally miss the timer going off. Oops.

I was only a minute or two late. I promise.

But... I may just purposely make that mistake again.  The extra minute or two gave these a nice little crunch on the outside (not just the top, which I was expecting from the sugar topping), but the inside remained deliciously moist.

Yum.


Pumpkin Pie Muffins
(based on Pumpkin Pie Bread from allrecipes.com)

1 1/2 cup plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar (I used 1 cup white, 1/2 cup brown)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree (1/2 of a 15 oz. can)
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 12-well muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together sugar, oil, eggs, and pumpkin puree. Stir in flour mixture alternately with water. Full muffin wells about 3/4 full. This is actually enough batter for 15-16 muffins, so you can bake the extra in an additional muffin pan or in a mini-loaf pan.
I sprinkled mine with spiced-brown sugar, but this is optional. You can use streussel topping if you'd like, too - that'd be delicious!
Bake muffins in the preheated oven for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Enjoy!