It’s that time of year! Hard to believe my favorite quarter of the year is now almost 2/3 gone. Not many things better than back to back months of holidays. Starting with Halloween, although that isn’t really a holiday. But it sure is a reason to whip up some really fun candy. And in my world, that’s almost a holiday. Then we have Thanksgiving and onto Christmas and New Years. 90 days of feasting and spending quality time with loved ones. And now that we are 2/3 into this, I hope you are spending some time for yourself today amid all the preparations for tomorrow’s feast.
I try to prepare as much in advance as I can, but even with doing that one can still have a lot of work to be done on the big day. And it’s usually a full house on Thanksgiving, so not only are you foraging ahead, you now have an audience. So before the plane lands, and the taxi unloads family and friends at my door, I like to have some me, myself and I time today. Nothing better than an afternoon coffee and a simple muffin to kick start me into the cooking chaos known as Thanksgiving.
I had an extra can of pumpkin from the Pumpkin Stout Cupcake recipe that I made a month or so back, and figured why not use it up. I pulled out a Pumpkin book that I picked up at the local grocery store in the checkout line. You know the book I’m talking about. The little 5×7 theme book that contain the basic brands recipes. A company called Favorite Brand Name Recipes published this book. They had a nice little pumpkin chocolate chip muffin recipe that looked appealing.
I made a few minor modifications to the recipe. The original recipe called for 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. That was a little much for me. You could easily omit this, or even go with 1/4 cup instead to reduce the amount of walnuts. And of course, if I’m reducing walnuts, I’m adding to the chocolate chips by that amount.
It’s a simple recipe, with a short 10 minute preparation time and a baking time of 15 minutes. They are best enjoyed warm, but will easily hold for a few days.
Enjoy the recipe, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup solid pack pumpkin
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Line 2 1/2 inch muffin cups with paper baking cups or spray pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Combine flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl.
- Beat pumpkin, brown sugar, milk, butter and eggs in medium bowl until well blended.
- Add pumpkin mixture, chocolate chips and walnuts to flour mixture and stir until just moistened.
- Spoon evenly into prepared muffin cups.
- Bake 15-17 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes.
- Remove muffins from pan and put onto wire racks to cool completely.
3 comments… add one
Jaden December 10, 2014, 4:41 pm
I love this flavor combo – do you think I could use bittersweet choc chips? Or does the batter need the semi-sweet?
serena December 10, 2014, 9:18 pm
You could use either or even a mix of both. It would definitely be a personal preference on the flavor but not a necessity for the batter.
Ali from Home & Plate June 18, 2015, 7:01 am
Yum…these are perfect for a healthy snack or breakfast. Love the idea of chocolate and pumpkin together.