I had several small pumpkins from the farmers market that I had been using as decoration for Thanksgiving. They were starting to get a little soft, so it was time to bake them and use them... for something. I found a promising looking recipe on Hell Yeah It's Vegan for pumpkin bread, and thought I'd see what I could do with it. I made one batch exactly by the recipe, and baked it as a loaf. Good. Hell Yeah. But you know how I feel about oil, so I started mixing again, this time leaving out the oil and simply subbing extra pumpkin for the oil. I baked this batch as muffins, and then called in my taste testers, who are always so wonderfully willing to help me out. The muffins were a little bit more dense than the loaf, but they tasted almost exactly the same, except for the rather oily undertone I noticed in the loaf. I know it's largely my palate that picks up (and doesn't love) oil in foods. I'm so used to not having it, it no longer makes my mouth happy. But I think some people might prefer the more traditional mouth feel of a bit of oil in their muffins. For the original recipe, click here. For my version, read on.
Pumpkin Muffins
1 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 T pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 cups pumpkin purée (canned or cooked from scratch)
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries
Preheat oven to 350°.
Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
Stir wet ingredients into dry, just until blended.
Spoon batter into a lined or lightly oiled muffin tin.
Bake at 350° for 40-50 minutes, or until the tops are browned and a toothpick comes out clean.
