Pumpkin Muffins!

Remember when I told you I don't follow directions well? Yeah, well it hit again in a BIG way today. I'm going to walk you through my post as my morning happened.

I was looking for a yummy recipe for pumpkin muffins that wasn't full of fat and sugar and it was hard to find a healthy recipe. Fortunately I stumbled up on a recipe by Ellie Kreiger that didn't just limit the sugar and fat, but it added whole wheat flour. SWEET!

The recipe calls for butter milk, which I didn't have, but I saw another recipe while I was looking for pumpkin muffin recipes that said I could substitute plain yogurt for buttermilk. I always have plain yogurt on hand for cooking.

Pumpkin Muffins:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-grain pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsulphered molasses
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk - I used 3/4 cup of yogurt along with a tablespoon of water.
1/4 cup raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds - I omitted these since I haven't gutted a pumpkin lately.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. - I used my mondo large bowl for this and found that I had to transfer the dry ingredients to a medium bowl like the recipe called for.

In a large bowl, (Notice the bowl in this picture...it is the mondo bowl I put the dry ingredients in. Notice what is missing from the ingredients list?) whisk the sugar, molasses, oil and 1 egg until combined. Add the other egg and whisk well. Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined. - Now I actual thought...how does one over mix a batter? I'm going to make sure I don't over mix this one because the batter looks so fluffy...I wonder if it is because I used yogurt instead of buttermilk.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. (Now as I was walking the mondo bowl to the sink, I happened to lick the spoon...I know...I'm an adult and really shouldn't do that because of the uncooked eggs and I might get salmonella...but I do it anyway. But the batter didn't taste very sweet. WAIT, what the....I don't remember putting any sugar in this recipe. Could it really be that healthy that Ellie Kreiger didn't put sugar in it? No. I didn't follow the directions very well. RAH!!!!!)

Let's see how well the cooking spray works. I had to spoon the batter back into the mondo bowl, add the sugar and over mix the batter to incorporate the sugar.

Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.
Fortunately my faux pas didn't screw up my pumpkin muffins. They turned out PERFECT! This is a GREAT recipe for a healthy pumpkin muffin. Ellie knows healthy muffins!

But that wasn't the end of my not following the directions morning. I got my coffee going so it would be ready when I pulled out my yummy pumpkin muffins. I even bought myself some pumpkin creamer to go with my coffee. My coffee maker started making that coffee percolating sound it makes when it has processed all the water through the filter...I grabbed my coffee cup, went to the coffee maker only to see a clear pot of water in the carafe. What the...? Good CRAP! Did I even put a filter in there? Yes, I, did. It's Saturday morning and you wouldn't think I was functioning on a Monday morning. :) I'm worried about what Monday has in store for me.