During the holidays filled with eating indulgence, it is nice to have a recipe which is tasty and indulgent, but still nutritious. This pumpkin muffin fits the bill.  Filled with pumpkin, oatmeal, applesauce, eggs, and spices, it relies little on less wholesome ingredients.  It is great toasted for breakfast, or an after school snack.  The prep time is only 10 minutes, and they are out of the oven in 20 minutes.  If you keep pumpkin puree in your pantry, the rest are all ingredients found in a standard kitchen. There is no reason to limit these muffins to the fall.  They are great year round.  I think you will agree.

Ingredients:

•    4 cups pumpkin puree (2-15 oz works as well)
•    1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1/2 lowfat buttermilk
•    4 eggs
•    2 cups flour
•    1 cup oatmeal
•    4 teaspoons baking powder
•    3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
•    1 teaspoon ground cloves (my husband prefers less 1/4 teaspoon)
•    1 teaspoon salt
•    1 cup semi sweet chocolate chunks, if you cannot find chocolate chips work as well

 

Preheat oven to 375o.  Mix all dry ingredients except the chocolate in a medium sized bowl.

The mixture should be consistent in appearance.

Mix all liquid ingredients in a separate medium sized bowl.

The eggs should be completely broken down and the mixture smooth in appearance.

Fold wet and dry ingredients to just combine.

Alternatively, you could mix all ingredients except chocolate chips together until blended.

Do not overmix as muffins will become tough.  Batter should look as it does below.

Stirr in chocolate chunks.

You can grease and flour muffin tins, or use paper lines.  Use an ice cream scoop to evenly distribute the batter.

Muffin tins should be about 3/4 full.

Bake for 18-20 minutes until toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean.   Cool in pan or on wire rack.

Varation:

You may substitute 1 cup chopped walnuts for the chocolate chips.

Equipement:

I love the pyrex stacking measuring cups.  They come in 1, 2, and 4 cup measures.  As they are stackable, they only consume the space of one cup.

The bowls from duralex are also another must have.  10 bowls within easy reach in a variety of sizes than only use the shelf space of one bowl.  Dishwasher and microwave safe as well. Very chip resistant as I have dropped mine on more than one occasion over the years.