Editor's Note: Irresistible to kids and adults, fresh muffins can be more than a dessert in disguise! With whole-wheat flour, nuts and pumpkin, these muffins are sure winners for taste and substance. Bake up a fresh pumpkin from your next farm outing or use prepared pumpkin if you're in a hurry. Let the kids help mix and fill the muffin tins for a great beginning baking project to make together.
PCC Natural Markets offers cooking classes for kids of all ages through their PCC Cooks classroom program. Visit www.pcccooks.com for a schedule of upcoming classes. Kids' classes can be found here.
Pumpkin Pecan Muffins
These muffins make excellent snacks or breakfast food. They are also a nice accompaniment to savory soups.
Makes 12 muffins
2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 cup unrefined cane sugar or brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup honey
1 cup mashed cooked pumpkin or winter squash
1/2 cup milk or water
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
Preheat oven to 375º F. Lightly oil muffin tins or line with paper muffin cups. Mix together flours, baking powder, salt, spices, and unrefined cane sugar in large bowl; set aside.
Put butter in a small saucepan to melt. Add molasses and honey to warm butter and stir together. Put cooked pumpkin or squash in blender, add butter-sweetener mixture and milk or water; blend until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla and pulse to blend.
Add wet ingredients to dry mixture and fold gently, using a minimum of strokes. Fold pecans into batter. Fill muffin cups almost full with batter. Bake 25 to 30 minutes.
Recipe by Cynthia Lair, PCC Cooks Instructor and author of Feeding the Whole Family: Whole Foods Recipes for Babies, Young Children and Their Parents.
