Pumpkin Muffins

Last fall, my mom and I had become completely addicted to the pumpkin bread at Starbuck’s, and by the time that I arrived home for Christmas, she’d been testing and tweaking different recipes that she found on the internet in hopes of replicating what we’d both agreed was one of the yummiest things made with pumpkin to come along since I made the hazlenut crunch -pumpkin mousse back in the late 80’s.

The other day, I bought some pumpkin at the little corner grocer – real pumpkin, not the canned kind, which is hard to find here, and if you do find it, it’ll cost a fortune – in hopes of making puree, and then something dessert-y with pumpkin, so I called up my mom and asked her for her muffin recipe, which she willingly gave up.

As it turns out, the piece of pumpkin that I bought, sliced into two pieces and turned upside-down in a couple of inches of water, and covered with foil in a 350-degree oven for about half an hour, pureed up just perfectly, and made, in fact, the perfect amount – 16 ounces, the same amount of pumpkin in a can – that I needed to make her muffins.

Here’s the recipe. These freeze well and, like pumpkin pie, are even better the next day.

Mom’s Pumpkin Muffins

Preheat oven to 175 C or 350 F.

3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
16 ounces pumpkin
3 cups flour
½ teaspoon cloves
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Mix the first four ingredients in a bowl until well blended.

Sift the flour and spices in a separate bowl and add to the wet ingredients in two parts.

Pour into muffin cups…

…and bake for 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle muffin comes out clean.

Makes two dozen fabulous, fluffy pumpkin-y muffins!