Autumn Pumpkin Muffins - Kidlet Approved!

Now that everyone is healthy again, and I'm moderately rested, we're working on getting back to normal.  Along with sleep and energy levels, appetites are also returning to normal, and I had a can of pumpkin purée staring at me from the pantry.  Obviously it was time to make some muffins with Mini Muffin!

We glanced around the internet for some recipes - many we didn't have all the ingredients for, most had too much sugar for our taste, and very few had any whole wheat goodness.  So, working from typical ingredient ratios, we created our own!  I thought I'd capture the recipe here while it's still fresh in my mind -

Autumn Pumpkin Muffins

1 1/4 c whole wheat flour
1 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon*
1 1/2 tsp ginger*
1/8 tsp cloves
Pinch of pepper
1 1/2 c pumpkin purée
1/2 c plain yogurt
1/2 c melted butter
2 eggs
1/3 c brown sugar
1/2 c raisins or chocolate chips (optional)
1/2 c chopped walnuts or pumpkin seeds (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 350F, and line muffin pan with liners.
2.  Blend together first 8 ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.  * A note on spices - these muffins are lightly spiced.  I enjoy rich cinnamon and ginger flavours so if I was making these just for me (or adults), I would double the spice.  However, the spice level listed seems to be perfect for the little taste buds in my house!
3.  Mix all wet ingredients, and add in dry.  Mix until just combined.
4.  If desired, add raisins, chocolate chips and/or walnuts.  We made ours without any extras since I wanted Little Smiling Man to be able to enjoy them, and when presented with raisins or chocolate chips Mini Muffin seems to like to pick them out and neglect the rest of the muffin!
5.  Fill muffin cups. The batter will be quite stiff, so won't change shape when baking, and also won't run over from the muffin papers.
6.  Bake for 35 minutes, or until a tested comes out clean.

Makes ~12 regular sized muffins; adding optional ingredients would yield a few extra muffins.

And, there you have it!  Mini Muffin stirred all the dry ingredients for me as I added things to the bowl.  She also had a go at combining the wet and dry ingredients, but the batter was a bit stiff for her, so Mama finished it off!  She was also thrilled when I ran out of plain muffin papers and broke into my Christmas stash.  Santa is going to be a VERY big deal this year!

After watching them bake, Mini Muffin was the first to taste test them; she ate an entire muffin and asked for another.  They have been her go to snack request since then.  Little Smiling Man has been loving them as well!  They're soft and light, so perfect for a baby learning how to manage finger foods.  They're also moist enough to reasonably withstand being held in a baby fist.  He saw me eating one without him this morning and started squawking until I shared it with him.  The best part in my opinion, is that everyone is thoroughly enjoying eating an extra little bit of pumpkin (about 2 tbsp. of purée per muffin)... and all those great vitamins that come along with it!

Since I have a partial can of pumpkin purée left, you'll likely be seeing more yummy pumpkin recipes here.  Stay tuned!