Archives for September 2012

Happy Pumpkin Week dears!! It’s Kayli. (:

Let me tell you a little story.

Once upon a time there was a girl who  was quite excited to try a couple pumpkin recipes, so she went out and bought pumpkin puree and set off on a fantastic pumpkin adventure. It all started great but alas, there was a disappointing turn of events. One recipe was a total bust. In my defense it was actually a microwave recipe and the oven is my domain. I was disappointed but the next recipe, pumpkin muffins, gave me much less trouble. The recipe was actually for baked donuts but I didn’t have a pan and the author of the original recipe said you could make muffins instead. She DID say that they were much better as doughnuts because of the crispy outside, cakey inside ratio but that it was do-able. I have to admit that when I pulled the muffins out and took a test bite, I felt like something was missing. I needed another element- the first thing that came to mind was cream cheese drizzle. (Which you should totally try by the way, because I’m sure it would be DELICIOUS. I think I’ll try it myself next time.)  I didn’t have cream cheese this time around but I DID have chocolate chips! (:  In the madness a wonderful creation was born, pumpkin muffins with chocolate ganache. For the original doughnut/muffin recipe you can go here. Keep in mind you want pumpkin puree NOT pumpkin pie filling.

For the muffins:

Mix together in a bowl

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 3 eggs

• 1 1/2 cups sugar

• 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (Just pumpkin NOT pumpkin pie filling)

• 1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

• 1 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Once smooth, gradually add in

• 1 3/4 cups PLUS 2 tbs. of all purpose flour

Bake at 350* for roughly 25 minutes

I originally rolled mine in cinnamon sugar which did add in a different texture, if you want to do that make sure to do it while the muffins are still warm so it sticks on there. (:

For the ganache:

• Chocolate chips (I used a mixture of semi-sweet and milk)

• Milk (or sweetened condensed)

The fact of the matter is, there are a lot of ways to make ganache. You can do a double boiler method and melt your chips using a pie pan over a pan of boiling water, you can microwave the chips and do it that way. You can use regular milk, you can use sweetened condensed, you can make it thicker by using less milk or thinner by adding more, if it doesn’t have the right consistency go ahead and add more chips or milk and get it where you want it. I trust you’ll figure it out. (: I ended up doing mine in the microwave in the interest of saving some time, I put the chips and milk in a small bowl and microwaved them for 30 seconds then stirred until smooth. If they don’t melt quickly when stirred put them back in for another 10 seconds until they do.

Then I drizzled the chocolate on top of the muffins using a spoon and prayed they would be as delicious as they looked.

Sweet success! Turns out I LOVE pumpkin and chocolate.

So there it is friends. Happy Pumpkin Week and let me know if you try them! (:

P.S. Don’t forget to get YOUR pumpkin recipes ready to link up with us on Friday! Any pumpkin post will be welcome! Crafts, recipes, etc!