Friday, November 7, 2008

Pumpkin-Cranberry Muffins

First, I want to say how glad I am that in his first post-election press conference, Barack Obama confirmed they intend to get a shelter dog for the family. Hearing a president-elect advocate for shelter animals in a press event covered nationwide just rocks so much. If I may presume to speak for them, thanks from Otter, Maya, and every other shelter dog-street mutt who've spent time with me.
On to the muffins. The primary motivation for making muffins last night was an excuse to turn the oven on for a while - the downstairs neighbors control the thermostat and weren't home, and the place was frigid. These are ensemble muffins, with fun stuff like ground flax seeds, apple sauce, pecans, dried cranberries, fresh grated ginger, and allspice. Here's my recollection of the ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all-purpose white flour
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 tbsp. fresh grated ginger
2 tbsp. ground flax seeds
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1/2 cup brown sugar (up to a cup if you like very sweet muffins - I like them just sweet enough to notice the sugar)
2 tbsp. canola oil
1/2 cup of the apple sauce I just made
3/4 cup soy milk, or other non-dairy milk
1/2 cup dried cranberries or other dried fruit
a dozen pecans for topping

1. Preheat oven to 425 F, and grease or spray with oil a muffin tin. This recipe made a dozen muffins, of what I consider a "standard" size.
2. Mix the dry ingredients - flour, flax seeds, baking powder, and spices - in one bowl; the wet ingredients - pumpkin, canola oil, soy milk, applesauce, ginger, plus sugar - in another. Mix both bowls together, and fold in the cranberries.
3. Divide the batter evenly in the muffin pan. I pressed a pecan or two into the top of each muffin. Bake for about 15 minutes - they're done when they turn a golden brown, but I know you already knew that.

4 comments:

Lisa (Show Me Vegan) said...

pumpkin, cranberries, and pecans are perfect ingredients for this time of year!

Anonymous said...

Looks awesome! I like how you put the pecans on top for presentation. I usually just chop them up and they get 'lost' in the batter.

Anonymous said...

Just made these with the addition of oats, fresh cranberries and date pieces. Yum! Thanks!

Gauri Radha गौरी राधा said...

These look very appetizing.