pumpkin

Thanksgiving Turkey Cake

November 21, 2017

This is about the closest thing I am going to get to a Thanksgiving turkey this year. And I am totally okay with that!

We had friends over for a little Friendsgiving this past weekend and I used it as an excuse to make this Thanksgiving turkey cake. I had seen quite a few similar cakes on Pinterest and Instagram, so I thought I would throw my hat into the ring.

I think he turned out rather handsome, if not a little goofy looking. But there is nothing wrong with goofy.

To make him, (Yes, I decide that it is a “him” and I named him Tom. Tom the Turkey.) I made one batch of this pumpkin spice cake. I also whipped up a batch of my cream cheese frosting for the filling. Since I wanted his outer layer to be brown, I made a chocolate ganache which I then whipped to form a frosting.

Chocolate ganache is actually pretty simple to make. However, I totally understand if you want to run out and grab a can of chocolate frosting or bake your own chocolate buttercream.

All you do is pour hot cream over chopped chocolate and let it melt. Once it has completely melted, you toss it in the fridge to harden. I recommend doing this overnight as it does take a few hours. When it is nice and set, transfer it to a bowl of a stand mixer and whip it up. Ta-da!

I used that whipped chocolate ganache to completely cover my entire cake.

Then I stuck in the feathers that I made with my red, orange, and yellow candy melts.

Added some eyes using leftover cream cheese frosting.

And a beak and a little red thing….anyone know what that’s called?

Now you can make your very own Tom the Thanksgiving turkey cake! But you don’t have to name your’s Tom. You don’t have to name it at all. It’s kind of weird to name your food.

Recipes used:

Supplies used:
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Chai Spiced Pumpkin Pie

November 10, 2017

A Thanksgiving table isn’t complete without pumpkin pie, right?

Well, can I admit something to you? This is a safe space right? Pumpkin pie….is not….my favorite.

There, I said it. If this were grade school and we were picking teams for kickball, pumpkin pie would be the kid in class I picke last.

I think it’s because I had a bad experience with pumpkin pie as a kid that I just haven’t completely gotten over. But I have made some major progress over the years. For instance, I have jumped on board the pumpkin spice bandwagon, just like every other millennial female. Also, I do a lot of baking with pumpkin. It’s just when it’s in pie form, well, that’s when I lose interest.

Until….

This chai spiced pumpkin pie. This pie was a turning point for me. While chai spice is essentially pumpkin pie spice with some cardamom, the added cardamom takes the average pumpkin pie to the next level!

This chai spiced pumpkin pie would not be picked last for my kickball team.

I will also admit to you (again, safe space), that I was debating over whether to use store-bought pie crust or make my own. Clearly, you can see which one won. And I am glad it did. It offered me the opportunity to add ever more chai spice to the pie crust!

Making pie crust really isn’t all that hard. Actually, my version is pretty easy because I let the food processor do all the work for me (work smarter, not harder, kids). After the pie dough has a chance to chill in the fridge for a bit, all you got to do is roll it out and trim it.

Next is a very crucial step. How crucial? Well, do you want a soggy bottom pie or a not crispy crust pie? No one wants a soggy bottom, so to avoid that you must partially bake your pie crust. It only takes a few minutes. Just cover your pie crust with a layer of foil or parchment and fill it with pie weights. Pop it in the oven for about 20 minutes, and you will have a just barely cooked pie crust. But it’s enough that once you add your super wet filling, it will be able to crisp up even more while it bakes.

Meanwhile, you can make your filling!

The filling for this pie is almost exactly like the classic pumpkin pie. Except in place of pumpkin pie spice, I added chai spices. For those of you who aren’t familiar, chai spice contains:

Cardamom
Cinnamon
Ginger
Clove

Sometimes it also contains nutmeg or allspice. In this case, since I was adding it to a pumpkin pie, I did add both. I also added a bit of tumeric to boost that color. It doesn’t add a whole lot of flavor, so you can easily leave that out.

Once all the filling ingredients are mixed up and smooth, pour it into your partially baked pie crust and then pop it back into the oven.

While the oven bakes, kick back and relax. Have a glass of wine. Or get back to work concocting some sort of pie cruat design to put on top.

It’s clear which one I did.

If you are like me, and follow a lot of bakers on Instagram, you may be seeing a lot of amazing pie crust designs. I absolutely love them! However, since I rarely make pies, I never get to recreate my favorite pie crust designs.

This pumpkin pie created an opportunity to do my very own pie crust design. Since I was making a chai spiced pumpkin pie, I wanted to create a simple mandala-like design on top. I used my extra pie crust to make various shapes, mostly circles (using the ends of my #10 piping tip) and tear drops (using a clay cutter from the craft store). I assembled them in the design i wanted on a piece of parchment, then put them in the freezer to chill.

Trouble is, pumpkin pie (or any custard pie), isn’t the best pie to add a crust design on top. If you put pie crust on top of the pumpkin pie filling, the pieces will just sink to the bottom. But if I am one thing, it’s ~~persistent~~ stubborn, and I will get it done no matter what.

There are two methods to adding a crust design on top of a custard pie.

1. Bake the pie until it is almost done, mostly set from the crust in, then take the pie out and add your pie dough design on top. Then put it back in the oven to continue baking. (This is what I did)

2. Bake the pie dough pieces seperately in the oven. Then when both the pie crust pieces and the pie itself are completly baked, remove from the oven and assemble. (This is what I wish I had done.)

Either way, the pie turned out beautiful and delicious! And the latter is what’s most important.

And boy is it! I have never finished even a slice of pumpkin pie before. With this pie, I not only finished 1 slice, I had another. I also may or may have also eaten it straight from the pan. Don’t judge. We all have our weaknesses. Mine is dessert.

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Maple Pecan Pumpkin Bread

October 10, 2017

I know everyone is a little pumpkin obsessed these days (present company included), but there is one Fall flavor combination that I think I prefer even more: maple pecan! Even Starbucks is getting on the bandwagon with their maple-pecan latte, which is delicious, btw.

Last Fall I made this maple pecan cake which may just be my favorite cake of all time (it tastes like a giant stack of pancakes). So, this Fall I couldn’t wait to get the gang back together and make some more delicious maple pecan treats. Since it is October after all, I couldn’t leave pumpkin completely out of the mix. Hence, we have maple pecan pumpkin bread!

This recipe is very similar to my glazed pumpkin bread recipe. The only changes I made were to replace some of the sugar with maple syrup to give the bread a subtly sweet maple flavor; it also makes the bread extra moist!

To start, cream together butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup for about a minute, then add in the eggs and pumpkin and mix until the are incorporated. Move that bowl aside and whisk together the flour (in this case I used both AP and whole wheat flour), baking powder, baking soda, and pumpkin spice just until there are no lumps or clumps. Then mix half of the flour mixture into the butter mixture.

The other half of the flour mixture will actually be tossed with the chopped pecans before being mixed in with the rest of the batter. This helps keep the pecans evenly disbursed throughout the bread.

Then, pour the batter into a loaf pan and sprinkle a few extra pecans right on top. Finally, bake the loaf at 350 degrees for almost an hour. Just sit back, clean some dishes, and wait for your kitchen to fill up with the most wonderful maple, pecan, pumpkin spice scent. Seriously, someone should bottle that scent and make it into a candle!

The hardest part of most recipes (for me, at least), is waiting for the baked goods to cool before I dig in. Since this pumpkin bread takes almost an hour to bake, by the time it comes out of the oven the anticipation is killing me. Oh, and the smell. Have I mentioned how good it smells? (Seriously, someone make this a candle! I will buy your first 20.) Yeah, that won’t help either.

But I encourage you to wait as long as possible before slicing into this amazing loaf. It will take at least 20 minutes for it to cool enough to cut into without crumbling into pieces.

The wait will be worth it.

Promise.
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Mason Jar Pumpkin Pies

October 28, 2016

Pumpkin pie and I have’t always seen eye to eye (and I swear I didn’t try to make that rhyme). Maybe it was because Thanksgiving wasn’t really my favorite holiday. Or because, as a kid, I didn’t want my dessert to have vegetables in it. Now that I am older, not only have I grown to like pumpkin pie, but I also like the idea of having a serving of vegetables with dessert.

I will add, though, that my favorite part of pumpkin pie (both then and now) was the crust! That’s what I really like about these little mason jar pumpkin pies….the ratio of pie to crust is strongly in my favor. It’s almost 50/50! But, if you aren’t a crust-lover like me, you could skip the bottom crust and just fill the entire mason jar with the pumpkin pie filling and just top it with a little bit of crust.

But is definitely not what I did. I started by making my own pie crust (super easy, btw, when you make it in a food processor!), then cut out little rounds of crust and pushed them into the bottom of the mason jars. I pricked the pie dough with a fork, the par baked for a few minutes. I then poured the the pumpkin pie filling in to the jars and baked them on a baking sheet until they were set up around the sides, but still a jiggly in the center.

At that point, I added some additional crust on top then continued to bake the pies until the top layer of crust had browned.

Once they came out of the oven for the final time, I added a special touch that I learned from Alton Brown – bruléeing some brown sugar on top to create a crunchy, sugary, crust. This was my first time trying this technique, and I will never NOT add a brulée topping on my pumpkin pie again! I would have never thought of it on my own, but it really put this relatively ordinary pie over the top.

The other thing I love about these pies is that they are the perfect portion size. If I had a whole pie in front of me, I would “limit” myself to a sliver, then continue to cut off more and more slivers until I had practically eaten half the pie! These little pies are already portion controlled…and portable!

I think these would be so fun for a Friendsgiving or holiday party, don’t you!?

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:89]

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Salted Caramel Pumpkin Apple Bunt Cake

October 19, 2016

If there is one thing you can’t say “no” to, it’s a hungry pregnant woman. At least, I can’t. If you are creating a human life, I will make you any food you want. That’s why when my 6-month pregnant friend and co-worker asked me to recreate a muffin she loved, I had to give it a shot.

One morning she called me over to her desk and told me to try the muffin she picked up for breakfast. It was a pumpkin muffin, but it was stuffed with apples, and had some sort of caramel glaze. Sounds delicious, right? It was! So I took a couple notes and told her I would come up a recipe for her to try.

I started with a pumpkin base, which I adapted from my pumpkin bar and pumpkin bread recipe. To that, I added some apples that I sauteed in butter, sugar, and cinnamon until then were soft. I folded the apples into the cake batter and then poured it into a bunt cake pan. I could have made these muffins or cupcakes, but I thought a bunt cake would be more fun. Plus, I had just bought this bunt cake pan so I wanted to take it for a spin.

Once it had come out of the oven and was cooled, I poured over some caramel sauce. I actually used those caramel candies you would buy for dipping apples into, but if I had the time (and the cream), I would have made my own caramel sauce to pour on top.

While the sauce was still a bit sticky, I sprinkled on some sea salt and pepitas for an extra crunch.

Then I took the cake to my friend for a taste test. The verdict? It was good! I would have never paired pumpkin and apples, but it really worked! It was like apple pie filling meets a pumpkin cake. It was the perfect Fall flavor combination. And the salted caramel just sent it over the top. Literally the icing on the cake.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:86]

Glazed Pumpkin Bread

October 5, 2016

I started a new job on Monday. While I am still at the same company, I am in a whole new department on an entirely different floor. While I am excited about this new job, it was really hard to leave all my friends in my old department. I would like to say that my coworkers were sad to see me go, too, but I think they are really going to miss all the baked goods I bring in. Actually, I don’t have to assume…many people down right told me that they expected me to still drop off cookies and muffins.

So on my last day in the group, I decided to wake up a bit early and make them one last treat – pumpkin bread. And if you are wondering why there are no pictures of the process, it’s because this was thrown together before the sun came up.

Whipping up the batter for this quick bread was really easy and, well, quick. But it does take some time to bake. Which was fine for me. I put it in the oven then I went on upstairs and got ready for work. It actually worked out really well. It also helped that since it was my last day in the job, I wasn’t too worried about being late.

But because of the time crunch, I didn’t really have a chance to test this out before I brought it into the office. Sure, I licked the bowl and the batter was delish, but of course things could have changed in the oven. Once it was dropped off in the break room, I waited for someone else to cut in so that I could finally steal a bit. Fortunately, it was good….it was really good. That pumpkin bread was gone within the hour.

I’m going to miss my old coworkers. They were such good recipe taste testers and barometers, and they didn’t even know it! I always knew I had a good recipe if the food was I brought was gone by lunch or someone asked for the recipe. I guess I will have to keep dropping off some baked goods for them.

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[amd-yrecipe-recipe:83]

Creamy Pumpkin Soup Recipe

September 30, 2016

I will admit that I am relatively inexperienced when it comes to cooking with pumpkin. Sure, I can bake with pumpkin that comes out of a can, but something about that chubby little gourd intimidates me a bit. Maybe because I think of it more as a decoration than a vegetable.

But really, it’s not any different than some of my other favorite Fall vegetables, like butternut, spaghetti, and acorn squash. Which is why I decided to stretch myself a bit and try making some savory pumpkin foods instead of staying in my comfort zone of sweet pumpkin foods.

The first recipe I decided to tackle is a pumpkin soup. I figured I could adapt my favorite butternut squash soup recipe pretty easily to work with pumpkin. (I’m really breaking outside that comfort zone, guys. Watch out!)

I started by peeling and chopping up 1 medium sized pie pumpkin. Then I roasted the pumpkin in the oven for about 20 minutes until it was tender.

And just a quick reminder, you don’t want to use a pumpkin that you find outside the super market waiting to be carved. You want to use a pie pumpkin, which is much smaller and can be found with your other Fall squash in the produce section.

Once the pumpkin is nice and roasted, I add it to a pot with sauteed onions, garlic, shallot, stock, milk, and spices. Once all the flavors are all melded together, I transferred the soup to a blender to blend until smooth. You could also use an immersion blender for this task, but if you do use a blender or food processor, make sure to it doesn’t splatter all over the place.

I like to serve this with a few pepitas on top and a dash of cinnamon. I didn’t want this soup to taste like pumpkin pie, but cinnamon and pumpkin just go so well together! You could also drizzle in some truffle oil (truffles are good on everything) or spoon in some sour cream to make this extra creamy. But this soup is great on it’s own and the perfect lunch or dinner for a crisp Fall day.

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[amd-yrecipe-recipe:81]

Soft and Gooey Pumpkin Bars

September 21, 2016

It’s that time of the year. That time when Pumpkin Spice takes over the world. Frankly, its a little early for pumpkin spiced anything for me, but if it makes Fall come faster, then I will play along.

I’m kicking off this pumpkin season with these pumpkin bars. They were inspired by a Williams Sonoma Instagram post. I was hoping to find the recipe on their website, sadly the post was just promoting their pumpkin bar mix. Boo! So instead of giving up, I decided to reverse engineer the recipe from the ingredients in the mix. Which wasn’t as easy as I had hoped. Sure, it gave me the ingredient list, but not the measurements. Turns out, that’s kind of important.

After some trial and error, I think I came up with a pretty great pumpkin bar. It wasn’t exactly what I expected, but it’t like the perfect combination of pumpkin cake and pumpkin pie. Soft on the bottom, gooey on top.

The great thing about this recipe is that, while it is two layers, it is all baked at once. Also, it using a whole can of pumpkin puree. I don’t know about you but I hate it when I use a can of anything, only to have part of it left over.

It’s the little things in life.

I was actually a little disappointed when I first cut into them. I was aiming for a thicker, dryer bottom layer so that it was almost the crust to the pumpkin pie-like topping. But in the end, the bottom layer was a rich pumpkin cake, almost a pound cake, with a creamy pumpkin layer on top. After one bite, I was converted. Like I said above, it turned out to be the best of both a pumpkin cake and pumpkin pie.

To be sure, I brought them to Small Group to taste test. The verdict, two thumbs up! I love that my Small Group has basically become my recipe test group.

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[amd-yrecipe-recipe:78]

Iced Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

November 23, 2015

I made these cute pastel orange and pink pumpkin sugar cookies for a friends baby shower last month. And since Thanksgiving is this week, thus ending “pumpkin” season, I thought it was about time I posted how I decorated these cute cookies!

I should also mention that these aren’t just any decorated sugar cookie. When I made the cookie dough, I tossed in a couple teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. I didn’t tell my friend about the added spice, but she was pleasantly surprised! She loved the flavor and it tied in with the decoration beautifully.

Even if you don’t want to decorate these cookies like pumpkins, I highly recommend adding pumpkin pie spice to cookie dough. Obviously there is no “pumpkin” flavor, but the spice combination is just so warm and cozy! It just taste like Fall and everything that is wonderful about Fall.

I started the decoration process by marking off the sections of the pumpkin with an edible ink marker. Then I piped 15-second consistency royal icing to form every other section, as you can see in the top section.

After the first sections crusted, which took about 30-45 minutes, I piped the sections in between. By allowing the sections to dry first, it ensure that the icing doesn’t run together and keeps each section slight separated.

To give the pumpkin some additional dimension, I brushed some brown edible petal dust in the creases once the cookie was completely dry (I allowed it to dry overnight). This not only helped with dimension, but also gave the pumpkin a little bit more texture, which made it look a bit more realistic.

Then I piped on a stem with thicker, piping consistency brown royal icing using a star piping tip. I wanted the icing thick enough so that the groves from the star tip stayed in tact.

With green piping consistency royal icing, I piped on some vines and leaves. I used a leaf piping tip for the leaves, which are much easier than they look. With the points of the tip on the top and bottom, apply enough pressure on the piping bag to pipe a thick ribbon of icing, then release the pressure and pull the tip away quickly to create the point of the leaf. I hope that makes sense! Every time I make leaves, I do a couple practice tries before I pipe on the cookie.

These are great cookies to make if you are still getting comfortable decorating cookies with royal icing (like me!). It doesn’t require a lot of intricate piping. You can just pipe out some icing in the general shape and use a toothpick or scribe tool to help you form the exact shape you need.

I will definitely be making pumpkin cookies again next year for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or for any Fall get-together! People seemed to really love them, not just because they look like pumpkins but also because of the pumpkin pie spice flavor.

I used my Basic Sugar Cookie recipe and added 2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice in with the flour mixture.

See my other cookie decoration posts here and here.

Happy baking!

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White Chocolate Pumpkin Seed Brittle

October 23, 2015

Do you need any more pumpkin recipes? I sure don’t! Well this technically isn’t a pumpkin recipe…it’s a pumpkin seed recipe! Got to use the other parts of the pumpkin, right?

This recipe was inspired by my love for brittle. Growing up, my aunt would make brittle for the holidays and I would demolish it, it was so good! This is pretty much her recipe but instead of peanuts I used pepitas (or shelled pumpkin seeds) and added just a touch of pumpkin pie spice.

My “signature” ingredient to any brittle recipe I make is a touch baking soda. The baking soda reacts with the sugars and causes it to puff up (like you can see above) and also creates lighter and not so dense brittle. If you have ever had honeycomb candy, its what they add to the sugar to create all those air pockets and the honeycomb effect.

To really knock this recipe out of the park, I added some white chocolate on top. Pumpkin pie spice and white chocolate is such a great combination. I highly recommend adding white chocolate to just about any pumpkin recipe you might make.

Anywho…once the chocolate sets up, I break the brittle into pieces. Of course, all little itty bitty pieces are for taste testing. Only the big pieces are worth serving. That’s my rule of thumb for any sort of baked good.

I will probably be making this or some version of it from now until the New Year!

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Pumpkin Pie Dip

October 9, 2015

If you are attending any sort of gathering (football watch party, Halloween party, book club, girls night, etc) I have the recipe for you! This pumpkin pie dip is extremely easy and quick to make and uses a lot of items that you may already have in your fridge. I was looking for something to whip up for friends and this totally hit the spot!

This dip recipe only calls for a few ingredients: pumpkin puree, cream cheese, Greek yogurt, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice. I bet you already have a few of those around already, don’t you!

Simply whisk together all the ingredients and transfer to a bowl and serve a long with your favorite cookie. I definitely prefer Graham crackers for a dip like this because they are sweet but not too sweet and they don’t upstage the dip.

Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Spice Macarons

October 5, 2015

I’m going to be honest…I don’t LOVE pumpkin flavored foods. Pumpkin spice lattes are not my thing and I avoid pumpkin pie like the plague. But everyone else seems to love pumpkin so much, and it is the ultimate Fall flavor, so every Fall I try some new pumpkin recipes thinking that maybe THIS will be the year I finally get what all the hype is about.

Well these macarons are helping me get there. The macaron itself is just vanilla flavored, but the filling is this subtle cream cheese based filling with a bit of pumpkin puree and a generous about of pumpkin pie spice. The resulting macaron has just a hint of the pumpkin flavor that is complimented by the cream cheese and spice flavors and the vanilla cookies.

As I have mentioned before in other macaron posts (chocolate hazelnut, cake batter), macrons are tricky! Which is why I don’t try to do too much with the cookie part and save the all flavor for the filling. But if you want even more pumpkin spice flavor, feel free to mix in some pumpkin pie spice to the batter before you pipe them.

If you have never made macarons, do not be intimidated! There are lots of youtube videos and instructional blog posts that will help you master the art!

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Pumpkin Vase

September 30, 2015

Do you love carving pumpkins, but a jack-o-lantern doesn’t really fit your home aesthetic? Or are you looking for a beautiful centerpiece for your Thanksgiving dinner or Fall gathering? Well I’ve got you covered! Enter, the pumpkin vase! So much easier than a jack-o-lantern and even more beautiful.

I picked up a beautiful bouquet of flowers from a flower stand in Uptown (if you follow me on Snapchat, you have probably seen it). The bouquet was full of deep purples, oranges, reds, and yellows. It was gorgeous and the perfect shades for Fall. I thought that to make it even more perfect for the season, it should go inside of a pumpkin.

I found a pumpkin at the supermarket that would be tall enough to fit a jar and then picked up a $5 pumpkin carving kit. A toothpick, serrated kitchen knife, and a spoon could also do the trick.

I scored the top of the pumpkin in the shape of the jar, then used the knife to cut out the whole. I scraped out all the insides, just like I would a jack-o-lantern, then to keep it fresher longer, I sprayed the inside with mixtures of water and white vinegar (1:1).

I then arranged the flowers how I wanted them in the jar, and placed the jar inside. It was really that easy. The whole project took less than an episode of ‘How to Get Away with Murder’, including frequent stops because I couldn’t take my eyes off the scene. [Side note: if you have Netflix and haven’t seen HTGAWM, you really should watch it! The whole first season is on Netflix and it is so easy to binge on, if that’s your thing.]

So pretty, right? It was such a nice decoration to have to get me in the season for Fall. And the perfect project for a really gloomy Saturday.

If I were hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, I would definitely make this as a centerpiece. And you could carve out smaller pumpkin vases in mini pumpkins and stick a single flower in them. That would be so stinking cute!!

Would you try this project?

National Pancake Day

September 26, 2014

I think children are like pancakes. You sort of ruin the first one, and you get better at it the second time around.
– Kelly Ripa

Happy National Pancake Day! I wanted to share some of my favorite pancake recipes with y’all since they are definitely my favorite breakfast food. I will be celebrating the day after National Pancake Day with a nice tall stack of my own.

Chocolate Hazelnut Pancakes

Peach Ricotta Pancakes

Sugar Free, Gluten Free Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup

Protein Power Pancakes

Gingerbread Pancakes

Pumpkin Pancakes

And even though this is National Pancake Day, there is no sense in discriminating against international pancakes.

Dutch Baby (Pancake) with Berry Compote

Whole Wheat Crepes

What is your favorite type of pancake?

Chai Spiced Pumpkin White Chocolate Muffins

October 16, 2013

I have noticed recently that my pumpkin muffin recipe that I posted last year has been getting some renewed interest on Pinterest. So I thought I would update and jazz up my pumpkin muffin for this Fall with a few extra spices and some white chocolate chips.

I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin spiced things (which I have mentioned here before). But ironically, I LOVE chai spice, which is really pumpkin spice with a few extra spices – cardamom and all spice. The chai spice isn’t overwhelming and definitely compliments the pumpkin flavor.

One reason I love using pumpkin in baked goods, despite my aversion to pumpkin spice, is because it helps make things a wee bit healthier. The pumpkin adds a lot of moisture without having to add any oil or butter (like I use in my other muffin recipes). I also used almond milk and Greek yogurt (a staple in my standard muffin recipe), which also eliminates any additional fat. Of course, you could make these even healthier by eliminating the chocolate chips, but if you do so, I would suggest adding 1/4 cup extra sugar to the batter, as the batter itself is not overly sweet.

The muffins are perfectly moist and delicious, with just the right amount of spice and flavor!