Complicated-but-Good Harvest Muffins

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many muffinsI would highly recommend these muffins, and you could leave off the topping if you want them to have less sugar.  The amount in the muffins themselves isn’t too bad.  You do have to measure a fair number of spices and grate apples.  I kept trying to talk myself out of putting in the apples when I made this recipe for the first time, as I didn’t want to bother, but I decided I’d better go ahead and include them and I was glad I did.  The combination of the pumpkin and the apple is really good, and the apples are probably counted as part of the liquid in the recipe.  So it’s kind of a pain, but worth it.  These probably aren’t muffins that you’d whip up for a regular weekday breakfast, but they’re very nice for a special occasion.
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Pumpkin Harvest Muffins

The original recipe is from the Colorado Collage cookbook, published by the Junior League of Denver, 1995, now available in several other formats and editions. I have changed some ingredient amounts and re-written the directions somewhat.

Course Breakfast
Servings 24 muffins, 12 grams of sugar per muffin without topping, 16 grams with topping
Debi Simons Debi Simons

Ingredients

Topping (optional--leave out if you'd like to keep sugar content as low as possible):

  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 2 tablespoons butter softened
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup sugar, white or brown. I would think brown sugar would be more flavorful.
  • 1/4 cup finely-chopped walnuts, optional

For the muffin batter:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar, which seems like a lot, but this recipe makes 24 muffins and, so the sugar content per muffin is fairly low.
  • 1/2 cup wheat germ
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon allspice
  • 1 15-ounce can solid pack pumpkin
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups unpeeled grated apple, preferably Granny Smiths
  • 1 cup raisins Y-u-u-ck! I didn't put these in.
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 24 muffin cups with foil liners or spray with cooking spray. It's a good idea to spray the liners with cooking spray also.

  2. For the topping:  Combine ingredients in a small bowl using your fingers. Set aside.

  3. Combine the dry ingredients for the batter down through the allspice. In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, oil, eggs and grated apple.

  4. Quick bread recipes always say to add the wet ingredients to the dry, but I do it the other way, as I find that otherwise I always end up with unblended flour in the bottom of the bowl no matter how hard I try to get it all mixed up. Either way, you need to blend thoroughly but fairly gently and quickly--a spatula works well. 

  5. Then fold in the raisins, if using, and walnuts if using.

  6. Spoon the batter into the muffin pans and sprinkle with the reserved topping. Bake for 20 minutes, then check with a toothpick. They may need another five minutes. Remove from the pans and cool on rack.

Recipe Notes

These would be fabuloso with apple butter.