I 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.
pumpkin
Small Cheesecakes with a Great Flavor Combination
A number of years ago I was asked to do the rehearsal dinner for a gluten-intolerant bride. I wanted to make a dessert that she could eat, and I was told that she liked chocolate and pumpkin. Hmmm. I hadn’t ever really thought of that flavor combination, but it sounded pretty good. So I went online to see what ideas were out there, and I came up with a pumpkin-chocolate pie, basically a two-layer cheesecake baked as a pie. It had a crumb crust, which I couldn’t use, so I needed a way to make it easy to slice and eat without one. That’s how I came up with the idea of making it in muffin cups, and I called them “timbales.” Sounded pretty classy, and they were a great hit. Awhile after the dinner we were told that what the bride actually liked was raw pumpkin from the can mixed with chocolate chips! (I could have saved myself a lot of work by just serving a bowlful of that combination.) You’ll note that the picture doesn’t have the muffin liners, and that the timbales look a bit messy. That’s because I discovered at 6:15 AM that I didn’t have any liners. They are definitely easier and neater with the liners. Since I’m not making these gluten-free any more, I’ve added the chocolate-graham-cracker crust.
Labor-Intensive but Worthwhile Muffins
Another one of my badly-composed photographs. I always end up frantically taking a few shots at the very last minute before the hordes pour in the door. We had a very nice retreat breakfast, and the pictured pumpkin muffins were eaten down to the last crumb. I’ve made the recipe a little less complicated. As I’ve mentioned before, the principle for recipes is that you must make three changes in it in order to claim it as your own. I’m giving full credit to America’s Test Kitchen for the original recipe, but I have made three changes: I made muffins instead of bread, I’ve changed the technique for getting water out of the pumpkin, and I’ve taken the butter out of the streusel topping, as the use of butter makes the topping very clumpy. (Also, as you’ll see, there’s another small change I made as I was typing the recipe, so you can note yet another unnecessary step they were making you do!)