By Becca Boyd, homebeccanomics.com

I love pumpkin. I love baking with pumpkin. I have even been known to stir some cinnamon and sugar into plain canned pumpkin and eat it for a snack. Yum.

It’s super good for you, as it’s basically steamed, pureed fresh squash. It is only 40 calories per half cup and has 300% of your daily needs for Vitamin A. I tell my students that vitamin A is fat soluble which means your body can store it; if you eat a half cup of pumpkin you don’t need to have any foods with vitamin A for 3 days!

Here are some pumpkin muffins slightly adapted from the Bon Appetit cookbook. Very moist, spicy, and easy to make. In the next few weeks I will DEFinitely be making a pumpkin pie, a pumpkin bread, and a pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling. I heart pumpkin!

Spiced Pumpkin Muffins

Makes 15

  • 1 c. flour
  • 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
  • 1/3 c. sugar
  • 1/4 c. brown sugar
  • 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/3 c. coarsely chopped walnuts, lightly toasted, divided
  • 1 1/4 c. canned pure pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie mix)
  • 1 c. whole milk (ideally), or 1 or 2%
  • 2 eggs
  • 6 tbsp. butter, melted
  • 2 tsp. grated peeled fresh ginger, or 3/4 tsp. ground ginger

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray 15 standard muffin cups with nonstick spray.

2. Whisk both flours, both sugars, baking powder, spices and salt in a large bowl to blend.

3. Mix in half of walnuts to dry ingredients.

4. In a medium bowl whisk pumpkin, milk, eggs, butter and ginger to blend.

5. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until JUST incorporated (don’t overmix!).

6. Fill each muffin cup 2/3 of the way full. Sprinkle remaining walnuts on top along with a little brown sugar, if you’d like.

7. Bake for 25 minutes or until you lightly touch the top and the muffin is springy, not wet.

8. Let cool at least 5-10 in the pan and then turn out to a wire rack to cool completely.

*Muffins should be kept at room temp and will be great for a few days.

Becca Boyd is a certified High School Cooking teacher and new mom – currently out on maternity leave. She’s pretty much obsessed with food, whether she’s talking nutrition, dining out, or doing some good, old-fashioned home cookin’. She thinks cooking is important and exciting, and loves to share recent recipes with LOTS of pictures of the “how-to’s,” as well as no-complicated cooking terms on her blog, www.homebeccanomics.com.