Pumpkin Muffins

In keeping with the season, I decided to make something from pumpkin puree. I'll admit, I used canned pumpkin this time, but I have a sugar pumpkin waiting for me to make puree out of it. I plan to make a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving next weekend and will post about it later.

But anyway, I made pumpkin muffins and used some of the apple sauce I made earlier.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins
2 cups pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup apple sauce

2/3 cup water

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 2 muffin tins or line them with paper muffin cups.
2. In the mixer bowl, combine pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water, and the sugars until mixed together.
3. In a separate medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and spices.
4. Stir the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture at a slow speed and just until mixed in.
5. Spoon into the muffin cups and bake for 30 - 35 minutes.

These are great breakfast muffins. If you like, you can add chopped nuts or dried fruit to the recipe or you can drizzle with a citrus glaze.

Fall Cooking: Apple Sauce

Apples! There's nothing like a fresh, local apple to tell you that autumn has arrived. My favourite apple is the honeycrisp which is a large apple that is crisp and juicy. It's a slightly tart apple that's perfect for eating or baking. I decided to try apple sauce.

This is the recipe that I used, taken from Allrecipes.com.

2 apples - peeled, cored and shredded

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup water

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1. Place the apples into a medium saucepan and sprinkle the cinnamon on top. Then pour the water over the apples and cinnamon. Cook on medium low heat until the apples are mushy (approximately 20-30 minutes).
2. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the brown sugar.

This is what the ingredients look like when they have just been added to the saucepan.

This is what the apples look like when they are cooking.

This is how the apple sauce looks when it is finished. You will get about 2 or 2 1/2 cups of apple sauce.

The apple sauce can be served with pork or as a dessert either by itself or with ice cream. It would even go nicely on a warm apple pie. Mmmmm!