Pumpkin Muffins

So, I might not have been telling the truth when I said that my mom's cheesecake recipe was the only "secret" family recipe. There might be a recipe in my family that is even more "famous" - my step mother's muffin recipe. And I'm not even exaggerating when I say they are famous. Okay...I'm exaggerating a little. But she did have her own bakery when she was younger, and I know there a lot of people that wish she would open one again.

Anyways, I'm sure she has her own pumpkin muffin recipe, but because this was a last-minute baking adventure, I just adapted her standard blueberry muffin recipe to work for the pumpkin. They turned out much more moist than normal muffins, but that makes sense because pumpkin is pretty moist. I hope you guys don't mind the word moist. I've said moist a lot in this post, haven't I? Moist, moist, moist.

Sorry.

The cast of characters include whole wheat and AP flour, sugar, brown sugar (not pictured), baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice (or equal parts cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves), Greek yogurt, egg, melted butter, pumpkin puree (NOT pie filling).

I don't know how often you make muffins from scratch, but it is almost as easy as making them from a box and 100 times better. I put all the dry ingredients into the bowl of my stand mixer then mixed it a couple times just to get all the spices and flour mixed together. Then in separate bowl, I mixed all the wet ingredients then poured them into the bowl of the stand mixer with the dry ingredients. I try not to over mix, because I want the muffins to be light and fluffy, not stiff.


In a muffin tin, lined with my fanciest Halloween muffin liners, I used a ice cream scoop to spoon the muffin batter into the tins. Don't be shy. I used pretty big scoops, and I had exactly 12 muffins.

Now, you can stop here and bake...or you can add a struessel topping. I mixed flour, sugar, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and butter in a bowl, then generously sprinkled on top of each muffin.

Bake at 375 for 25-35 minutes. I went around 30 minutes, and the muffins are still pretty moist. But they are delicious! And that's saying something because I am not really a huge pumpkin fan. I think my stepmom would be proud.

Ingredients:
Muffin
1 cup AP flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/3 cup melted butter
1 egg, beaten

Topping
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup AP flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3 tbsp melted butter

Directions:
1. Combine all dry ingredients.
2. Combine all wet ingredients, and mix until combined.
3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Mix on low until just combined.
4. Prepare the topping by combining dry ingredients, then adding melted butter and stir with a fork until crumbly.
5. Pour batter into prepared muffin tin.
6. Sprinkle topping evenly on muffins.
7. Bake at 375 for 25 to 35 minutes.

I hope you enjoy!!