A can of pumpkin met a bag of chocolate chips and fell in love.
I love seeing pumpkins growing in a field and it always reminds me of school field trips with my kids when they were in kindergarten and everyone got to pick out a pumpkin to take home for carving.
Pumpkin pie has never been one of my favorite fall desserts. Seems like I always make one at Thanksgiving and 3/4 of the pie is still left by the time we are throwing out left overs. I do love pumpkin bread and pumpkin bread pudding with caramel sauce and when I found this recipe for the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins years ago, my initial thoughts were that chocolate and pumpkin was a weird combination. But, I was wrong, and found out they are delicious together.
I hope you will pick up a pumpkin or even a can of pumpkin and do something exciting with it this weekend.
Another strange pumpkin recipe I ran across years ago from a little restaurant in Mendocina, CA is a Pumpkin Tomato Soup. If you love tomato soup, you will really enjoy this version that has pumpkin added. The pumpkin adds a little sweetness and cuts some of the acidity of the tomatoes. Topped with some creme fraiche and it is a great little soup to have in the fall. If you decide to try the soup, don’t make the mistake I did once and buy pumpkin PIE FILLING instead of canned pumpkin.
Back to the muffins. They freeze beautifully, so you can make these before thanksgiving and have them ready when your company comes for the holidays. A few seconds in the microwave and you have melting chocolate chips and pumpkin ready to be devoured by your guests.
How could these ingredients not be good — pumpkin, sugar, butter, chocolate!
Add all the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients.
Feel free to add more chocolate chips. I did.
Bake in paper muffin cups or use the decorative ones like I picked up at Sur la Table. The recipe calls to spray the pans with non stick spray and baking without papers.
I love using these little papers. Crumb cakes work very well in these also.
Pumpkin Muffins with Chocolate Chips
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 c. flour
- 1/2 c. sugar
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 c. milk
- 1/2 c. canned pumpkin not pumpkin pie filling
- 1/4 c. butter melted
- 1 egg
- 1-6 oz. pkg. semi sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 c. finely chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400º. In large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; make a well in center. In a small bowl, combine milk, pumpkin, butter and egg; add to well in flour mixture. Add chocolate chips; stir until dry ingredients are just moistened.
- Spoon mixture into greased muffin cups, filling each 3/4 full. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon nuts over each muffin. Bake at 400º for 18-20 minutes. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.
4 Comments
katy
October 23, 2010 at 3:32 pmthose look fantastic! i’ve been craving savory pumpkin recipes lately, but those might pull me back over to the sweet side!
Sherry
November 3, 2010 at 9:07 amThe chocolate so compliments the pumpkin. hope you will try these. Also, since you make a lot of ice creams, check out my Chocolate Malt Ice Cream.
amanda@seegirlcook
October 31, 2010 at 7:55 pmthese look incredible! i also love those little papers you used in the second to last photo, it makes them look so fancy.:)
Sherry
November 3, 2010 at 9:07 amI purchased the papers from Etsy’s website. These are delicious and freeze well. Just pop in the microwave for a sweet treat.