The Home Cook: Addictive Pumpkin Muffins

Love a good muffin? I do. Love warm spicy pumpkin bread? Mmmm, delish. So what can be better than a soft chewy pumpkin muffin that tastes like all those great pumpkin bread recipes that are floating around? Nothing that's what. These muffins are a soft bite of pumpkin loaf that have the added benefit of being generally healthy (well except for the LOAD of sugar) because of their lack of butter, oil and shortening. The original recipe called for 1 1/4 cups of raisins (soaked for 10 minutes in hot water), but I belong to the of the League of Raisin Haters so out the little petrified grapes went. I also took the liberty to add several spices I personally deem "necessary" for the over all happiness of the pureed pumpkin. Like most spiced quick breads these guys will taste better a day or two later...so go ahead and bake up a batch, tuck them into the fridge or freezer, then eat them up for a satisfying breakfast.

Addictive Pumpkin Muffins

2 1/4 cups + 2 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour
2 cups White Sugar
3/4 teaspoons Baking Powder
3/4 teaspoons Baking Soda
3/4 teaspoons Salt
3/4 teaspoons nutmeg
3/4 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoons ground cloves
3/4 teaspoons ground allspice
3/4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 Eggs
1 15oz can Pumpkin puree
1/2 cup Unsweetened Applesauce
1/2 cup Walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 12 cup muffin pans or line with paper muffin liners.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, pumpkin and applesauce until smooth. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and stir thoroughly to make a smooth batter. Stir the walnuts into the batter. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups.

Bake for 25-30 minutes in the preheated oven or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Based on the recipe found at Allrecipes.com as submitted by MidniteJasmine