Baking season, I love you.

Hello!  It’s been a while since I posted, and the last time we were in the middle of a HUGE move back to our hometown of Ottawa.  We are back now… it’s been about 2 weeks and we’re happy about it   M has started work and I’m looking for work.. in my free time, I dabble in the things I love most.  Zoe, knitting, baking and shopping!? (I need to furnish AND decorate my new house after all).

Anyway, we got here around Halloween time, and although we didn’t go out, we did carve pumpkins! YAY! no photos though, fail on my part.  With pumpkins around comes baking, and I’m happy to say I (for the first time) peeled and boiled pumpkins to make purée to be used in recipes (yay!)  While I was peeling them, I thought countless times how bad I felt for my mother who peeled and cut 5 BIG pumpkins every year to make pies after halloween festivities.  I promise to not complain when I start doing them for our kids, HA!

Today, I made delicious (looking) chocolate-chip pumpkin muffins.  They JUST came out of the oven and I can’t wait to taste them… yumm….but it’s dinner soon so I have to wait at least until dessert comes around!

Here’s the recipe, it’s based on 2 different blogs and I made a few changes they are noted in BOLD in the recipe below.

Low-Fat Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

(Source: Adapted from Heather Drive / Things I love)

Ingredients:

- 1 cup canned pumpkin / fresh pumpkin puree

- 1/2 cup applesauce (no sugar added/ unsweetened)

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar blend

-  3 tbsp Splenda

- 1/2 cup water

- 2 eggs

- 1 2/3 cups flour

- 1/2 tsp. baking powder

- 1 tsp. baking soda

- 1 tbsp. cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg

- 1/4 tsp. ginger

- 1/4 tsp. cloves

- 1/2 tsp. salt

-1/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray your muffin cups with cooking spray.

2. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or you can whisk by hand), mix together the sugar, pumpkin, applesauce, water and eggs and set aside. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients (including chocolate chips)

3. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring well to combine. Spoon into prepared muffin cups, filling about 2/3 full. Sprinkle with chocolate chips (optional).
4. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the pumpkin muffins comes out clean.

Makes 12 (for me.. the other says 16)

Try them, I dare you!

A