All muffins are made in the same way, and the pumpkin ones are no exception. First, the oven needs to be heated to 200 degrees Celsius.
Dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
Wet ingredients:
1 egg
3/4 cups milk
3/4 cup cooked pumpkin
1/4 cup melted butter
Then, in two separate bowls wet and dry ingredients are measured out and mixed. In step three, the dry ingredients are poured into the wet ones, and the mixture is quickly combined.
It’s important to leave the dough lumpy, because over-stirring it will affect the texture of the muffins. The basic guidelines are to count to 20 when you’re stirring, and stop at that.
The easiest way to cook pumpkin flesh is to microwave it for a couple of minutes. I am a lazy cook, so I do it in the very cup that I use for measuring.
Then I melt butter in the same microwave and the same cup, and at the end I wash it out with milk. All of those ingredients are mixed in the same bowl.
The alternative way to cook pumpkin is to boil it in some water, but it loses a bit of flavor that way.
Once the pumpkin is cooked, and all the ingredients are measured out and mixed, you can spoon the dough into muffin cups, about 2/3 full.
This recipe yields about 12 regular size muffins, or about 20-22 mini-muffins – which I prefer. Bake your muffins for 20 minutes, or until they’re springy in the middle.
This recipe produces amazing flavorful muffins where spices really come out prominently.
Over years I have tried to experiment with the amount of spices, sweetness and variation of ingredients, but discovered that nothing beats the original recipe.
Amazingly, they can be served with butter, jams or marmalade, as well as with savory accompaniments.